Oily skin may be problematic, but when in control it can actually be considered the best skin. Acne-producing excess sebum is proof that your system is capable of generating excess oil. But the reverse happens once one starts ageing and skin starts to get more and more dry and the problem is worse when you’ve always had dry skin. Dry skin needs more treatment and attention as ageing starts to show on dry skin earlier than on oily skin.
With proper love and care, dry skin too shall pass all the hurdles that keeps it from being smooth and radiant.
Here are a few DIY masks for dry skin:
MASK 1
2 teaspoons muskmelon seed (kharbuja)
2 walnuts
½ cup raw milk
1 pinch turmeric
Turmeric and raw milk boost glow, and muskmelon improves blood circulation and is rich is potassium and Vitamin A, among other things.
Add the pinch of turmeric in raw milk and soak walnuts and muskmelon seeds in it.
Once the two are well-soaked, grind them with the turmeric milk and apply to face for 25–30 minutes for a radiant glow.
Repeat twice or thrice a week.
MASK 2
4 almonds
½ cup water
A few drops of almond oil
3 teaspoons cream
2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds
Soak almonds in a cup of water and peel them.
Crush the almonds and pumpkin seeds and add almond oil.
Apply paste to face and leave on for 20–35 minutes before rinsing.
Follow your regular moisturizing routine post masking.
MASK 3
1 tablespoon wheat bran (chokar)
½ cup milk
1 Vitamin E capsule
Chia seeds
Wheat bran’s depigmenting properties and richness in antioxidants makes it bag a spot in this recipe. Chia seeds, with their fatty acids, help smoothen the skin, make it look livelier and shoo away dullness. Vitamin E helps you get your glow game on, and milk—well there is a reason why Cleopatra bathed in it.
Soak chia seeds in milk for a few hours.
Add wheat bran flour to that milk in a bowl.
Cut open a Vitamin E capsule and pour its extracts into the bowl.
Mix all the ingredients well and apply to your face to get an instant glow.
Repeat twice or thrice, as per your requirement.
If you’re on a busy schedule, just take a small amount of cow ghee in your fingers and apply to your face every day. This will take away all your dry skin concerns. It will hydrate, nourish and smoothen your skin in NO time!
7. Reversing Sun Damage
Social media may trick you to believing in #InstaQuotes that say, ‘Quit your job, travel, get a tan, never come back.’ But in reality, you do care about your job, as you do for your skin. And when that has been sunburnt after a vacay, you will be asked, ‘What the heck happened?!!!’
The following tricks are not just masks, but also exciting ways to reverse the damages from sun exposure in the coolest ways possible, literally.
MASK 1
¼ cup watermelon juice
¼ cup cucumber juice
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup potato juice
3 teaspoons sandalwood powder
A few drops of peppermint oil
A few drops of rose water
Mix the juices with sandalwood powder and add a few drops of peppermint oil. Apply to your face for instant cooling effect.
This mask is ideal for people who get sunburnt easily and get redness due to sun exposure.
Alternate method
Mix rose water, watermelon juice, cucumber juice, lemon juice, peppermint oil and fresh potato juice with the sandalwood powder.
Pour the solution in an ice tray and put it in the freezer.
After a few hours, when the solution is frozen, rub these cubes on your face gently after sun exposure.
The calming and soothing properties of the above ingredients will work as an after-sun protectant for your skin and help you reverse the post-sun-exposure damage that keeps bothering your skin even after you return indoors.
But if you think that’s not enough, here’s how you can make an after-sun mask with almost the same ingredients.
MASK 2
¼ cup watermelon juice
¼ cup cucumber juice
1 teaspoon sandalwood powder
1 teaspoon multani mitti
Mix and make a paste out of these ingredients and store in your fridge.
Keep applying post sun exposure to get rid of sunburn and make your skin happy.
MASK 3
¼ cup carrot juice
¼ cup tomato juice
3–4 teaspoons red lentil powder
Aloe vera extract
A few drops of rose oil
Tomato juice alone is a great natural sunscreen. Carrot juice nourishes the skin, helps fix skin disorders and fights redness. Red lentil powder helps remove tan, and rose oil and aloe extracts soothe and even skin tone.
Grind enough red lentils in your grinder and store it to keep reusing.
In a bowl, mix together the aloe vera extract, tomato juice and carrot juice.
Add a few teaspoons of the lentil powder to the mix.
When the mixture is ready, add rose oil and mix well before applying to face.
Repeat twice or thrice in a week, depending on sun exposure/damage.
MASK 4
2 sliced strawberries
½ cup raw milk
7–8 mint leaves
2 teaspoon rice flour
Strawberries fight tan and act as a great face scrub and anti-ageing agent too. Rice flour is anti-inflammatory and has ferulic acid and allantoin, which are sun protection components. Mint refreshes your face and milk treats discolouration.
Grind sliced strawberries and mint leaves with raw milk.
