Old School Beauty Tips From Joan Crawford You Can Still Use Today

When we think of Old Hollywood, we think of the elegance of legendary starlets, of close-up black-and-white snapshots that don't detract from their beauty one bit. It makes you wonder what they might've been doing differently compared to the stars of today. And while the late Grace Kelly provided some old school beauty tips you can still use today, so did the enigmatic Joan Crawford. Known for her dark looks, expressive eyes, and full lips, Crawford was not shy in sharing what exactly she did to either maintain or enhance her looks. And it seems as though the notion of minimizing the size of your pores is as popular today as it was in Crawford's day. 

One of the beauty behaviors the "Mildred Pierce" star observed was splashing her face with ice-cold water a whopping 25 times during her cleansing routine. Crawford would then slather her face with a thick layer of moisturizer and, strangely enough, even chew gum often under the belief it would exercise her neck and make it look slimmer. But Crawford was also very particular about her makeup, using dark eye-shadow and mascara to make her eyes pop. But all the makeup and skincare in the world won't make you look good for the cameras unless you practice healthy habits, which Crawford indubitably did.

Of all the beauty tips Joan Crawford shared with the world, she was most certainly onto something when it came to essentially freezing her face with cold water every day. And it seems skincare experts are putting their stamp of approval on this beauty tip, as it's more than doable for the average person to do at home. "When it comes to skincare, splashing your face with cold water and ice can have many beauty benefits," aesthetician Cassandra Bankson told Woman's World. "Using ice can help stimulate and redirect circulation within the skin, helping to give the skin a more flushed, radiant, and refreshed appearance." It shares a similar premise with how taking cold showers can have a lot of beauty benefits for your body, from fighting off acne to preserving your skin's natural oils.

Naturally, splashing your face with cold water 25 times might be excessive for some. However, purchasing some jade rollers or a gua sha tool, cleaning them, then storing them in the fridge for a few hours before your morning or night routine is a simpler alternative. There are proven benefits to using gua sha, from lymphatic drainage to boosting collagen production. But if you're looking for something more luxurious to treat yourself with while achieving the same benefits, then getting a cryofacial could be the way to go. On average, Healthline reports that cryofacials can be priced anywhere from $40 to $150, which is certainly far more cost-effective than a micro-needling session.