Beauty Secrets From the Emerald Isle

It is the week before St. Patrick's Day, so I thought it might be fun to look at some beauty trends and rituals, old and new, that come from Ireland. Interestingly enough, the country's most significant contribution to the beauty world might be the invention of Botox treatments, and though it is often kept hush-hush, it grows in popularity every year. But whether that is your thing or not, there are plenty of other ways, to give your beauty routine a bit of St. Patty's Day flair.

Beer Rinses: Beer might seem a strange thing to put in your hair, but Irish people have been using beer as a shine enhancing treatment for centuries due to both the alcohol and the selenium which is found in barley. Selenium is also a key nutrient in helping hair hold color,natural or not, and some research suggests that amping up the selenium in your body and absorbed through the scalp might delay the graying of hair in some people. Beer also contains a lot of protein from wheat which strengthens it and also giving the hair a fuller, thicker-feeling appearance and more volume,

Potato Eye Treatments: Though not nearly as common as a cucumber, thinly-sliced potatoes placed over the eyes are also helpful in reducing puffiness. One upping the cucumbers, the enzymes from the potato work to help lighten dark circles.

Oatmeal and Egg White Face Masks: Many Irish people are known for having rather fair and often very sensitive skin, but whatever your skintone or type a simple mixture of equal parts oatmeal and egg whites can really help to smooth and remoisturize the face while calming any ruddiness or irritation and evening out the skintone. If your skin is not especially sensitive, you might also try rinsing off this mask with a mixture of hot water and lemon. This will not only cut through the thickness of the face mask faster than plain water, but it will also add to the brightening effect.

Seaweed Baths: Ireland, like many other seafaring countries has long prized the use and benefits of seaweed on the skin. Bathing in seaweed enriches the skin with many key nutrients such as clarifying zinc and skin-firming magnesium, allowing also those minerals to be carried throughout the whole body through the bloodstream. Seaweed is also a wonderful humectant (meaning that it draws in and effectively retains water) and using products made with seaweed helps to pass this ability on to the skin for deeper hydration.

Herbal Remedies: Traditionally, Irish beauty recipes revolved a lot around common garden herbs and flowers such as rose, chamomile, and lavender, and comfrey root These flowering plants were used, as they are today for everything from making perfume, acne treatments to even homemade makeup.

One such herbal treatment I recently found out about from the Irish wellness and low-waste living YouTube channel (with accompanying blog and Instagram feed) hailing from Wicklow Ireland called "Fairyland Cottage" is for a rejuvenating foot soak. Simply take a sachet filled with any fresh green herbs you can find and put them into a bowl of boiling water, letting the herbs scents and healing properties release into the water, and once the water is sufficiently cooled, let your feet soak for as long as you like, soothing sore muscles and softening the skin. As to which herbs should be used for this, it is really up to you and what is the most freshly available, but an Irish favorite, and one suggested in the video, is rosemary for both its relaxing scent and also healing and antibacterial properties for the skin. You can watch the video to find out more about this and other self-care practices here.

I hope you enjoyed are little beauty-filled voyage to Ireland and that these little beauty tips and remedies will add some flair to any Saint Patty's Day celebration Going forward, I would love to research more about beauty tricks, old and new, from all around the globe, and as I do, I can't wait to report back and share them all with you.