Beauty and Personal Grooming

We all have heard of that one before. Napping for around 15-20 minutes at noon-time can actually refresh us and help us concentrate better on the tasks in hand. Yes, you do love taking that short nap, but you are afraid that you might end up tossing and turning on bed and counting sheep at night.

Cleansing occupies an important place in dry skin care. Read all about skin care rituals and dry skin care . Then go through this simple recipe for preparing cleansing milk for dry skin. Ingredients: Oat meal 2 tsp Yoghurt (curds) – 4 tsp Sodium benzoate 1 tsp Method: Mix yoghurt and oat meal in a bowl and blend well. After 5 minutes, add sodium benzoate. Then soak a cotton ball in this cleansing milk and massage it gently on your face. After 1-2 minutes, you can remove it by wiping it off with another cotton ball soaked in warm water. Then rinse off with cold water. If you need to scrub off dead skin, you can use these facial scrubs . Also see the recipes for another Home-made cleansing milk, astringent and toner

You might be lucky enough to possess strong, healthy nails. But it is imperative that you keep them that way. While some women clean the utensils with their bare hands and try to remove the ingrained dirt sticking on to them by scratching with their nails, still others use their nails as screw drivers, brush, a tin opener or as a gardening shovel. Likewise, many do not think twice before immersing their fingers in harsh detergent solutions and other chemicals. All these activities can make the otherwise healthy nails to become brittle and lose their natural luster. Remember these points: * Nails should not be kept too long that there is a possibility of their breaking nor should they be cut too short so that they expose the nail bed. * Always use a mild soap or a hand wash while cleaning your hands. * Do not forget to wear gloves while attending to household chores like washing, cleaning or gardening. * Avoid direct contact with harsh detergents and other soap solutions. *...

If you prefer steaming your face to open up the pores before the application of a mask , then consider using the leaves of Tulsi or Holy Basil in the water. From ancient times women have used this wonder herb for beautifying themselves. As it has antiseptic and antibacterial properties, it is marvelous for the skin. Its efficacy in curing various skin diseases is also quite well known. Here’s how you can use Tulsi as a beauty aid . Steaming your face with Tulsi water flushes out the dirt and toxins, leaving the skin soft and glowing. Also works wonders on acne-prone skin and other blemishes . The method : Take some water. Squeeze half a lemon into it. Now add a fistful of Tulsi leaves, a handful of mint (pudina) leaves and boil it. Remove from heat when it starts emitting steam. Secure your hair with a band, take a thick towel over your head and bend over the vessel with your eyes closed so that your face is fully exposed to the steam emanating from the water. Take the st...

Just as clothes retain the pungent odor of perspiration so does the hair. Our hot tropical climate aggravates the problem. Oily and combination hair tend to be more affected by this. Frequent shampooing is the only solution during such times. But when you are in hurry and when it is just not possible to wash your hair, then you will have to look out for some quick solution to get rid of the greasiness from your scalp and avoid a bad hair day. Here’s one such method to make the hair not only look less greasy but also appear dense and full-bodied .

Before you embark on a rigorous exercise regimen, you are normally advised to follow certain pre-exercising instructions scrupulously. One of these instructions stresses upon doing stretching exercises and light warm-ups before the actual strenuous work-outs. The idea is to flex your body with such light exercises before going in for the big one. And while terminating your session, you have to stretch all over again. This is also supposed to prevent stiffness and soreness or any injury during exercises. But recent studies have shown that stretching before or after exercise has little or no effect on muscle soreness in young healthy adults. The researchers do, however, believe that there is a need to see whether stretching can have an effect on people in the community who have reduced levels of flexibility . Related reading: Exercising errors

Whether your skin is oily or dry you need to exfoliate it once in a while to get rid of dead cells. Harsh abrasive scrubs are not suitable for extremely flaky, dry skins. Dry skins need mild scrubs such as these. The presence of yoghurt in these scrubs makes them gentle and less coarse on dry skins. Use them once in two weeks (a month if your skin is too dry) and watch your face glow . # Scrub 1 Ingredients: Dry Orange peel powder 1 tsp Dry Lemon peel powder 1 tsp Yoghurt (curds) 2 tbsp Method: Mix the dried peel powders and add yoghurt to it. Blend well. Gently massage it onto you skin or 2 minutes. Leave on for 5 minutes and then wash off. # Scrub 2 Ingredients: Oat meal powder 1 tsp Yoghurt 2 tsp Method: Blend the two ingredients and massage the paste onto your face. Keep it on for 5 minutes and then wash off with cold water. See also: Face packs for dry skin Exfoliating masks Fix your dull and tired skin with masks and complexion scrubs Pic...