Nature has a solution for everything! And often few simple and natural ingredients are enough to give the skin, eye area and hair what they need. Small tricks are enough, such as not throwing away the leftover piece of cucumber when you have prepared the salad. Have you ever thought that cucumber can become a real beauty treasure? Let's see all the uses to make cucumber a precious cosmetic.
Cucumber against puffy eyes and bags under the eyes
Cucumber reduces swelling of the eyes by decongesting the area (Mukherjee et al, Phytotherapy, 2013). The cucumber remedy is really very simple, after washing the cucumber well, cut two slices and apply them on the closed eyelids for fifteen minutes.
Cucumber and acne
Cucumber fights inflammation, is soothing in case of skin rashes and helps regulate sebum production (Nguyen et al, Materials, 2019 - Naveed et al, African Journal of Biotechnology, 2011). Peel half a cucumber and cut it into coarse chunks. Blend the cucumber, let it rest for a quarter of an hour, then squeeze it to extract the water that should be filtered with a colander. Apply the cucumber juice with a cotton swab on a clean face, leave it on for ten minutes, then rinse, sprinkle a little lavender or lemon balm water and complete with your cream. Alternatively, you can also prepare a mask with this cucumber juice. In a bowl pour two tablespoons of ventilated green clay, add tap water to obtain a thick cream. Dilute with two teaspoons of cucumber juice and a drop of tea tree essential oil. Apply to the face for ten minutes then rinse, spray a hydrosol and apply your face cream.
Cucumber mask for mature skin, but also irritated, sunburned or dry skin
Cucumber soothes inflammation and irritation and calms sunburn, leaving a pleasant sensation of coolness (Kothari et al, Toxicol Rep, 2018). Not only that, cucumber nourishes the skin, moisturizes it and fights dark spots caused by sun rays and aging processes, since it is a precious source of antioxidants, vitamins C and A (Nguyen et al, Materials, 2019). Blend half a peeled and chopped cucumber. Add 1 tablespoon of yogurt, which improves skin elasticity and hydration (Yeom et al, J Cosmet Sci, 2011) and half a teaspoon of honey, which helps regenerate tissues, is healing and anti-inflammatory (Martinotti et al, J Funct Biomater, 2018). Then, you can add a teaspoon of jojoba oil in case of irritation and sunburn, as it restores the skin's natural barrier, or a teaspoon of argan oil in case of mature or dry skin, since this oil helps to retain skin hydration and improves skin elasticity and softness (Lin et al, Int J Mol Sci, 2018). To increase the soothing action you can add a drop of lavender oil or, if the purpose is to prepare an anti-aging mask able to counteract dark skin spots, pour one drop of carrot essential oil. Apply to cleansed face avoiding the eye area, leave on for ten minutes, then rinse. Sprinkle a floral water, excellent in this case are the rose and thyme waters, complete with a drop of serum oil and a little face cream.
