Vitamin E for glow {Reader's Tips}

This is an amazing tip which I am definitely going to try.

Take a Vitamin E capsule, puncture it, and add to a dollop of your daily cream before applying on your skin. It really gives the skin a glow.

Do join my giveaway here. 

And, read more Reader's Tips here. 

Image Courtesy:bbc.co.uk

Top 5 DIY Ingredients for Brides {Bridal Files}

[Source: Google Images]

So, as I said that I would be doing some posts on bridal series, the first and foremost request is always how to brighten the complexion.I am listing down 5 of the ingredients which can help a bride achieve the most wanted glow.

• Tomato: Rub a slice of tomato on your face and neck. Let the juice dry on the skin and wash off with cold water. Tomato is great for removing the skin tan and also suits all skin types a sit is comparatively less acidic than lemon. And, it also makes hair shiny.

• Honey: A thick honey mask helps to keep the skin supple and moisturized always. It can be used every day too and helps with all skin types. Honey is also a great cleanser.

• Almond Oil: As Punam commented on earlier post, dark circles and puffy eyes are a common occurrence when one spends their nights talking to the fiancées, almond oil comes to rescue. Apply almond oil on the eye area while going to bed. It helps with the dark circles and also with wrinkles which might be developing there.

• Sugar: Sugar is the most amazing and cheapest scrub you can ever find and this is my most favorite DIY till date. Sugar has glycolic acid in some measure (depending on how much it has been been processed) and thus cleanses and exfoliates the skin thoroughly and makes it glow. And, you can add your favorite ingredients to it.

• Spices: A mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves did wonders to my skin. It clears the skin and also helps deal with acne and pimples in the long run. It should be used on alternate days for best results.

These are some of my favorite DIY's with outstanding results so hope you will enjoy them :) And, do remember to treat your neck as part of your face otherwise it can betray your age!!

Sweet Potato facial and eye mask

Sweet Potatoes have amazing anti-aging benefits. It is rich in fiber, beta-carotene (vitamin A equivalent which fights free radicals int he body) and vitamin C, iron apart from vitamin B6, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc. It is one of the most nutritious foods available and can prevent wrinkles. The darker the potato, richer is it in its carotene content. It is also anti-diabetic.But, this definitely does not mean that you sit and feed on sweet potatoes. Reason being excess of carotene in your body can cause yellowish color deposits on your skin. This is nothing harmful but definitely embarrassing.

Sweet Potato Beauty Recipes

• Boil sweet potatoes. Let them cool and mash them. Add a dollop of honey. And, spread over your face. Do not forget the eye area. Let it stay for 20-30 minutes and wash off. You can also add other fruits and veggies you prefer.
• Instead of throwing the boiled water, soak your feet in it. It will do wonders for your feet. 
• Cut slices of sweet potato and place them on your eyes. It will rejuvenate your eyes and help with dark circles and wrinkles.

Go ahead and share some of your own.

How to avoid wrinkles during sleep?

Don't we all love to sleep like Garfield????

A wrong sleeping posture has been attributed to the increasing premature wrinkles on our faces. This is for people who do not sleep flat on their backs. And, if I am not wrong, many of us actually fall under this category. Many people do not feel comfortable and get deep sleep if they sleep flat on their backs and since childhood, we get used to sleeping on our sides and on our stomachs. Personally, I feel there is nothing wrong with that but it is certainly true that sleeping in those postures creates folds on the skin which on a prolonged time develop into fine lines and then deep crevices in the skin. So, if you want to avoid that happening to your face, you should practice sleeping straight on your back. Or, you can find various other home remedies to get rid of wrinkles here.

Well, I am not very sure I would ever be able to follow this advice. So, I started searching out for alternatives. The simplest answer which I thought was to apply a little on oil around the eye area to prevent the skin from wrinkling. Yes, it is as simple as that. You can take a drop or two of coconut oil, castor oil, almond oil or vitamin E oil straight from the capsule and massage it gently into the skin around the eyes and also on your lashes. Take care not to let the oil enter your eyes. This way, you skin remains moisturized around the eyes and does not get wrinkles. And, applying the oils like coconut, castor, vitamin E and almond also makes sure that the already fine lines go away. And, the added benefit of massaging the eyelashes with oils is that it ensures better growth of eyelashes. Just remember to wash your hands properly before applying the oil. You can substitute the oils with any natural body butter you have. Shea or Cocoa butter will also do a good job. And, you can also go for milk cream or white butter which is the perfect home remedy for removing the tan and darkening around the eyes due to exposure to sun. But, sleeping on your back still remains the best way to keep the wrinkles at bay.

