How To Have Perfect Skin
| Health And Fitness : Top Health Tips Skin! Don't you just love it? I suppose we've got to really. Without it we'd end up as just a load of slop on the floor. It's big, you know. In spite of what some guys will tell you, skin is the largest organ of the body, so it's well worth looking after. It reflects our health and is very much how other people judge us, appearance wise at least. Perfect SkinGlowing healthy skin and we are the picture of health, regardless of how we may be feeling inside. Though perhaps the truth is, if we look good, we feel good - a little effort, therefore, is all worthwhile.We're lucky in this country because one of the best things for skin is to live in a humid island climate. It's why some of the finest skin to be seen is in places such as Polynesia, Ireland, Fiji, Scandinavia and, yes, Britain. Well it used to be, at least, before we messed it all up a bit by starting to consume large amounts of junk food. What we eat is part of how our skin looks. Lots of burgers can mean spotty bottoms. While on the subject of spotty bottoms (have you noticed how they often go together with spindly legs?) - if you suffer with such an affliction a very useful help is to exfoliate the area and then dab individual spots with a surgical spirit or an antiseptic lotion. You may need the assistance of a (good) friend to do this. Then apply a special pack made up of Fuller's earth and witchhazel mixed together with some facial cleansing milk. Smooth over your spotty botty, lie on your tummy, and allow to dry for about 20 minutes. It may be adviseable to do this in reasonable privacy to save frightening (or encouraging) the cat or windowcleaner. Finally rinse off with warm water. This is good for backs as well. Get beautiful skinFor facial spots should we leave them alone or squirt the mirror? A tip to get rid of any long term nuisances is to wash the face with a clear glycerine soap and then gently massage using one teaspoon of castor sugar. Rinse well. The spots will get the message and should disappear within ten days - 7 out of 10 friends will notice the difference.Now the good thing about skin is that it has a life cycle of about 21-28 days. This means that we should be able to improve our skin within this time period, depending on our age. The cycle slows as we get older. It is also why we have to keep on with any expensive potion or cream for at least three weeks to see any effectiveness. Give up quickly and really all we will be doing is wasting our money. Yes, we are all walking dust manufacturers, up to 90% of household dust can be human dead skin. Benefits of good skinGood skin is really yummy and smells so nice as well. That's how kissing started, it's really a ceremony of smelling. In some early languages the word 'kiss' or 'greet' is the same as 'smell'. So when someone is gently kissing your neck, or whatever, he/she is really giving you a bit of a sniff.Generally skin care is thought of as threefold. One cleanse, two tone and three moisturise. Personally I think the main things are keeping clean and moist. Healthy skin and make-upMake-up (67% of women use it every day) needs to be removed with a cream or lotion make-up cleanser. Virtually all make-up is oil or wax based and therefore needs a wax and oil combination to get shot of it. This still leaves a greasy film on the skin so I then favour good old soap and water. I just love water: showers, baths, washes, swimming - and drinking lots of it, which is a good for keeping the skin moist I believe. I also tone my face with cold water. Sensitive skins should be careful with very cold water though, as this can burst blood vessels and cause thread veins - and we wouldn't want that!How to clean skinFor an easy DIY cleanser try rubbing the skin with slices of raw potato or cucumber, especially if your partner likes salads. A good mask is to wash your face with a cut up fresh tomato, rubbing well into the skin. Leave for five minutes and then rinse off. The tomato contains an acid which helps peel off dead skin cells.Once we've cleansed and toned in our favourite way then it's moisturise. So important, don't you agree? If we think about it, moisture is the only difference between a grape and a raisin. What do we want to be: a succulent grape or a dried up raisin? How to moisturise skinMoisturisers (only 47% of women use them daily) work in four ways:1) It can form a kind of film over the skin to help prevent moisture loss and external damage. A bit like a cover would prevent evaporation of a swimming pool by the sun. 2) Can add moisture to the skin. 3) Some have various ingredients and vitamins which may have beneficial effects, though a lot are advertising hype. 4) May help speed up the skin cycle (the 21-28 days previously mentioned). Expensive moisturisers are not always the best. Sometimes simple products containing things like jojoba or other oils are very effective. One of the first cosmetic ingredients was lanolin, which is an oil from sheep fleece. There is a story that Australian sheep shearers used to roll on their shearing tables at the end of the day in order to make their skin soft and supple. The mind boggles at the thought. There was an expensive study carried out on moisturisers and they came up with the remarkable conclusion that if a cream feels good, it's the right one for you. Would never have thought of that in a million years. A mosturiser should ideally be used twice a day - morning and before going to bed. Massage into slightly damp skin for best results. Fashion models use the following for dry skin: moisten a clean face with warm water and smooth with jojoba oil. Splash with cold water and then pat dry with face tissues. Oh yes, and the neck as well, and the chest and - well, why not everywhere! The neck can sometimes show the first signs of ageing as can the hands - so lots of hand cream. Austrian women used to sleep with their hands tied above their heads. This caused the blood to drain downwards supposedly making the veins smaller and the hands more attractive. The Austrian men quite enjoyed this as well - it saved on buying handcuffs. Protecting hands with rubber gloves or barrier creams is probably one of the first lines of defence, along with using hand cream after every wash. A good treatment is to give the hands a long soak in warm almond oil once a week followed by massaging in good quality hand cream. Skin care in general is really straight forward. We need good food - with lots of vegetables and fruit, water, plenty of sleep, exercise and fresh air - with proper sun protection. All we then have to do is keep ouselves clean and well moisturised. Did you know that within ten hours of having a bath the bacterial population of the skin will have multiplied by three? It seems no matter how hard we scrub in the first place 20% of the bacteria will remain ready to start producing new colonies. I think I must be in need of a shower! And a good moisturising ... As I said at the beginning: Skin! Don't you just love it? Hours of fun!
More skin care adviceI hate to sound like a testimonial infomercial, but PROACTIVE works [well w/ vitamin C face spray from the body shop]! The three part system begins w/ an exfoliant to wash away dead skin & debris while the 2.5% benzoyl peroxide kills bacteria. Next comes the toner, again containing a small benzoyl peroxide percentage as not to overdry the skin, works well to even out blotchy skin. Thank you for all that really useful information. It has helped me, and my skin, immensly. The best way to nice healthy skin is through having a good diet and plenty of sleep(8 hours a night),along with drinking plenty of water.
 Questions about skin care:I go to the steam room once a week, I feel it is very good for dead skin and it ...- Fri, Nov 19th 2004 i dont have acne but i do have spotty skin. for the past three months i have had... - Sun, Sep 5th 2004 How do you minimize the large pores on the face?... - Fri, Jul 23rd 2004
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