Beauty and Personal Grooming

Besides Ayur Deep Pore Cleansing Milk and Lakme Deep pore cleanser , I’ve also used Himalaya Herbals Deep Pore Cleansing Milk . It’s a wonderful cleanser -- leaves my skin thoroughly cleansed and refreshed; what I like about it is it has the goodness of cucumber and a natural foaming agent like soapnut ( reetha ). Cucumber soothes and keeps your facial skin soft, while s oapnut penetrates deep into pores and effectively cleans excess oily secretions. It suits all skin types and is one of the must-have products of summer months.

Apart from these homemade multani mitti face pack , lemon face pack or sandalwood face pack, I also use store-bought face packs like this Orange face pack from Banjara Herbals in summers . Orange peel powder is an amazing ingredient that works wonders when used in face packs for oily and greasy skins , and this orange face pack not only has orange peel powder and many other herbs, but also contains kaolin powder which helps draw excess sebum from the pores. After a single application your skin feels tight, rejuvenated and refreshed and I’ve found that if used for several weeks, it lightens blemishes considerably. If you have the time you may also prepare your own face pack with these ingredients: 1 tsp Orange peel powder , 1 tsp Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth) / kaolin powder clay , 1 tsp honey and 1 tsp Rose water too. It’s a highly effective face mask for oily, acne-prone skin with blemishe s and in summer months. See also: How should you prepare your face for a mask ...

A collection of amazing quotes on hygiene for you to mull over: Hygiene is two thirds of health. -- Lebanese Proverb I'm a hygiene freak. I'm like obsessive-compulsive when it comes to washing your hands. -- Kelly Clarkson Keep your own house and its surroundings pure and clean. This hygiene will keep you healthy and benefit your worldly life. -- Sri Sathya Sai Baba Hygiene sometimes just isn't a priority with some people. So my public health message is basically this — bathe. -- Cristina Pasa Nine-tenths of our sickness can be prevented by right thinking plus right hygiene - nine-tenths of it! -- Henry Miller Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it -- or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it. -- Gilbert K. Chesterton It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state . -- Bruce Schneier The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of th...

It’s not just your skin that has to endure the fury of the scorching sun. Your hair is also susceptible and can get sunburnt easily. Extreme exposure to the sun results in UV rays attacking your hair cuticles with such vehemence that your locks can’t lie flat and look totally frazzled out. Hair also loses all its former smoothness, shine and luster. The moisture from the hair is also lost making it extremely dry , brittle and unmanageable. Additionally, sun rays also lighten the color of your hair in exactly the same way as if it has been chemically lightened or bleached. Severe sun exposure can even burn your scalp, leading to hair-loss in many cases. Acutely sunburnt tresses need to be chopped off , a trichologist (hair doctor) would be able to treat your severely damaged tresses and suggest suitable deep conditioning and damage-repair treatments.

Sometime back, I had purchased cold wax to remove superfluous hair from my legs. I don’t remember the brand, but certainly it wasn’t one of those stick and peel pre-coated cold wax strips. It was a container and the stuff inside it was in a semi-solid state. I had to purchase thin cotton strips separately for this purpose. (You could try Fantasea Non-Woven Facial & Body Wax Strips .) I spread out the wax on my legs with a spatula, pressed the cotton strips and pulled the hair off quickly in the opposite direction of hair-growth; it left my skin red and irritated and I must say it was horribly painful and hurt like hell. I did manage to remove all of the hair and my legs were hair-free for more than a month, but the whole process of waxing was very very painful and I resolved never to use store-bought cold wax again or for that matter wax my legs ever again. Persian Cold Wax Fantasea Non-Woven Facial & Body Wax Strips What was your experience with cold wax or cold wax stri...

* Some recent studies suggest that women with insufficient vitamin D intake during pregnancy may be at increased risk for birth by cesarean section. * Another study suggests that women who get some sun during the last trimester of pregnancy may have children with stronger bones. * Music-loving mothers-to-be may soon be able to play tunes to their unborn child, courtesy a specially designed 'baby iPod'. * A new research indicates that women with severe mental illness are more likely to have been abused in childhood that the general population. But the same association has not been found in men * It may be wise to trust the female nose when it comes to body odor. According to new research, it is more difficult to mask underarm odor when women are doing the smelling and researchers speculate that females are more attuned to sniff out biologically relevant information in sweat. * Desk jobs are increasing obesity, with many employees and employers ignorant of the risks of sitting do...