Eye Masks Recipes

We have so many masks for face and hair. So, why not have one for eyes which takes care of all the problems of eyes like dark circles, wrinkles and puffy eyes and cleans the eye area gently. 

Recipes:

• For Wrinkles: 1 Egg white, 1/2 tablespoon honey, 1 capsule Vitamin E oil / 1 tablespoon pure coconut oil
• For Dark Circles: 1 tablespoon spinach and lettuce juice, 1 tablespoon mint juice
• For Dark Circles: 1 tablespoon carrot juice, 1 tablespoon tomato juice, 1 tablespoon cucumber juice 
• For Puffy Eyes: 1 tablespoon raw potato juice, 1/2 teaspoon honey
• For Puffy Eyes: 1 tablespoon raw potato juice, 1 tablespoon cucumber juice

How to apply?

• You can either apply the mask directly to the skin around the eyes and on the eyelids with the cotton pad and stay at one place without moving a muscle on face till the mask dries off. Keep your eyes closed.
• Or, you can take a huge cotton pad and saturate it with the mask and put it on your eyes for around 20-30 minutes. Take a big size of cotton pad so that it covers your complete eye area. Stretch the cotton pad nicely on your eyes contours.
• A tip: When treating yourself of puffy eyes, you can dip the cotton pad in the mask and keep them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. After that, you can put it on your eyes. This would make the cotton pad act as a cold compress.
• Do not, under any condition, apply anything mildly acidic on the skin around the eyes. 

Downward dog position for dark circles

Downward Dog position is one of the important and easiest yoga postures and carries a multitude of health benefits. It helps stretching your spine so relieves you of painful backaches in the long run. It calms your mind and improves your concentration. It relieves headaches, indigestion, stress, insomnia and strengthens arms and legs. It is also good for high blood pressure and asthma patients. But, apart from all the health benefits, there are a lot of beauty benefits which can be derived if one practices this yoga position everyday. Let us look at the beauty benefits. Check out here for a step by step instruction on how to perform the downward dog position.

• It uplifts the face and firms the skin giving it a natural glow as all the blood flows to the face when you are bent down in the downward position.
• Since there is more blood flow towards the eyes, your eyes look more bright and alive. 
• It is a perfect cure for dark circles and puffy eyes.
• There's more blood flow towards the scalp too which helps in providing nutrition to the hair follicles and promotes hair growth. 
• Double chin disappears in gradual time and the neck firms up.
• The skin tone and color improves and the discoloration disappears leaving an even color all over the face and neck.

So, start doing this yoga position everyday for 10 times holding each position for 1-2 minutes approx and see the difference in a few days. The best part of this position is that it also helps in weight control all over the body.

Eye Care: Home Remedies

Last time, I talked about eye care. Today, I would like to talk to you about some home remedies which can help us combat problems like dark circles, puffy eyes and wrinkles. 

Dark Circles. 

• Place chilled slices of cucumber or Apple on your eyes and relax for 10-15 minutes. Do this daily and you will see results in a week or two.
• Apply chilled tea bags or cotton balls to your eyes. They also work in same way.
• Place chilled inverted tea spoons on your eyes.
• Saturate cotton balls with chilled milk and place them on your eyes. Milk provides relief to your eyes, helps in lightening the color and cleanses the eye area gently.
• Apply herbal tea (green tea preferably) on your eye area with cotton balls. This would also clean your eyes. 

Puffy Eyes.

• Apply warm tea bags on your eyes.
• Put a slice of freshly cut fig on your eye bags and see them disappear magically.
• Slice of potato also works beautifully on puffy eyes.
• Cold compresses are good.

Wrinkles.

• Put a thin layer of egg white under your eyes to remove the wrinkles.
• Pure castor oil prevents formation of wrinkles.
• Massage pure coconut oil gently on the area having wrinkles at bed time.
• Mix turmeric with sugarcane juice and apply to prevent wrinkles and slow aging.
• Rub a slice of pineapple or green apple on your wrinkles. 
• Mix lemon juice with honey and apply several times a day to fade away wrinkles.

Other home remedies.

