Look no further! Warmer weather is almost here, and it's the perfect time to get your body sun-ready. Discover how to achieve a radiant, flawless complexion using natural and budget-friendly products!
Here's a small summary of various quick and natural treatments, masks, and other methods to do at home to look your best before tanning.
- Clay.
Very well-known, in fact, I almost felt obliged to start with clay because of how much good we hear about it!
The most famous of all is **green clay** (there are many others, but they have very specific virtues! To be chosen according to your skin type) and **it is recommended for normal to oily skin**. It works real miracles on skin and hair!
For the skin, nothing could be simpler: make a green clay mask, strictly avoiding the eyes. However, one essential point: leave it on for 15 minutes and, most importantly, moisten it as soon as it starts to dry.
For hair: if your hair tends to get greasy quickly, green clay will be your ally. Dilute it in a little water and coat your scalp with this mixture: do not put it on the ends, otherwise it will dry out your hair!
Where to buy it? In supermarkets, parapharmacies, or organic stores
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- Black soap.
Black soap, used by Oriental women, is a **mixture of mud, olive oil, and crushed and macerated black olives**. It will **deeply cleanse, exfoliate, and soften your skin** but MOST IMPORTANTLY **prepare it for the application of rhassoul or shea butter**, for example.
To **create a scrub worthy of a traditional hammam in your bathroom**, nothing could be simpler:
1. Run a hot bath and leave your bathroom door closed to create a very humid atmosphere.
2. Take the black soap in your hands, lather it until you get a yellowish cream. Apply it all over your body (you'll need to be patient!) and let it penetrate for a good ten minutes.
3. And now, the crucial point of the scrub arrives: the moment you SCRUB. And when we scrub at Zenaba, we scrub very hard. This is exactly what you'll need to do, rub your body very, very hard, using a kessa glove.
And there you have it, your skin is sublimated, super soft, and ready for summer.
Where to buy it? In Oriental grocery stores, directly in a hammam, or even at Nature et Découverte.
Warning: absolutely do not buy your black soap from the "detergents" section of supermarkets.
- Rhassoul.
Rhassoul is a **mineral clay** generally used by Oriental women as a **body or hair treatment**. Recommended for all skin types, especially for oily skin, as rhassoul acts like **blotting paper that absorbs impurities and oils**.
For body care: mix rhassoul with lukewarm water to obtain a paste. Cleanse your body with circular movements and rinse with clear water.
For shiny and voluminous hair: apply the paste to your previously wet hair, leave on for 15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Be careful to rinse a lot; don't hesitate to brush your hair in the shower at the same time, otherwise you'll end up with sticky hair!
Tip: you can also add essential oils, such as rose oil, to make your skin even softer and to perfume it.
Where to buy it? In organic stores or Oriental grocery stores.
- Shea butter.
Used for millennia by African women, **shea butter is known and recognized today by all women for its repairing, moisturizing, and softening properties**.
How to use it? Nothing could be simpler: buy shea butter, **melt it in the palm of your hand**, and apply it to the areas of your body that need it, **massaging for about ten minutes**!
Where to buy it? In African boutiques for city dwellers, organic stores, at L'occitane, or online.
Warning: be very careful to choose pure shea butter to benefit from all its virtues.
- Argan oil.
Argan oil is an oil widely used in cosmetics; it all started centuries ago with Berber women (Morocco). **It is notably used on skin and hair** and is **recommended for eczema, hair loss, but especially for dry skin**. If you tend to have dry skin, it will be the miracle remedy!
How to use it? For **the body**: super easy too, you warm a little oil in the palms of your hands and apply it wherever you wish on your body.
For **hair**: apply the oil to your ends and ONLY your ends (otherwise your hair will be greasy for days), leave on for a few minutes, and rinse thoroughly.
Where to buy it? In supermarkets, small Oriental boutiques, or beauty salons.
- Marula oil.
Little known in France, marula oil is nevertheless a flagship product from Africa. The fruit of a tree called "the elephant tree" (because elephants feast on these fruits), marula kernels are extremely rich for the skin: it moisturizes, repairs, softens, nourishes, drains, heals... So many virtues in such a small oil that should really be brought to the forefront!
How to use it? No miracle solution here, just apply it to the areas you want to treat.
It is applied **directly to the skin** to invigorate, revive, and moisturize the skin (even on the face). But it also prevents **stretch marks**, helps you lose **cellulite** and **orange peel skin**, etc.
For hair, the same principle as for argan oil! Except it will make them shinier and super soft.
Where to buy it? In African boutiques, or online.
You now have all the **simplest and quickest tips to do at home** to properly **prepare your skin for summer and tanning!**
