Slough off

Winter seems to be finally sparing us and spring is right around the corner ! So here is a natural way to get your body spring ready.

What you need :

a.  Coconut oil

b. Brown Sugar or just Sugar

c. Lemon Juice

d. Few drops of Honey

e. A little bit of Apple Cider Vinegar

f. A body Brush

How:

Mix all the ingredients together to form a thick mixture. After your shower,while you are still wet, use it as a scrub and rub well with a body brush! Rinse well after some good scrubbing.

The Lemon Juice will help brighten the skin while the sugar granules exfoliate well. The Honey and coconut oil will moisturize your body. You can chose to add Apple Cider Vinegar if you have backne or flaky skin !

Using this as a scrub will make your body skin soo soft and super bright !

Dont run from the Oil !

If you think that just because you have oily skin, you can’t wear oil, well you’d be wrong. Oils can help calm the skin in those blistering cold winter months, but also help regulate oil production so your mug can be bright and beautiful all year-long. They work well mixed with moisturizers, can be used alone, and you can apply them over your makeup during the day without messing up your already-made-up-face.

Some recommendations

1. Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil is a heavy weight contender in the league of must-have facial products. It offers long-lasting hydration that is perfect for those who have combination dry, oily and sometimes acne prone skin. (Price $50)

2. Weleda Almond Soothing Facial Oil is a treat for those with more delicate skin types. This emollient hydrates, conditions and calms the skin with essential fatty acids, and only contains 4 ingredients. It’s awesome for those who have easily irritated skin, or for those who are prone to redness and irritation. (Price $25)

3.Nude Replenishing Night Oil boasts of Vanilla, Cranberry and Black cumin, it restores and brightens skin, while offering intense hydration that will help with fine lines and wrinkles. (Price $68)

4.  Dr. Hauschka Normalizing Day Oil offers all of the benefits of regulating oil production without all of the heartbreaking discomfort of over-drying your sweet face. It  helps with: diminishing breakouts, controlling “unwanted” oil, and evening out discoloration caused by pigmentation.(Price $43)

5. Plain old Vitamin E oil or capsule, add a few drops to your daily moisturizer and you are good to go!

5. Olive Oil, excellent to use before cleansing ! Dab some olive oil on the face and wait, wipe it off with some hot wash cloth. Then go ahead with your cleanse routine.

What is my skin tone

Knowing your Skin tone is so important when you decide your make up! Once you know the tone it is easier to choose shades or palettes that suit that tone best.

And it is not always easy to know it, so here are some tips to find your tone.

The skin tone is either – warm tone, cool tone or neutral tone. Here are three (3) ways to determine skin tones:

1. Gently clean the face with a Cleanser.Do not moisturize or use toner at this time.

Wait for some time and then look into a mirror, preferably a large one, where there is direct lighting (not florescent lighting). Hold a piece of silver foil or and a piece of gold foil. The right color metal (foil) will bring a healthy glow to your skin. Or you can just wear gold and silver jewelry alternatively and observe which makes your face glow !

2. Hold a piece of white paper to your face, looking into the mirror. Your face must be clean and free of all foundation. Follow the above cleansing procedure. Does white clothes look better on you than off white ? Then you have a cool tone ! If you rock off whites then you have a warm tone.

3. Another great way is to turn your arm over and look at the veins on your forearm and wrist. If the veins appear more green than you have yellow undertones. This means your skin tone is warm. If the veins appear more blue then you have blue undertones. This means your skin tone is cool.

You have neutral tone if you feel both gold and silver suit you well ! Both white and off white suit you well! or you dont really see the color of the veins threw your hands.

If you have a neutral tone, then check the skin tone behind your ears (without any self tanning), match your foundation to that tone and you are ready to go !

Mirror Mirror on the wall, what does my face say about me.

What your skin is telling you about your body

Your skin will let you know a lot about your body. Issues like  pigmentation problems, acne, puffy eyes and others are most likely the result of something deeper that is happening on the inside.Listed below are the different zones of your face and what organ they are related to. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of what exactly may be causing your skin care concerns.

Forehead (Zone 1 & 3)- This zone is related to the bladder and digestive system. If you have deep lines this could indicate a blocked colon and or gallbladder. If you are experiencing breakouts here it could indicate that you are having a few too many cocktails and your diet may be a little too rich in dairy or processed foods. Drinking more water helps! Also dandruff and unhealthy scalp can make you break out here. So an Apple Cider rinse will help.

