Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Homemade Skincare Series: Yogurt my trusty sidekick

I’m sure you’ve encountered several DIY masques on the net yet you wondered to yourself, does it really work and worth the effort?

Messy, slippery, troublesome, I much rather use a simple packaged product from a mainstream line that has undergone test by the authority than use this…this…food. Thingy. Thingamajig. Thingy.

In my opinion, homemade skincare can be quite impractical considering how they'll get rotten real quickly, thus you can’t store them for long, and it isn’t too travel-friendly, but as they say, you’ll get what you pay for.

Nevertheless, I’ve tried some of them, and here’s my take on them. Due to my slightly twisted fate, I’ve been blessed with horrible skin, and so I’ve tried everything under the sun in order to rejuvenate the moon surface.

Word of advice:

1. If you suffer from terrible skin condition and no matter what you do, it doesn't seem to fluctuate or run like a bunch of coward monkeys, make sure you investigate the core of your problem and later strangle the culprit who ruined your life to death. Take the time to examine yourself thoroughly and take whatever precautions needed to banish that thing out of your way. These remedies would only treat the outer part, not the inner part, so it is best for you to have a dual-attack by treating your skin from within and out.

2. An unsuitable product might be the cause for your problem—take the time to investigate which works best for you and which doesn’t, chucking out the ones that let you down. Cut down your skin regime one by one, monitor your skin behavior, and after you have determined the source of evil, SAYONARA ADIOS BYE BYE CHACHA!

3. Most often we did not cleanse our face well, sometimes the sunscreen and makeup residues settled into your pores, which further contributes to excessive skin problems, so take the time to do proper cleansing—dual cleansing if you may (oil and cleanser).

One last thing: I have a chronic problem of fungal infections and eczema.

+_+_+

Yogurt is loaded with lactic acid, so if you are allergic to lactic acid (or if you didn’t know, check the ingredients of your failed skin products and see if it was listed) then perhaps this treatment won’t work for you. However, lactic acid is a natural substance found inside the body, so it would cause less irritations. And since yogurt produced natural lactic acid and not chemical loaded stuff, it is unlikely to cause reactions.

+_+_+

When you think of yogurt, you would think of those savory flavored sour milk in small tubs filled with chunky fruits and fruit juice- NO NOT THAT ONE.

This is what I mean.


PLAIN YOGURT, plainly put.

In the quest of finding a good warrior in attacking my fungal infections and eczema, I came across multiple articles that suggested on using yogurt—the understated Mary Jane (and I refuse to use La Mer, the overrated Mary Sue, but I wouldn’t deny that I would love me some of that). Plain and simple, yet effective in combating yeast/fungal. Initially, I bought it for the sake of my fungalities, but later on, I found myself struggling to swallow the stinky madness, so I decided to slather it on my face instead.

Because you know, I play with food. >.>

Yogurt is quite a famous ingredient to add in your cauldron of homemade skincare potion (same could be said with honey and lemon). I was tempted to try that, but living with a family who only eat flavored yogurt didn’t leave me much choice, it is quite bizarre to suddenly find a tub of plain yogurt sitting idly among all those tongue ticklers in the fridge. Not to mention the yogurt is nowhere under the category of ‘el cheapo food’, so it is extremely bizarre to find a simple PLAIN YOGURT in my house.

Yogurt in general didn’t cost such a bomb, but whenever I see yogurt, I automatically think—YOGURT—EXPENSIVE. (it only cost RM5+, in all honesty)

But I digress.

So for the first experiment, I decided to be adventurous and added a squirt of honey and a teaspoon of rosewater while bellowing the magic spell. (I was following a recipe that I nicked from Makeupalley)

First impression…

Well, it’s good. Nothing special. It did calm my skin though. Maybe it’s the honey. Or the yogurt. Or the rosewater. Or all of them. Or both. Or maybe one of them. Or. I am confused. Orz

Maybe I shouldn’t mix a lot of ingredients on my first try. After all, I am a newbie witch.

So on to the second try.

I opened the lid, and scoop a teaspoon of yogurt out of the container.



The sour milk is looking straightly at me. The smelly, stinky, sour rancid milk—and it tastes just like that.

I am enjoying the savory sourness however. It tickles my tongue.

Onto my palm it goes…OH! COLD! OH! SAMUIIIIIIIIII!!!!!

My first reaction. Honestly.

You bet its worse when it found its way onto my face.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Fortunately the coldness doesn’t linger forever. Afterward, it meddles with my skin’s chemistry, combining the warmth and evoking quite a comfortable and delirious sensation called sooth.

Nowadays, I am quite immune to the numbness that is cold. All I feel is sooth. Aahhh…

Freshly applied, you would look as if you were drenched in milk…sour milk to be précised.



Leave it on your face until it dries to a matte, transparent finish. You might experience some kind of a tightening sensation—do not worry, the yogurt is just doing its job—or a crumbly finish—do not worry, sometimes the yogurt acts cranky.

(the yogurt hasn't dried down completely yet, but you can tell that the center has completely dry to a matte and transparent finish, while the edges has this sort of frosted saliva look to it. The moist part is glossy like a shimmery silver liquid eyeshadow...I joke.)

