Beauty secrets from the Arab world

These gracious and mysterious women with dark hair, soft skin and mysterious eyes pass their beauty secrets from one generation to the next.
How do these modest women look so gorgeous? What are their secret beauty tricks? We’ve managed to find out some of the beauty secrets of Arab women.

Haircare

The secret to Arab women’s thick, glossy hair is careful care with natural ingredients.  Before washing their hair they apply kefir or sour milk to their scalp. Sour milk products quickly regenerate the hair and make it smooth and shiny. Would you like to try it? Then you should make the kefir yourself as industrially produced kefir doesn’t have the useful properties for hair.

Hair dyes

Arab women reject modern hair dyes:  they still prefer the natural hair dye henna, as they did hundreds of years ago. Henna is made from the leaves of Lawsonia inermis, which are plentiful in Arab countries.  If you add basma (another hair dye) to henna, you get a deep black hair colour. Colourless henna is a strengthening hair mask.

Black eyes

Eyes are very important to Arab women, because all other parts of their body are concealed by the abaya. The famous oriental eye line is added to the upper lash line with antimony. Apart from the decorative effect, antimony strengthens the eyebrows and lashes and intensifies their colour. Many cosmetics brands now use antimony as eyeliner.

Brows and lashes

In the Middle East, full, almost joined eyebrows and endlessly long lashes are the beauty ideal. So even when they’re small Arab girls use usma natural oil. Applied to eyebrows and lashes it is thought to accelerate growth and awaken ‘sleeping’ hair roots. We tried it out for ourselves: After a month our lashes and eyebrows were fuller.

Face care

For facial cleansing Middle Eastern women use a natural cleansing water: rose blossom water. You can replace your micellar water with it. Rose blossom water is calming and treats inflammation and skin redness.  
While European women want golden tans year round, Middle Eastern women yearn for pale skin.  They use natural bleachers like lemon juice. Do you also want a fresh and radiant complexion? Rub your face with lemon juice.
Another beauty secret from Middle Eastern women:  The soft side of lemon peel is ideal for a wonderful scrub.
Arab women mix their own face masks as they swear by natural ingredients. Turmeric is the most popular ingredient in homemade masks. 

It’s easy to make your own mask: 

• 2 tbsp flour 
• 1 pinch of turmeric
• 2 tbsp rosewater  
• 2 tbsp milk 

Mix together until smooth. Apply the mix to your face. Leave on for 20 minutes and then rinse off with warm water.

Body care

The culture of the Middle East is unimaginable without the hamam. The steam bath (Turkish bath ceremony) has a high wellness factor. Arab women spend wellness days enjoying the pure pleasure of the hamam.
Hamams open the skin’s pores and release deep deposits. Skin becomes silky soft. Middle Eastern women take their favourite natural scrub with them to the hamam. Coffee grounds are the most popular scrub, You can use pure coffee grounds or mix it with shower gel. After only one procedure skin is soft and even.

Perfume

It is surprising that even rich Arab women who can afford the most expensive perfumes prefer natural scents of traditional oriental aroma oils. Their favourite ingredients are musk, sandalwood, vanilla, jasmine and rose. All Middle Eastern perfumes are purely oil based and produced without alcohol, which makes the scents long-lasting.