Cleopatra may be known as the ancient world’s greatest beauty, but it’s modern Egyptian women that have some of today’s best beauty regimens.
Salons in Egypt offer treatments such as lymphatic face drainage, a type of facial massage that focuses on releasing extra fluid from the sinuses. Meanwhile, their makeup counters market gels and lotions with glycolic acid and antioxidants.
Egyptian women don’t wrinkle as early as Caucasian women because of their naturally darker skin tones. Instead, the main challenge is keeping skin moisturized in the desert climate, so women swear by homemade concoctions of pure glycerin and lemon juice mixed with nightly Nivea applied to the face.
At pharmacies, you’ll find very few anti-wrinkle creams on the shelf, although there are some are available behind the counter without a prescription. In fact, you can purchase a clinical dose of tretinoin, the active ingredient in Retin-A, for less than four dollars-no prescription needed.