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Cleansing, protection from moisture loss, and a sunscreen, are all there is to basic skin care. They are simple and inexpensive to carry out, and the benefits they bring when used regularly everyday cannot be measured in any amount of money.

There are three parts to any good external skin care regimen, regardless of your age or the type of skin you have:

Regular, thorough cleansing

Protection from moisture loss and external roughness

Protection from the ultraviolet rays of the sun

These three things - cleansing, protection from moisture loss, and a sunscreen, are all there is to basic skin care. They are simple and inexpensive to carry out, and the benefits they bring when used regularly everyday cannot be measured in any amount of money.

deep cleanse

There are two camps when it comes to cleansing: the soap-and-water lovers and the soap-and-water haters. Both - within reason - are right.

Soap is an excellent cleanser. It removes grease and dirt from the skin's surface easily (although it is usually not as effective at removing makeup as cream or lotion cleanser). Soap is capable of penetrating the skin's outer protective layers, making the skin of women who tend towards dryness even drier. Surprisingly, it can also have just the opposite effect on skin that tends to be oily. On the other hand, soap does give a sense of cleanliness that most women feel they don't get with cream and lotion cleansers.

Thanks to modern technology, there are now many pH-balanced soaps, foaming cleansers, and detergent bars that don't disturb the pH of the skin, so that if you are a soap fancier you can find one to suit you without many of the disadvantages of the conventional type.

the cream or oil way

The many cream and lotion cleansers, oils, and cleansing milks available now are also good. Put a lotion or cream cleanser on with your hands as you would soap and then tissue it off, repeating the application until the tissue shows no sign of dirt on it. Then follow with tonic or freshener, preferably one without alcohol in it, or simply rinse your face in cool water.

the double treatment

Because cleanliness is so important to lasting skin health and beauty, if you live in a city or a highly industrialized area where air pollution is a particular problem, the oil-and-water technique is the most effective means of all. Many of the cosmetic industry's most expensive ranges are based on this method of cleansing. But you can put together your own system which is just as effective.

Choose a pure vegetable oil, such as cold-pressed sunflower oil, corn oil, or one of the more expensive hazelnut or apricot oils. Buy it in small quantities and keep it in a cool place, preferably in the refrigerator. Pour a tablespoonful of the oil into the palm of your hand and spread it on your face, rubbing it in well. (This is a good opportunity to give yourself a gentle massage to stimulate circulation while the oil is leaching up the makeup and grime on your skin.) Then, using pads of damp absorbent cotton-wool wiped over your face, remove the oil and with it much of the dirt on the skin.

You are ready now for the second stage. Wash your skin in warm water and use a pH-balanced-soap, detergent bar, or liquid detergent cleanser, adding plenty of water and rubbing gently with the tips of your fingers and the palms of your hands until the whole face is well covered. Now rinse thoroughly ten times in warm water and then splash with cool.

Whichever cleansing method you choose, follow it twice daily. This is the first step in the craft of skin care.

the water margin

There are literally hundreds of moisturizers on the market. Some are beautifully cool to the touch and scented, others somewhat greasy. For very dry skin by far the most effective way of moisturizing is simply to prevent water in the skin from escaping into the air. This you can do by wearing one of the water-in-oil-type emulsions on your face every day, winter and summer.

Water-in-oil emulsions contain a great deal more fat than water, which means they are able to cover the skin with an impermeable film so that excessive water loss doesn't occur. And they are good for both dry and oily skin. For, unlike so many products specifically designed for oily skin, they don't spur the sebaceous glands to produce even more oil in the kind of vicious circle women with oily skin know so well.

Find a moisturizer that you like and wear it every day, applying it twice a day if you can under makeup when you are wearing it or just on its own when you don't. This is the second part of the craft of skin care.

light dangers

The third part of everyday skin care is simple: your skin needs to be protected from the sun. This does not just mean when you are lying on the beach, either; it means all the time. For ultraviolet light is the worst destroyer and ager of the skin that you are ever likely to encounter. Heavy exposure to the sun's light at the age of eighteen will result in early wrinkling, between twenty-five and forty.

Which sunscreen product you choose depends on how much light you are exposed to. Many makeup products now include a sunscreen in their formulation (read labels). There are now a few water-resistant sun lotions which make excellent moisturizers-cum-sunscreens for everyday wear too, since they happen to be water-in-oil emulsions. It must offer not only a UVB screen against burning but also UVA protection against aging. It should offer at least an SPF of 4 or more for day to day care in winter or when overcast, rising to a 15 or higher when you will be in direct sunlight. Twenty years from now, when you compare your face with a friend's of the same age who hasn't used a sunscreen constantly, you will be pleased to find that you look a good ten years younger than she does.

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Journey to Freedom is a practical and highly personal course which marries the most ancient technique known for accessing power and expanding awareness - shamanism - together with tools from mythology, leading-edge physics, biology, systems theory and the rapidly developing science of consciousness itself to create a user-friendly, well-tested path to freedom. Journey to Freedom workshops offer you a technology for liberation. It is simple and practical. The skills you learn are like a rope you use to climb to the top of Freedom Mountain. Once you get there, you can throw the ropes away.