The rigid and numb state of your face is an indication that it has absorbed all there is that need to be absorb, so off you go and wash your face from the rotten smell. (Okay, the smell isn’t that bad, but you can’t deny that the smell is quite…apparent) However, if you didn’t mind sleeping in a marbleized state, then you could wash it off in the morning. I left it in on my eczema patch overnight, and it diminished the evil thing instantly.

Next time I have an eczema patch, I would try to remember to photograph it.

So after washing it off, how do I feel?

Truthfully I must say it works better on its own.

>Moisturized!
>Plumped!
>Softer!
>I have small bumps scattered around my face. Decreased!
>Smoother! No joke!

The bumps-decreasing sold me. I have been searching for anything to kill those scattered bumps. Nothing did its work better than this plain ol’ yogurt.

For one month, I slathered this on my face faithfully every night. However, you should know that once a week, I mixed my yogurt concoction with a squirt of Vitamin E.



That will be reviewed in another post, but here’s my take of the whole yogurt treatment on its own.

1. Does it lighten your skin?
I must say it brightens your skin, not lighten per se.

2. Does it even your skintone?
Definitive yes. Matching foundation has never been easier.

3. Does it brighten your skin?
See answer above. Yes.

4. Does it treat your acne?
Yes, the yogurt attacks those acnes until it gets all dry and scabby.

5. Does it prevent acne?
I must say yes as well. I noticed I experience less breakout nowadays.

6. Does it lighten scars?
I am tempted to answer yes, but I have the slight suspicion that the Vitamin E is doing the main job, not the yogurt. However in my opinion, the yogurt may have contributed a bit.

7. Does it shrink pores?
Must say it did not. My pores remain the same size.

8. Does it help in unclogging pores?
YES!

9. Does it help in smoothing skin texture from bumps and other skin ailments?
YES! I can’t say for other skin ailments (milia seeds for instance) but for bumps, yes for sure.

10. Will your skin regain its horrible condition if you stop using this?
I must say no. I purposely stopped using it for a week and aside from minor breakout here and there which is a regularity for me, I didn’t notice anything obscure.

11. Can you use this in exchange of other products?
The yogurt would be a great cleanser alternative. It is mild and gentle yet its ability to deep cleanse is better than any abrasive cleanser out there. Definitely a gem.

12. Have you found anything like this in the market?
No, although perhaps other products that contain lactic acid would give you the same results.

I can’t think of any question for now, so if a bolt suddenly strike me, I will update this questionnaire.

In the mean time, I hope your yogurt experience would be a total blast, just like mine.

If it doesn’t, well, I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.

I’m giving this…a five gazillion out of five.

>><<

Huda’s Random Corner

(I can’t think of a time when my mind isn’t doing some random calculation of random things that is purely random but interestingly random)

I’ll be the first to admit that GAKIKAME (Or RisaEri…they should have done Erisa and stick with it) radioshow annoyed me sometimes. Aside from constant H!P songs (which is inevitable) I often did not know which song were played by Gakiki and which were played by Kameme. Oh, I do know which song was Kame’s selection, she always raved about the song (for example, she mentioned how she collects BoA and Cocco’s albums, which is useless information for me, but somehow I know. I shouldn’t suppose to know. I wouldn’t want to know. Why did I know? Bad Kame.)

Oh I know Gaki-san likes Yoshii Kazuya. She talked about it on the NHK radio program. She openly admitted it in front of Yoshii Kazuya himself. She repeated it on her radioshow as well…she likes to repeat herself too, huh?

Anyway, when Gaki-han said she likes Yoshii Kazuya, I got the impression that it’s more under the pretense of “My mom likes him and listens to him all the time so I kind of get used to him and I also listen to him and I like him now.

=.=

Long after, I have concluded that they might take turn on playing their song selection. Yet I was not thoroughly convinced.

So the latest Gakikame show, Kame poured her everlasting love towards the Gakz, and then Mame-chan was all teary (perhaps later on…) and explained the reason for her song choice.

It was Kimi ga Iru Kara –My Best Friends— by JUJU. Supposedly the lyrics reminded her of her friendship with Kame and other important people in her life (Taka included of course).

Okay. Let me tell you the truth.

I didn’t listen to this radioshow.

No I didn’t! I read the translation.

Naturally, I didn’t listen to the precious Gaki-san selection song.

Frantically, I searched for the song on Youtube.

THERE IS NONE. EXCEPT FOR A GUITAR COVER.

No matter, I search for the song online.

THERE’S ONE, BUT I NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE ALBUM.

Oh whatever. I’ll listen to the whole album then.

The day after…

Song(s)! :D

*plugged my ears*

It must have been just me but something about JUJU’s voice/style reminds me of Niigaki Risa. In fact, if she were to sing JUJU’s song, I don’t think she would sound that off—she would nail it greatly, I’m sure of that.

What could be the reason for the uncanny resemblance?

Perhaps JUJU is an influence to Gaki.

*hat hat hat hat hat hat*

YAY!

Favorited.

No, really. I do like her songs. Like, intensely so.

Especially Ashita ga Kurunara with Jay’ed. That is just so sick! :D

Tata. :D

2 comments:

N a r a t o r said...

Hey.. a too long article.. mak aihh.. can't simply use yogurt on my face... (tak sampai hati..) hehe~

Huda said...

use them use them use them use them hohohoooooo

muka kamu okay saja tak guna pun takpe XD