Add rice flour and make a paste.
Apply to face to de-tan and rejuvenate.
Repeat twice or thrice a week, depending on sun exposure/damage.
8. Remedies to Shrink Open Pores
Nothing ruins your make-up faster than open pores. I’m saying it because I’ve experienced it first-hand. Open pores let the skin breathe, but there’s more to it. Every pore has a hair follicle in it and it secretes oil, hence the excess sebum.
Do you ever do your make-up and feel like your face looks ashy after a few hours? And it get’s worse when you already have oily skin that constantly makes you take breaks to powder your nose. It’s because you have open pores that are secreting oils, making your face look greasy.
Pores, big or small, should be neutralized by home remedies such as those that I’m going to talk about in this section. Here are a few recipes to help you shrink open pores with ease.
MASK 1
1 ice cube
Lemon juice
½ sliced banana
1 tablespoon honey
Wash your face with lukewarm water to open your pores and then apply ice to shrink them.
Mash the slices of banana and add lemon juice and honey to create a paste.
Apply it to face to shrink open pores over time.
Use this mask every alternate day to enjoy the smoothest skin ever.
MASK 2
1 egg white
1 teaspoon chickpea flour
A few drops of lemon juice
A few drops of pomegranate oil
A few drops of clary sage oil
Pomegranate oil fights bacteria in clogged pores, and clary sage oil helps shrink the pores. Lemon, chickpea flour and egg whites shrink your pores in the process of benefiting your skin in other ways, like tightening your skin.
Crack the egg and separate the white.
Add chickpea flour, lemon juice, pomegranate oil and clary sage oil.
Apply a thin layer on your face and wash after 20–30 minutes.
Repeat twice or thrice a week.
MASK 3
1 kiwi
&
nbsp; 3 tablespoons unflavoured yogurt
A few drops of lemon juice
Kiwi is packed with Vitamin C and is amazing for the skin.
Grind kiwi and mix it with yogurt and lime juice to make a paste.
Apply to face and keep on for half an hour.
Rinse and moisturize.
Repeat twice or thrice a week to manage open pores.
9. Face Scrubs
We’ve come to the ‘most skipped’ part of our beauty regime. I asked ten girls I knew about their beauty regime, and even though they’re quite into skincare and all, they did not mention exfoliating as a part of their routine.
In order to make your make-up set evenly on your face and, not to mention, remove dirt, excess oil and impurities, scrubs should ideally be a very important part of your routine. Exfoliating at least twice a week will help you achieve your skin goals faster. Massaging gently in circular and upward motions, these DIY natural scrubs can be used for face, neck and body. Although I will talk about body and lip scrubs separately, let’s get you to exfoliate your face first.
MASK 1
¼ cup rose water
2 teaspoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon white sugar
Sugar is a fabulous for scrubbing and for your face and scalp too.
Mix rose water, coconut oil and sugar and exfoliate your face using circular, upward motions (as explained earlier), twice or thrice a week.
MASK 2
2–3 figs
½ cup raw milk
1 teaspoon almond oil
1 used green tea bag
Previously, in some recipes, I talked about Cleopatra’s famous milk bathing fact. In this recipe, I’m including—what was said to be her favourite fruit—fig!
Fig has micro-granule-like particles in it and is capable of doing wonders for the skin. This fruit is not only a great exfoliator but is also capable of neutralizing free radicals and playing the role of a natural antioxidant.
Soak figs in raw milk until they become soggy.
Grind the figs and add green tea leaves and almond oil to make a paste. Tiny particles in fig and small green tea leaves will exfoliate your face and green tea leaves even correct the effects of pollution on the face.
Use this scrub twice or thrice a week. Apply a moisturizer after.
Use this scrub as a mask, adding occasional drops of water and massaging in circular motion, right before washing as another way to use this mask-in-scrub.
MASK 3
1 tablespoon curd/buttermilk/unflavoured yogurt
2 teaspoons oatmeal powder/gram flour
1 ½ tablespoon honey
½ peeled pomegranate
½ tomato or juice of one tomato
This mask will clear your complexion, fix open pores, remove tanning, as well as scrub your face.
Grind the pomegranate seeds and tomato for just a few seconds to make a paste. Make sure you don’t grind it too fine as you need the paste to be grainy to be able to scrub your face.
Add curd/buttermilk/unflavoured yogurt, honey and oatmeal powder/gram flour.
Mix all ingredients well and apply to face and gently massage in circular motion for 15–20 minutes.
Rinse and apply serum.
Repeat twice or thrice a week.
10. Make-Up Removers
If you’re one of these people who just wash their faces to remove their make-up—STOP!
