As alluded to in my olive oil posts from earlier this year, I used to have horrendous skin. Bad acne, greasy T-zone, the lot. Since then, my skin seems to have swung the full width of the scale and is now incredibly dry - so much so that I can put hand cream on my face in the morning, and still have dried-out skin by midday. Unfortunately the acne hasn't completely gone away, and at the age of 29 I am still tied to using medicated face washes. In short, since about the age of 11 I have had fairly rubbish skin, as I just haven't known how to deal with it. And I am fed up with it.
A while ago I bought a book about adult acne, which told me that the three chemicals I need to look for in products are retinol (vitamin A), salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide. Since learning that without one of these chemicals it's unlikely that there will be much improvement in my skin, I was amazed at how few of the marketed products actually contain ANY of them! I have succeeded in locating a few that contain salicylic acid (and only 1 at a significant percentage), none that contain benzoyl peroxide, and a couple of very expensive beauty creams that contain retinol.
The latter of these I find extremely interesting, as it seems retinol also has a widely mentioned effect on wrinkles and other skin imperfections. Excellent! But I'm not spending £12 on a teeny bottle of moisturiser.
So having done some more research I discovered that there are a few vegetables that have high levels of vitamin A: carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli and butternut squash. So while I can't afford expensive creams I do normally have a carrot or two knocking around in the fridge which I can add to face masks. Other good sources are dairy products and meat - especially liver.
While I'm not up to a Victoria Beckham-style meat mask, I can very easily combine some grated carrot and yoghurt. I often use yoghurt on its own as a face mask as it really makes my dry skin soft, but the addition of vitamin A should help not only my spots but my encroaching wrinkles too. I've been using the recipe below every other day, and my skin seems to be responding well. Hopefully this increase in skin care will mean I can cut down on the money I spend on cosmetics too!
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Super face mask for dry, acne prone skin:
1 tsp grated carrot/ sweet potato/ squash
1 tsp natural yoghurt
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp oatmeal
Leave on for 10 minutes, then rinse off with water and moisturise.
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