If your ageing mother's skin looks better than yours, maybe it's time you took her beauty advice. BOEY PING PING meets two women who did.
THE thought of feeding your skin, hair and body with herbal facials and fruit-based shampoos sounds nourishing but who has the time? It's easier to slap a cream over your face in the morning than to grind herbal powders and slice up fruits to make facemasks. But some women still believe in keeping with tradition. For them, the lure of nature is stronger than the convenience of a bottled product. Of course, having an extra pair of hands to do the chopping and grinding does make the work easier. But it is their staunch belief in the healing nature of herbs and beauty remedies handed down by generations past that keeps them practising these traditional rituals. New technology doesn't faze them nor does it attract them because as far as they're concerned, tradition works best.
Indian beauty secrets
Uma Devi Asokan's dining table is full of traditional aromatic plants, roots and leaves. As her helper busily pounds away at a pile of herbs, Uma patiently packs ground herb powder into capsules and bottles to be stored away for future use.
The smell of roots and oil on the boil permeates the air. The 35-year-old lady fluently recites a few herbal recipes for pimples, hair loss and firm skin. The formulations are at the top of her head as she reveals, "It'll take more than a day to tell you all of them."
Uma has been practising traditional remedies for the last 14 years. She studied basic facial steps in India but wasn't happy with the quality of herbal products in the market. She explains, "Out of 10 people who used them, three complained about side effects. Herbal products have no side effects so why was this happening?"
She began reading up on ayurvedic treatments and started to experiment with herbs, creating her own concoctions. When relatives weren't available, she was her own guinea pig, testing herbal treatments she had developed on herself. But Uma's self-made recipes aren't jealously guarded secrets. She says, "God gave me a gift so I should share with others." As a child, Uma's mother used to rub herbal oil onto her scalp and cover her face with a homemade mask of dhall, yoghurt and top layer of milk. From this simple recipe, Uma has created numerous recipes of her own - egg white masks to firm the face, hot oil to prevent hair loss and aromatic oils to prevent eyebags. She doesn't make her own moisturisers though as these need preservatives. But Uma has her own facial ritual. First, she cleanses the face with a mixture of rose water and mashed aloe vera gel. Then, she adds water to a powdery mix of ground oats and seven herbs including mint, dried leaves and roots to create a paste. Neem leaves are added for pimple-prone skin. The paste is used together with a pressure point massage on the face. Then the face is steamed - over a basin of boiling water filled with pounded tulsi and lime leaves - while a towel is placed over the head to keep the heat in. Blackheads and whiteheads are extracted and an ice pack is used to close the pores. A delicious scrub made from radish, papaya, tomato, apple, cucumber, potato, beer and young coconut water is used to scrub and clear the skin of toxins. Finally, the face is covered with a mask of honey, yoghurt, sandalwood, almond and rose petal powder. Uma's take on herbal therapies is: if you keep on doing them, you'll see results. She says, "It may take some time but the results are longer lasting." And because the effects are accumulative, you might only realise its effectiveness when you reach your 40s or 50s. The good thing about using natural ingredients is that they don't contain harmful preservatives but that also means the products won't keep long. But after so many years, all that grinding, mixing and packing has become part and parcel of Uma's life. And she's more than happy to share this with her family and friends. Uma says... The best age to have a facial is when you're 23 as your body would have been fully developed. Once you hit your 30s, a monthly facial is a must if you want to maintain a firm skin tone all the way to your 50s and 60s.
Having a facial once a month is sufficient. But don't have it during your period as your hormones are imbalanced and a pressure point massage could cause side effects.
Soak hair in a mixture of coconut milk and egg white for half an hour twice weekly to strengthen and thicken the hair. When hair is three-quarters dry, use a little almond oil and olive oil to soften dry hair. It acts like a natural hair conditioner.
To help lighten dark circles, grind lotus petals and mix with honey to make a paste. Apply two to three times weekly.
