Tuesday, January 17, 2012

5 of my quickest skin-care remedies in budget



Hi Beautiful!

When I was pregnant with Auripra, 'baby glow' was all over my face. People used to tell me that the baby hormones are working very well. Well, this is supposed to be a complement, but I used to think that, my skin originally was so dull that only those baby hormones were responsible for my glowing face. It is possible that my skin, just before I conceived, was not up to my satisfaction. I was in University and was so busy with study and other stuffs (being a wife of a Medicine resident is Tough!) that I did not have time to take care of my skin properly. However, that was not always the case. When I was in middle or high school, my friends used to praise me saying that I have radiant face. I realized later on in my life that, natural God given beauty also needs nurturing, else it fades away! I knew after Auripra's birth, 'baby glow' will disappear and it will be more difficult for me as a new mom to maintain a balanced skin care routine for myself. Sure enough, I had no time to visit a beauty salon even once in 2 months! However, I was determined. Clearly, the necessity was to come up with the quickest skin care methods to nourish my skin during one of the busiest period of my life. Fortunately, I knew what to do!

Before I go on, I should mention about the first two keys: H2O (water) and antioxidants. We should keep drinking water (8-10 glasses, each glass containing roughly 200-250 cc) and eating fruits and veggies (at least 5-a-day). Next, three would be cleanse, exfoliate and moisturize regularly.


                                                 



5 quickest DIY/Ready-made beauty secrets about skin care for your face:

**Steam your face**

NO, you do NOT need to buy anything for this. I Just take a sauce-pan full of water and boil it. When the water is boiling, I reduce the heat to low and just hold my face on the steam coming off. I hold my face around 8-12 inches above the water surface (be very careful, you should not burn yourself in the process). I take the steam for 5 minutes at-least (if you can tolerate the heat even after five minutes, take it for little bit more, I would advice to take 10 second intervals every 1 minute or so). Steam helps our skin by opening up those clogged pore and cleanse. Therefore, it reduces black and white heads easily. You don't need to go crazy with it. Once or twice a month will be enough (I take it twice a month).

Steaming your face helps to reduce black & white heads easily

**Rub your face with a ice cube**

Can you remember how many time it happened that you are really tired and it is showing on your face but you need to attend a party!?! It happened with me so many times! It sounds really challenging to give your face that same freshness back as it had in the morning! That too in 10 minutes? NO WAY! right? Here is how I do it. I just take two or three ice cubes in a kitchen towel and rub that gently on all over my face. I do not know how, but it works like MAGIC. I feel so fresh from inside just after 5-6 minutes of rubbing. If you do not have rice cube available just wash/splash your face with ice cold water, do not forget to wash your ears too. Believe me ice-cold water will almost give you same result.

Rub ice cubes for that morning freshness






**Clean your face with milk**

Once in a while our face deserve that no-chemical way of cleaning. Milk is an organic cleanser. I just soak a cotton pad in milk (I use fat free but any type of milk will just do the job) and rub that on my face (same as you do with a store bought cleansing product). Always remember to be soft and tender to your face when you are rubbing or pressing something on your face. sometimes, I soak a few pads in ice cold milk and cover my face with it for 10-15 minutes (after cleaning); it is refreshing too. Make sure you moisturize your face after you wash it every time.

Milk is an organic cleanser

**Exfoliate with olive oil and salt**

Olive oil is such a good moisturizing product. It is actually a treasure when it comes to our health and beauty. Now, my five minute beauty recipe is: mix 1/2 tea-spoon full olive oil and 1/4 tea-spoon full plain table salt (NaCl) thoroughly in your palm and rub that in your face. Do not use this mix around eye areas and try to be gentle during exfoliating. It is so effective that you will see the softer skin just after first use. Once or twice a week is more than enough. Exfoliation helps to remove those dead skin and you get that glow and softness back.


**Pamper your face with a face-musk once a week**

I make and use face-musk very often. I want to share one of my quick fix easy ones here: I mix a tea-spoon full plain yogurt and 1/2 tea-spoon full honey and put it on my face for quite sometime (15-20 minutes at least) and then wash it off with clean water and then moisturize. My skin type is normal to dry and it works really well. If you know of any quick face musk and love that, just use that. 



The most important thing is that you fall in love with your skin and take care of it. There are endless ways of doing that. Here I shared few fast and effortless way of skin care that I practice myself. Please let me know your ways of skin care. I do appreciate your participation in this discussion. All the best.
XOXO


Monday, January 9, 2012

Coastal Scents 26 Shadow Blush Palette review






Happy Monday everyone!!! It is still dark in Philadelphia! Oh! winter... the doc is already out for his hospital and Auripra is sleeping :) SO, I thought this is the perfect time to write my review on the nude palette from Coastal Scents that I received few days ago. It is the 26 Shadow Blush (21+5) combo Palette. To sum it up, I am loving this palette!  It is a combination of shimmer and matte neutral colors for all types of skin tone including few gold, orange, peach and purple shades. Most of the Colors stay for quite long time if you are using a primer/base. Actually, I would recommend always use a primer. You do not need to use the best (aka expensive) primer in the market. FOI, I used my self made base/concealer to achieve those following looks.  The colors are easy to blend. The dark eye colors are very pigmented; but the light ones are not that much. However, I should mention here, the blushes are not that impressive. I used the darkest one once; it is so much pigmented that I needed to redo my make up; if you want to use those blushes, use very lightly. The lighter blushes are quiet good though. It does not come with any highlighting shade (you have to use another palette to highlight areas) or applicator. I ordered it from Amazon.com for $19.73. You can also order from Coastal Scents' (click here) website. I totally refer this palette considering its price and pigmentation. Following are the swatches (for swatches I also used me-made base) and the few looks I have done with the palette. 


Click here to see eye makeup tutorials using this palette.



You could actually see which colors are matte and which are shimmer in this pic 


Swatches of the 1st row
Swatches of the 2nd row
Swatches of the 3rd row
Swatches of 5 blushes ( my best pick is the first one from the left)


Click here to see eye makeup tutorials using this palette.


The first look: the Classic






Second look: the Neutral 






The third one: the Dramatic (Indian/Arabic eye make-up inspired)







Click here to see eye makeup tutorials using this palette.

Thanks for being so patient!!! Please feel free to leave me a comment or critic. If you like to know more about any of the looks above let me know too. Please follow me for more to come. Happy retouching!!! 

All The best.
XOXO
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