Beauty and health care

Author: Li Bei, Zhang Kunkun, Li Guangqing / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features:
Applying Foundation: Many taboos
Applying foundation is a common makeup method, seemingly simple, but it involves many details. One major taboo is having a significant color difference between the skin tone and foundation. Therefore, when choosing foundation, it's essential to ensure it matches your skin color. Avoid selecting a color that is too far from your natural skin tone just to achieve a pale effect, as this will make your face look artificial, like a mask, and unattractive.
Applying Foundation: Avoid Excessive Thickness
Applying foundation to the face can cover imperfections and balance skin tone, but it should never be applied too thickly. Since foundation has astringent properties, it can absorb moisture from the skin. If applied too thickly, it not only enhances its astringent effect but also blocks pores, impairing the skin's normal breathing. If you have wrinkles, applying thick foundation is even more inadvisable, as it can deepen the wrinkles and accelerate skin aging.
Lipstick: Do Not Substitute for Blush
In some group performances, makeup artists are often non-professionals who frequently use lipstick to substitute for blush. This is done for convenience and to enhance the makeup effect. However, this practice is highly harmful, and lipstick should never replace blush in daily life. The skin on the lips is the most resilient in the body, being dense and capable of withstanding various stimuli, including harmful substances in lipstick. In contrast, the skin on the cheeks lacks this resilience. To prevent freckles or other skin conditions, it's best not to use lipstick as a substitute for blush.
Gentle Application, Gentle Massage, Caring for the Skin
Some people apply makeup—whether toner or foundation—with excessive force, which is a major beauty taboo. The epidermis is only 0.2 millimeters thick. If you scrub the face as if removing dirt, you can easily damage the skin, causing unevenness and even diseases. The correct way to care for the skin is to gently massage toner and foundation into the face with the fingertips.
Skin Conditions: Know the Taboos
Some people, especially those with oily skin, often get acne, which affects skin health. If you develop acne, don't worry too much—just understand the taboos and maintain good sleep, and the acne will disappear on its own.
Acne: Avoid Irritating Foods
Avoid consuming irritating foods, such as chili peppers and coffee. These foods stimulate blood vessels, increasing blood flow and causing more metabolic waste products to be secreted. On the face, this can worsen acne and make it harder to heal.
Acne: Do Not Squeeze by Hand
Some people squeeze acne to make it heal faster, but this is incorrect and a major taboo for acne sufferers. If it's necessary to squeeze mature acne, use a sterilized needle to gently pierce the surface of the acne and absorb the pus with a clean cotton ball. Avoid letting the pus spread to healthy skin to prevent infection, and then apply a small amount of anti-inflammatory ointment. However, if squeezing is not absolutely necessary, avoid doing so.
Acne Patients: Avoid Frequent Soap Washing
Most people with acne have oily skin. Some believe that washing the face frequently with soap can remove excess oil and prevent or heal acne. This is a misconception. The skin has a natural protective layer called the sebum film, which takes 2–3 hours to regenerate after washing. To regenerate the sebum film, the sebaceous glands remain active, leading to more oil production and a greasy face, creating a vicious cycle. Therefore, acne sufferers should not wash their faces too often—no more than four times a day.
Acne on the Face: Do Not Squeeze Pus to Speed Healing
While acne on the face affects appearance, squeezing pus to make it heal faster is counterproductive. This can lead to infection and the formation of larger sores. Particularly in the "triangular area" between the nose bridge and mouth corners, where blood vessels are abundant, squeezing pus can introduce bacteria or toxins into the bloodstream, causing more severe health issues.
Dry Skin: Avoid Overexposure to Sunlight
People with dry skin often have fair and clean-looking skin, but it is very delicate and sensitive to wind and sunlight. Excessive sun exposure can cause redness and pain, while spicy foods can trigger large red rashes. Therefore, people with dry skin should avoid excessive sun exposure and use oil-based cosmetics for skincare.
Oily Skin: Avoid Makeup
People with oily skin often have darker skin tones that can withstand wind and sun exposure. When the skin is healthy, it has a natural beauty. However, oily skin produces excessive sebum, easily trapping dirt, leading to frequent acne and pimples. Cosmetics contain trace amounts of heavy metals that can harm the skin and enter through pores. Additionally, heavy makeup blocks pores, hindering oil secretion and contributing to acne and pimples. Therefore, people with oily skin should minimize or avoid makeup. Moreover, even if the skin is already oily, avoid using high-oil-content moisturizers.
Ginger: A Beauty Aid
Ancient people already recognized the beauty benefits of ginger. Modern research and analysis have scientifically confirmed its efficacy. Studies show that ginger contains a substance called gingerol, which stimulates the cardiovascular system, expanding blood vessels, accelerating heart rate and blood circulation, and delivering more blood to the skin, making people look radiant. Additionally, gingerol stimulates taste nerves, enhancing appetite and gastrointestinal digestion and absorption, allowing the body to absorb more nutrients, which is another reason ginger is beneficial for beauty.
Ginger: Treating Hair Loss and Chilblains
Hair loss has long been a distressing cosmetic issue for many people. Applying ginger juice to affected areas can effectively treat hair loss, especially alopecia. In summer, rubbing fresh ginger slices on hands, feet, and ears, which are prone to chilblains, can prevent them from forming in winter. Crushing ginger and soaking it in alcohol for a week, then applying it to chilblains, also yields good results.
