Roots to Radiance

by Nikita Upadhyay

  27. Cleanse pores and dirt off your face with salt water

  Sea salt is good for your face. I have talked about using it in your bath and removing facial hair with it as one of the ingredients. You can also deep cleanse your pores and eliminate extra oil and dirt off your face with it. Just pour some lukewarm water in a bowl, add 1 teaspoon sea salt in it and let it dissolve. Take a cotton ball or a clean, soft cloth and dip it in that water and then apply all over your face and neck. If you are using a piece of clean cloth, you can also spread it on your face like a sheet mask for 4 minutes and take it off. After 5 minutes, rinse with regular water.

  28. A juicy sun protection

  Sunburns happen all the time. Just slice up a tomato and apply its juice all over your face and neck to protect your skin from sunburn.

  29. Remove under-eye dark circles and face pigmentation with one ingredient

  Puffy, pigmented under-eyes are a proof of our busy and stressful lifestyle. When you get home after a long day, just grate a potato and extract its juice in a small bowl. Take a cotton pad and apply it to your under-eyes and other pigmented areas of your face to even your skin tone over time.

  30. Smoothen your face with this ingredient that takes under 10 seconds to prepare—for all skin types

  Dull skin? No problem! Either mash up a ripe banana and apply to your face or just apply raw honey to your face. Both these ingredients can smoothen your face without much effort. No matter how your skin is—oily, dry, sensitive—it’s good for all!

  A recipe that involves using these two ingredients together is also explained in this book.

  31. A humble one-ingredient dark spot corrector

  Every beauty brand is selling ‘sleeping masks’ right now. The goal of these masks is to improve skin texture and fight dark spots. What if I told you there’s one ingredient that suits all skin types and can fade dark spots over time? Yes, ditch those creams, cut open an aloe vera stem, apply the extract on your face and leave overnight. Rinse next morning like usual.

  32. Eliminate blackheads with this three-ingredient paste

  Those annoying little blackheads that keep popping up can go away by mixing water, toothpaste and baking soda and applying it on your nose and surrounding areas. Use an old mascara wand or a baby toothbrush to massage the paste on the affected area.

  33. Make this one-ingredient hair growth enhancer at home within seconds

  We all know onion juice is great for stimulating hair growth and preventing premature balding.

  Just slice and grind an onion, and apply its juice on your scalp. Doing this can boost hair growth over time.

  34. Beat dry hands in winter

  Your hands need way more hydration that you can imagine. In winters when your skin is dry, it needs exfoliation and moisturization. So mix a few tablespoons of olive oil with salt and apply it to your hands. Scrub gently and rinse with only water. This will remove dead skin, leaving your hands feel gentle.

  35. Genius scalp exfoliation method that you barely have to put any effort into

  Along with your routine shampoo sessions, just add 2 tablespoons white sugar to the shampoo solution. Apply to scalp and massage the sugar to eliminate impurities properly, leaving your scalp healthier. This will also stop your roots from getting oily too soon.

  36. Make skin tone even by mixing these two ingredients

  Short skirts, sports, sun exposure—there are a lot of factors that lead to making the skin of your elbows and knees uneven. Just mix Fuller’s earth clay with apple cider vinegar. Rinse those areas with this mixture and your skin will become supple over time.

  37. Treat period cramps by applying this essential oil

  Okay, not really beauty-related but so important for most of us! In terms of beauty, pain will cause you to squint, it’ll then give you fine lines over time, so you better fix it. Gently rub a few drops of lavender oil on your abdomen to soothe the cramps.

  38. Prevent wrinkles and acne by sleeping right

  Sleeping on your back is a great thing for your skin if you can manage that. Your face is well rested when it’s laying straight all night. This will also keep your face from coming in contact with your pillow case. Not saying your pillow case is dirty, but who wants to take chances—we do take pizza to bed at times.

  39. Banish dark circles by mixing these two ingredients

  Vitamin E capsules are so cheap. Cut open one capsule and mix it with aloe vera gel and apply around the eyes to fade dark circles.

  Talking about under-eye care, a funny thing I learnt about over-eye care from a seventy-eight-year-old glam-ma, Vera DiLeo on Instagram. She had sound advice for the likes of us. ‘Never squint, it causes wrinkles, if you can’t see it, you can’t see it,’ she says.

  So on another note, stop squinting no matter what. Fake a smile through those infuriating work mails.

  40. Get that beauty sleep you always wanted

  Sleeping for eight hours is almost impossible. All the stress and anxiety take over right when you’re trying to sleep. Apply some peppermint oil on the temples of your forehead. This will calm your nerves and help you get shut-eye faster.

  41. Nourish dry tips of your hair instantly

  Hair thinning leads to split ends. It all starts with dry tips of your hair losing weight and volume.

  You can bring it back by applying petroleum jelly on the dry ends and combing normally. Just don’t use the same comb to brush the scalp, else the scalp gets greasy.

  42. Beat redness, wrinkles, acne rosacea and more by applying this oil

  Woah! That’s a lot of problems solved by one oil. Applying sea buckthorn oil regularly to your face can reduce redness and acne drastically. All you have to do is use this oil after washing your face to moisturize your skin. Leave it on for skin to heal.

