Scrubs for all seasons

Unfortunately there is never a time in the year when you can relax with your beauty regime. In the colder months your skin is dry, parched and lacks moisture and you go through all the trouble in summers to make sure that the skin and hair are thoroughly protected against the sun and heat.

But there are some simple ways you can keep your skin glowing and fresh throughout the year. Here are a few tips:
Clean skin with a light cleansing milk or good face wash. Three times a week use this as an exfoliating scrub. You can make this scrub at home yourself.
Mix together Multani Mitti (Fuller's earth), gram flour and sandalwood powder. Store in an airtight container. Use a teaspoon of this paste mixed with water as a scrub. This rids the skin of flakes and dirt.

Use seasonal fruits as facial masks because they are economical and highly moisturizing. In a blender, crush grapes and use it on your skin. It has vitamins and minerals and helps the wrinkles around the eyes and mouth. It also moisturizes and nourishes the skin.
Mash a ripe banana or a watermelon. Mix in 1 teaspoon of milk powder and ¼ teaspoon of honey and 2 drops of orange essential oil. Apply to a clean face and allow it to remain on the face and neck for 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water. This pack is especially good for dark skin that gets markedly grey or ashen due to the heat, over washing and parching winds. Try oatmeal and tomato juice pack to shrink large pores and slough off dead skin instead.

Homemade scrubs
To a tablespoon of tomato juice, mix enough oatmeal to make a thin paste. Add one drop of essential oils of peppermint. Apply to a dampened skin avoiding the eye and mouth areas. Leave on for 5 to 10 minutes, then wipe off with a damp cotton or a sponge and rinse with cool water. Watermelon and a drop of jasmine applied to the face and neck freshens up the skin. Coconut water and a drop of sandalwood rubbed on the skin not only lightens and brightens the skin but also gets rid of heat rashes.
 Drink a lot of water to replace the liquid lost through perspiration. It is important to nourish the skin from within. Make refreshing eye pads from thick slices of cucumber on cotton pads soaked in milk (iced). To relieve itchy, reddened eyes use chilled raw potato slices. Place over eyelids and rest for 10 minutes. A drop of rose water in each eye at bedtime also brightens the eyes.

Body care
Add a cup of buttermilk to your bath to tighten pores and add a few drops of jasmine. Nourish and soothe skin with this bath formula. Mix 2 teaspoons salt, 1 ½ teaspoon coconut oil and ½ teaspoon vinegar and apply to the body before a bath. Add two drops of lavender essential oil.

To soothe sunburn, use a head to toe yoghurt mask. Leave on for 10 minutes then shower off with cool water. This gives fast relief. Rub ice cubes wrapped in a tissue on pulse points such as wrists and ankles. You will feel instant energy.

Rub the back of your neck and hairline with rosewater. To avoid heat rashes, remove your sweaty clothes and jump right into the shower. You can relieve the itchiness of heat rash by applying a cooling cornstarch and water. Compress ½ cup cornstarch to one-pint water and add a few drops of sandalwood.

To avoid prickly heat and to soothe it, twice a day dust the body liberally with equal quantities of boric powder, sandalwood powder and talcum powder.

To remove dull skin, use cleansing and tightening masks. Mix one-tablespoon dry oatmeal powder with dahi (yoghurt). Then add the juice of one lime. Massage this pack on the neck and leave for half an hour. Rinse off, pat dry and apply moisturizer. The oatmeal and dahi remove the dead surface cells and the lemon juice restores the acid balance and bleaches the skin. Follow with an almond oil massage.