Basic Skin Care

The care you give to your skin depends to a large extent on the type of the skin you have. However, we will discuss the basic skin care principles first. Then we will go into specific recommendations based on the type of skin you have.

A daily routine of skin care requires no more than ten minutes and requires only three simple steps each evening and morning:

1. Cleanse:Cleaning the Skin

Cleaning the skin is important as it removes the dead cells from the surface of the skin. It also will remove the dust and dirt that chokes the pores on the skin. If the dust is allowed to accumulate, it can block the pores thus blocking the secretion of the glands from coming to the top of the skin providing it the weapons it need to fight against infections, toxic agents etc. It also gives the shine or glow to the surface of the skin.

Soap and Natural Cleaners

Skin experts recommend avoiding soap because of its high pH. A high pH (alkaline) soap will dry the skin and diminish its life expectancy. The skin's surface is mildly acidic, having a pH of around 5. Most soaps are well over 7, and some as high as 10. Soaps with a high pH will not only dry the skin but also eliminate its acid mantle (coating on the surface).

You can make good skin cleansers from natural products. For example, products that contain vegetable oils, such as coconut oil, and water, combine with sebum and allow it to be dissolved and rinsed away. At the same time, water dissolves dirt.

Effective skin cleansers can contain a number of different vegetable oils, including coconut, sesame, or palm oils. These are safe and effective cleansers and have a relatively low pH. Stearic acid provides the skin a pearly firmness.
Another organic products that is increasingly useful in skin care is seaweed. The high mineral content of seaweed stimulates circulation, helps eliminate toxins imbedded in the skin, and leaves the skin feeling smooth. Seaweeds can also strengthen the immunity and healing functions of the skin by providing the needed minerals.

Facial Scrubs

Facial scrubs help clean the surface of the skin by removing the dead skins and the dirt mechanically. We recommend that you use a facial scrub that contains a mild abrasive. The coarseness of these abrasives vary. For example, it may contain very fine, mild base of oatmeal or ground-up almonds. Some products may contain, however, coarser materials such as silica or fine sand or the shells of almonds, apricots, or walnuts.

Since women spend considerable more amount of money and time on makeups and skin care, we would expect that their skin will be smoother and blemish free compared to that of men. However, studies have found exactly the opposite. These studies have found that men have fewer blemishes and smoother skin than women on the face. Experts suggest that men are exfoliating their faces every day by shaving. The razor removes the top layer of dead cells every day. This allows the skin to breathe and eliminate waste much easier. This may explain why men's facial skin is much more smoother than women's. Women can accomplish the same by using a mild abrasive scrub on their faces, every other day.

European women have been using exfoliants for decades. People in India and the orient had been using natural exfoliants to clean their skin.

The Right Way To Wash Your Face

1. Moisten your face with water. Work up a lather by rubbing the soap between wet palms. Using your fingertips (not the bar of soap), massage the lather into your face and throat.

2. Rinse thoroughly with a washcloth or with splashes of water. Take three times as much time for rinsing as compared to what you took for lathering. The important thing is that you remove all of the soap so any caustic it contains won't burn your face.

3. Blot dry with a soft towel; vigorous rubbing with coarse material aggravates and tugs at your skin.

2.Tone:

Thorough cleansing removes more than makeup, grime, and cellular debris. It also strips your skin of its protective shield. Toners, fresheners, and astringents restore the pH balance of the acid mantle; remove any remaining makeup that was not cleaned up, oily cleanser, or soap film.

After the skin is thoroughly clean, apply a skin toner or rinse that has an astringent effect. This will close the pores, tighten the skin, and keep it from being exposed to many of the toxins that are floating in the air or other environmental pollutants.
A wide variety of toners are available. We recommend that you avoid those products that contain alcohol. Alcohol dries the skin and harms the soluble collagen below the surface of the skin.

The common herbs used in toners include witch hazel, geranium, honey, lemon, ivy, sage, nettle, and burdock. Witch hazel has a tendency to dry the skin. So, this should be balanced with moisturizers such as Vitamin E, honey, etc.

Essential oils are the gentlest way of toning up. Rose water for normal or dry/sensitive skin or witch hazel for oilier skins are ideal bases for fresheners. These can be applied with cotton wool or for a more refreshing tone, sprayed on to the face.

Herbal tea infusions are also ideal toners. Boil a cup of water and infuse chamomile, marigold, rosehip or nettle teas (you can also use herbal tea bags), add 2 drops of orange or lavender oil and leave to cool. Oily skin benefits from juniper or lemongrass whereas drier skins would benefit from rose or sandalwood.

3.Moisturizers :

Water is the secret ingredient for dewy-fresh skin. Well-moisturized skin is soft and supple, reflects a healthy glow and ages less quickly. They prevent the skin from drying and chapping, thus slowing the aging process.

Water moves through the body to the surface in a process called "transepidermal water loss" leaving skin pleasingly plump and firm. If your system is deficient in water, the skin's upper layers become dry and brittle.

Drinking at least six glasses of water daily and eating fluid-rich fruits and vegetables help normalize dry or oily conditions, and is essential for preventing your body from robbing its necessary moisture at the expense of your skin.

In addition to internal liquid refreshment, skin requires external water replenishing. Moisturizers or humectants attract moisture to the skin's surface and hold it there.
Younger skin only needs light conditioning whereas older skin needs specific nourishing treatments.

A wide variety of moisturizers are available that range from very inexpensive to very expensive. Examples are: vegetable glycerin, rose water, jojoba oil, vitamin E oils, sorbitol (derived from plants), honey, aloe vera, and iris.

Aloe vera is very good for skin care. Since ancient times, it has been used effectively to treat everything from dry skin, burns, and insect bites to skin irritations, acne, cuts, and abrasions.

Mineral oil, used in many skin care products, can dry the skin, block pores, and prevent it from breathing and eliminating waste.

Most moisturizers soothe and sit on the surface of the skin, but essential oils, with their fine molecular structure, work their way through from the surface to the inner dermis. Mixed with the correct amount of base oil, these pure essentials do not clog up pores on lubrication. They are light enough to be absorbed spontaneously by skin.

Use 30 ml (2 tbsp) of base oil and add 6 drops of essential oil (maximum of 3 different oils) to suit individual needs. (See individual skin type description for recommendations on type of essential oil to use.)