A beautiful face, A relaxed face

It's pretty easy to take care of your face. When I'm bored, I look to the internet for vintage beauty tips. I have spent a lot of time compiling the best ways to take care of my skin using a vintage method. The following are my tools for keeping my skin luminous and happy.

Step 1: Cleansing Cream

I have looked into a few cleansing creams: Ponds Cold cream, Jergen's multi-use cleansing cream, and Pond's cucumber cleanser. There are a few others like Nivea and Noxema, but Nivea goes beyond my budget and Noxema has a strong scent.

After experimenting, I settled on Pond's cucumber cleanser. It is the lightest of the ones I tried, and with oily skin like mine, it was an obvious choice.

It smells wonderful, and it cleans your skin. I will say now, you should look around for the best cleansing cream for you. I have very oily skin, and this one does not leave me feeling greasy (it did the first week or so, but my skin adjusted nicely, and now it is always smooth). This one runs anywhere from 5-8 dollars for a 10oz jar. (For those of you on a budget, try Jergen's first. They are normally less than four dollars for a substantial jar).

I use it every day, except for the days where I follow step two of my face routine. I use only dab a small amount on my fingers and rub it in to the skin all over my face. Lastly, I moisten a washcloth with warm to hot water (not too hot), rub it on my face to remove the cleanser, rinsing the cloth as necessary.

This cleanser will remove all makeup, even eye waterproof makeup. However, I cleanse my face and then the eyes. It does not sting the eyes, as long as you use just a dab on each eye lid. The cleanser will sometimes smudge the makeup so badly it will make you look like a raccoon. That is why I do it second, so I don't smudge eyeliner all over my face.

It will leave your skin feeling smooth and fresh and clean.

Step 2:

On the nights I don't use my cold cream, I use another face cleanser. Those nights I use a Buf-Puf, or exfoliating sponge.

A Buf-Puf is a pear shaped sponge that is slightly rough:

They are not easy to find, so when I see them at the drug store I stock up. You can get them in gentle and normal, in case you have sensitive skin. They normally cost about 5 dollars for a pack of two.

I use a bit of ivory bar soap on the sponge for a good clean. I exfoliate my face for about a minute with the sponge. I rinse my face with very warm water. Doing this once or twice a week cleans the excess skin on my face, leaving a fresh face for the next day.

A lot of vintage ads and tutorials I've found from the forties and fifties suggest washing your face with soap three times a day, at least. They also suggest using a cleanser both morning and night. For some people, that will work for them. I can't wash my face that much, because of my skin type, so I just wash at night.