My speech No. 8: Empress Beauty

Being Beautiful, becoming more beautiful, staying beautiful is every women’s dream, since millennium years ago. As early as the Han Dynasty 241 BC, women have continuously looked for ways to sustain beauty through healthy herbs, aromatherapy, organic facial mask in effort to maintain their flawless complexion. To you beautiful women and men here today, I want to share with you the beauty tips from Empresses, Concubines and Princesses of China.

First from Empress Wu Lu Zhi: Empress Wu luzhi, was the wife of founding emperor of Han Dynasty. She started each day with a bowl of soup made from this jelly fungus call Tremella Fuciformus. Tremella fuciformis is sweet to taste and rich in natural colloids. Consuming this fungus keeps facial pigmentation and freckles away, promotes gastrointestinal digestion and reduces fat absorption. Simply soak it in water and braise with rock candy, lotus seed, and pawpaw to make a thick, nourishing soup.

Zhang Lihua: renowned beauty and concubine of the last Southern Dynasties Emperor, compiled the earliest recorded imperial skincare recipe. Zhang preserved her good looks with the help of a facial cream made from egg-white and powdered vermilion. The cream whitened and smoothed the complexion.

Yang Gui Fei was the most favored concubine of Tang Emperor Xuanzong (685-762). Her power over him secured high government appointments for members of her family. Historical records speak of Yang Guifei as having a "face that puts flowers to shame." Yang maintained her luminous complexion with her own almond cream recipe. The combination of almond oil and honey softens and smoothes the skin. Bathing in spring water toned her body, keeping it supple, and milk baths moisturized her skin, bringing out its healthy glow.

Empress Wu Tse-Tien was the first and only female emperor in Chinese history. Wu Zetian had been a de facto ruler of China through her two husbands Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozhong and her two sons emperor zhong2 (Lixian) and emperor ruizhong (Li Tan). She broke all precedents when she founded her own Zhou dynasty. Historical records speak of her youthful-looking complexion at the age of 80. Chinese motherwort (yi mu cao) was a main ingredient of Wu's facial beauty preparations.



Method
1. Pick Chinese Motherwort (yi mu cao) and let it dry in the sun.
2. Pound the herbs into powder, add flour and water and shape them into egg-shape pills;
3. Burn the pills and pound them into powder;
4. Add talcum powder and kermes (dried bodies of female scale insects).
To use:
Wash face and body with the powder, morning and evening.
Wu Zhi Tian also nourished her complexion with a more complex herbal facial mask.

Method:
Mix with lard the powdered Chinese herbs
1. Siebold wildginger (xi xin),
2. Rhizoma polygonati odorati (yu zhu),
3. astragalus root (huang qi),
4. Typhonium rhizome (bai fu zi),
5. Chinese yam (shan yao),
6. Magnolia liliflora (xin yi),
7. Cnidium officinale (chuan qiong),
8. Radix angelicae dahuricae (bai zhi),
9. Fructus trichosanthis (gua lou)

To use:
Spread this herbal mask on the face Leave on for 10 minutes and rinse off with cold water.
Wu Zhi Tian habitually ate food rich in protein and microelements, such as skin and tendons, aquatic foods and flower jam. She was also a devotee of aromatherapy, and would burn special herbs whose fragrance cleared her head and helped her stay alert.

In ancient China, jade powder was used to remove pigmentation and aid in whitening the skin. It forms a moisture barrier on the skin to help protect the skin from losing moisture, elasticity, and stimulate the regeneration of new cells.

During the time of Princess Taiping (Wu Zhi Tian’s daughter) an exclusive facial mask recipe made of Grind peach blossoms that have dried in the shade into powder and mix into a paste with the blood of a black chicken. The mask nourishes and whitens the skin and stimulates the metabolism. Soup made from this breed of "black-bone" chicken was, and still is, considered a tonic of immense medical properties. Tang dynasty women dosed themselves with black-bone concoctions to replenish their qi (vital energy) and blood, regulate menstruation and inhibit leucorrhea (period pains).

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), popularly known as the West Dowager Empress, was of the Manchu Yehe Nara Clan. This powerful and charismatic figure was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty for the 48 years between the death of her husband in 1861 and her own demise in 1908. During her time, women of China started using Pearl as a source of their beauty and healthy remedies. Pearl Powder is a natural source of calcium made from the choicest freshwater pearls. It nourishes the bones, skin, and nervous system.

You can be beautiful just as long as you never stop putting in effort