A collection of thoughts of famous personalities on inner beauty: Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. -- Martin Buxbaum Attractiveness and magnetism of man's personality is the result of his inner radiance. -- Yajurveda Youthful beauty fades with time, but, with cultivation, inner beauty grows richer -- Unknown People are like stained glass windows -- the true beauty can be seen only when there is light from within. The darker the night, the brighter the windows - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross It's [beauty] a kind of radiance. People who possess a true inner beauty, their eyes are a little brighter, their skin a little more dewy. They vibrate at a different frequency. ~ -- Cameron Diaz

(Guest post by Karuna) I happened to see the advertisements of Emami Naturally Fair Pearls Herbal Fairness Soap splashed on a leading woman’s magazine and was quite impressed with it. My skin tans horribly in summer and I would love to try a product that effectively deals with suntan and makes my skin appear fair – let me use this soap and see if it lives up to its claims. What Emami states: Based on herbal principles, Emami Naturally Fair Pearls Herbal Fairness Soap is a unique blend of rich natural extracts and real Pearl dust for imparting fairness and freshness. While it gently cleanses your skin, its natural sunscreen protects skin from harmful UV rays, promoting a fairer and vibrant complexion . Chief ingredients in Emami Naturally Fair Pearls Herbal Fairness Soap: Pearl dust, Spanish saffron, aloe vera , sandalwood , liquorice and chamomile. Emami Naturally Fair Pearls Herbal Fairness Soap P.S: If any of you have already used this soap, please do share your...

A few years back, a really bad attack of pimples had left behind a few scars on my face. At that time, I had purchased ‘No Marks Cream’. If I remember correctly, this cream had several natural ingredients such as Aloe , Damask Rose (Rosa damascena), Turmeric (Haldi) , Sandalwood (Chandan) , Tulsi (Basil) and wheat germ oil to name a few and besides doing away with scars and other blemishes , this cream’s formulation was supposed to diminish and gently fade under eye dark circles , post pimple marks, minor burn marks and stretch marks.

Ayur Herbal Deep Pore Cleansing Milk. (for all skin types) A deep pore cleansing milk to get rid of the stickiness and grime during summer months is a must for me. I always make it a point to cleanse my face with it and also with a deep pore exfoliating face wash as soon as I reach home in the evening. I’ve used this homemade cleansing milk as well as Lakme Deep pore cleanser . But most of the time I use Ayur Herbal Deep Pore Cleansing Milk and I have found that it works well for me. With a creamy texture, it has the goodness of natural herbs like organic aloevera , emollient oils and rose water and its cleansing action gently removes deep seated dirt, sebum, sweat and make-up residue, making my face appear clean and soft. Plus, it’s quite inexpensive and costs only Rs. 36/- for 100 ml. I also use this cleansing milk before applying a mask (I use multani mitti cleansing face mask in summer.) and while removing makeup .

Did you know that -- a new study has busted decades of belief that anorexia is mainly caused by social factors, after researchers have found some girls are born to be anorexic. -- pregnancy with male foetus is riskier; a new study provides scientific evidence that a male baby comes with a bigger package of associated risks than his female counterparts. -- Age-related mental decline starts in the late-20s. Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, suggest a new study. -- according to new research, mothers of multiples have 43 percent increased odds of having moderate to severe depressive symptoms nine months after giving birth compared to mothers of single-born children. -- researchers have found that certain energising sports drinks are so acidic that they can weaken the teeth after just a few mouthfuls. -- a new study suggests that adults who suffer migraine headaches are mor...

I have used Dabur Vatika many times before; it’s an excellent hair oil. ( Read review ). In addition to coconut oil as the base oil, it has several herbs in it and it nourishes the strands very well. Knowing about the goodness of amla , I even tried their Amla Hair Oil . It’s a lighter shade of dark green and has an overpowering smell, which is a bit of downside. But that’s fine with me as I always massage hair oils at night and wash my hair the very next morning. It could however mess your sheets and make your pillow case to stink, so make sure you are not using brand new or expensive ones. Other than that, it’s a good product – it’s very cooling and it did impart luster and sheen to my hair. Ingredient list: Mineral oil, veg.oil (sesame oil, canola oil, peanut oil, cottonsead oil, palmolein oil, oil extract of amla (indian gooseberry), colours & perfume and antioxidant. Dabur Amla Hair Oil