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Hi everybody, welcome back! I’m excited to be with you here and share some of my favorite home-made beauty tricks. Some of them I’ve learned while growing up in Romania, others I’ve learned from many beautiful ladies I know around the world. I also made sure to include something that will address acne-prone skin, spots, anti-aging, large pores and overall hydration.
I’d like for you to tell me what you think of this video after watching it, and to do that, please leave me a comment below or on any of my social media channels, and please subscribe so you get all the videos as I launch them. You guys probably already know that Fashion & Beauty is 1 of 4 categories I make videos in every month, the other being Personal Growth, Relationships and Sex, and Career and Money. So don’t miss out!
Back to Fashion and Beauty, one of the biggest skin issues for me has always been acne. I shared these images with you before (see video) and I’ll share them again, because many people have a hard time believing that I had acne like that. Mind you, these pics were taken after weeks of treatment, so it was a lot worse before. On and off I was on Acutane for about 18 months. It really did a number on my body while taking it, but my acne did cleared out.
And ever since being done with round 2 of Acutane because unfortunately my acne was so stubborn, about a year after the original 8 months of treatment it came back with a vengeance, so I had to do a round 2 with 10 more months, but ever since finishing round 2, I’ve been especially careful with my skin. One thing I absolutely don’t do anymore is pick my face. If a pimple shows up, I do not touch it even if it kills me. For that reason, I actually – don’t look at it too much in the mirror, because the more I see it, the more I want to pick at it. So when I have breakouts, I do everything within my means to not obsess over them by not really looking at the pimples. I know it might sound weird, but when I break out, I just use the mirror to brush my teeth, wash my face, apply makeup and every now and then throughout the day, make sure that nothing’s on my face. But aside from that, the only solution I found for myself is to not look at the pimples, otherwise I’m probably going to end up picking and that’s the absolute worse.
Another thing I don’t do anymore, is wash my face with soap in the morning, so I don’t strip it of its natural oils. What happens, if you dry out your skin too much, you’ll only produce more oil and that’s not good for acne-prone skin. So I wash my face at night, but just splash cold water in the morning.
Then once, max twice a week, also in the morning, I like to scrub with this little recipe:
I mix:
One teaspoon of raw honey with two teaspoons of sea salt for a natural microdermabrasion.
It makes my skin really soft.
I typically like to take this concoction with me in the shower and apply it after a couple of minutes in the hot steam, to allow my pores to open up, but today I did it over the sink. Even so, I actually hovered over the faucet for a minute with the hot water running to try to open my pores as much as possible, because that’s the key. So give yourself a gentle scrub avoiding the eye area, then wash it off. This is a great scrub for acne prone skin, but I do want to say – be gentle. I personally used to scrub scrub hard before, because psychologically I just felt my skin would get clearer that way, but the opposite will happen, you if you do it too hard, you can spread bacteria, cause marks and scaring, so just be gentle, that’s all.
One of the things I also like doing is starting my day with some warm lemon water, to help detoxify the body from the night before. I just take a cup of warm water and squeeze in a lemon. And after a couple of weeks of doing this, I also started noticing a difference in my skin, it felt more clear.
A popular trick with the Australian beauties is adding a few drops of tea tree oil to the cleanser for an acne-fighting face wash and that’s one of the things I do as well. One last thing, if you have acne-prone skin, I recommend using a cream-like cleanser as opposed to a foam wash, because typically the foamy stuff dries out your skin more. I personally use this one from Dr Pericone.
Now, a treatment that I really love and the Russian ladies are probably very familiar with it already, is a mask of lemon juice and honey. It’s used primarily to lighten spots on the skin because the lemon juice helps lighten the skin and fade away spots, while the honey hydrates, so your skin doesn’t dry out too much in the process.
To do that, Mix the lemon juice together with the honey ______ and add a little bit of water, like so, enough to create a sticky mask. Then apply and leave it on for about 10-15 minutes, after which you can remove with a warm damp washcloth.
Let’s move on to anti-aging, which is more of a concern to our culture than ever!
Lines and wrinkles are among the most common skin problems for both women and men as we age. So one home-made beauty trick I’ve been completely obsessed with, is a mask that’s very popular in China.
You’ll need:
2 tablespoons of brewed white tea
about ½ cup of green tea powder
and 4-5 drops of lemon juice – simple, right?
You mix together the freshly brewed white tea with the green tea powder, add the lemon juice and mix it all into a paste. Apply to the face avoiding the eye area, and don’t forget the neck too. Leave it on for 5-10 minutes, then wash it off with lukewarm water and don’t forget to always moisturize.
Remember that sun exposure, smoking, lack of sleep and extreme dieting believe it or not, WILL age your skin faster, so always wear SPF of at least 30 on your face, ears and neck, avoid smoking, try going to bed around the same time every night and get 7-8 hours consistently if you can, and maintain a balanced diet, avoid yo-yo dieting, that will show its effects on your skin.
And since we’re talking anti-aging, let’s talk pores. I really don’t like big pores and of course mine have gotten bigger since turning 30. BLAH!
So a trick I remembered from years ago when I was back in Romania, that temporarily shrinks pores, is to mix together equal parts orange juice and water, then with a cotton ball, dab the combination onto the face (avoiding the eye area of course).
I leave this on for about 5 minutes, then rinse it off and apply moisturizer and sunscreen.
This trick has dual effects. It not only helps minimize the appearance of larger pores, it helps fight aging skin as well. Vitamin C is critical for our bodies in general, but from a beauty stand point, one of the most powerful functions of vitamin C is the role that it plays in the production of collagen. Not to mention that it’s pretty much the best naturally brightening ingredient out there. So in addition to using it externally, make sure that you include Vitamin C in your daily diet. And if it’s in the form of juice, just make sure that it’s fresh and not processed.
Now, the best kind of beauty tricks are the ones that have been passed on for thousands of years and one of those tricks, a trick that it’s said to have been used by Queen Cleopatra herself to hydrate her skin, was honey.
Apply a thin layer of organic honey onto the face like so, and leave it on for about 10 minutes. This is considered by many, the mother of all re-hydrators. Which can’t be said of many $300 creams.
After 10 minutes, rinse the honey off with some warm water and apply your normal moisturizer. Ta Da! Amazing!
When the seasons are extra drying, like during winter and summer times, what I also love doing is making my own face spray.
I combine ½ cup distilled water with about 3 drops of lavender oil, pour it into a spray bottle I got from Target, and take it with me in my purse, to sprits throughout the day, it’s quite hydrating.
7 more beauty tricks and recipes touching on more anti-aging, acne, rosacea and more, have been emailed to you if you’re one of my beloved subbies. If you’re not, I’d love to have you join us and sign up for the newsletter. When you do, I’ll send you a Welcome email with a link to all the extra content you may have missed this year so far.
There’s so much to talk about on this topic of DIY beauty, so I’ll make future videos on home-made treatments for eyes, lips, hair and body, till then, please comment below with your favorite beauty tricks, I’d love to hear some from you.
Please subscribe to never miss any videos, and stay tuned for the giveaway coming in less than 2 weeks from now.
This week’s shout out goes out to Yeni Tjiong – Hi Yeni, thank you for watching! I will do you the favor of not chopping your beautiful last night name! So hi!
I love you all for watching, thank you for being in my life, I can’t wait to see you in the next video where we’ll talk about creative ways to market your resume.
Bye!
xoxo – Alexandra :)
