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Saturday, June 26, 2010

JAPANESE BEAUTY SECRETS

PSALM 24:1  "The EARTH is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."

The most outstanding beauty regimens are those found in the natural earth. I am a firm believer of seeking the Lord's guidance especially for beauty advice. After all, the earth is truly the Lord's and the fullness thereof. From the rain forests to the snow capped mountains to the deserts to the verdant plains, there are plants with properties to transform and maintain our physical bodies, internally and externally. The natural ingredients are by far superior to the synthetic ones.



Since ancient times, the people of Japan have possessed the best knowledge of many natural beauty and health-care secrets. Even today, statistics show that Japanese women appear to have the longest life expectancy out of all the nations of the world.

Historically Japan was closed to the outside world for many centuries by the fierce ruling shoguns, but stories persisted about this intriguing land where the native women had the smoothest beautiful skin and lustrous flowing silky hair. They were said to possess some secret knowledge of how to enhance beauty.

This was true as Japanese women took extreme care discovering and using ancient traditional methods to maintain their bodies and devote much time to perpetuating their beauty. It was known that things like rice bran, camellia seeds, and many local plants and seaweeds could be used as beauty care. These secrets have not lost their value today as a natural way to maintain beauty care with healthy ingredients. That is why they are still very popular and have continued to be handed down through generations, until the present day.

Japanese beauty secrets are founded upon natural and indigenous resources.

Here are certain secrets of Japanese women beauty and their skin care still used since their ancient times:

· Japanese women think that Vitamin C is very good for their skin which makes them white. For this, they usually eat oranges which deoxidize and break up melanin that result in clearer skin.

· They make use of Azuki, which is a kind of red bean. It is a centuries old ingredient in Japan which should be rubbed on the face gently that will keep the face smoother and away from blemishes.


· Make use of signature oils, such as CAMELLIA OIL instead of just any oils on your face. This can be used to clean the face properly and helps as cleansing and toning of your face. (It is also said to grow hair.)

The secret of the Japanese geisha and their smooth, flawless skin is camellia oil. White camellia nut oil, used for centuries in Asia, contributes moisturizing, conditioning, nourishing and softening benefits to the skin. Camellia oil gives the skin a texture and glow unmatched by any other skin care product. There are special formulations for helping to eliminate wrinkles after giving birth, revitalizing hair growth, and treating burns. It helps to restructure the skin and strengthen nails. It is one of the most rapidly absorbed oils making it an excellent choice as facial oil. Fans include Kate Winslet, who used the Japanese Camellia oil during her pregnancy to combat stretch marks. You can get Camellia oil through Fresh, the cosmetics company.

· Komenuka rice bran is a super ingredient that is used by Japanese. It nourishes your skin and helps to keep them younger. It also prevents wrinkles, dark circles under your skin and controls skin's natural oil.

· Oriental herbs such as Japanese green tea and Japanese knotwood (great source of Resveratrol) are used to care for skin

· A dried Japanese seaweed called wakame which is traditionally used to make a smoothing and detoxifying face gel-toner. The seaweed contains minerals and other natural elements which work to gently clean and detoxify your skin. Exfoliation is key to remove dullness and dead skin cells from your face.



· Wakame kelp is a kind of sea algae found in waters of Japan and is one of the best ways to care your skin naturally. This protects the skin from UV rays of sun and from damaging the skin from pollution. It also protect from fine lines and dark eye circles. Phytessence Wakame is a type of kelp native to the Japanese Sea. It effectiveness comes from its ability to block the production of a harmful enzyme in your body called hyaluronidase. This enzyme breaks down hyaluronic acid present in your skin. As a result, the elastin and collagen fibers deteriorate which leads to an increase in sagging and wrinkles.




Japanese Nightingale Bird Poop - an ancient anti-aging phenomenon????

What Geishas Don't Want You to Know!

We women will spend almost any amount of money and do just about anything to keep a youthful look, especially around on our faces.

The latest beauty trend is actually generations old, but is just now becoming popular all over the world.


Ancient Japanese Secret:  Bird poop facials!!

Yep, you read that right. Bird droppings are the latest and greatest. Before you run out and scrape up pigeon poop from a park bench listen up!



Nightingales provide the excrement. The song-bird's poop contains guanine, which has been said to be behind what gives fish scales their iridescence, and the white, shiny appearance of the skin of many amphibians and reptiles. 


