My website is all about holistic habits of skincare. I can’t miss the Geisha Skincare routine, right? Japanese are famous for their skin, beauty, and grooming. Their traditional dress is as exquisite as their skin. If you want to know the Geisha skincare routine, secrets, and staple ingredients you have come to the right place. I will walk you through everything about Geishas you need to know.
The Geisha Skin Care
Do you know the sheet mask was first invented by Japanese Geishas? Geisha ladies sink leftover silks after making kimonos in flower water. Then they used it on their face and relaxed.
Do you know who uses Rice water first? You got it right. Geisha ladies took bath in thick rice water after making rice. They did not throw it away. Rice water is full of antioxidants like gamma-oryzanol. Antioxidant is very important for youthful skin. It also stimulates collagen production.
Now it’s not possible to dip pure silk in flower water to use it as a face mask. Taking bath full of rice water is also not possible. But the point is Geisha skincare was something that came free of cost and gave a little bit of time for skin, for inner peace. I know many including my mother who gives excuses when it is time for skincare. I don’t blame her. But for those who know how to do skincare, skincare is not just for the skin, it’s very relaxing, and it’s for the soul! The main point of Geisha skincare was, that you don’t have to spend thousand dollars to look beautiful, to take care of your skin. Not all but there are some natural things like rice water that can come free of cost!
The Ultimate Geisha Skin Care Routine
Now that we know something about their skincare, let’s deep dive into the ultimate Geisha skincare routine. It is not long as the Korean Skincare routine or modern Japanese Skincare routine. Geisha’s skincare routine contains the necessities we need to do for our skin.
1. Oil Cleansing
And again, double cleansing is no new. It was a very important step for them because they did heavy makeup. Any oil will melt any type of makeup. I have tried coconut oil to remove waterproof mascara and it worked. Oil blends with makeup so well that does not matter how good a product is, either it will or water or oil resistance. Not both. We think oil cleansing is new, but it’s not. It’s not new in our eastern world. There are mentions of oil cleansing in Japan, in a book of the 10th-11th centuries.
2. Second Step Cleansing
If you are doing oil cleansing, the second step of cleansing is very important because we don’t want any oil residues on our skin as it makes skin unbreathable. And for that, we need a proper cleanser with emulsifiers that will liquefy water and oil particles. Do not forget your neck and other areas if needed.
3. Exfoliate Delicately
Now, this is not something we need to do daily. But a gentle exfoliation can be done daily and that is what Geishas did. They exfoliate their skin on an almost daily basis very gently. It is because your face needed to look smooth. Now you may wonder if even if it’s for smooth skin, daily exfoliating is bad for the skin. It’s true. Even if Paula’s 2% BHA, which is my favorite I will not use it on daily basis. But, there are natural ingredients that exfoliate gently.
Milk has lactic acid in it. Use it raw. Other things are oatmeal, and sea salt. But salt can be harsh on your skin if you’re not careful. Another two safe ingredients are coffee and brown sugar. Within all these, I will only use Milk, Coffee, and Oatmeal for my face and Sugar or Salt for my body because they can harm delicate skin. Geishas used rice powder for removing dead cells. It was cheap and did the work!
4. Time for Sheet Mask
After cleansing is done completely they relaxed with some sheet mask on. It is like a home spa just like nowadays. A sheet mask helps to decrease stress after a long day, isn’t it? They used to collect pure raw silk which left after making a Kimono. Then they made face masks from that. Their kimono was made from high-quality shiny silk. Then dip into in flower or rice water and ta-da! A perfectly smooth, silky, reusable Sheet mask! Sheet masks had been a vital and unique part of Geishas for hundreds of years.
5. Applying Thick Moisturizer
The right amount of hydration within the skin just solves 50% of the problem. There are sheet masks for deep hydration. But the interesting fact is it’s not true that our skin does not have enough moisture but rather it loses moisture very fast to the environment, less humidity, cold, etc. One-step cleaning and applying moisturizers twice a day are very important unless or until it’s high humidity and very warm like 40℃ where you live. Then it becomes difficult to use moisturizers during the daytime. Geishas use natural butter, and creams as moisturizers.
6. Sunscreen Was Must, and Still is!
Geishas like Maikos need to attend classes in the daytime around 11 am. A UV protector was a must. Eastern countries always took Sunscreen very seriously mainly Koreans and Japanese. Now when it comes to Sunscreen, a nickel size is not enough, or using twice a day is not enough. If you’re under sunlight, direct or not, cloudy or sunny you need to apply more than a quarter-size for your face and neck. Do not use less than 30SPF.
This is the routine Japanese Geishas followed. If you’re interested in Geishas Skincare a little bit more, Know their Skincare ingredients HERE, and What we learn from their skincare, HERE.