  43. Drink the purest water

  Yes, I’m going there. After the world has imposed on you to drink 8–13 glasses of water a day, here’s more. Soak basil leaves in your water pitcher to remove about 95 per cent fluoride in it. The result? Better oral health and no cavities.

  44. Balance your body’s pH levels regularly

  This is not as complicated as it sounds. I’m just asking you to drink coconut water every morning. Mornings are the ideal time to drink it, and balancing pH levels does wonders for your skin.

  45. Tighten your pores with very little effort

  Mix 2 tablespoons tomato juice with few drops of lemon juice and apply to face. This will not only cure sunburn, but will also tighten your pores that secrete sebum and make your skin oily.

  46. Another DIY toothpaste for a healthier mouth

  Oral health is not to be neglected. Especially if it takes under 3 minutes to take care of it.

  Mix coconut oil and turmeric powder to create a paste. Apply it to teeth with a brush and rinse. Turmeric is the antiseptic that’ll treat sore gums and clear plague. Coconut oil kills bacteria present in the mouth.

  47. Beat mouth and body odour with two ingredients

  Add lemon juice to hot water and drink it. This will treat bad breath in a jiffy. Slice a lime and apply to sweat-prone areas before heading out to keep body odour at bay.

  48. A four-ingredient detox drink for clearer skin

  Add cucumber slices, lemon juice and mint leaves to water and drink it every morning to detox and get clearer skin.

  49. Moisturize with avocado juice

  Avocado adds fat to your cells. It can help you generate new skin cells, minimize dark circles and soothe your skin. Slice open an avocado and rub it on your face to moisturize the skin deeply and achieve unmatched radiance.

  50. Drink enough water

  It takes less than 3 minutes to finish a glass—you knew about this one, didn’t you? Now, this is something everyone tells you, so let me be more precise, attempt to drink 13–14 glasses of water a day for a week and see how that works out. I frankly couldn’t believe my skin when I did that.

  Expert Inputs

  Sanjeev Kapoor’s Re
cipes

  When I started writing this book, I had a vision in place. The aim to have the poster people of each profession to weigh in with their expert advice to help achieve true beauty. One that matches inside with the outside.

  While every chapter is a mixture of what you should do, what you should apply, what you should imply, I believe the part about what you should be eating shouldn’t be left untouched. What you put in your body is what’s going to show on your skin. Don’t worry, I won’t push you to practise a lifestyle where you can’t even live a little. Let’s be realistic, let yourself go in limits, have one full cheat day if you like . . .

  In this book of millennial content, knowing that we are the most stressed generation, let me give you the freedom to indulge, but also balance it with healthy food, super foods and all good things that’ll nourish your body and make it ready for challenges to come.

  And there is no one better than top Indian Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor to school you about this.

  This chef extraordinaire, apart from cooking the yummiest food, has written more than 150 cookbooks himself. I remember watching his TV show as a kid for years and being mesmerized by everything he cooked. In this chapter, let the most celebrated chef of this country tell you all about healthy eating.

  Super Foods

  Today, we have promptly adopted the eating healthy culture and lapped up on trends that focus on health and nutrition, super foods being one of them.

  While the term super foods makes it sound like such a Western concept, you’d be surprised to know how many ingredients on global super foods lists are of Indian origin or have been widely used in Indian medicine and food for ages through the ancient Indian doctrine of Ayurveda.

  Ayurveda, the world’s oldest healing science, is a compilation of the words ayus, which means life, and Veda, which means knowledge or science. It follows the principle of ‘we are what we eat’, and uses food to balance the body constitutions or tridoshas (vata, pitta, kapha) in an individual, a concept which, as a foodie, chef and practitioner of Ayurveda, I firmly agree with—food is indeed medicine.

  Keeping with this theme, I am going to share with you some simple, everyday Ayurvedic ingredients that have proved to be instrumental in improving health and well-being when incorporated in your diet. The great part is that most of these ingredients are easily available and very simple to include in your everyday health and wellness regime, even when living the jet-set millennial life!

  1. Ghee/Ghṛta/Clarified Butter

  In Ayurveda, ghee is called the ‘carrier of nutrients’. It helps lubricate the intestinal tract and other organs in the body.

  Ghee contains high amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K. These are fat-soluble vitamins, that is, vitamins that enter our bloodstream through the medium of fat. Ghee has lots of dietary fats that enable our body to absorb and make use of these vitamins. Including it regularly in your diet improves brain activity as well as general immunity.

  One of the things that make ghee so good is the fact that it is mostly composed of saturated, ‘good’ fat, which promotes the increase of HDL or good cholesterol in the body. Being free of trans and hydrogenated fats makes it much easier to digest as compared to other types of fat. Having 1 teaspoon of ghee in the morning followed by warm water is said to regulate bowel movement.

  According to Ayurveda, ghee mixed with honey can be applied on wounds, blisters and inflammation to effectively cure them. It is also applied to body joints to increase mobility. We’ve always known ghee is good—now the world knows it too!

