Honey and lime: not just good for curing sore throats

 Now everybody knows the lime and honey are great for soothing sore throats, and adding flavours to food and beverages.  But the duo also makes quite a potent facial cleanser especially for oily, acne-prone skin. First, honey has antibacterial properties which makes it a great cleanser even for sensitive skin.  Furthermore, it has the ability to absorb and retain moisture for the skin without any oiliness.  Skin will be left feeling softer as elasticity is maintained.  The second portion, citrus fruits such as lime and lemon, contain high levels of vitamin C and their extracts are often used in skincare lightening products as they are high in AHA.  At natural state, fresh lime juice is much too acidic and can irritate skin.  Be sure to keep the ingredients away from the eyes at all times as once in contact, it will sting like there is no tomorrow!

This natural treatment is great for the summer as it will eliminate excess oil build up.  Vitamin C in lime also acts as a light peel by removing dead skin cells, exposing a fresher, more even complexion. 

Honey Lime cleanser (for normal to oily skin): Dilute 1 teaspoon lime juice with 2 teaspoons distilled water.  Add 2 tablespoons of honey and mix all the ingredients together.  

(for dry and senstive skin): Use the mixture above and add 2 table spoons of yogurt.  The yogurt acts as a buffer to reduce the acidity of lime juice, and revitalizes with a radiant glow. 

Direction: Splash warm water on the face, gentle massage the cleanser on the face in small circular motion, starting with forehead.  Work your way down the t-zone, around cheekbones, and upper and lower lips.  The whole process should take about 2-3 minutes.  Once you evenly cover the entire facial area, leave on for 10 minutes before rinsing off with cold water.  If your skin feels irritated, rinse off immediately.  Apply your favourite moisturizer.  After treatment with fruits high in AHA, it is best to use plenty of sunscreen before stepping out as AHA treatment can cause skin to be more sensitive to sunlight.  

After repeating for a few weeks, you should see the difference in a more supple, clear, and lighter complexion.

Egg for skin and hair care: my testimonial

Egg is a common ingredient for natural skin and hair care.  It works well on oily skin as the egg white absorbs oil and reduce pores, treating minor acne and firms up skin.   Also, the yolk is used to condition and moisturizes the skin.  After talking to a dermatologist, he doesn't recommend egg mask for everybody.  Due to its protein content, egg not recommended with people who are prone for breakouts or have sensitive skin as the enzymes can aggravate and irritate skin.   After careful consideration, I put the egg to the test, separating the white and the yolk.  After a quick whisk, I massaged the egg white all over the face particularly in the t-zone area.   While wearing the mask, I definitely felt my skin tightened as the egg dries.  After 10 minutes I washed off the mask and my skin felt slightly more firm.  I will use this maybe once every 2 weeks since it does a good job absorbing oil and drying out minor acne.

As for hair care, it is quite well-known that using egg as hair mask will soften and adds shine to hair.  I wonder how accurate it would be, so I decided to go with quite a basic hair mask recipe.  After trying it, I definitely recommend this to all those who have dry and limp hair.  After conditioning my hair with egg mixture, I washed it off with coconut shampoo.  The result? Extremely soft, smooth, and silky hair. I am not more impressed with this treatment, I absolutely LOVE it!!

Egg Hair Mask Recipe

1 beaten egg
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. of virgin coconut oil or olive oil

Mix all the ingredients together.  Massage the scalp to stimulate blood flow, make sure you work mixture into the strands, and leave for 5 minutes.  Rinse and shampoo.  Do this twice a week and I guarantee you will have soft and silky smooth hair!

More summer time skin care with Aloe!

If you haven't plant yourself an aloe plant already, it's at your best interest to get it started.  As I've mentioned in the previous blog, aloe is great for treating sunburns, eczema and other skin irritations.  More of its health benefits include aiding digestive system, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory, and speeds up healing for wounds.  It also serves as a perfect skin care at its raw state.  The gel from the aloe not only moisturizes, but helps clear up any acne or irritations caused by toxins, makeup, or pollution.  All you need is to cut off an aloe leaf (it grows back very fast), slice of the skin.  Make sure you rinse with water and get rid of all the brown sap.  Slice up the aloe into thin pieces and refrigerate until cool.  Rub the aloe pieces all over your face, and make sure that you get the gel out.  Massage your face with aloe pieces until the gel is absorped into your skin.  Repeat until all the gel is absorbed.  Leave on for 15 minutes or until your skin is dried and rinse of with water.  Your skin will be left feeling extremely refreshed, smooth, and firm.  It is great for all skin type.  Use it several times a week and you will have a naturally smooth glowing skin. Try it today!

Fish Spa

One of the most recent spa treatments that has gained a lot of popularity is a foot or pedicure treatment by Garra Rufa fish, also known as “Doctor Fish.” Feet are emerged into a small pool or filled with these little carp who eat away at the dead skin on your feet.  The "Doctor Fish" spas initially started in the Middle East particularly in Turkey.  In 2006, resorts in Hakonne, Japan started bringing in the fish spa treatment.  Currently, there are fish spa widely offered all over the world.


My Experience
These fish spas are all over Thailand.  I tried a session for 15 minutes and I decided to go in the pool with smaller fish.  After going in, the whole school of fish swarmed at my feet and even though there were 2 people in the pool, they were mostly interested at my feet (I guess there was much to work with). If you are ticklish, then this will not be an option.  It felt a bit tingly and I could feel the suction on my feet (but thousands of suctions at the same time).  I was told that the bigger fish bite even harder so I decided to stay with the small ones.  Afterwards, I definitely felt a huge change.  My feet were much softer and the doctors did a good job of cleaning them up! 

How to get baby soft skin!

Your groceries are more useful than just for your belly, they also make great skin food.  If you are looking for a facial treat that will make your skin noticeably softer and smoother, I have a perfect mask recipe that you can make straight out of your kitchen. I'm torn between calling it the Banana Flambe or the Monkey Mask. Anyways, here it goes:

For 1 serving:
1/2 a banana
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. virgin coconut oil or virgin olive oil
optional: 2 tbsp. Yogurt

Mash the banana and mix the ingredients all together to form a paste.

Rub the mixture all over the face and give it a nice light massage.  Leave the mask on for 15 mins then rinse off.

Banana has AHA which is great for skin rejuvenation, brightening up complexion, reduce lines, treating blemish and light acne.  If you're skin is not so sensitive you can also try adding a squeeze of lemon juice to increase the AHA (but do not use if your skin is inflamed!).  Other than its treatment function, banana is also great for hydrating skin.  Honey works well in cleansing as it has anti-bacterial function.  The combination is great for cleansing and moisturizing the skin.  It has no added preservatives or extra chemicals! Try it out and see how you like it!