The Compendium of Materia Medica Recognizes Pearls as a Beauty Aid
Pearls are known to nourish the skin. Women especially love wearing pearl necklaces around their necks, not only for beauty but also for warding off evil and nourishing the skin. The Compendium of Materia Medica records: "Applying pearl powder to the face makes the skin smooth and radiant, and applying it to the hands and feet removes roughness. It can fade dark spots, making the skin bright and white." This shows that the beauty benefits of pearls have been recognized by people for a long time.
Oysters: Similar to Pearls, Can Substitute for Them
Pearls are expensive, and in traditional Chinese medicine beauty recipes, few cosmetic preparations use pearl powder as the main ingredient. Most use ground oyster shells as a substitute, which is equally effective. Oysters have a similar composition to pearls, so their beauty benefits are comparable. Moreover, oysters are less expensive and favored by many physicians. Famous medical texts like the Essential Prescriptions for Emergencies and the General Relief Formula record the use of oysters as the main ingredient to treat facial dark spots and wrinkles, thereby whitening the skin.
Dark Hair and Youthful Appearance: Mulberries Are the Key
Mulberries, commonly known as "mulberry fruits," are a healthy food. Mulberries are the fruits of the mulberry tree, known as "mulberry fruits" in folk terms. They are dark purple and have a sweet-tart flavor, making them a favorite fruit. They are rich in vitamins, fructose, and glucose, making them a healthy food.
Mulberries: A Good Tonic for Liver and Kidneys
Mulberries have a sweet and cold taste and enter the liver and kidney meridians, making them a beneficial herb. They nourish yin, enrich blood, tonify the liver and kidneys, clear internal heat, and dispel wind-dampness. Ancient people believed that mulberries "nourish the liver and kidneys, enrich blood, dispel wind-dampness, strengthen walking, extinguish internal wind, and clear internal heat," and could treat dizziness, tinnitus, and night sweats caused by yin deficiency in the liver and kidneys.
Mulberries: Darken Hair and Keep the Face Youthful
The Compendium of Materia Medica states that mulberries "prevent hunger when taken long-term, calm the spirit, make people wise, turn white without aging." This shows that the beauty benefits of mulberries have long been known. The Compendium of Authentic Medicines also mentions that mulberries "darken hair and blacken the hair." The Materia Medica of Southern Yunnan also says that mulberries "benefit the kidneys and strengthen essence, making the hair black and eyes bright when taken long-term."
Freckles: Named After Their Appearance Like Sparrows' Eggs
Ancient people called freckles "black carbon sand," a cosmetic condition with a wide age range and prevalence. From young children to elderly people, many have brown or gray-black spots on their faces, small like needle tips and large like rice grains, all resembling sparrow eggs, hence the name freckles. They are mostly distributed on the cheeks, sides of the nose, and in severe cases, on the neck.
Freckles: No Itching or Pain, but Seriously Affecting Beauty
Freckle sufferers experience no itching or pain but are severely affected by facial beauty.
Freckles: Causes—Both Deficiency and Excess
Traditional Chinese medicine holds many views on the causes of freckles, with most practitioners believing that the fundamental reasons are either deficiency or excess. Deficiency is due to insufficient kidney essence at birth, unable to nourish the face, or yin deficiency with internal heat, causing fire to rise and scorch the facial skin. Excess is divided into internal injury and external pathogens. Internal injury is due to emotional stagnation, leading to liver qi stagnation turning into fire, while external pathogens are wind pathogens attacking the body surface, with wind and fire pathogens clashing on the body surface, accumulating in facial blood vessels to form freckles.
The Fundamental Cause of Freckles: Excessive Melanin Production
Modern medical research shows that the fundamental cause of freckles is excessive melanin production in localized areas. Many factors contribute to this, including genetics, nutrition, and health status. Freckle sufferers often have a family history, or may suffer from endocrine system diseases. Sun exposure or a lack of vitamin E in the body can also cause localized melanin deposition. Therefore, modern medical research on freckles focuses on genetic genes and body functions.
Comprehensive Treatment: The Ideal Method for Removing Freckles
Herbal treatments for freckles involve clearing heat and cooling blood herbs like rhinoceros horn and dried rehmannia, wind-dispelling herbs like Notopterygium incisum, Saposhnikovia divaricata, Cinnamomum cassia, Angelica dahurica, and Asarum europaeum, and blood-activating herbs like Leontice japonica, Ligusticum chuanxiong, and Salvia miltiorrhiza. Prescription formulas include "Freckle Decoction" and "Modified Chai Hu and Cinnamon twig Decoction." When selecting, it's important to match the symptoms to avoid wasted effort.
Medication for Freckles: Combined with Therapies
While treating freckles with medication, you can also drink "radish juice" as a supplementary dietary therapy. Prepare it by blending 50 grams of radish, 50 grams of celery, half an apple, and one pear, then add juice from one-sixteenth of a lemon.
Additionally, a good living environment, a cheerful mood, and protecting the skin are all important methods for treating freckles.