Beauty and Personal Grooming: 2007-11-11

Facial scrubs for oily skin

One of the things recommended by cosmetologists to keep your skin looking young is periodic exfoliation. Using scrubs to mildly exfoliate the upper layer of the skin of dead cells works quite well to improve the texture of the skin. Dead skin buildup over a period of time often results in a patchy looking skin. Scrubbing will help to even out such skin discoloration, to some extent. Oily skin needs more scrubbing than other skin types. However, do not use harsh, abrasive ones and don’t scrub your skin too vigorously. Here are some excellent homemade facial scrub recipes for oily skins. A tired, sluggish face will brighten up instantly after using these.

Carrot scrub

Ingredients:

Grated carrot – 2 tsp
Lime juice – 1 tsp
Honey – ½ tsp
Brewer’s yeast – 1 tsp
Almond oil – ½ tsp

Method:

Mix all the ingredients well and apply all over your face, leaving the under eye area and the area around the mouth and massage gently with your fingers in circular motions. Leave on for 7-10 minutes and wash off with cold water. Do not use this if you have acne/pimples. If your skin is extremely oily, skip using almond oil in the recipe.

Green gram (Moong dal) scrub

Ingredients:

1 tablespoons green gram powder
1 tablespoons besan (chickpea flour)
1 teaspoon sandalwood powder

Method:

Combine all the ingredients. Mix it with a little milk cream (malai)/olive oil/almond oil and gently scrub over your facial skin avoiding the area under the eyes. Leave it on for 7 minutes and wash off.

Home remedies for painful menstruation

Some pain and discomfort during menstruation is quite common and natural. But excessive bleeding, unbearable painful cramps, intense pain in the abdomen, backaches, extreme mood swings etc. – all these don’t seem so normal. In medical parlance, this is called as dysmenorrhea. If you are in the throes of such extremely severe symptoms during those days of the month, and home self-care measures don’t work for you then you should seriously think of consulting a gynecologist.

Normally, everyone experiences some uneasiness and pain on the first day which gradually subsides as the flow reduces. You may try some of these measures to ease your discomfort.

* Practice the yoga poses mentioned in Home remedies for PMS regularly or at least a week before the commencement of your periods. However, stop any kind of strenuous exercise during menstruation. Also rest yourself at proper intervals and stay away from all kinds of stressful and arduous activities.

* Include more of drumstick, bitter gourd, beetroot, green veggies in your diet. Avoid foods with a high glycemic index and meat.

* Aloe-vera is a highly valued herb in Ayurveda and very effective in treating all kinds of menstrual problems. Intake of aloe juice or aloe-gel before and during the periods will go a long way in alleviating all kinds of pains and symptoms.

* Asafetida (Hing) is another condiment from the kitchen which you can count upon. Fry asafetida in a little ghee and take this paste thrice daily. For a bloated feeling in the abdomen, you can have a glass of buttermilk mixed with a pinch of asafetida.

* Or you could boil a few pods of garlic in a cup of water and take this water three times a day.

* ½ a teaspoonful of bruised or crushed sesame (gingelly) (til) seeds with hot water twice a day also eases your pain.

* Take 8-10 leaves of neem and grind it into a fine paste with ginger juice and have this during your periods. This can provide some relief. A decoction prepared from the leaves of lemon grass leaves, taken twice a day is also quite effective.

* Also try some of the remedies mentioned in the post Home remedies for excessive and heavy bleeding, especially the one in which you are advised to sleep with your legs slightly raised by a pillow.

When exercise can be harmful

Exercise is great. It’s good for your physical, mental as well as your emotional well-being. But exercising outdoors is not as healthy and as safe as it used to – especially in cities where pollution is rampant. Recently it was mentioned in the Daily Mail that air pollution caused by diesel exhaust fumes could cause heart attacks and strokes. So experts have advised people with known heart conditions to exercise away from traffic, to be on the safer side.

People living in cities with high pollution levels should be extra cautious about exercising outdoors as the possible damage to health far outweighs the benefits from exercise. Air quality is something which everyone should be concerned about. Don’t assume that all this advice is meant for only sensitive persons and those with asthma, heart disease, dust-allergy and other lung problems. Breathing dirty air can affect anyone, says the American Lung Association (ALA). The American Council on Exercise (ACE), recommends avoiding Strenuous Outdoor Exercise in Unhealthy Air Quality. It further elucidates, “During exercise, where mouth breathing plays an important role, the body’s normal air filtration process is much less efficient, and more pollutants reach the lungs. These pollutants may interfere with the body’s ability to carry oxygen, forcing the heart to pump harder, irritate the eyes, constrict air passages and lower the body’s resistance upper respiratory illness and colds.”

So, exercisers should pay heed to air quality reports and should refrain from exercising when pollution is at a “dismally high” level.” There is a standard system to determine the levels of pollution called as Air Quality Index (AQI) with a range from 0 to 500; 0-50, being the safest and 301-500, being the most hazardous level.

The guidelines outlined by ALA:

* Plan your activities and exercise sessions when the smog levels are low, that is when AQI is low and learn to protect yourself and your dear ones from the untoward effects of air pollution. Get to know about AQI levels from your local newspaper, TV news or the internet.

* Avoid roadways frequented by heavy traffic. Running on such roads is equivalent to inhaling carbon monoxide from a packet of cigarettes a day. And maintain a distance of at least 30 feet from moving cars and exhaust fumes they release.

* Stop exercising immediately if you detect any sign of chest constriction, coughing or wheezing.

Home remedies for crow's feet

One fine morning, when you casually glance at your face in the mirror, you happen to see tiny wrinkles and fine lines forming at the outer corner of your eyes called crow’s feet and this can disturb you tremendously. Ageing and excessive dryness around the eye area need not necessarily be the only factors responsible for the formation of these crow’s feet. When you are expressing yourself with the eyes by smiling, the corner of the eyes wrinkle up character lines and over time they are etched permanently. Also, if most of the time you are out in the bright sun without protecting your eyes with suitable eyegear, chances are that you will be squinting. This repeated action also eventually causes crow’s feet. And these lines become more prominent when you laugh or grimace. Eyes, being the most expressive parts of the face and ‘windows to the soul’ are the first to be noticed by people. And getting dark circles or having premature wrinkles and crow’s feet around the eye area robs your eyes of a youthful appearance which in turn can damage your self-esteem.

Remedies suggested:

* Always wear sunglasses to avoid squinting and grimacing in the hot sun, thereby helping to prevent wrinkle formation in the delicate eye-area, and don’t forget to apply your sunscreen to that area too.

* Consider applying olive oil, almond oil or petroleum jelly gently on crow’s feet. Do not rub or tug your under eye skin, though.

* Application of papaya juice around that area for around 10-15 minutes will hydrate it; the ‘papain’ in it will slough off the dead cells and helps to prevent the formation of under eye wrinkles.

* You may also use this homemade eye cream around your under eye area regularly.

* Once in a week you might also consider applying egg-white around the crow-feet area, using a clean cotton ball. See it to it that it does not get into your eyes. Let it dry. However, don’t keep it on for more than 10-15 minutes and slowly remove it with another cotton ball soaked in warm water. Then wash it off completely, but gently, from your face. It will temporarily tighten your under eye skin and flatten the appearance of wrinkles.

* If the crow’s feet and wrinkles are deeply etched, there’s little you can do with home-remedies. You might then consider seeking recourse to botox as the last resort, that is, if you can afford it.