Green Tea and Herbal Skin Care

If you are wondering how to look after yourself in the warm summer months without spending a small fortune then the best things that you can buy is green tea. This can be bought as tea to drink, oil to use on the skin and in many other forms and it has so many wonderful skin care properties that you may kick yourself for not using it beforehand.

One of the best things that you can do and this goes for the summer months as well as the winter ones is to put green tea on your skin prior to your moisturizer or sun block. The properties in green tea means that the damage that can be caused by the sun is lessened and there have also been reports that green tea used in herbal skin care can reduce the risks of getting skin cancer. You can use proper green tea in a bath, rubbed on the skin and in many other ways but it is a good idea to rinse off properly otherwise you could end up with a slight fake tan, which is another way in which the herb can be used.
Other reports that have been made about green tea includes slowing down the aging process and getting rid of wrinkles and other signs of aging as well as leaving the skin supple, smooth and soft, a winner in anyone’s mind!
One of the best things that you can do with green tea is to make the tea and then freeze it in tiny ice cubes. When you get the ice cubes out, leave them for a few minutes to slightly defrost and then use it as a toner for the skin. Of course if you do not want to do this, you could just drink the tea or take the daily capsules.

Great Skin From Your Kitchen

You do not need to empty your pockets if you want to have beautiful skin. Most often, it is as simple as going and searching through your kitchen cupboards.

Your environment, amount of stress as well as your eating habits, are all responsible for the present state of your skin. Therefore, the reason for your beautiful skin or your not-so-beautiful skin is simple to understand.

Our skin is the largest organ of our body. Surprised, eh? Well, the thing is that we do not even think of our skin being an organ and hence we do not care for it enough and then wonder what happened to it.

Right from our birth, we need skin care in order to keep it healthy and smooth. Remember the diaper rashes that babies develop if you do not take proper care to keep the bottom clean and dry? As we grow and teenage years set in, many of us see our skin breaking out with pimples and acne, along with it numerous other skin problems.

It is important to understand one thing; almost anything that comes in close contact with your skin is likely to be absorbed by it. That, in fact, is the problem. Because while absorbing nourishing creams are good, absorbing the toxic pollutants is not. Hence, you should take care about what you are exposing your skin to.

Here are some simple solutions for your skin:

• Simple things can make a big difference - when you are in the shower, you can rub some baking soda on your skin. This will remove any black heads and keep your skin smooth and silky. You can do this once in a week.  It’s a great, natural exfoliating treatment.

• You can apply fresh juice of tomatoes on the oily parts of the face. However, first try it on a small area because you might be sensitive to tomato juice without knowing it.

• Olive oil is a great moisturizer. It will also work well for soothing sunburned skin.

• Did you know vinegar works well to solve the problem of smelly armpits and feet? Mix equal parts of water and vinegar and use it instead of a deodorant. It is not irritating and if you have athlete’s foot, it can help you out of this type of condition in a week’s time.

• Egg yolk and honey make a fantastic face mask.

• You can treat dry skin with avocados. Mash them and apply to your face. Wait 20 minutes before rinsing off.

• Drinking at least 8 glasses of water every day will keep your body detoxified and hence will help keep your skin beautiful and glowing.

See, you only need to go to your kitchen for your next skin care treatment product!

Herbal Skin Care Tips

Anybody and everybody wants to have a great looking and healthy skin. However, you do not need to search so hard for things that will make your skin beautiful. In fact, you will not have to go farther than your local grocery shop to get the right remedy.

Some of the chemicals like lacto-lycopene, soy isoflavones and vitamin C are used in order to make your skin firmer and reduce sagging in women above 40. Other commonly effective things are lycopene as well as extract of grape seed. Both these are antioxidants. Antioxidants are great protectors of skin capillaries. They ensure that the living cells are getting enough nutrients, this is important because these are the cells that eventually become your visible skin. Besides that, they also provide protection from breaking veins as well as early wrinkling. Keeping the capillaries strong enables them to supply oxygen to cells as well as remove waste from cells. The result is prevention of puffy, saggy, dull skin.

However, it is not necessary that you gulp down a bottle full of such supplements. You can in fact get them from natural sources. Several foods such as blueberries, blackberries, prunes, raspberries, apples, strawberries, cherries and plums are rich in antioxidants. If you eat them regularly then you can be sure to see improvement in your skin tone.

Besides these fruits, vegetables such as onions, non-green capsicum, artichokes, red cabbage, broccoli, Pontiac potatoes, asparagus, spinach, beetroot as well as sweet potatoes are all antioxidant rich.

Women need to be extra careful because they are more disposed to damage caused by free radicals and hence the presence of the early signs of aging.

Beta carotene is also a strong antioxidant. You can find it in green and leafy vegetables, carrots and fruits. It works to counter the negative effects of the free radical called singlet oxygen that appears post UV radiation exposure of the skin. Using enzymes, it counteracts this free radical effectively and prevents the skin from aging prematurely. Sunlight can destroy this beta carotene and hence, you should replace it after sun exposure.

Beta carotene also acts like a mild sunscreen. However, in order to get the sunscreen effect, natural sources are not enough, you will have to depend on a supplement.

While supplements can be expensive, they are sometimes helpful. However, they are not always reliable and hence, the best way to go is to rely on natural sources because they are quite abundant and they are 100% healthy too, without any side effects.
So what are these herbs or herbal skin care mechanisms?

Aloe vera, which is an extract from Aloe plant, is one of the best examples of herbal skin care product. Freshly extracted aloe vera is a natural hydrant that helps in soothing skin. It also helps in healing cuts and treating sun burns.

A number of herbs are known to possess cleansing properties. Dandelion, chamomile, lime flowers and rosemary herbs, are a few examples of such cleansers. Their herbal skin care properties get invoked when they are combined with other herbs like tea.

Antiseptics are another important part of Herbal skin care. Lavender, marigold, thyme and fennel are good examples of herbs that are known to possess antiseptic properties. Lavender water and rose water also form good toners.

Tea plays an important part in herbal skin care.  Tea extracts are used for treatment of skin that has been damaged by UV radiation.

Oils prepared from herbal extracts present another means of herbal skin care.  Tea tree oil, Lavender oil, borage oil and primrose oil are some popular oils used in herbal skin care.  Some fruit oils (e.g. extracts from fruits like banana, apple and melon) find use in shower gels (as a hydrating mix)

Homeopathic treatments and aromatherapies also come under the umbrella of herbal skin care remedies.

Herbal skin care is good not only for the routine nourishing of skin but also for treatment of skin disorders like eczema and psorasis. Most herbal skin care products don’t have any side effects (the most important reason for preferring them over synthetic products) Moreover, herbal skin care products can be easily made at home, hence making them even more attractive. So, herbal skin care could be the way to go. However, this does not mean that you totally discard the synthetic products. Some people go to the extent of debating with their dermatologist, if he or she suggests a synthetic product. You should accept the fact that some types of skin might need the usage of clinically proven and non-herbal skin care products.