Favorite Facials

Here's one:

finely ground-up oatmeal, brought to a paste with yogurt & rosewater.

Clean face gently, pat this on. Let it dry; rub off as much as possible, rinse off the rest.

Use a moisturizer.

I've done this one before, when you posted.

And it's fantastic. What a good scrubbing, and I wasn't left feeling all tight and scratchy and dry.

very nice!

Here's another one:

take crystallized honey, or a mixture of honey & granulated sugar


...scrub gently, rinse well.

Honey is very good for the skin. It moisturizes and also has antibacterial properties.

I've used both honey and oats, both are great. Honey made my skin incredibly soft. The oats had a lovely exfoliating effect.

I've never tried rosewater but it sounds like it has so many uses!

I don't have the enegry to do anything homemade, but I've recently come across a routine which FINALLY works well for me (my skin is so sensitve, that even stuff like Neutrogena bothers me.) For years I've sworn by Fresh (yes, pricey, but ALL of thier stuff last SO long, I think it's worthwhile), and finally hit on just the right combo of products.

In the morning, daily:

- Cleansing Cucumber foam, followed with a TINY dab of Prevent and Renew mosterizer, and Lotus Eye Gel.

Evening, daily:

Milk Extra-Gentle Facial Cleanser (but, oh, NO! they've discontinued it! Just my luck. Bah. I don't know what'll I do when I run out. ), followed by thier rose mask. (but twice a week, the sugar mask, which has both very gentle exfoliating and mosterizing properties). Then, another tiny dab of the P&R mosterizer, and eye gel.

My skin cleared up almost immediately, and the smell of every product is lovely -- but extremely light, and none compete with each other.

I'm sure I could whip up homemade versions of all of these things, but it's so much easier for me to get it already made (especially as I don't drive, and would have to ask someone to go to the store to get ingredients for me), and all of Fresh's products contain loads of natural ingredients and vitamins and so on, which I've found cheaper products seem not to -- and, even if an item is rather pricey, if it lasts well over 6 months or so, the overall financial layout doesn't really bother me. (Although I think other companies potions which cost a billion doallars are absurd, and most likely a huge con -- honestly, 300 bucks for a tiny container of, say, eye cream?) Scary.

Milk baths - legend has it Cleopatra and Elizabeth I bathed in ass's milk to keep their skin soft. Here's my recipe.

Cleo’s Milk Bath for Modern Day Bath Goddesses!

1/4 cup powdered milk (whole or semi skimmed only please)
1/4 cup liquid honey
1 teaspoon jojoba oil
4 drops rose essential oil
5 drops patchouli essential oil
5 drops sndalwood essential oil

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients and add to warm (not hot) bath water, stirring well with your hand. If, like me, you either don’t care for rose oil or find it too expensive to buy, substitute with geranium or palma rosa.

Soak a facecloth in the mixture and lay over your face while laying back and thinking langorous thoughts. Have that slave boy scrubbed and sent to my tent!

I've been dealing with the aftermath of a sunblock that clogged up my face.

So it's been steam + facials.

Yesterday I used fullers' earth + yogurt + honey, and today ground up oatmeal + honey + yogurt.

And I bought new sunblock! It's going to be a few weeks before my skin is back to normal, but I'm on the way.