With that said, geishas and Kabuki actors have been using the droppings for generations to clean their makeup, as well as lighten and brighten their skin.

The guano is turned into a powder called "uguisu no fun," and it's purified by using an ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and of course the smell.

Recent news reports have women exclaiming their newfound love for nightingale poop facials.

Containing anti-aging Fucoidan! Uguisu is the name of the Japanese nightingale which appears in spring and has a beautiful song even throughout the night. Apart from the nightingale being known for its beautiful song, nightingale droppings are also used in Japan as a traditional application for silky white skin. The story is that a maiden had fallen asleep under a tree where some nightingale droppings fell on to her face. Later on when she woke up and washed off the dried 'poop' she noticed how how her skin had become much smoother in texture and lighter in colour.

The powdered nightingale guano is a fine powder that is mixed to form a paste and applied to the skin as a face pack. It is mildly lightening on the skin while smoothing the complexion and leaves the skin feeling soft and nourished.

The uguisu no fun is a traditional skin care product safely sold and hygienically collected for cosmetic skin purposes. The fun or droppings contain certain ammonic properties that appear to gently bleach the skin while smoothing and toning the complexion. UGF contains naturally occurring anti-aging Fucoidan. The nightingale guano is sterilized under UV light to make it extra safe for cosmetic use.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Hyaluronic Acid: The Fountain of Youth?



ABC News Special Reporters visited the village of Yuzurihara, Japan, where 10 percent of the population are age 85 or older, which is ten times the number in the U.S.A. The ABC Special reported that "the residents of Yuzurihara are not only living longer, but they are also quite healthy." The secret is hyaluronic acid: The natives live on a diet of sweet potatoes and vegetables that promote the synthesis of HA.






What Causes the Breakdown of HA? The breakdown of collagen in joints is facilitated by an enzyme, hyaluronidase, that specifically attacks HA. Ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) and free radicals of all types stimulate the production of hyaluronidase. This means that the whole family of antioxidants can have a protective effect on HA, by inhibiting the production of excess hyaluronidase.

Bill Sardi, who has recently written a book about HA entitled "How to Live 100 years Without Growing Old", says, "There are so many natural products that lay claim to anti-ageing benefits it is often confusing. There is no argument that the visible signs of ageing - baldness, voice change, skin wrinkling and dryness, shrinkage in height, joint pain and dependency upon eyeglasses - all emanate from the loss of HA and not to direct shortages of any hormones like DHEA, or minerals like coral calcium, or any other widely promoted natural remedies.

"Once the industry sorts all this out, there will be a stampede for these HA products." "Collagen is a side-show. It's the HA that's doing all the healing."

HA is a double molecule, glucosamine combined with glucuronic acid. Glucosamine is only one-half of the HA molecule, which is why glucosamine yields results much slower and much less dramatic than HA. Chondroitin raises the production of HA in the body, and thus for those on large doses, there may be some of the same anti-ageing benefits.

The people of Yuzurihara grow and eat starchy root vegetables, which stimulate the body to produce hyaluronic acid, including a small sweet-potato-like vegetable called "tamaji."



Those taking oral supplements containing hyluronic acid may want to know that it is derived from chicken cartilage. If you are allergic to chicken, consult your physician before taking. Inflammatory reactions have been reported, though rarely, and only as far as we know when using the injectable grade HA.



Arctium Lappa Fruit (aka Burdock Root)




 


Burdock is effective in treating dry and scaly skin disorders such as psoriasis, dandruff, and eczema, particularly when they are caused by a general systemic imbalance. It stimulates the digestive juices and bile secretion and is therefore useful when treating anorexia nervosa and digestive/appetite problems. Burdock also aids liver function and is used to heal cystitis.

Red Wine


"juice of life" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: AngelsWings (linh tinh) under the Creative Commons Attribution license. 
Resveratrol, found in the skins of grapes and red wine, helps stimulate hyaluronic acid in your body.  In 1997, researchers at Northwestern University Medical School learned that resveratrol in red wine, highly concentrated in grape skin, is a phytoestrogen. Drink red wine or red grape juice to increase estrogen, which produces more hyaluronic acid in your body.

While food supplements cannot claim to prevent or cure any disease, oral hyaluronic acid supplements may make a claim to promote and maintain healthy tissues in the eyes, liver, joints, skin, and leg veins. Peer-reviewed studies have been published on all of these conditions. HA supports youthful appearance, joint movement, and visual response among adults of a wide age range.