🌿 Folk Prescriptions

In TCM, complexion relates to the spleen: acne and pimples result from excessive spleen damp-heat; butterfly spots arise from liver stagnation and spleen deficiency; sallow complexion without luster indicates spleen deficiency preventing qi and blood from ascending. Spring is when all things rise and flourish, and the spleen’s function also strengthens. Thus, spring beauty care is best achieved through dietary therapy promoting spleen health, blood circulation, liver regulation, and blood activation.
Here are several beauty-enhancing food therapies:
1. Bird's Nest and Rock Sugar Porridge: Bird's nest moistens skin and nourishes blood for a radiant complexion. Use 3 grams bird's nest and appropriate rock sugar, boil until porridge-like. Adding 5 grams sweet almonds improves beauty effect.
2. Longan and Lotus Seed Egg Soup: 15 grams longan flesh, 50 grams lotus seed, two eggs, two slices ginger, four jujubes, a little salt. Steam eggs until cooked, peel, rinse clean. Wash longan, lotus seeds, ginger, and jujubes. Remove lotus seed hearts, keep red-brown seed coats. Peel ginger, slice. Remove jujube cores. Boil water in a clay pot, bring to boil, add ingredients, simmer medium fire for about two hours, add salt, serve. Calms mind, soothes nerves, nourishes blood, moisturizes skin.
3. Lily, Red Date, Ginkgo Nourishing Porridge: 50 grams lily, 10 red dates, 50 grams ginkgo nuts, 300 grams beef, two slices ginger, a little salt. Wash fresh beef in boiling water, slice thinly. Remove ginkgo shells, soak in water to remove outer film, then wash. Wash lily, red dates, and ginger. Remove red date cores. Peel ginger, slice. Add sufficient water to clay pot, bring to boil, add lily, red dates, ginkgo, and ginger slices, simmer medium fire until lily nearly soft, add beef, continue cooking until beef is tender. Add salt lightly, serve. Tonifies blood and yin, moisturizes complexion, nourishes lungs, boosts energy, relieves cough, stops seminal emission.
4. Astragalus and Brown Sugar Porridge: 30 grams astragalus, 100 grams rice, 30 grams brown sugar, 6 grams tangerine peel. Wash astragalus, cut into slices, decoct with water, strain out residue. Wash rice, add tangerine peel and brown sugar, pour in astragalus decoction, add water, cook until rice is soft and mushy. Brown sugar is sweet, warm in nature, moistens lungs and heart, harmonizes middle burner, soothes liver, replenishes blood, breaks up stasis. Astragalus is sweet, warm, consolidates exterior, stops sweating, promotes wound healing. Tangerine peel is pungent and bitter, warm, regulates qi, strengthens stomach, dries dampness, transforms phlegm. This porridge tonifies qi and enhances complexion, suitable for pale, dull faces due to qi and blood deficiency.
5. Jujube Porridge: 60 grams rice, 10 jujubes. Add jujubes to rice, cook until porridge is thick and jujubes are soft. Rich in vitamin E, eating jujube porridge regularly makes complexion rosy and vibrant.
6. Beauty Porridge: 100 grams white rice, 1200 ml chicken broth, 3 grams ligusticum, 10 grams angelica, 5 grams astragalus, 2 grams safflower. Wash rice, soak in water. Cut angelica, ligusticum, and astragalus into thin slices, place with safflower in a small cloth bag. Put rice and herb bag into pot, add chicken broth and water, boil over high heat, reduce to low heat until porridge thickens, remove bag. This porridge adds qi-tonifying, blood-nourishing, and blood-activating herbs based on the classic Si Wu Tang. Take once or twice daily while warm. Beneficial for improving bodily functions, enhancing female facial skin smoothness and delicacy, and preventing/treating conditions affecting appearance.