Chinese beauty remedies Ten years ago, Chris Tan, 32, flew to Taiwan in search of beauty business opportunities. While there, she learnt the art of 'guasa', a traditional Chinese method of promoting blood circulation and removing toxins from the body. She says, "In the old days, people could not afford to see the doctor so they used coins and spoons to scrape the body to release their pain and swelling caused by blockages in the body." But coins and spoons have since been replaced by the modern-day buffalo horn, which is less painful and more user-friendly. "Guasa offers a lot of beauty benefits. By massaging the skin with a guasa board, you're actually helping to remove the skin's dead cells. Scraping also helps improve blood circulation which makes the skin glow. It helps stimulate the production of collagen and elastin to keep the skin firm. And because your skin keeps shedding off the dead cells, you can even get rid of epidermal pigmentation." Guasa isn't difficult to practice. All you need is a guasa board, some oil to help lubricate the skin and a few pointers on the right massage techniques. Like guasa, most traditional Chinese therapies don't cost much as they were developed at a time when people were poor and modern tools hadn't been invented. Long before man created shavers, the Chinese learnt to remove facial hair by twisting and pulling a single thread on the face. Tan says her grandmother taught her the art of threading but admits she's since forgotten how to. But Tan remains a great believer of acupuncture. Although acupuncture doesn't help improve your beauty per se, it has been proven effective at improving the blood circulation and helping one lose weight. "Performing acupuncture around the earlobe and tummy helps control a person's appetite. And when you focus on the tummy area, you can help cure hormonal imbalance, indigestion, constipation and reduce a bloated stomach." She adds, "Unlike modern medicine, Chinese traditional therapies seem to have no side effects and longer lasting results. Acupuncture helps you keep your weight down longer compared to modern remedies." Tan says... Although Tan says guasa isn't very effective for slimming, it still helps to soften the skin and increase the penetration of slimming creams. Apply slimming cream or essential oil to the body part and 'guasa' the surrounding area. Then wrap the area with cling wrap to keep the heat in for half an hour to 45 minutes, preferably while seated inside a steam room or sauna.
Ground rice soaked in water and dried into pellets is very soothing and good for pimpled skin. It is also very moisturising and is said to brighten skin.
Make your own peel-off mask with egg white to help remove blackheads.
Malay beauty mysteries Songbird Anita Sarawak says her mother, the late Siput Sarawak, used to feed her with ubat periok, a herbal drink that kept women of the ancient Javanese court and Malay royalty beautiful. Anita's mum also used to drink water boiled with cekur, a type of bitter root. She believed her mother owed her soft, smooth complexion to downing cups of herbal potions. Martha Tilaar, who popularised Indonesian jamu (traditional herbal preparations) learnt the ancient beauty secrets of queens and princesses from the princess of Surakarta, Indonesia. One of these secrets include the traditional lulur - a treatment that starts with a massage using herbs and spices, followed by a yoghurt body mask that ends with a floral bath. The legendary Mahsuri of Pulau Langkawi was said to have mixed air gamat (a mixture made from sea cucumber) with clay to use as a beauty mask. Sea cucumber was believed to give skin a soft, smooth texture. It is also believed to quicken post-natal recovery. Shelf secrets If you're no kitchen goddess but have a hankering for traditional remedies, you can always buy them off the shelf. Neem Neem is said to purify the blood and detoxify the body. It also has anti-bacterial properties that help control the recurrence of acne and pimples. Himalaya Herbals Neem Face Pack regulates excess oil secretion, cleans clogged pores and prevents the outbreak and recurrence of pimples. Rice In China, rice water is used to moisturise, brighten and cool heaty skin. Cleanse off oil and dirt from your skin with Skin Food Rice Mask, the modern equivalent of ground rice pellets. Rice bran and rice extracts in Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant help to gently exfoliate dead skin cells. Coconut oil In India, coconut oil is used as a natural hair conditioner to smoothen and hydrate dry hair. Add shine to your crowning glory with The Natural Source Hi-Shine Extra-Body Conditioner infused with coconut extracts to improve hair manageability. [via The Star Online - Clove] |
