The Value of Steam for Boosting the Power of Skin Care Products for Your Best Complexion Yet!

After  treating your complexion with some beneficial steam, you will be smiling just as much!

An ideal way to power up your skin care routine is to take advantage of the beautifying effects that steam can provide first before turning to products.  You can open up the pores better for a deeper cleaning to release whatever impurities remain trapped.  At the same time, steam will also soften the skin and help dislodge dead cells that have been keeping it dull.  You can even reap additional benefits of aromatheraphy while steaming.  

All you need is a big bowl to tent over your boiling water with your essential oil or herbs that suit your complexion.  

If your complexion is dry and sensitive, you might want to try boiling up a pot of water before adding two chamomile tea bags for your steaming.   The chamomile has anti-inflammatory properties to help soothe and heal irritation with its regenerative effect on tissue, which makes it wonderful for eczema and rosacea.  Add a drop or two of lavender essential oil  or some fresh lavender to the mix and allow its calming essence to help you unwind while it works on your skin.  

Anyone suffering from acne might want to try adding a few drops of tea tree oil to their steam facial.  Being both antibacterial and antifungal, this is the ingredient that can improve your skin’s  health just by adding two or three little drops.

Oily complexion problems do best with a few drops of ylang-ylang essential oil, bergamot or neroli for steaming to help counteract excess oil and heal the condition of the skin.  

If you have been experiencing hormonal changes or have combination skin, turn to a bit of geranium essential oil to add when steaming your face.  This particular oil is great to restore your complexion’s balance.

Do read my earlier post for more help on the complexion benefits of steaming. 

How to Prepare for a Facial to Get Better Complexion Results

This post will make your facial work harder.

You may believe washing your face first with a mild soap or a gentle cleanser is enough to get your skin ready for a facial, but it is just the first step. If you intend to harvest the most beauty power out of that treatment, you need to do a bit more first to prepare the skin. Afterwards, you will be surprised at the difference in your complexion in how your skin responds to those beneficial ingredients.

Just as important to that initial cleansing, you have to follow up with an astringent or your toner. This will additionally clean any remaining soap, cleansing residue, or dead skin that had lingered.

Now is the time that your skin is ready to receive the nourishment from your facial mask.  Depending on your complexion issues, there are a variety of wonderful facial masks among my homemade skin care recipes that you may want to try or select the commercial product of your choice.

After you apply the mask, you need to relax with it on for about a half hour.  This bit of “me time” can help smooth the lines caused by tense muscles and revive the face along with the wonders of the ingredients.  

The water temperature of how you rinse your facial mask off is also crucial.  Be sure to use tepid water only because you want to keep your pores open.  Hot water will strip the skin of too much of your remaining natural oil while cold will close the pores.  Keep this in mind.

At this stage, your clean face is ready to receive even deeper cleaning of your pores with steam.  You don’t need any fancy equipment.  All it takes for this home treatment is a pot with boiling water, a towel to tent over that pot, and the right herb to help what your complexion needs.  For example, rosemary is wonderful to steam a dry face with.  On the other hand, chamomile is better for those with normal skin.  Those with oily skin might find peppermint useful.

Other than seeking out the services of a professional, your pores are as clean as you can get them at home.  However, you need to close them the proper way.  Start by rinsing your face with warm water (not hot) and gradually change over to splashing with cold water.  

The final step is remembering to moisturize and allowing the product time to soak in. 

Afterwards, you will see a great complexion and feel better about your appearance than before.