Maybe she’s born with it…
Taking care of your skin can be something of a challenge for those of us that like to slap on the makeup, particularly if you go heavy on foundation or whiteface all over. These things can all of course clog your pores and make your skin look a bit manky, which leads to a vicious circle of piling on more and more makeup to cover for your earlier sins. Taking heavy makeup off can be a challenge too, particularly when it comes to things like mascara and eyeliner, many of which seem to be made out of the same materials as permanent marker these days.
When you wear a lot of makeup and otherwise introduce a lot of synthetic products to your poor, longsuffering face, the best way to take care of your skincare routine involves keeping things as simple and low key as possible, using natural products without harsh ingredients when you can, in order to give your skin a fighting chance of looking ok when the pan stick comes off.
Through many years of trial, error and browsing the interweb’s fine offerings of beauty blogs, I have found a few essential tips and skills to take care of my skin naturally, using basic, natural products that you’ve likely already got in your cupboards. I’m not saying I can never be caught out in the skincare section of Boots or playing with the various goos in the chiller counter at Lush, but I reckon I’ve saved myself a fortune over the years by bypassing the bottled potions and going for make your own basics at home. Here are some of my faves.
Makeup remover
There are loads of options for homemade makeup removers, all of which are almost certainly better for your skin than chemical products, and most of which are more effective too. If you want to be really basic about it, plain old Vaseline or petroleum jelly works wonders, as does a mixture of castor oil and grape seed oil, or extra virgin olive oil on its own. For some more suggestions, look here.
Natural cleansing
Weird as it may sound, a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and Manuka honey is one of the best gentle cleansers I have ever come across, and I have recently found out that oil cleansing is actually a thing, and particularly indicated for people prone to greasy skin and breakouts, oddly enough.
Apparently there are masses of other options too, as this post on the Home Remedy Shop indicates.
Toner
When it comes to toning your skin, it has to be plain and simple witch-hazel. At sub-£3 a bottle from the pharmacy section of the supermarket, this clear, simple and very mild astringent pisses all over the harsh, skin-stripping alcohol based crap you can buy in the shops.
Moisturiser
If you’re anything like me, when your skin is dry and you’ve run out of whatever you usually use, there is little that you won’t consider slapping on your face to get some relief from dry, itchy skin. This very unscientific process has led to my discovery of a glut of ideas for making your own moisturisers, using a range of things such as aloe vera and almond oil, or plain old cocoa butter and coconut oil. Many, many other options for different skin types can be found here.
Facial scrubs
If your skin is looking dull and dingy, and your normal skincare routine is making you feel like you’re basically just gluing the old dead skin back down for a while rather than tackling it, you’ll want to get busy with a scrub.
This is as simple as combining something coarse with something gloopy, such as extra virgin olive oil and granulated sugar for a simple sugar scrub, or even using old coffee grounds for a weirdly impressive invigorating and glowing effect on your skin. The delightfully entitled Crunchy Moose blog has plenty of suggestions on their website too.
