Friday, 3 May 2013
Looks good enough to eat
Looks good enough to eat!
Spring cleaning, for your face
Freshers are renowned
for their intense drinking and corresponding unhealthy life style. As much fun
as it is to get merry and dance the night away one too many times a week, the
consequences for our bodies are hard to ignore. My flat mates and I had noticed
a poor deterioration in the condition of our skin, and as we mutually cried out
for a skin saviour, I thought some tasty antioxidants were just what we needed!
We decided to try some blemish busting smoothies and home-made face masks to
get our skin back on track. After scouring the internet and finding several
colourful but expensive sounding smoothies, we settled on adapting some
simpler, and of course cheaper, recipes to fit in with our tightening bank
balances.
Spring clean step 1.
Home-made face masks:
These weren’t the
prettiest when applied to your face, but smelt (and tasted) amazing. The
ingredients are simply 4 strawberries, a tablespoon of honey, a tablespoon of
lemon juice (fresh is best) and a tablespoon of brown sugar (great for
exfoliating). Now mash it all together with a blender and stick it in the
fridge to set for a bit. Apply with your fingers and allow your skin to soak up
the goodness for about 15 minutes.
Spring clean step 2.
Skin perfecting
smoothies:
Now as much fun as
putting tasty goo on your face is, most of us will agree eating tasty goo is
much, much better. The following recipes are adapted from those I found online,
and both promised to brighten skin from the inside out.
The Very Berry Smoothie
Add 4 small
strawberries, ½ a chopped banana, 2 spoonfuls of frozen blueberries and ½ a cup
of milk (or low fat natural yoghurt) together and blend away into a smooth and
pourable consistency. Enjoy straight from the blender, adding crushed ice if
you like it extra cold.
Coco Banana Freeze
This is such a treat,
especially for us chocoholics, and with plenty of delicious proteins and
healthy fats it will give your skin back its glow (hopefully). As before
combine 2 chopped & frozen bananas, 1 cup of low fat (or soy/almond
alternative) milk, a teaspoon of almond extract and a tablespoon of cocoa and
blend! If you don’t like the taste of almond, try vanilla extract for a softer
tone.
After a beautiful
afternoon sampling smoothies and giggling over face masks, my friends and I
felt much better, even our skin glowed a little brighter. I’m going to leave
you with a few of my own tips on how to make your skin glow post-night out.
1.
Down it fresher- You may have heard these words
all too often the night before, but drinking plenty of water throughout the day
keeps you and your skin hydrated and helps fight off dull skin. If you hate the
stuff, try flavoured water or a sugar-free squash.
2.
Pass out- Get as much sleep as you can, try and
keep a regulated sleeping pattern and avoid napping in the day. It makes you
groggy and can prevent you from sleeping when you need to!
3.
Break a sweat- Exercising doesn’t just help you
tone up and get in shape. The endorphins produced will make you feel great,
help you sleep at night and in the long run improve your natural brightness.
Don’t believe me? You only need to look at the Olympians to see their skin is
as glowing as their medal collection.
So
here is to a brighter future for our skin!
Rosie
x
