Dear Beauty Diary,
Everywhere you look, there are tips for perfect skin, tutorials for homemade facials, but how do you know if you're giving your skin the proper love and care. How do you know if these so called "tips" and "tutorials" are safe for your skin?
Today, I'll help clear up any ambiguities and clearly tell you what's right and what's wrong.
Now let's get started!
01. Washing your face with milk.
A Do or a Don't?
Sadly, not many people know that this is a definite don't. Many Korean celebrities, such as Song Hye Kyo, are actually avid users of milk as a facewash. Milk contains lactic acid, which is an excellent exfoliator. It's gentle and it efficiently removes the outer layers of dead skin cells, revealing a layer of fresh, new skin. Many people also believe it has moisturizing properties.
However, the detriments of doing so definitely outweigh the benefits. Milk contains a lot of sugar, fat, and hormones. Whether or not the milk is "organic", the milk will always contain a certain amount of hormones since cows can only produce milk if they are pregnant. On top of that, many cows are actually being injected with tons of growth hormones on a daily basis. Regardless of whether you're ingesting this or directly slathering it onto your face, using milk as a facewash is a really bad idea. Milk may help exfoliate your skin, prevent wrinkles, and moisturize, but it can also make you breakout. The fat, sugar, and hormones found in milk will not do well for your skin.
In fact, studies have shown that the anti-aging properties of milk may just all be a fluke. Milk is a pro-inflammatory product, which means it can worsen acne conditions and even accelerate aging of the skin. Anti-aging properties? Yeah, right!
02. Using oil on acne-prone skin.
A Do or a Don't?
Surprisingly, this is actually a do. Many people may simply breakout from just hearing the word "oil"; however, studies have shown that applying oil on your face--especially onto oily skin--can actually decrease oil production. Sounds crazy right?
Let me explain. Over cleansing the skin will cause it to dry out, stimulating the sebum glands to produce more oil, but applying oil to the skin can have the exact opposite effect. Facial oils can slow oil production and even improve acne.
What's even better about facial oils? As we all know oil and water do not mix, so when we rinse our face with water, we can only cleanse the outermost parts of our skin. But what about the oil lodged deep down within our pores? How can we target those? Simple. Use an oil facial massage prior to cleansing the face. Suzy Bae, popular Korean singer/actress, actually incorporates an oil face massage in her simple 424 method.
01. Massage oil onto the skin for four minutes. This step will both cleanse and massage the skin. Use this oppurtunity to incorporate your own facial massage. Make upward motions, running your hands up from the sides of your nose to your temples. Then, run your hands from your brows up to the hairline. This can prevent sagging and improve your skin's elasticity. Massaging oil onto your skin will also effectively target acne. After effectively drawing out the oils within your pores, rinse away the oil that remain on your skin.
*When using oils, be sure to use either olive oil or oils that are safe for the skin. Because the molecules of olive oil are fairly large, the oil will not clog up your pores. Other oils such as vegetable oil, corn oil, and such should not be used onto your skin.
02. For two minutes, work the face wash into a lather. Once the hands have enough foam, work the cleanser onto your face. Wash away any oil that may still remain on your face.
03. Rinse your face with water for four minutes. First use lukewarm water (never hot water), and then finish off with cold water to shrink your pores.
02. Using citrus fruits.
A Do or a Don't?
Depending on how you use the citrus fruit, such as a lemons, this can be both a do and a don't. As I previously mentioned in an old post, lemons can provide many benefits to the skin. In fact, there are about 7 great benefits that lemons can provide. However, I also mentioned that using lemons can increase your sensitivity to sunlight. When I say use protection, I mean use protection. You have to wear sunscreen after using lemons on your skin. I'll quote Dr. Doris Day once again: "Lemons have a chemical called psoralen, and the psoralen makes you exquisitely sensitive to light. It activates in about 10 to 15 minutes, and it takes about 24 hours to wear off. So if you do that [apply lemon onto your skin], and go out in the sun, you can actually blister."
Now applying lemons onto your skin might be okay, but if you ever come across a beauty tip to apply it onto your lips, stop immediately. Obviously whoever wrote the tip has no idea what he/she is talking about. Unlike the skin, the lips do not have oil glands, making them super sensitive. Rubbing orange juice or lemon wedges will only dry out your lips, causing them to thin out and shrink. EW.
