Facial

Most of us do facial to relax and hopefully undo some surface level damage to the skin. Nowadays i have heard dermats doing some curative level peels and facial which mimic the effect of a facelift. Completely remove the old skin to reveal new skin.Well, i have no idea about them since i haven't got it done.

I want to share the basic facial I do at home.I am always amazed by how little amount of ingredients is required for a facial at home and most of them are there at home.There are so many delicious sounding kits available in the market by most brands. I haven't used any but i am sure they must be getting the job done if you don't expect the moon from them and don't believe their claims.

Here's what i do:

1. Cleansing:

I usually wash my face with a facewash before i start.Then depending on my mood i use either a ready made mild scrub like Ever yuth 's ultra mild scrub. I like this one its papain based [papaya enzyme] or Nivea Pore refining scrub face wash directly [ i don't know if its still available in india]. For extra exfoliation i either use plain table salt/instant coffee powder and gently rub it on the face. Sometimes when i am out of scrubs,i apply cleansing milk[ i use garnier/lakme] and then use salt/ coffee or cocoa powder and rub it all over my face and neck for 2-3 mins.

When you rub your face be gentle.You'll usually require only 1/4th tsp of salt/ coffee powder. Do it only for 2-3 mins.Keep applying water if skin feels dry.

2. Massaging:

I don't really massage my face because i don't know how to.So whatever little i know i use simple gentle strokes. I apply either olive/sesame/jojoba/apricot oils from the bottle in winters and coconut oil in summers.Sometimes i mix a little of oils with my moisturiser and apply. The point i am trying to make is i use whatever is on hand and what i feel like using at that time.I use refined oils and olive oil i use is usually the light yellow one [ so not extra virgin oil:I rather eat extra virgin olive oil than put it on my hair or face]

Massage and apply oil or cream till its soaked in.

Masks/Packs:

I have 2 standard recipes for face packs: For winter: In milk i put lemon juice, let it curdle then add honey,ambahalad and manjisth powders .Then depending on requirement,availability and mood, i add either powdered oats/masoor dal powder. Sometimes i add kokum butter/moisturiser to it.

In summers: I mix multani mitti with milk/ rose water add, sandal,manjisth and ambahalad to make face pack.

I keep the pack for 20 mins.

I usually have some herbs like licorice, neem always around so i use them too sometimes.I remember once i used my regular moisturiser as base and added neem powder and oats to make face pack.It works really well.

I wash off with water and dry with a towel. I usually don't find the need to moisturise afterward but if you do you can definitely apply a moisturiser or serum.

That's it. I admit its not fancy but i like how clean, smooth my skin becomes afterwards.In summers especially,the multani mitti pack dries up oil and shrinks pores,cleans the skin all at one go.

If you try it do let me know if it worked well for you as it has for me.

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength No Chip Nail Color

The first cosmetic i purchased when 12 was a light brown Lakme nailpolish. I didn't even know how to apply neither did Mom. You see, my mom never used nailpaints.

But i still remember how i used to apply in diwali vacations and how i got rapped on knuckles by nuns in school because i didn't remove nail polish when school restarted. I didn't know there was some thing called nail polish remover...my poor mom found one for me and scrubbed my nails clean. I promptly forgot about the nail polish until i found it in my drawer after some years ...dried and flaky.

I somehow never became a nailpaint fiend. My guess is its because it required time to apply well and then to dry and because i grew up in times when only 'actresses' or 'bold' girls wore bright nail polishes [read red and its shades!]. So i got stuck with a mental framework and subtle light peach,pink or mocha colors.

I wore light peach,lilac,light brown,nude,light pink through out college. Half the time i never had to remove nail polish- i worked with ethanol,acetone, hexanol,toluene in the lab through out college. On top of it, my nails chipped and broke easily. Here i want to tell you i have slim long fingers and nails so i was quite happy with their appearance even though I couldn't grow nails longer than 1/8th of a cm.

I am impatient with nails so though broke i used to use Maybelline express finish and Revlon. Only these 2 were available besides Lakme which talked about fast drying and long wear about 14 years ago. Its only now that there is Colorama. I have used Colorama [maybelline]. They are quite ok but some shades chip like plastic in about a day. I still use Maybelline Express Finish and Revlon. Revlon has hopeless colours now - nothing new. But these two are the only easily available ones which survive more than 2 days on my nails.

So my search lead me to try Sally Hansen.I asked my dad to bring Sally Hansen Diamond strength nail paint. It costs nearly Rs 500 in india and that too online. I haven't seen any in stores in Pune.

Since,dad would bring from US i asked for one. Its cost him $4 -$5.He got me one called 'Pink Promise'. For shade and other details go here.





The USP of this range is touted as: No chip.

And Chip it DID NOT !

The colour was warm light sparkly silver pink and to test it i put only 2 coats without topcoat.

It lasted a week on me. Can you imagine ? Here i would like to add that i do lot of house work and wash utensils with my hands without gloves. I am telling you this only because i was so surprised that it lasted a week....I would have been happy with only 4 days of perfect nails because most nail paints don't follow through their claims especially 'No-chip' claim

So can you imagine how long it would last on some one who doesn't do much with her hands.

Other things i noticed is : No smell/vapors of anything otherwise nailpaints smell of toulene or something ! The Maybelline Express Finish have acetonish/or aldehyde smell so does Revlon.

I plan to try one from Sally Hansen's regular range too.

Go get hold of it...if you have friends in US ask them to buy you some.Or buy from india.... I don't know just try for yourself.