Between eyes (Zone 2) -This zone is related to the liver. Breaking our here may indicate you have a food allergy and are consuming too many rich or fried foods.

Ears (Zone 4 & 10)- This zone is related to the kidneys. It is pretty rare to breakout on your ears but if you do you need to give your kidneys a little more TLC. You should drink more water and cut back on alcohol.

Around your eyes (Zone 6 & 8)-  If you are experiencing dark under eye circles or puffiness this can indicate you are stressed, drinking too much caffeine and you not getting enough sleep.

Cheeks (Zones 5 & 9)-This zone is related to your heart and respiratory system. If you are eating too much protein or fatty foods you may experience breakouts here. Broken and bluish capillaries could because of smoking too much.

Nose and upper lip (Zone 7)-This zone is related to the stomach and intestines. Deep lip lines may indicate that you are not properly digesting your food. If you are experiencing breakouts here you may have a food allergy.

Chin and jaw ares (Zone 11, 12,13 & 14)- If you are experiencing breakouts or pigmentation problems here is it most likely due to a hormonal imbalance.

Most of these are things we might already know, but breaking it down and co relating it to your dietary and lifestyle will help you control it better. And will have a happy Inside showing a happy Outside

Beautify Me

The holidays are here its time to bump up on the glow! Here are some of my favorite tricks to get that just before your big event.

1. My Most favorite Honey:

It barely takes a minute to rub some honey onto your face and neck, let it dry and wash it off to glowing skin. Continue with your make up routine in 10 minutes, and notice that your make up will look more flawless!

2. Yogurt and Tomato Juice:

This is a mask for dry skin with pigmentation or scars. Mix 1 teaspoon of yogurt with a little tomato juice and keep it on till it dries, wash off pat dry for smooth skin (and redness that is reduced). The skin is prepped well to keep your make up to look great. This mask can be used daily for maximum results.

3. Gram Flour and Yogurt Cleanser:

Cleanse your face with a mix of gram flour and yogurt, leave it on and wash off in 5 minutes. Gram flour cleanses from deep within while the yogurt keeps your skin moisturized. You could even add a drop of honey into it for a great glow.

Try these just before your guest arrive or before you are ready to hit the town!

Let me know what you think of these !

 

The Goodness of Turmeric

Turmeric has natural anti-bacterial and anti- septic properties that has been traditionally used in various parts of the world (India, Middle East etc) for medicinal as well as skin treatments. Being a natural liver de-toxifier it is no surprise that turmeric helps the skin as well, Of it’s many uses for the skin the main are:

1. Sooth and calm Acne

2. Help with pigmentation, Acne Scars and Age Spots.

3.It also helps suntanned skin return to its normal shade faster.

4. Continued use is said to help reduce abnormal facial hair growth!

5. Lends a glow and softens the skin

How to use it

You can apply turmeric topically on your skin or ingest it (or do both!). There are many ways to use turmeric on your skin. What I love the most is :

1) 15-minute mask with Honey, Mix turmeric powder with honey and make a thick paste. Leave it on for 15 minutes and wash off. The turmeric will sanitize your face and together with the honey give you a quick pick me up!

2) 15-minute mask with Lemon Juice, Mix turmeric powder with cucumber juice (for eye area) and  lemon juice (for acne affected areas) to make a paste. Apply to the affected area. Leave on for fifteen minutes. Rinse off. With daily use, skin pigmentation will even out.

4) Mask with Mint leaves/Orange Peel and Yogurt: Mix turmeric powder with ground orange peel or mint leaves and then add some yogurt and make a smooth paste, apply this to the scars or the whole face and let it dry, rinse off and repeat regularly ! surely you will notice some changes! ( Mint leaves are said to have great affect on Acne scars)

3) Mask or cream (with natural oils). If you have dry skin with acne or pigmentation you could opt for a turmeric infused oil mask:

Just add some turmeric powder to a natural oil of your choice in a small bottle (use a clear or see-through bottle so you can see when the mixture separates in the next step). Shake well. The oil will immediately turn an orange or a deep yellow and will look ‘cloudy’. Leave this bottle to stand overnight. The next day, the turmeric powder would have settled at the bottom and you’ll get a beautiful, clear orange oil at the top for your use.

