You Can Have Great Skin Using Fruits
You don't need expensive toners, moisturizers and other skin repair formulas in order to have great skin. In fact, you can achieve a healthier skin right from your home with the help of fruits. Lemon, papaya, avocado, citrus fruits, grape and pineapple are among a few of the fruits with natural skin care properties.
Lemon rind, when mixed with powdered milk and almond meal, becomes a great and inexpensive homemade facial scrub. To create this natural facial scrub, mix one part lemon rind, one part powdered milk and two parts almond meal. Add half a part lemon juice for that extra clean.
If you have lackluster skin, papaya can give back the natural glow to your skin. Mash one half cup of fresh, ripe papaya and slather it on your skin. Leave it on for about 15 minutes and then rinse. Your skin will look vibrant and fresh.
However, if your problem is dry skin, the remedy may already be sitting on your kitchen counter: the main ingredient in guacamole dip ??????€? the avocado. Mash half a cup of ripe avocado and apply it gently on the dry areas on your skin. Rinse off the avocado after 15 minutes. Your dry skin will be moisturized.
Bananas are another fruity remedy for dry skin as well as scaly skin. Mash two ripe bananas and apply it on the dry or scaly areas on your skin. Wait about ten minutes before rinsing the mashed bananas off.
Citrus fruits can do wonders if you have oily skin. Squeeze a few drops of citrus juice in your bath water and the acids in the citrus fruits will kill the bacteria in your skin as well as dry up the excess oil.
Citrus fruits are not only great for oily skin; they also lighten the dark spots on the skin. Rub lemon juice over the dark spots on your skin. Since citrus fruits tend to dry the skin, make sure you apply a little lotion on the areas to finish off. The lotion will counteract the drying effect of the lemon juice.
If your face needs some pep, red grapes can give it an anti-oxidant lift. Wash your face before massaging mashed red grapes on it. Let the mashed grapes work their magic on your face for ten minutes and then rinse it off with cool water.
Don't you just hate it when your elbows get dry, itchy and scaly? Dry, scaly elbows don't look attractive at all. You can remedy this skin problem by exfoliating using a good, and natural, body scrub: fresh pineapple. Rub some mashed, fresh pineapple onto your elbows (as well as on other dry, itchy and scaly areas on your body) and rinse it off after 15 minutes. Apply lotion or moisturizer to finish it off.
There you go - a few ways that you can use fruits for your own personal skin care regime at home. If you're living on a budget, you don't need to neglect your skin just because you can't afford to buy skin care products. And if you've tried every skin care product there is on the market without much success, then go back to nature. Take advantage of the natural skin care powers of fruits.
By Shery Russ
Soaps
Italian Soaps
Fine Italian Soaps
"What is elegance?" asked famous photographer, Cecil Beaton. "Soap and water!"
Elegance takes much more than this, of course, but fine soap helps. Italian soaps have a high reputation, and many luxury brands are available. Famous Italian cosmetics companies such as Borghese, Cali and Perlier, as well as the Italian perfume manufacturers all make soaps. Other renowned Italian soap manufacturers include Gavarry, Valobra, Gori 1919. Olivella and Cucina are two American companies which use Italian olive oil to make their soaps.
Soap making has a long history. The Romans used olive oil to wash themselves, but they made soap for washing clothes. A soap factory was found at Pompeii. In the Middle Ages the centre of soap making was Marseilles, but Italian soap made with olive oil gained a high reputation even then. In the eighteenth century using soap for bathing became popular, and many soap factories were established in Europe.
Gavarry
Gavarry originated in the eighteenth century in Le Ciotat, France, but later established a soap works in Arma di Taggia in Italy. In 1929 the company was sold to the Italian Dominico Sguerso who also decided to add an Italian element to the original name. The new name was Stabilimenti Italiani Gavarry.
In 1956 Gavarry added the original L'Armande soap of Marseilles and Italy to its company when it bought the manufacturer. This lovely pure soap is still made with the nineteenth century recipe used to make the Huilerie & Savonnerie de L'Amande and the pretty packaging used then is also used today.
Gavarry now make many other soaps, as well as skin care creams, shampoos, bubble baths and the famous Fleuri perfume, based on the natural scents of Liguria.
Valobra
Virgilio Valobra established his soap factory in Genoa in 1903, where he also used eighteenth century recipes to make his products. This luxury soap manufacturer still uses the boiling method of making soap to preserve the natural ingredients and then seasons it for at least six months. After that the base of the soap is milled several times to make it beautifully soft. The ingredients include virgin coconut oil from an island in the Indian ocean, vegetable oil, lecithin and Vitamin E.
Products include lavender, rose and violet toilet soaps.
Gori Soap
The Gori Soap works were established in Tuscany in 1919. It uses pure vegetable oils, olive oils, and coconut oils to make its soaps. Olive oil shampoos, shower gels and hand creams are also available.
Olivella
Olivella's soaps made with 100% Italian virgin olive oil don't leave any oily residue on the skin and contain lots of vitamins, antioxidants and fatty acids. Olive oil soaps are anti-ageing and soothing to the skin.
Cucina
Cucina's products are made with cold-pressed olive oil and some have other extracts, such as rosemary and sage.
Most of these soap manufacturers use ingredients which are not tested on animals and Cucina is also Kosher. The soaps all have beautifully designed packaging, come in gift sets and are specially created to pamper the skin!
By Lisa-Anne Sanderson
http://www.lifeinitaly.com/beauty/soaps.asp
