Beauty and Personal Grooming

We all have heard of that one before. Napping for around 15-20 minutes at noon-time can actually refresh us and help us concentrate better on the tasks in hand. Yes, you do love taking that short nap, but you are afraid that you might end up tossing and turning on bed and counting sheep at night.

Cleansing occupies an important place in dry skin care. Read all about skin care rituals and dry skin care . Then go through this simple recipe for preparing cleansing milk for dry skin. Ingredients: Oat meal 2 tsp Yoghurt (curds) – 4 tsp Sodium benzoate 1 tsp Method: Mix yoghurt and oat meal in a bowl and blend well. After 5 minutes, add sodium benzoate. Then soak a cotton ball in this cleansing milk and massage it gently on your face. After 1-2 minutes, you can remove it by wiping it off with another cotton ball soaked in warm water. Then rinse off with cold water. If you need to scrub off dead skin, you can use these facial scrubs . Also see the recipes for another Home-made cleansing milk, astringent and toner

You might be lucky enough to possess strong, healthy nails. But it is imperative that you keep them that way. While some women clean the utensils with their bare hands and try to remove the ingrained dirt sticking on to them by scratching with their nails, still others use their nails as screw drivers, brush, a tin opener or as a gardening shovel. Likewise, many do not think twice before immersing their fingers in harsh detergent solutions and other chemicals. All these activities can make the otherwise healthy nails to become brittle and lose their natural luster. Remember these points: * Nails should not be kept too long that there is a possibility of their breaking nor should they be cut too short so that they expose the nail bed. * Always use a mild soap or a hand wash while cleaning your hands. * Do not forget to wear gloves while attending to household chores like washing, cleaning or gardening. * Avoid direct contact with harsh detergents and other soap solutions. *

If you prefer steaming your face to open up the pores before the application of a mask , then consider using the leaves of Tulsi or Holy Basil in the water. From ancient times women have used this wonder herb for beautifying themselves. As it has antiseptic and antibacterial properties, it is marvelous for the skin. Its efficacy in curing various skin diseases is also quite well known. Here’s how you can use Tulsi as a beauty aid . Steaming your face with Tulsi water flushes out the dirt and toxins, leaving the skin soft and glowing. Also works wonders on acne-prone skin and other blemishes . The method : Take some water. Squeeze half a lemon into it. Now add a fistful of Tulsi leaves, a handful of mint (pudina) leaves and boil it. Remove from heat when it starts emitting steam. Secure your hair with a band, take a thick towel over your head and bend over the vessel with your eyes closed so that your face is fully exposed to the steam emanating from the water. Take the st

Just as clothes retain the pungent odor of perspiration so does the hair. Our hot tropical climate aggravates the problem. Oily and combination hair tend to be more affected by this. Frequent shampooing is the only solution during such times. But when you are in hurry and when it is just not possible to wash your hair, then you will have to look out for some quick solution to get rid of the greasiness from your scalp and avoid a bad hair day. Here’s one such method to make the hair not only look less greasy but also appear dense and full-bodied .

Before you embark on a rigorous exercise regimen, you are normally advised to follow certain pre-exercising instructions scrupulously. One of these instructions stresses upon doing stretching exercises and light warm-ups before the actual strenuous work-outs. The idea is to flex your body with such light exercises before going in for the big one. And while terminating your session, you have to stretch all over again. This is also supposed to prevent stiffness and soreness or any injury during exercises. But recent studies have shown that stretching before or after exercise has little or no effect on muscle soreness in young healthy adults. The researchers do, however, believe that there is a need to see whether stretching can have an effect on people in the community who have reduced levels of flexibility . Related reading: Exercising errors

Whether your skin is oily or dry you need to exfoliate it once in a while to get rid of dead cells. Harsh abrasive scrubs are not suitable for extremely flaky, dry skins. Dry skins need mild scrubs such as these. The presence of yoghurt in these scrubs makes them gentle and less coarse on dry skins. Use them once in two weeks (a month if your skin is too dry) and watch your face glow . # Scrub 1 Ingredients: Dry Orange peel powder 1 tsp Dry Lemon peel powder 1 tsp Yoghurt (curds) 2 tbsp Method: Mix the dried peel powders and add yoghurt to it. Blend well. Gently massage it onto you skin or 2 minutes. Leave on for 5 minutes and then wash off. # Scrub 2 Ingredients: Oat meal powder 1 tsp Yoghurt 2 tsp Method: Blend the two ingredients and massage the paste onto your face. Keep it on for 5 minutes and then wash off with cold water. See also: Face packs for dry skin Exfoliating masks Fix your dull and tired skin with masks and complexion scrubs Pic

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. As we all know, besides cervical cancer, cancer of the breast is one of the main forms of cancer that is particularly known to affect women, and if detected earlier on there is a 98% survival rate. The only way you can detect the cancer in its initial stages is by doing a regular breast self examination or BSE. BSE is a woman’s first line of defense against breast cancer, and all women above 20 should do a monthly BSE to check for lumps. Don’t be under the impression that an annual examination from your family doctor is sufficient; cancerous lumps can develop slowly undetected over a period of time. And when the time comes for the next annual checkup it might be too late. So realize the importance of BSE and act now. Don’t know how to self-examine? Then hop on to this site . Pic credits:fotosearch.com

Celebrating the victory of good over evil on Vijaya Dashami. Happy Dussehra/Dasara to all of you.