Take a small amount of this turmeric-infused oil and rub it into your skin or face thoroughly. Leave on for at least 30 minutes (longer if you feel comfortable) and wash off.

Natural or Herbal solutions often work better than most products and are side effect free, though they do take consistent efforts over a period of time!

Caution:

Turmeric stains so make sure you have gloves on while doing the mixing to avoid stains on fingers and nails !

Also be sure to use only a pinch of turmeric or else it is difficult to wash off ! I agree that is inconvenient but worth it in the end!

GoodBye Cellulite

Dimples look good only on a few and on the right places ! Nobody wants dimpled legs or arms or butt. The winter makes us lethargic and no exercise could mean cellulite when we are ready for spring ( and being thin does not exclude you)   No ways !

Best ways to beat Cellulite?

1. Exercise

2. Exfoliate and use that loofah or body brush/ massagers on affected areas

3. Moisturize well very often

4. Use an anti Cellulite cream or gel

5. Drink up on water

I have done some research on cellulite creams and have found 2 products good to use from a price point and based on the ingredients.

 I just ordered 2 tubes of Revitol Anti Cellulite Cream and began using it for some troubled areas ! Revitol has caffeine and Retin A in its ingredients which are key to helping cell turnover and banish fat cells. They promise to help diminish uneven dimpled cellulite in 60 days ! Initial reaction to using the cream was a tingling and overall tightening feeling of the skin. I like the ingredients in this product the best and at USD 40,it is more affordable than other products in the market.  I intend to use it as advised twice a day and give you a more precise feedback then! Get a great deal here!!

Nivea Cellulite Cream:

It is much more affordable at USD 12 and so more usable on a long-term basis! It claims to visibly reduce on regular use in 4 weeks. The main ingredients are Lotus Extracts and L- Carnitine. It is available in gel and cream mode. I intend to try it if Revitol does not work for me.

What are your tried and tested ways to beat cellulite ?

Lip Service

Taking care of your lips in the winters can be tedious with constant use of lip balm and lip scrubs. But this is a necessity as chappy lips are a big no no !

Here is a home-made scrub to both exfoliate and moistruize your lips to keep them squeaky clean and baby soft !

Ingredients:

1. Brown Sugar (ground)

2. Olive Oil or Jojoba Oil

3. Honey

Method:

Mix them all well into a thick paste and use to scrub your lips. The sugar granules will exfoliate while the oils will moisturize !

Use them regularly and keep the smile on !

Sunday Shine

The whole stress of last week made me do nothing but relax this weekend. I kept away my laptop and enjoyed the two whole days of doing just what I wanted ! and of course some home-made pampering.

My most favorite home care ingredient is Honey and I add it in almost anything. And this mask intended to repair my skin. Also the tomato juice will help tackle sun or acne spots with regular use. If you don’t like mixing too many bases then skip the honey (though I wish you would try it with it)

So here is what you will need:

1. Honey 1 spoon.

2. Yoghurt 1/2 spoon

3. Tomato Juice

Mix them together and pat on your face, leave it on for 20 minutes and wash off ! before applying the mask a slight scrubbing of the face would help better the end results !

Stretch Marks Be Gone

I have started a new fitness regime and began to notice my skin begin to form faint lines. This can happen to anyone at any age, and it is best to start young and take precautions against developing stretch marks. It is said that once they form it is really difficult to get rid of it, so the best way is to keep on loading up on Moisturizer when you begin a new regime or begin to gain weight and keep them at bay.

Here is a homemade recipe I am currently using to battle the marks !

Ingredients :

1. Palmer’s Coco Butter oil

2. Bio Oil

3. Jojoba Oil

4. Vitamin E

Mix equal halves of these products and use it as lotion right after shower ! (this is the best time as the warm water would have softened your skin and it absorbs the products right away)

Has it worked, It has been only a while and you have to be patient ( sorry, no miracle cure ) but I have noticed that it is not spreading and becomes lighter with repeated use. I have been doing this for about 2 weeks now and it surely stopped the formation of these fugly marks!

Incase you are wondering about break outs, I have oily skin too and this has not caused any break outs for me but always make sure to try a small patch before following it !

So give it a try, and also be ready to embrace super soft skin as these oils moisturize your skin so much leaving it really baby soft !