Your face wash alone can never take off a day’s worth of make-up, dust, impurities, excess oil, etc. You need a make-up remover that hydrates your face in the process of taking your make-up off. Excessively dehydrating cosmetics can steal away moisture from your skin. In this chapter, I’ve formulated some make-up removers that you can make using your favourite essentials, and they’ll also be gentle and loving to your skin, just like you deserve it.
a. Aloe–Lavender Make-Up Remover
3 tablespoons aloe vera gel
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil
A few drops of lavender oil
Olive oil alone can make for a fab make-up remover, but using these ingredients together makes a perfect balance of natural scents, astringents and soothing gel to make sure you take your day’s make-up off in the most nurturing way.
Mix the aloe vera gel, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and lavender oil together.
Take a cotton pad and use this formula to take off your make-up.
b. Eucalyptus–Rosemary Make-Up Remover
½ cup water
2 teaspoons liquid castile soap
2 tablespoons rosemary oil
A few drops of eucalyptus oil
The way the previous recipe had apple cider vinegar as a natural astringent, this one has rosemary that plays the same role. Eucalyptus oil has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial properties to help you cleanse off your make-up without leaving behind the chemical residues of your dehydrating make-up products.
Mix water with the liquid castile soap and oils, and wash face accordingly.
c. Bergamot–Lemon Make-Up Remover
½ cup water
2 teaspoons baby shampoo or liquid castile soap
1 teaspoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons lemon oil
A few drops of mandarin oil
A few drops of bergamot oil
Mix water with baby shampoo and add the oils and mix thoroughly.
Use a cotton pad and this formula to remove make-up with a citrusy twist.
Antibacterial Make-Up Brush Spray
30 ml distilled water
6 drops of tea tree oil
A few years ago, news about an Australian model went viral, showing her swollen face that was a result of using dirty, unwashed make-up brushes. Not that we needed that as a reminder to wash our make-up brushes regularly, because, hello? Basic hygiene! But, for a lazy girl who loves make-up, that news will really give you a scare as well as plenty of motivation to keep them clean.
So introducing a two-ingredient spray that’ll not only keep your make-up brushes free of fungus but will also prevent you from getting pigmentation and acne.
Mix distilled water with a few drops of tea tree oil, and store it in a spray bottle.
Spray this solution on your washed brushes after they’ve dried. You can keep spraying it even after you’ve used the brush to apply foundations, blushes, concealer, etc.
Tea tree oil can be used to treat fungal infections on skin as it kills blemish- and acne-causing bacteria in a jiffy.
11. Face Washes
If you ask me, I have two face washes because I don’t think my face needs the same amount of deep cleansing each time I wash my face. So, I have one tea tree foaming wash that I use after I’m done removing my make-up with a cleansing balm and micellar water, and the other one that is a pH-neutral face wash for the times I just need a soft cleanse. And it’s of the good experiments I’ve done for my skin.
But nothing beats the face washes my mother used to make with different ingredients. From trying different ingredients to bake a cake to making these custom shampoos and soaps, I’ve seen it all as a child. Here are some face wash recipes that will take off your daily grime and balance your skin.
a. Honey–Lemon Face Wash
1 cup water
½ cup castile soap (liquid)
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons almond oil
1 tablespoon eucalyptus oil
5 teaspoons of lemon oil
This face wash is great for people with acne-prone skin.
Mix liquid castile soap with water and add honey.
Then add all the oils and mix thoroughly.
Pour it in a bottle and use the solution as a face wash.
b. Aloe–Lavender Face Wash
½ cup distilled water
½ cup liquid castile soap
2 teaspoons aloe vera gel
2 teaspoons jojoba oil
2 teaspoons glycerine
7–8 drops of lavender oil
&
nbsp; This is a soothing face wash for all skin types.
Mix castile soap with water and add aloe vera gel, glycerine and oils.
Mix well and pour into a bottle you can store this face wash in.
c. Mint–Charcoal Face Wash
½ cup liquid castile soap
¼ cup multani mitti
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoon peppermint oil
1 full teaspoon activated charcoal
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon rosehip oil
This is a scrub face wash, ideal for skin with open pores.
Mix castile soap with olive and peppermint oil and mix thoroughly in one bowl.
In a separate bowl, add the multani mitti, chia seeds and activated charcoal. Mix it thoroughly.
Then mix both of these mixtures together in little proportions till it’s all fully blended and devoid of any chunks.
Then add rosehip oil and mix everything well once again.
Store this in a pot or a bottle. Use lesser proportions if you think you can’t finish it as fast because we’re not using any preservatives.
12. Face Serums
If you have combination skin, serums are great. Not because they don’t make serums for oily and dry skin, but because water-based serums complement and balance combination skin in a way like no other. In this particular chapter, where there’s an elaborate set of recipes to treat every facial concern, face serums are pretty basic yet very effective.
Finishing the course with the right serum is the key to unlocking your best beautiful.
Here are a few facial serums that you can apply pre and post make-up removal. Serums work great when applied overnight. So gear up to have happy mornings if you apply these DIY natural serums the night before.
Roots to Radiance Page 4