We all have faced this problem of corns and calluses at some point of time or the other. During such times, we find it uneasy to stand properly or walk gracefully. As a result we tend to shuffle our feet too often and this attracts people’s attention to the sorry state of our feet though encased in beautiful footwear. This does not augur well for us and makes us cut a sorry figure in public. A woman with such problem feet can never look beautiful and graceful. So it is imperative that she attends to it at the earliest. How are these corns formed? Often these corns are formed as a result of wearing ill-fitting and inappropriate footwear. Corns are made of hard dead skin and they emerge as a protection against friction or pressure. They are easily recognized by the raised central core and red cuticles. Corns are generally small and are formed on the toes, while calluses are bigger and generally develop on the soles of the feet and sometimes on the palms. These may or may

Do you feel that earwax buildup is dangerous? Are you thinking of getting rid of it with hazardous methods like ear candling or ear coning ? Don’t. Research shows that ear candling is not at all effective in removing ear wax and might even lead to wax being pushed deeper into the ear canal. It can also lead to deposits of wax inside ear canal, cause burns to the face, hair, scalp, ear canal, eardrum and middle ear and may also puncture of the eardrum.

Burning incense and candles for long has been a part of religious ceremonies and rituals in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and other major religions of the world. The pleasant aroma emanating from the smoldering incense sticks might send you into a state of ecstasy and trigger the spiritual mood in you but did you know that it causes the release of some harmful pollutants that is hazardous to your health? According to a study in Taiwan , burning incense exposes people to dangerous levels of smoke laden with cancer-causing chemicals. Levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) called benzopyrene, which is thought to cause lung cancer in smokers, was found in very high quantities inside a badly ventilated temple in Taiwan .    BBC Health reports from the findings of the researchers at Maastricht University , Netherlands : Respiratory health is increasingly at risk from so-called "indoor pollution" in the home, workplace and other enclosed spaces. Church air, wi

To freshen up your face after a hot, humid day and cleanse it thoroughly, you need to apply a cleansing cream. A simple recipe for preparing an herbal cleansing cream is mentioned in that post. A still simpler, convenient and an inexpensive way to feel fresh and rid your face of all the gunk and grime is to wash it with this homemade face wash which is prepared with most of the ingredients from your kitchen pantry. Trust me, the fresh, clean feeling that you get after using this is akin to or even better than some of those expensive, over-hyped creams. Given below is another recipe for preparing your own cleansing cream. Lanolin Cleansing Cream Ingredients: 2 tablespoons of Vaseline (petroleum jelly) 1 tablespoon lanolin 5 tablespoon olive oil 3 tablespoon vegetable oil (preferably coconut oil) ½ cup distilled water (around 20-30 tbsp) Method: Melt lanolin and oil using the double boiling method . Boil distilled water and add this hot water slowly stirring contin

October 10 is observed as World Mental Health Day. As we look around us, we see that mental disorders, stress and depression are on the rise; these are the by-products of modern living and a fast-paced lifestyle. There is a plethora of information available everywhere on how to manage stress and achieve better mental health. Don’t let this information overload to confuse you. You have to figure out for yourself what works best for you, there is no single right way of coping with a given situation or beating the blues.

A woman, who is normally calm and courteous, shows a marked change in her behavior on certain days of the month. If she is the extrovert and outgoing type, she may become unduly rude and quarrelsome, make unreasonable demands, snap at family members, and find fault with people for minor reasons she would have otherwise overlooked. And if she is the shy and introvert type, then she may become totally withdrawn, morose, moody and prone to unaccountable tears, take offense where none was intended and harbor suicidal thoughts. No, she is not suffering from hysteria or any serious psychiatric disorder. She is in the throes of ‘that misery time’ trauma called PMS.

Oily or greasy skin is easily recognizable. The shiny nose and forehead, enlarged pores, blackheads and a tendency to break out into zits – these are its characteristics. And within an hour or two of cleansing, this type of skin is back to its old self and starts looking greasy again. You cannot change the skin type that you are born with, but you can learn to manage it effectively. Read this post on Oily skin care . Generally, people with oily skin have oily hair too. So they have this added burden of managing greasy hair too. And taking care of oily, greasy hair can be quite cumbersome. So if you have greasy, unmanageable hair, read through that post. If your weekly skin care routine includes an application of face masks and packs, then choose the ones meant for oily skin. Here are some masks for oily skin . For a change, you can try using this mask made from fruit juices. Fruit juices work wonders on your skin. Ingredients: Sugar cane juice 1 cup Ora

The versatile Vaseline or petroleum jelly is well-known not just for soothing chapped lips or it’s supposed claims of lengthening eyelashes but has a variety of other useful and fun-filled applications as well. A reader, Shubha has sent this interesting tip of using Vaseline on the nose. (Thanks Shubha.) If you are doing work in a dusty or smoky environment, applying a little petroleum jelly up your nose will prevent you from inhaling offensive particles. Try this and see if it works for you. Pic credits: amazon.com

A beautiful smile lights up the face instantly. No doubt about it. A few decades ago seeking resource to cosmetic dentistry for improving a smile and for aesthetic purposes was unthinkable to the common man. Not any more. New technology has made cosmetic dentistry more popular than ever, where dentists transform smiles using the latest expertise. These techniques are confidence boosters, are hassle-free and most importantly very affordable, you don’t have to shell out a king’s ransom for a megawatt grin. Nor do you have to bear uncharitable remarks from others about your discolored, crooked or buck teeth or a smile which shows prominent gums, for all this is correctable.