Natural Skin Care Secrets

Introduction

While the woman is young she usually pays no attention to such trifles as a small wrinkle on her forehead or near her mouth. She will just make up her lips and eyelashes, run the powder brush along her nose and cheeks, and feel attractive or even irresistible.

However, as soon as the lady turns 30, her life becomes impossible: she runs around beauty parlors, consults cosmetologists, and taking care of her skin takes so long that you have to wonder when she finds the time for anything else.

Each of us would love to preserve our beauty until an old age, and we become very upset looking into the mirror and seeing new wrinkles on our face.

Small creases and bags under the eyes, an unexpected jowl and other cosmetic facial defects make women bite their lips and spend fortunes on creams, lotions, facial masks – which often only make things worse.

So what can you do? First of all, not give in to panic. The first wrinkles do not at all mean that the woman has to accept the inevitable. Your inner charm never ages, and as for your appearance, you can "touch it up" or even get it back with specially selected creams, facial masks, lotions and other makeup preparations or skincare conditioners. In this book we will speak about facial masks.

What You Must Know

Skin is human or animal outer covering. It is a complex formation performing a wide variety of functions. An adult person's skin area covers from 11/2 to 2 m2. 1 cm2 contains about 6 million cells. Skin has different thickness and structure in different parts of the body.

Skin is composed of three main layers. The outermost – epidermis, or cuticle, consists of squamous cells which die off and peel off all the time. Skin cells are fully replaced within 26 to 28 days. The thickness of the epidermis depends on the executive function. On the hands and feet it is coarser. It communicates our body with the environment and consists of five layers: a base, styloid, granular, shining, and horny. Epidermis is covered by a surface membrane which is formed by mixing of sebum and perspiration. The next layer is dermis, or skin, which is actually formed by connective tissue.

The dermis is composed of two layers: the superficial (papillary) and deeper (reticular). And the deepest layer of skin which is called hypodermis, which consists of connective tissue fibers and fat tissue that protects organs beneath it from mechanical damage and temperature extremes.

Skin also contains two types of glands: sudoriferous and sebaceous. Sudoriferous glands are located along the whole surface of the body but they are mostly concentrated in joint flexions. A large variety of sebaceous glands are located in the centre of the face, on the back, in the upper part of the bust, but not on the palms and the soles of the feet.

Skin has several protective functions: it prevents negative influence of the environment on the human body, takes part in metabolism, plays the key role in touch, discharge processes and heat regulation.

Skin is one of the main indicators of health. There are several factors improving its condition: a balanced diet, daily care, normal gastrointestinal tract performance, sufficient sleep, self-composure, physical exercise.

Facial skin can be roughly divided into three types, each with their own peculiarities. The main types are normal, dry and oily. Besides, there is combination, aging and sensitive skin types. Let us speak about each of them in more detail.

Normal skin type is probably the least common. It is smooth, quite elastic, with even texture and almost imperceptible pores. This mat skin is moist enough but, given wrong care, may become dry or, which is more common, oily.

Dry skin type looks very attractive at a young age, it has mat texture with unnoticeable pores and appears to be smooth and tender but with age and given wrong care, it starts to wrinkle. This skin type requires moistening and nutrition.

Oily skin type has an orange peel texture: rough, with large pores and comedones (black heads). Often oily skin has a sickly gray shade.

Combination skin type is the most common one. It is oily in the centre of the face, the T-zone (the forehead, nose and chin) while the sides are either dry or normal. Its care becomes more challenging than for one of the main types: the oily zones require oily skin type care while the dry ones need their own corresponding care.

Each person acquires aging skin type with age. It is quite easy to describe: the skin becomes covered in wrinkles, it is not moist enough (aging skin is usually dry), the texture is mat, with pigment spots.

Sensitive skin is subject to various irritations. Both oily and dry skin can be sensitive. Affected by warmth, cold or wind it becomes red and inflamed. Often it peels off, especially if the makeup preparations are selected wrongly.

It is quite easy to do a home-test for your skin type. A cosmetologist will, obviously, do it more successfully but there is a series of tests fit to do at home.

“FIVE SPOTS” – CLASSIC TEST

You will need some cigarette tissue (but even a paper tissue will do). Before doing this test you should clean your face with water and soap and then wait for one or two hours so that the natural texture of the skin could recover. Put the tissue on your face and press it lightly. If the skin is oily, you will see 5 oily spots: in the forehead, nose, chin and cheek zones. Normal and combination skin types leave 3 spots, in the centre of the tissue: the forehead, nose and chin zones. Dry skin does not leave any oily spots at all, just like normal skin disposed to dryness.

SENSITIVE SKIN TEST

Sensitive skin can also be determined by a test.

The procedure is quite simple. Clean your face, sharpen your pencil and make a light line on your face. If the red trace does not disappear for several minutes, your skin is sensitive.

ROTARY-COMPRESSIVE TEST

This test will allow you to determine how elastic your skin is. Put your thumb to your cheek, press lightly and make a rotary movement. If you feel resistance to the movement and pressure, your skin is elastic. If the fan-shaped movements make wrinkles appear and disappear at once, the elasticity is not strong enough, and you should pay more attention to the skin nutrition. If light pressure immediately causes numerous wrinkles, you have the aging skin type.