When it comes to enhancing and beautifying your face, invasive surgery and using powerful chemicals needn’t be the only solutions. There are plenty of holistic beauty therapies that will help you to look your most natural and vibrant. In learning about natural face remedies, such as massages, facials, and even acupuncture facelifts, you’ll discover the healthiest and most natural ways to radiate with bright, smooth skin and a stress-free appearance.
Face Massages
Massaging the face helps to loosen muscles, stimulate circulation, clears out any puffiness, and reduces fatigue in the skin. You can customize DIY recipes for facial serums depending on your skin type. For dry skin, use a base of evening primrose and avocado oils with rose geranium, lavender, and chamomile essential oils, or apricot kernel oil with juniper, lemon, and rosemary oils for oily skin. Beginning at your chin, move your fingers in small, light upward circles around your cheeks, eyes, and up to your forehead, which helps to stimulate circulation and keeps the facial skin toned and relaxed. Focus on pressure points on the sides of the forehead, nose, chin, and around the eyes to tone the skin. Afterward, remove the serum using a warm compress.
Homemade Facials
You certainly don’t need to spend lots of money on expensive facials to enjoy the benefits of a natural skin care regimen. Many natural, commonly found ingredients can be combined to help tone, moisturize, and revitalize your skin.
When beginning a facial, always clean your skin thoroughly and exfoliate. You can then steam your skin simply using a warm, wet cloth pressed to the face for a couple minutes to open pores and prepare the skin for the facial mask. Spread the mask over your face, avoiding the eye area, and leave it on for up to 20 minutes before rinsing with warm water.
Using a facial mask will help to condition and balance your skin. You can combine the following ingredients (as many or as little as you choose) for a homemade facial that suits you best.
- Honey – One of nature’s best, honey softens, soothes, and moisturizers skin. It contains antioxidants that replenish the skin and keep it smooth.
- Milk – Packed with vitamins and minerals, milk contains lipids that help to moisturize and nourish skin.
- Olive Oil – It’s a great moisturizer, and the fatty acids in olive oil keep skin firm, smooth, and soft.
- Tomatoes – Used pureed or as juice, tomatoes contain natural acids and exfoliants that help control oily skin.
- Avocado – Mashed avocados are a natural and soothing skin conditioner.
- Strawberries – Mashed strawberries contain a natural and gentle exfoliant – the seeds.
- Bananas – Mashed bananas are vitamin-packed, helping to smooth and nourish skin.
- Sugar – White, raw, or brown sugar works well as an exfoliant.
- Eggs – Whites soak up excess oil and tighten skin, while yolks moisturize and condition.
- Green Tea – Soothes irritated skin
- Cucumber – Finely minced cucumbers help to cool and refresh skin.
- Oats – Ground, rolled oats soothe irritated skin and can be used as an exfoliant.
- Lemon Juice – Diluted lemon juice reduces excess oil.
Banana Honey Facial Mask
Combine 1 ripe banana, 1 teaspoon plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Gently apply to face, let sit for about 20 minutes, and rinse off with warm water.
Strawberry Mask
Combine ½ cup of ripe strawberries with ¼ cup of cornstarch in a blender, and mix until smooth.
Tomato Mask
Chop a ripened tomato, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and rolled oats and blend until combined. This mask is perfect for blemished or oily skin.
Egg and Honey Mask
Mix together 1 tablespoon honey, 1 egg yolk, ½ teaspoon almond oil and 1 tablespoon plain yogurt. Honey smoothes skin, egg and almond oil moisturize, and yogurt refines and tightens pores.
Acupuncture Facelifts
If you’d like some of the benefits of a facelift – without the surgical procedure, high cost, and long recovery process – you might want to consider the natural alternative of an acupuncture facelift. Acupuncture, a form of traditional Chinese medicine, is designed to free up chi, or energy. When needles are applied to the face and body, production of collagen and elastin is said to be stimulated, helping to "plump up" facial skin. The needles are placed not just in the face, but throughout the body (feet, legs, arms, head, and ears), which is said to stir the energy within one’s own body, stimulating collagen production and improving facial appearance.
Cosmetic acupuncture is a series of treatments designed to reduce and soften fine lines and wrinkles, improve your complexion, reduce puffiness, enhance circulation and help to give your face an overall more youthful look. A complete cosmetic acupuncture program normally runs about 10 to 15 sessions, and maintenance treatments are recommended monthly or bimonthly.
