Happy Feet during monsoon

Follow these simple pointers during the rains to keep your feet looking great. happy feet

* Get regular pedicures and keep your toenails trimmed. Also cut your toe-nails straight across and not the corners to prevent ingrown nails. Once in a week, you should also clean the insides of your nails with an orange stick dipped in hydrogen-peroxide to ward off nail infections.
* Paint your toenails bright, happy colours.
* Steer clear of leather footwear. They become soggy when wet, and are not suitable for monsoons. But perchance if you were wearing leather footwear during an unexpected shower, here's what you should do with your leather sandals.
* Say goodbye to closed footwear and start wearing open footwear, it'll allow your feet to dry quickly and let your toes breathe. Flip flops let your feet breathe and help that moisture evaporate in no time.
* Before wearing your shoes or sandals, clean them thoroughly with a dry cloth. This helps remove any fungal growth or moulds in your wet sandals.
* Statistics indicate that Indian women mostly use worn out, old fashioned footwear during monsoons, so as to not ruin their favourite pairs splashing through puddles or wading through muddy water. But you need not worry as nowadays a wide range of chic, classy and fashionable monsoon footwear available in waterproof materials these days. Colorful, flashy footwear in bright shades look great this season. So it's time to discard those old-fashioned rainy shoes and start wearing shoes that are both seasonally suitable and fashionably funky!
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Fungal infection in the toes are quite common these days. If you've waded through rainwater, wash your feet with antiseptic soap like Dettol and then apply an anti-fungal powder between your toes to avoid infection. If time permits, you can pamper your legs a bit by soaking them in warm water to which savlon/Dettol and peppermint oil is added. After 10-15 minutes, wash your feet and towel-dry them. Sprinkle anti-fungal powder/talcum powder to which camphor powder is added . And then relax them up on a stool or centre table for 5 minutes to encourage the blood circulation.
(Guest post by Smitha)

The ache of acne (pimples)

Acne is often the bane of a pretty face. It is painful more emotionally than physically, for the scar that it leaves behind can last for a lifetime, adding to one’s miserable look & feeling. No doubt many expensive skin care clinics have mushroomed in ever nook & corner, offering to clear all the scars & blemishes on the face, but they are very expensive & charge exorbitant price for each sitting; not everyone can afford them. So why not try out this simple skin care regimen to minimize the damage caused by acne & as far as possible prevent its eruption.

Natural remedies for dark circles around your eyes

Dark circles around your eyes. How unsightly they look and even your best dress and layers of make-up sometimes does not quite succeed in concealing them! Blame it on your genes or your lifestyle, but, you cannot deny the fact that these are a blot on your beauty . And they become more prominent as you age. Let’s just debunk some of the myths as well as unearth some of the facts about the causes of these ‘ panda eyes ’. Dark circles under eyes usually are temporary and not a medical concern. You may be surprised to learn that fatigue usually isn't the cause of dark circles. Instead, the most common cause is nasal congestion. When your nose is congested, veins that usually drain from your eyes into your nose become widened (dilated) and darker.

Beating stress – some tips

It is very difficult to come across a happy, contented face in a crowd these days. Stress has become a way of life with people these days. Sure, we all need to be a little tense once in a blue moon. After all it acts as a positive force and helps us get things done. But when tension becomes a habit with us and we are unable to cope up with it, we say we are undergoing stress. Some people are simply born more tense than others. Children of over-anxious parents generally grow up to be more anxious than the others.

Home remedies for common cold

Common cold is a very common malady which affects people during monsoons. (Also see the post Beauty and body care in monsoon for a monsoon beauty regimen.) It can be caused by any one of more than 200 viruses. Normally it is confined to the nose and throat although the virus can infect the larynx and lungs. It is said that there is no particular cure for colds, they are naturally relieved within a week. Treatment is just an attempt to relieve its symptoms such as headache, stuffy nose, sore-throat and congestion. Paracetamol tablets are generally taken to get relief from these symptoms.

Home remedies for sore throat

Sore throat is a common malady that each one of us faces sometime or the other in our lifetime. That scratchy, dry and abrasively painful feeling at the back of the throat that you experience is so very discomforting! There are many ways to relieve that scratchy and painful, infected throat. Sore throat home remedies are many and varied and range from the folk ones to the medically tested and proven ones. With this common recurring condition many sufferers have their own favourite sore throat treatments that seem to work for them. Sore throat is one of the ailments which responds very well to home based remedies, so there is no reason why one should hesitate to try out these invaluable tips which have been handed over to us by generations of yore. After all these remedies have negligible side-effects and so there is no harm in trying them. And you can always rush to a doctor if they don’t work for you.