March 20, 2008

Pepto Bismol facials and other beauty secrets

Neosporin and toothpaste to zap zits? Green tea bags for sensitive skin? Baking soda as an exfoliant? I could write a book about the non-traditional beauty-treatments recommended by Stylephile readers.
And guess what, most of them are cheap! Think Preparation H and diaper cream to get rid of puffy eye bags, baby shampoo as eye makeup remover, and who knew Pepto Bismol made great facials?
You sent in your wise words for the chance to win a BODY by Sonya Dakar kit, and in the end, I chose the following two entries. One quite rightly reminds us that Mother Nature generally holds all the best beauty secrets, and the second told us about a marvelous book, “Look Younger; Live Longer”, written by Gayelord Hauser, a 20th century natural doctor whose progressive thinking made him popular among Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly and Gloria Swanson. The FDA didn’t approve of his approach, and seized copies of “Look Younger, Live Longer” during the 1950s. Today, Hauser is viewed as the founder of the natural food movement.
Congratulations, winners!

Best advice: you can find the remedy in nature. My epidermis gave a whole new meaning to the phrase "bad skin." Through the first 16 years of my life, I had eczema over no less than 60% of my body. My parents and doctors tried every cream, medication, bathing regiment imaginable to sooth the constant itching, flaking and burning. I scratched to the point of drawing blood! We were all just hoping for minimal scarring in my adult life. On a trip back to Nigeria, my father sought the advice of my grandmother, as he'd grown up with similar skin problems. Unfortunately, I never memorized the names of the plants & herbs. Each night that summer, I took a warm bath, rubbed the affected areas raw with these fresh leaves and then coated my body with this paste made from water and the powder of the dried leaves of another plant. It was a painful process, but if you could see my skin now, it was more than worth it. Not so much as a dark spot remains! I was lucky and I've always taken care to moisturize and use sunscreen from that summer on.

My grandmother, a woman with wonderful skin, gave me a copy of beauty secrets by Gayelord Hauser - fantastic book full of great beauty tips. One I still use on a regular basis is to exfoliate the skin using olive oil and salt - regular table salt. Gives the skin a wonderful glow and it helps stabilize the PH. Try it.

March 20, 2008 in BEAUTY | Permalink

Comments

Is this a joke?

Posted by ohwell | May 31 2008 1:24PM

I couldn't agree with the comments more---someone wins a contest about skin care tips and doesn't even give one....it's not even mentioned in the lead..As for The Stylephile's suggestion that we "take a walk", I agree wholeheartedly, let's take that walk to another website...

Posted by froggie10019 | Mar 24 2008 5:25AM

I hear ya. I just felt like her story was inspiring...maybe if we all went walkabout in nature once in a while, went back to our roots, we might find the solutions to our problems, beauty-related or otherwise!

Posted by The Stylephile | Mar 21 2008 12:29PM

Ditto--at least some of the other hints, I could try.....

Posted by lin | Mar 21 2008 6:48AM

Ditto--some of the other hints, at least I could try...

Posted by lin | Mar 21 2008 6:46AM

Geez! Lead us on with an enchanting story about Nigeria and then not tell us what you used? I guess that really is a beauty "secret". Darn.

Posted by NatureGirl | Mar 20 2008 1:50PM