Take a refreshing Orange Bath

Remember the Orange Sugar Body Scrub recipe I shared a few days back. So, what to do with the orange peels. Throw them!! No way. You can air dry and powder them, right. But, if you don't want to go through all that trouble then you can simply boil the peels in a big bowl of water and wait till the water level drops down to half. You can let it sit overnight if you wish too. Mash the orange peels nicely in the water after the water cools down. The peels breakdown very easily and release the tangy citrus scent. After you mash the peels properly, strain the water and squeeze to extract all the remaining water in the peels. You can dump the peels in your recycling dust bin or compost it in your garden. And, mix this orange water with your bath water. Take a refreshing bath. You will feel alive and your skin will glow after the bath, specially useful in summers for the refreshing citrus flavor which will hang on to your skin for sometime.

Relaxing bath and Shiny Hair with Mint leaves

So, yesterday, I very unwisely bought a lot of mint. And, today, I find lot of it had dried up. Obviously, I did not use the refrigerator for the purpose. So, as it is not usable for culinary purposes and discarding it just like that seemed too much of a waste, I decided to have a mint bath. I cleaned all the mint and dropped it in a pot of water and brought water to a boil. Then, simmered it for around an hour. The water had become all green and smelled like mint. Oh, so heavenly!! I filtered the water and poured it in my bath. Now, here is a twist. I had to wash my hair too and forgot that before pouring the mint water in my bath. But, anyways, I was not going to throw the water and I guessed mint would not really turn out to be so bad for hair. So, I had a most comfortable and relaxing bath with mint water.

And, the results? My skin is not at all dry. Even I tried the scratch method - scratched a line on my hands with my nails, it left no white line which is usually left if I take too hot a bath which I did today also despite all my advices to you to avoid it. And, my hair is so soft and shiny, I can't get my hands off my hair. I can also claim that my hair has not looked so good in a very long time.  It has become more manageable and there are no frizzes. So, go on and give it a try. You can use mint water as a hair rinse and see the results for yourself. And, of course, do not be surprised if you smell minty all day long. I am smelling minty all over, even my hair!! It feels fabulous. One more plus point is that the bath leaves you unexpectedly cool so it can be a great option on a hot summer day.

More benefits of Lemon - get rid of acne scars

I have talked about the uses of lemon sometime back. Here, I bring you more uses of lemon. And, the best one would be for people suffering from acne. So, read on to know more about how to use this beauty ingredient in your daily skin care.

• After you are done with drinking lemon water in the morning, instead of throwing the lemon rinds away, rub them on your skin. It serves as a good scrub and helps lighten the scars and blemishes. It is specially useful for acne scars.
• Cut lemon into two halves. Take a half and dip it in brown sugar. Now, scrub your elbows or knees with the lemon until sugar dissolves completely. This would remove the darkness prominent on the elbows and the knees.
• Lemon can be rubbed on rough skin spots like heels to soften them before using a pumice stone to scrub it off. 
• Put drops of lemon in your shampoo or body wash to refresh and tone your scalp and body. 
• Use lemon rinds to make a refreshing homemade face spray which will keep your skin fresh all day long even in hot summers.
• Pour lemon juice or essential oil while doing your manicure and pedicure. This would ensure clean nails. You can even rub lemon on your nails to make them appear white and clean. Make sure to follow up with moisturizer or oil on your nails to avoid drying them.
• Instead of throwing away the lemon rinds, you may boil them in water and take bath with the water. 
• If you have an oily or combination skin, using lemon regularly in your face packs would balance the oil production in your skin. It slows down aging process. 
• Use lemon juice in your pre-poo treatments if you have an oily hair.
• If you take herbal tea, squeeze lemon according to your taste in it. This would ensure you get all the benefits of lemon internally if you do not drink lemon juice in the morning.
• A great tip to clean utensils: If you do not want to use lemon rind on your face, rub them on the utensils well before washing them. This would remove all the grease and other deposits.
  

Lemon juice: drink a glass daily {Ingredient}

Today, I would be talking about the benefits of lemon juice for our body. We are all advised to drink a glass of water with lemon juice and honey mixed in it in the morning to lose weight. Right? Does it really work? Well, it did never work for me. But, I have found other benefits of doing the same. Or, probably a little different. Because, I am pretty lazy so I squeeze a half lemon into a glass of warm water and drink it. I do not bother to mix honey in it as I do not like to take much of sugar and am too lazy. And, guess what. It has done wonders for my skin and body.

Drinking lemon water in the morning has cleansed my body inside out. Lemon helps in the detoxification process of the body. And, it has helped to bring a glow in my complexion internally. Lemon has Vitamin C which is also responsible for building up collagen in our skin. Collagen is necessary to keep the skin firm and young. So, lemon is necessary to stay young. Forget Botox and surgeries. Stick to lemon and you will never really need any of them. Moreover, it is necessary to keep our digestive system in the right order and our metabolism high.

There are many other benefits of lemon juice apart from the above-stated.

• Applying lemon juice to the skin helps in lightening the blemishes and any scars or dark spots. But, do not apply lemon juice alone. Mix it with honey or any face mask and then apply.
• Lemon is good for bleaching the facial hair. Mix honey and lemon juice and apply it over the face and you would find in a month, the facial hair is no more. It actually does not go away but simply gets bleached and is not any more visible to the naked eye unless looked from very close.
• Lemon juice when applied to hair helps in curing dandruff.
• Lemon juice can be used as a last rinse to bring shine in the hair.
• If you want to lighten your hair color, apply lemon juice on your hair and go and sit in sun. The heat will help lemon bleach your hair. If you do it pretty frequently, you might even end up with blond hair color.
• Mix it in face masks. It helps bring a glow on your face by cleaning your skin right down to the pores.
• Lemon peels can be infused in hair oil to get its benefit stated above in point no. 3 and 4.
• You can grind the dried lemon peels and use it as a body scrub. They leave a refreshing scent on your body.
• Pour lemon juice into the bath water to experience a refreshing bath.

Caution: Use lemon juice externally on the body only at night. It makes your skin photosensitive (sensitive to light). Exposure to sun would be extremely harmful so use sunscreen diligently after using lemon on your skin. 

And, if you know any more uses of lemon juice, please feel free to share them. I shall be glad to know more about it.