Simple Beauty Routine For Glowing Skin

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Lately I’ve been experimenting with all natural products, particularly for my face and I must tell you that I’m really loving the effect and the glowing skin. Generally, I’m not someone who will cleanse and tone and scrub and do facials and all that stuff. Simply washing my face with water and soap was my M.O for close to three decades.

But once you start inching closer to 40, it becomes more important to really care for your skin, especially the face before the wrinkles really come out to party. If you are someone who does not have the time (or inclination) for an elaborate beauty routine, then we really do have lots in common.

 

 

After trying several things (and seriously you can check out some of my beauty experiments here), I settled on a very easy routine that works really well for me. For one, it’s time efficient and secondly, I use 100% natural made-in-Africa products. Here is my simply beauty routine for glowing skin below:

 

Face Wash

The first step is washing your face with black soap and warm water. Use warm water to open up your pores, rub a little black soap between your palms (add some water) to make a lather. Then rub gently over your face and neck. Rinse.

Livestrong.com has a really great piece on the benefits of African Black Soap to the face.

 

 

Cleansing

If you do not use make up, you can skip the face wash and go directly to cleansing. If you have makeup on, wash first, then cleanse. I use pure, natural organic honey as a facial cleanser.

How to Use

Take about half a teaspoon of honey and rub it between your fingers to warm it. Add some drops of water if it is too thick. Then gently rub over your face. Leave for a minute and rinse off with warm water. If you have more time on your hands, you could leave it on for up to 10 mintues.

Okay, this one is just amazing! If you’ve never used honey as a facial cleanser before, you honestly should try it. It will leave you with glowing skin that feels so gorgeous!

 

 

Exfoliating

It is a good idea to exfoliate your skin every now and then especially if glowing skin is your goal. If you have dry skin, once a week or fortnightly should be ideal. So there are so many natural ingredients in your home you can use to exfoliate your skin.

Exfoliating your skin clears away the dead skin so that you can really have glowing skin that feels soft and lovely to touch. If you are not convinced about exfoliation, read this post on the benefits of exfoliating.

So currently, I use this coffee and coconut oil mix to exfoliate my skin, although recently I switched things a bit and decided to use neem oil instead of coconut oil.

For something different, you can try oatmeal or brown sugar (you can get several recipes for brown sugar face scrubs here)

 

 

Moisturizing

Unless you have really oily skin, (and I mean really oily with oil dripping out your pores), there are times you would need to moisturize your skin, especially during the winter (or as we say here in Nigeria, during harmattan).

When it comes to moisturising, you want to be sure that it’s something that isn’t too harsh on your skin and also won’t clog your pores. Personally, I use shea butter. But there is always one important ingredient: OILS

I use lots of oils in my beauty routine and they contribute a lot to glowing skin. I mix my shea butter with neem oil (that’s dogonyaro oil), mauringa oil and carot oil with a few drops of lavendar essential oil….basically, I use whatever I have at the moment.

There are several recipes on the internet for face moisturizers, but probably the only thing they have in common is the fact that they have nothing at all; use whatever you have on hand. Just be sure that it is a mild oil.

Some oils you can use:

Jojoba oil

Avocado oil (and this one is pretty easy to make)

Sweet almond oil

Olive oil

Carot oil

Neem oil

Mauringa oil

Shea butter

Coconut oil

As you can see, the list is endless

You might not easily have all these at your disposal, so just use what you have and rub lightly and gently over your face and neck.

 

 

BONUS: Face Mask

As a bonus, natural products are amazing for face masks. And I mean things you already have in your kitchen or you can buy from the farmer’s market.

There are not many things as luxurious as a face mask; it’s right up there with an aromatherapy massage and a bubble bath with a glass of wine and a good novel (maybe a Nora Roberts).

I tried this turmeric face mask the other day and it was simply divine. But there are so many others you can try, depending on your needs.

 

Tomato Face Mask for Glowing Skin

Want to brighten your skin, try using tomatoes. In fact, you can start with tomatoes and experimet with that. This is quite gentle on the skin and when you mix it with different ingredients, you get different results. Style Craze has this post with 12 different tomatoes face masks and their uses.

If you want to get rid of blemishes, then the tomato and honey mix should work perfectly for you.

You Will Need

• 2 tablespoons tomato pulp
• 1 teaspoon honey

What You Have To Do

1. Apply the mixture of honey and tomato pulp on your face.
2. Leave it on for 15 minutes or until it dries.
3. Rinse with lukewarm water.

How Often You Should Do This

Apply this face pack twice a week.

Why This Works

While tomato lightens the blemishes, honey aids the healing process by supplying essential nutrients and antioxidants. (Stylecraze.com)

 

 

Banana Face Mask for Glowing Skin

This is one that I’m dying to try mostly because of how cool banana is against the skin. Beyond the cooling properties however, Banana contains so many vitamins and nutrients that it is acutally known to slow down the aging process.

I like how versatile this ingredient is. For glowing skin, you can simply mash up bananas and apply over your skin. Wait a few minutes, then rinse off with cold water.

You can also mix Banana with other ingredients to get different results (such as honey and lemon for lighter skin), or mix with turmeric and baking soda to take care of acne. There are so many ways you can concoct your banana face mask and you can find some recipes here.

There are several other ingredients you can use for a luxurious face mask and maybe I’ll share them here sometime in the future.

 

You can get glowing skin using a simple beauty routine made from all natural ingredients and the best thing about it is that it’s fun. Watching how your skin responds to different ingredients can be really fulfilling.

 

Do you have any favourite beauty routine? Is there a natural ingredient you would like us to blog about? Drop a comment here.