  2. Haldi/Haridra/Turmeric

  From haldi wala doodh to Turmeric Latte, haldi has become the queen of every Ayurvedic kitchen and now even international coffee houses!

  Loaded with antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties, turmeric is one of the best ingredients for your body. Whether you ingest it or apply it externally on your skin, it will only do you good! Haldi also helps improve blood circulation, which in turn lowers the density of bad cholesterol, chances of strokes, heart attacks, the formation of clots and heart problems.

  Turmeric also heals wounds and injury scars by helping in the regeneration of damaged tissues and cells. These healing properties in haldi are attributed mainly to the presence of an antioxidant called curcumin which helps fight against all kinds of bacteria ranging from colds and viral infections to cuts and wounds, keeping your overall immunity at a steady high.

  So the next time you are offered a glass or haldi wala doodh, make sure you gulp it down without pulling a face. Don’t forget to add a pinch of pepper to it because ‘pepperine’ in the pepper helps the body absorb the curcumin from the turmeric much better.

  3. Gwarphata/Ghrit kumari/Aloe Vera

  Aloe vera falls under the bitter taste category in Ayurveda. This medicinal herb is cooling in nature and finds application in several digestive and dermatology-related ailments.

  The aloe vera plant is called Ghrita Kumari in Sanskrit where kumari means a young girl, a very fitting name because of how useful this plant is in easing symptoms of menstruation and skin problems in women.

  Aloe vera is also great when it comes to treating skin problems. Just applying natural gel from the plant is enough to nourish and hydrate your skin, get rid of irritation, sunburns, inflammation and signs of skin psoriasis caused because of dry skin. Even people with the most sensitive skin types find relief in aloe vera gel.

  Besides applying it on your skin, you can also add it to your diet in small doses. A shot of aloe vera juice early in the morning is a great source of antioxidants that will work wonders for your immunity, digestion and skin.

  4. Ashwagandha/Indian Ginseng

  Ashwagandha in Sanskrit literally means ‘smell of the horse’. It gets this name because of its unique smell and the ability to provide the strength of the stallion to its consumer.

  One of the reasons why it is important to include this in today’s jet-set lifestyle is because of its properties that aid in relieving stress and anxiety and combating depression. It also helps stabilize sleep patterns and reduce insomnia.

  Ashwagandha is also commonly known as Indian ginseng, and preparations with honey and ghee work as an aphrodisiac. It is particularly helpful in treating fertility problems in men because it increases testosterone levels, libido and sperm count.

  The leaves of Ashwagandha are known for their anti-inflammatory properties. They can be made into a paste and used for treating wounds and swellings.

  You can consume Ashwagandha in the form of churans, which are easily available online and in Ayurvedic stores across the country. You can also get them in a tablet form, like multivitamins.

  5. Amla/Amalaki/Indian Gooseberry

  Amla is another one of those Ayurvedic ingredients that help balance all the three doshas—vata, pitta and kapha. It can be eaten fresh as fruit or consumed in a powder or juice form.

  It is great for weight loss. The high fibre and protein content in the fruit keeps you full for longer hours and controls cravings. It also helps check cholesterol levels.

  Amla is also one of the best anti-ageing ingredients in Ayurveda. Amla juice mixed with honey and/or mashed papaya applied on the skin helps treat wrinkles and fine lines while acting as an exfoliator.

  Starting your day with a little shot of Amla juice is a great way to ensure good eyesight, and glowing skin and hair.

  6. Adrak/Adraki/Ginger

  Ginger root is known as the ‘universal medicine’ in Ayurveda for its all-round benefits.

  Living in urban times, with the constant temperature changes, pollution and lack of open spaces, makes one very easily susceptible to respiratory conditions, colds and allergies. Ayurveda promotes the use of ginger in many herbal decongestants and helps in minimizing these symptoms.

  Ginger also has the ability to calm an upset stomach, promote the flow of bile, ease stomach cramps and improve the working of the digestive system. Mix grated ginger root with diluted lemon juice to soothe the digestive tract, red
uce flatulence and treat stomach aches.

  Regular massages with ginger oil can help relieve painful arthritis due to its anti-inflammatory properties.

  7. Ajwain/Yamani/Carom Seeds

  Ajwain is ‘warm’ in nature, helps balance kapha and vata, and increases pitta dosha or heat and metabolism in the body.

  Ajwain is a commonly used spice in the Indian kitchen, but is also known to have medicinal properties in Ayurveda.

  A teaspoon of ajwain and jaggery paste eaten once a day helps reduce the effects of asthma. Inhaling the smoke from roasting ajwain helps stabilize breathing, nasal congestion and relaxes the respiratory system.

  Just chew on a pinch of roasted carom seeds to cure most problems related to the digestive tract—from flatulence to indigestion to acidity.

  Crushed ajwain seeds and curd made into a paste and applied on the skin for a few minutes helps cure pimples and scars. It also helps avoid premature greying of hair.

  8. Shahad/Madhu/Honey

  Sweet and luscious, honey really is liquid gold. Its health benefits are countless—from providing relief from asthma, aiding digestion, relieving pain, treating burns to curing stomach ailments.