Abuela’s Beauty Secrets

Posted by admin on January 19th, 2008 filed in Beauty Facts

By Ana Hernández, May - June 2002

It seems as if everybody nowadays is answering his or her yearning of getting in touch with Mother Nature. Most people are looking at different alternatives to improve health and looks. To feel as good inside as most of us want to look on the outside.

Cosmetic departments,Supermarket beauty aid shelves and health food stores are offering a great variety of products that contain natural ingredients. Everything goes, from mud to clean the complexion to shark cartilage for arthritis. The New Age movement has reclaimed the use of incense and music to relax, aromatherapy to feel good or set the mood and herbal teas to soothe the spirits. The natural craze is a trend that has boomed in the last decade or so, but the truth is, that for many centuries, people from all civilizations have been using natural recipes to feel and look good. Who hasn’t heard about Cleopatra’s famous milk baths as beauty treatments for the skin, or about the supposed healing powers of thermal waters rich in sulfurs and minerals emanating from Earth’s active volcanoes and hot springs?

Many of us perhaps remember how our parents and grandparents, particularly our grandmas, used to tell us about some soothing concoctions for achy tummies or recommended a refreshing good cold glass of root beer or cola to renew energies and spoke highly of the benefits of the evil tasting castor oil for a good “constitution.”

In Costa Rica, and I assume in the rest of the world as well, young people were receiving similar advice from their parents. When I was a little girl, I remember being constantly bombarded with an incredible amount of advice from grown-ups about ways of bringing an end to a malady or a beauty recipe that was going to make someone feel really good. The women in my own family were like a walking library full of information for homemade remedies and beauty secrets. The secrets for those remedies were passed down in families from generation to generation.

Like most young girls, when I was growing up I liked to put on make-up and play dress-up. Unfortunately for me, my mom did not wear any store bought make-up and did not approve of teenage girls wearing it either. A few years later, with the help of other high school girls my age, I discovered on my own the wonderful world of make-up but oh, the disappointing truth that make-up came with a high price tag. Perhaps because of the availability and high price of most cosmetics sold in drugstores, back when grandma and later on my mom, were little, they made do with a lot of things they found in their own kitchens. Most of those products came from plants or herbs. Instead of using prepared cosmetics with artificial colors and perfumes, many people used organic things that worked fine for them. Shampoos, hair rinses, skin lotions, even blush for rosy cheeks and quite a few of the medicines, were found in people’s backyards or in neighborhood gardens. It was a normal thing for people to make teas of boiled leaves or roots to calm anxiety or a nervous stomach, and also it was a very normal thing in those years for people to exchange natural remedies and beauty recipes with friends and acquaintances.

Although not everything natural was tasty and enjoyable. Every time one of us kids would sneeze or be “out of sorts” my mom and grandmother would get out a bottle of nasty tasting cod liver oil to “fortify our constitution” and to fight the bugs. I still remember the yelling and running as my mom chased us around the house with a spoonful of that horrible stuff for us to take. I used to lock myself in the bathroom trying to avoid the awful ordeal of having to swallow that dreadful tasting oil. Unfortunately for me, my mom had the discipline of a soldier making the rounds, and no sooner had I came out of my hideout, I was firmly persuaded into taking it, of course, against my will.

Sadly though, I never bothered to learn many of the old art forms of preparing and using the natural remedies my family used, and what do you know, like the old adage says “what goes around, comes around.” In the last decade or so, the craze for natural things has created a revolution in many health areas, in addition to making billions of dollars for the cosmetic industry. It appears that the use of herbs leaves, roots, spices, and a myriad of other natural products continues growing at a strong pace, reviving the usage of many of the natural compounds used by our grandmothers a century or more ago.

Beauty “recipes” from my Grandma’s kitchen ! These are some natural remedies I remembered getting from the women in my family, especially mi abuela (my grandmother.). These recipes are not intended to be instant cures for any specific ailment. They are the traditional uses of natural methods used by people in my family and by many people today who believe that they really work. But, who knows, if you give it a try, it might work for you too. At least it will be fun to try!

