Organic beauty

Chemical-free products for skin and body, together with natural foods and exercise, help us tap into our source of beauty and well-being. This excerpt from Organic Beauty: Look and Feel Gorgeous the Natural Way by Josephine Fairley (Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2001, $21.95) will help you achieve that natural radiance.

Cleansing and toning
Skin experts are agreed that cleansing and toning are actually the most important steps in our skincare ritual. So here's how to create a simple and organic skincare routine...

Face facts
Soap, even handmade soap, is too harsh for facial skin, upsetting its acid balance (pH), so the skin feels taut and tight. If you like to use water, there are plenty of other options to soap or beauty bars. Oily skins respond best to lotion-type cleansers, whereas dry and sensitive skins love oil-based cleansers.

Nature provides superb alternatives to commercial cleansers: oils, which literally melt makeup and pollution from your face. Now that organic oils are more widely available, it is easy to create 100-percent-organic cleansers of your own. Any nut or seed oil can be used to massage and cleanse the face.

If you cleanse properly, you really don't need a toner. Contrary to myth, toners cannot "close" pores -- because they do not physically open and shut in the first place. What toners can do is create a sensation of freshness, which is why some women still love the feel of them. If you do want to use a toner, choose one that's alcohol-free: alcohol overstrips the skin and upsets its vital natural oil balance. The word "freshener" (instead of "toner") can be a clue that a product is alcohol-free, but to be certain, check the ingredient list. Rosewater and orange flower water, both widely available, make alternative face refreshers. (Try spritzing them on with a pump-action spray, rather than using cotton balls; you can also use this to set makeup.) Or make your own fresheners: you're about to discover how easy that is.

Cotton on to organic
Cotton is the most heavily sprayed crop on the planet (cocoa comes second.) So if you buy regular cotton balls, not only do traces of those pesticides inevitably end up on your face, but you're contributing to one of the world's most polluting forms of agriculture. Organic cotton balls are increasingly widely available (even in supermarkets): they're just as soft and just as effective, but this cotton really is as pure as it looks.

Starting afresh
Cleansing is a blissful end-of-day ritual that helps relax the body and mind before sleeping, You can enhance it by using a little creative visualization: imagine, as you wipe away the buildup of toxins, sweat, and cosmetics from your face, that you are literally melting away the day's anxieties and worries and sending them down the sink.

The cleansed face that you're left with is like a smooth canvas, a blank page -- literally, a fresh start.

The ultimate cleanse
The very best way to remove makeup is not with facial tissues (even recycled ones) or cotton balls -- it's with pieces of cheesecloth. You can either buy these readymade, or make your own with 100-percent-natural cheesecloth bought in a fabric or department store. Cut it into squares measuring roughly 12 in (30 cm).

To use the cloth, simply apply your cleanser and massage it thoroughly into your face. Soak the cloth in hot water and use it like a washcloth to remove every last trace of cleanser. Rinse the cloth and repeat two or three times; then finish by running it under a cool faucet. and wiping that over your face.

Hang the cloth over a radiator or the edge of the bathtub to dry; this will help guarantee that bacteria don't get the chance to breed in the cloth. Every couple of days, switch to a fresh piece of cloth.

The cheesecloth squares can be washed in a washing machine, with "green" detergent, or boiled in a saucepan with a drop of bleach. They can be used again and again.

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