The best natural beauty tips you've never heard of

We’re not here to tell you a bunch of things you already know. The purpose of our blog is to provide information and education that’s new to you (as well as helpful). Check out this list of obscure and unusual beauty tips from the natural skincare world.

Milk can be used as a natural chemical exfoliator

Have you heard about lactic acid? It’s often on the ‘peel’ list at fancy spas, but it’s also in your fridge, disguised as milk. So you can have a gentle skin peel at home any time you like. To do this with minimal mess, wet a facecloth with fresh milk, then lie down with the cloth on your face for about 10 minutes. Rinse off, pat dry, tone and moisturise. If you want to take this home facial a step further, follow the lactic peel with a home-made mask of honey and finely ground oatmeal.

Give the backs of your hands the same treatment as your face and neck

The backs of your hands get more sun exposure than anywhere else on your body, but a dab of hand cream is about all they get in terms of care. To make sure your hands don’t end up about 20 years older than your face, start looking after them now. After you’ve patted night cream over your face and neck, rub the residue into the backs of your hands. Do the same in the morning with your day cream and sunscreen. Be sure to continue the care down the top surface of your fingers too.  When you decide to give your face and neck a treat, like a peel and mask, let your hands in on the deal. They’ll love you for it.

Exfoliate your eyebrows when you exfoliate your face

The skin under your eyebrows will benefit from regular exfoliation, because it removes dead skin cells and helps to stimulate hair growth (so important in these days of loud-and-proud brows!). Use a gentle natural exfoliator, like Okana Bamboo Face Scrub. 

Wear sunscreen for road trips

Even when you’re tootling around town in a car with all the windows up, UVA rays are getting to your skin.  And they’re probably doing more damage on one side than the other. If you’re commonly in the passenger seat, the left-hand side of your face is getting zapped. If you’re usually driving, it’s the other side. UVA is associated with skin cancer, as well as the greyish/yellow pallor that older people get. The answer is obvious – wear sunscreen every day.

Don’t suck on water bottles

Just like cigarettes, water bottles can cause vertical pursing lines around your mouth, i.e. cat’s bum mouth. If you’re staunch about water intake, and you should be, either sip from a glass or squirt water into your mouth from a bottle. Avoid the baby-bottle sucking thing.

The quality of your pillowcases affects beauty

When facial skin is pressed against wrinkles in a pillowslip, you get sleep lines. Plastic surgeon Dr Goesel Anson says, “sleep wrinkles are the lines that are formed when the face is compressed against a pillow night after night and they occur in predictable locations based on fixed anchor points that hold the skin to bone." [1]There are a couple of fixes for this: train yourself to sleep on your back or use satin or silk pillowslips. Very high thread-count cotton is pretty good too.

Iodine makes an effective spot treatment

Instead of spending up on a pharmacy spot fix to treat pimples overnight, use good old fashioned iodine (like Betadine) applied lightly with a cotton bud. It’s famously effective as a way to kill bacteria, fungi and viruses, so acne bacteria don’t stand a chance. Dab it on pimples you can see, as well as the ones that you can feel coming up under the surface of your skin. Any staining will wash off in your morning shower.

Beer makes a good facial

Want to look more luminous? Give yourself a beer facial. Most beers contain B vitamins, which are good for anti-ageing and skin sensitivity problems. Beer also helps to balance pH levels, which is always good news. To make an effective beer facial, mix an egg white with a tablespoon of beer and a dash of lemon juice. Apply to your face and let it dry. Rinse, tone and moisturise. Beer helps to dissolve dead skin cells, which lets your natural glow shine through.

[1] https://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/skin-care/advice/a10486/how-to-prevent-sleep-wrinkles/