Many of these you can do yourself but if you would prefer you can purchase ready-made products at health food stores - macrobioticas. The herbs can be grown in your garden or bought in macrobioticas or the central market. Some weekend ferias also sell the herbs or plants.

Let an avocado become very ripe and use it as a hair mask on your hair for half-an-hour to an hour before washing your hair. Massage the oily pulp into your scalp and then shampoo and rinse it off, combing your hair through with a thick comb to get rid of the avocado residue. Aguacate is Spanish for avocado.

For shiny, manageable black hair, boil a few tips of an evergreen tree with a few of the pine berries in a little water for ten minutes. Let it cool, then apply the liquid to your hair combing thoroughly. Left over liquid can be refrigerated in a small plastic container for future applications. Ask for Ciprés.

Chamomile the plant, which you can find in most nurseries, can be used to maintain a healthy blonde hair too. Just comb through hair using the tea made from the leaves and flowers of the plant. Chamomile tea bags can be used to help get rid of dark circles under eyes. A tea of chamomile is relaxing before bedtime. Chamomile in Spanish is called manzanilla.

Mint tea is good for indigestion and a strong tea made of mint can help a headache. Mint tea is also good for relaxing. Chewing mint leaves is a good breath freshener.

For a younger looking, healthy complexion, rub a bit of egg white on your face. Rinse with cold water after a few minutes. Whole eggs, mixing the white and the yolk, can be used as a good hair mask also. Eggs are huevos in Spanish, the egg white is clara de huevo, and the yolk is called la yema.

For a healthy, regular digestive system, take a daily, tablespoon of virgin olive oil followed by apple, or orange, or cranberry juice - best before breakfast. Olive oil is aceite de oliva.

Instead of expensive hand and body lotion, keep a bottle of virgin olive oil and apply to dry skin.

Rub olive oil on rough feet and heels to make them feel smoother. Another easy to use remedy is glycerin and rose water. Glycerin is called glicerina.

Onions are good for mental alertness, and the paper-like brown peel is good to stop bleeding from cuts. Just place it over the cut. Garlic is good for fighting bacteria, fungus and other parasites. It is also used to help lower blood pressure. Eating carrots are good for your eyes and can give your skin the look of a beautiful tan when used in a suntan lotion. Onion is cebolla, garlic is ajo and carrot is zanahoria.

Make a strong tea of Rosemary leaves and use it as a hair rinse to help eliminate dandruff. It is also believed to have antiseptic properties. Rosemary is romero in Spanish.

Honey is good for the hair and the skin and fights infections when taken regularly.

A green papaya is a good meat tenderizer; simply cover the meat with pieces of the fruit. Ripe papaya is good for digestion and regularity. In shampoos and rinses in leaves a nice shiny hair.

Cucumber is one of the best-kept secrets to maintain a healthy, shiny complexion. Apply the blended pulp of the cucumber as a face cleanser with a bit of glycerin soap or use the pulp as a face mask for at least ten minutes for hydrating purposes. In Spanish cucumber is pepino.

Aloe Vera is considered as one of the best gifts to humanity. The pulp and sap of this plant heals wounds, burns and helps reduce ugly scars. It helps the skin to regenerate and become soft and supple. Aloe Vera pulp can also be used as a hair mask before shampooing your hair. Peel off the green outer skin and use the clear pulp inside. You can put it in a blender to break up the tough fiber to make it easy to work with. Aloe Vera is sábila in Spanish. Good advice: If you have a sunny windowsill or garden, this is the best plant to grow and keep as an instant treatment for minor burns.

Ana is a native Costarrican who has lived in the USA for 20 years, and has now moved back to Costa Rica full time, along with her husband, Steve Brown.

© El Residente ARCR Administración S.A. San José, Costa Rica N.B. Like all information on the internet, this article may currently be incorrect or out of date.