• Long eyelashes look gorgeous for any kind of eyes. They lend your eyes a grace and elegance. Try this to grow long eyelashes. 
• Beautify your eyes with these exercises. 
• Never forget sunscreen.  
• Cleaning your eyes is very important. Use honey to clean your eyes.

Eyes: Take Care of them to look young

In the anti-aging series till now, I have talked about the importance of sunscreen to fight early aging and the notion of aging prevalent among us. Today, I would like to talk about Eyes. As we all know, they are among the first parts of our body to betray our age, if not given proper attention. Eyes give us a lot of trouble like dark circles, puffy eyes, wrinkles, crows feet and what not and make our life miserable. So, we will discuss about how to go on tackling them and achieve beautiful and bright eyes. You may have tried products on products to get rid of these problems but I am sure not many of you might have really found anything satisfying.

Dark Circles. The skin around the eyes is very thin. And, it has lots of blood vessels underneath which gives the skin around the eyes a naturally darker look. This darkness can be enhanced by factors like improper sleep or sleeping positions, dryness in the skin, heredity and many more. 

• I have stressed so much on the importance of drinking water or proper sleep. Start doing it today and experience some betterment in a week. 
• While sleeping, keep your head at a higher elevation so that the blood circulation is less in the face. This way, there may be a color lightening around the eyes.
• Always splash your eyes nicely with cold water before sleeping and after waking up. This relaxes your eyes.
• For those people who have dark circles due to hereditary factors, you can follow these steps but a permanent solution is not guaranteed.

Puffy Eyes. They are caused by excess water content around the eye areas. To reduce that, again I would advise you to sleep with head at a higher elevation. Now, you can reduce puffy eyes by taking care of your diet too.

• Do not take excess of fluids at night, even water. Keep it to bare minimum.
• Reduce the salt intake. Excess of salt in the body means increased capacity of retaining water. So, try to keep your salt intake to a minimum and try to reduce it everyday. Do not worry about the taste of food. It takes your taste buds only 15 days to get adapted to the new taste.
• Reduce intake of sugar too.

Wrinkles. These are caused by dryness around the eyes or due to excess exposure to sun. They can also be taken care of through diet. You need a lot anti-oxidants in your body to fight the wrinkle causing free radicals. 

• Eat lots of green leafy vegetables, beans, olive oil, nuts and whole-grain bread.
• Reduce the intake of meat and processed foods.
• Also, reduce the intake of sugar. It is one of the causes of puffy eyes and pimples too.
• Always go in sun wearing a sunscreen with an SPF of 15-30. Reapply every 2 hours.
• Sleep on your back to avoid wrinkles. Sleeping on your sides puts pressure on your skin and creates wrinkles. Try a conscious effort to sleep on your back. I know it can be difficult for people who are used to curling up. But, its worth an effort.
• If you do not wear glasses, get a pair of sun glasses with UV protection. They should have side covering too. This would prevent the entry of UV radiation anywhere near your eyes.
• Do not squint. They are also causes of wrinkles.
• Apply moisturizer on sunscreen on your eye area with your ring finger in a quick gentle sweep. Do not massage.
• If you feel that having wrinkles is not bad, try stretching your skin to make them wrinkle free and have a look at your face. You do look younger. This would be your motivation to follow all the above mentioned points. 

An Apple a day keeps you glowing all day

Today, I am going to discuss with you the benefits of Apple on our skin and the various face masks you can make with the use of it. Let us see the various benefits of Apple.

• Cleans the bowels
• Chew an Apple after your meal for pearly white teeth
• Regular intake of Apple reduces wrinkles and fine lines
• Is a great anti-aging mask because of the high content of anti-oxidants
• Place slices of Apple under your eyes to reduce dark circles or puffy eyes
• Mash a quarter of an apple with milk cream and apply on your face to remove blemishes and dark spots. It is a great remedy for acne.
• Cut a slice of an apple and apply the juice on your face until the slice dries up. It balances the oil production in your body and is a great hydrating mask.
• Apple provides relief from acne and sunburn due to its cooling properties. Place a slice of Apple in fridge for an hour or so and then, apply on sun-burnt skin or acne prone skin to get relief.
• Apple not only provides hydration to the skin, but, also cleanses our skin. So, you can use Apple as an exfoliant too.
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  Mix a grated apple with honey and apply on your face for five minutes for a hydrated, stress free skin.
  

Read here to know about various health benefits and other information about Apple.