Look Your Best

I am sure that you have all heard about the glow of pregnancy, and besides the early months… and the last months, where you feel uncomfortable, aching, nauseous or tired, there are times when you really feel fantastic and that you have that ‘glow’. Besides all of the usual symptoms and side effects of pregnancy, some women have to deal with skin symptoms such as facial-skin discoloration or melasma, also known as the mask of pregnancy.

Secrets to Looking Your Best

Using creams that also exfoliate your skin can be a real help to ensuring that your skin is well looked after. Another factor which is often forgotten is the sun. Although you may not be spending your days lying on the beach, or perhaps you are, the sun is still going to have an effect on your face – when you are driving in your car, hanging up washing or just walking around outside. To help combat this often forgotten sorce of danger, be sure to apply a facial sunblock every morning as well.

Home Made Bliss

You may wish to try this easy to make pumpkin and papaya face mixture that works like a scrub without being abrasive: Ingredients

• 1/2 fresh papaya
• 1 egg white
• 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon honey

Remove the seeds from the papaya, scoop out the fruit and mash it in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg white until frothy. Mix the egg white and mashed papaya together, and add the pumpkin and the honey to this mixture. Combine all ingredients thoroughly and apply to your face. Leave on for 10 minutes, and then rinse off.

Facial massages from heaven

Other than using face creams and making sure that you are protected from the sun’s harmful rays, you can give yourself relaxing facial massages to help keep your skin looking, and feeling fantastic. As an aside, these can also offer some relief from common complaints such as headaches or nasal congestion.

• Forehead: Using the fingertips of both hands, stroke your forehead from the midpoint toward the temple as if you were drawing four rows between your brow and your hairline.
• Eyebrow ridge: With both hands poised above the bridge of your nose, inhale deeply. Pinch your eyebrow ridge as you exhale. Inhale and move your fingers to a new position along the ridge. Exhale as you pinch, and so on.
• Nose and cheekbones: Using both hands, draw your middle and index fingers down either side of your nose, pausing where cheekbone meets nostril. Inhale and press your fingers toward the back of your head. Continue tracing underneath your cheekbones until you reach your temples.
• Jawbone: Make small circles with your fingertips from the temple down along the jawbone until you reach the tip of your chin.
• Cheeks: With your hands in a loose fist, use the flat part of your fingers to make soft circles in the fleshy part of your cheeks
• Ears: Pinch the edge of your ears from the top ridge down to the lobe and back, gently pulling as you do so.
• Head: With fingers flat, push up from the corner of your jawbone to your temples. Continue up and over your ears and down along the underside of your jawbone, finishing under the tip of your chin. Then massage your whole head with your fingertips as if you were shampooing you hair.