Oh, the good old days when life was simpler and less choice in the beauty product aisles meant that beauty routines were less of a minefield and came with a much lower price tag. We spoke to our grandmother to hear her top beauty tips, which have kept her looking healthy and beautiful for 84 for years!

We loved sitting down over a cup of tea and chatting to her about her beauty routine, which she began in the 1950’s when she was in her early twenties. We really felt transported back to the glamour of her ‘hayday’ as she regaled us with stories of her ‘courting days,’ filled with tea dances and old fashioned gallantry.

However, it did make us realise that beauty may have been less complicated to navigate back then, but it was no less time consuming! We take for granted the speed of curling irons, the efficiency of modern make-up removers and many other advances in the beauty industry that mean we can achieve great results in a fraction of the time. So, much as I love the glamour of women in the fifties…perhaps I wouldn’t swap!

Here is a rundown of our grandmother’s beauty tips which are just as effective today as they were back then:

Sleep on your back

Sleeping like a Disney princess waiting for a prince’s kiss may not seem to be the most obvious thing you can do to achieve a healthier looking face, but it genuinely can make a real difference! Firstly, it reduces sleep lines and creases which can appear over time if your face is regularly shmooshed up against a pillow. Secondly, it helps drain the face of excess fluid meaning you won’t wake up with puffy eyelids and bags under your eyes, and finally, experts say that facial muscles relax better when sleeping on your back.

A very handy added benefit is that your pillow remains nice and clean because you haven’t rubbed all your nightly beauty products all over it as you fall into a slumber!

Moisturise daily

Granny swears she doesn’t remember ever skipping a day of putting her moisturiser on at night. Pond’s was the ‘go to’ when she was younger and she swears by it even to this day!

We completely agree that a nightly moisturiser should be as routine as brushing your teeth. Your face takes a hammering throughout the day and helping it replace some of that lost moisture will mean you wake up with skin looking more plump and hydrated.

Splash your face with cold water every morning

Granny actually told us about this tip roughly a decade ago, and I have been doing it ever since! Splashing your face with cold water after you have washed it will close your pores, and leave your skin looking more fresh and toned. Once you get into the habit of doing this, it won’t seem such an abhorrent idea on a winter morning, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll learn to enjoy that revitalising slap in the face as a final wake up call!

Beauty sleep

Getting your eight hours a day was as important to women in the fifties as it is to women in the present day and in fact, in recent years, experts have only served to strengthen the case for the importance of sleep on our overall health as well as our appearance.

Our bodies do vital healing and repair work while we sleep which cannot be under-estimated. I don’t think anyone would deny that they notice a significant change for the worse in their face when they are sleep deprived. Skin can look wrinkled and our complexions pallid, not to mention the under-eye bags and hollows…need we say more?!

Vegetable peelings for face masks

This doesn’t sound the most appealing of Granny’s tips but we can’t deny it makes sense that these natural ingredients, packed with skin-loving Vitamin C and anti-oxidants are likely to do wonders when applied directly to the face.  We decided to give it a go with left-over avocado skin and did think our skin felt more nourished when left on for fifteen minutes! And we do love the old wartime mentality of ‘waste not, want not!’

Vaseline is a jack of all trades

Women of all generations love a multi-tasker that doesn’t weigh down your handbag! Granny swears by Vaseline for three key things; to moisturise the lips, to dab on the apples of cheeks for a dewy complexion and finally, to tame rogue eyebrows!! Her humble product choice is still a popular one today- I recently read that Jennifer Aniston is a big fan of Vaseline, using it at night to condition her eye lashes!

And finally….and we love this one!

Learn to love your face at every age

Granny has always been a big advocate of ageing gracefully. She is very much a Mary Berry type, managing to look beautiful, elegant and age appropriate at every stage of her life.

Here at Luminous, we are very much in favour of ageing gracefully and learning to love yourself. Most of us find it hard to look in the mirror and not want to pick ourselves apart, and this only becomes more difficult as we age, but Luminous can help you learn to improve your sense of self-worth when it comes to your appearance as well as helping you make the very best of yourself at every age without resorting to drastic steps to try and turn back time.

Granny is thoroughly enjoying incorporating facial yoga into her time-honoured beauty routine, finding it incredibly relaxing as well as noticing positive benefits to her face, not bad at 84!

So facial yoga really is for everyone, we are delighted that you have joined us onour quest for a happy, healthy face at every stage of our lives! 

Philippa