BEAUTY’SPEAK
Beauty for Blushing Brides
Eve’s Times is happy to carry out a column on beauty care by Cosmetologist and Aesthetician Vasundhra, Chennai’s own renowned woman of beauty and influence. Vasundhra’s tips will help the busy Chennai women of today to maintain their health and appearance without much ado.
Brides-to-be can make good use of fruits, vegetables and flowers to enhance their looks and health. Let us see how.
Try a regular routine of a papaya face mask to keep your face glowing. You can also make a face mask using a mix of banana and honey. It will help brighten your face.
Wash your face with the extract of an orange mixed with water. The vitamin C in the fruit is good for your skin.
Keep rose petals and jasmine in a container along with water for a day and use this water to wash your face and body. If you splash this water on your eyes, it will not only have a cooling effect, it will help reduce dark circles under the eyes.
If you add a little milk and camphor to your bathing water, it acts ad a natural deodorant and reduces the smell of sweat. You can also try to apply a mix of glycerin, lemon juice and rose water.
If your face is ridden with acne, make a paste of neem powder and rose water and apply on the pimples. This will help rid of pimples without leaving scars.
There are some home care tips that brides-to-be can adopt two weeks before the wedding. Try to have an idea of what kind of hair style you would like to have for your wedding. You can start trying out different hair styles at home or in a parlour every day. Also start your manicure and pedicure well before time to ensure that your hand and toe nails are clean and healthy looking.
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Beauty for the Glowing Bride-to-be
Are you going to get married soon? As soon as your marriage is fixed, it is time to set apart time for personal grooming and appearance. In fact, that should be the priority of the bride-to-be. There are several home care processes which you must start once your marriage is fixed.
Start 3-4 Months earlier
As soon as your marriage has been fixed you will have a stream of visitors including friends and relatives visiting your house almost every day. Hence it is important to look well groomed and well dressed. Start garnering dresses that match your complexion. Ensure you also have matching accessories and footwear ready well in advance. By doing this you can avoid last minute tensions.
Those who are very thin should now try to gain weight by taking up the right diet and fitness regime. Those who are a little on the heavier side should adopt a regular fitness and exercise regime, focusing on the areas that have accumulated fat such as the tummy, upper arms, waist, thighs etc. You can take up yogasanas, or go for walks twice a day. Others can look at options such as the gym, aerobic exercises etc. A sensible fitness regime is a must for a bride-to-be to keep her looking healthy, glowing and beautiful.
Improving Complexion
Beauty parlours offer appropriate treatments for improving your complexion. Facials, bleaching and other such procedures should start well on time and should be strictly followed at regular intervals as advised by your aesthetician. If you are venturing to a beauty parlour for the first time, ensure that you are tested first for allergy before you start the treatment. Start shaping your eyebrows right away. If you do this when your wedding date is near, your face may look different. Increase your intake of juice and ensure that you have a healthy, balanced diet. This will help improve your complexion.
After 1-2 months
It is important to have oil bath twice a week. There are Ayurvedic oils for this purpose which you can use. You can also start using aromatic body powders during your bath. If you use these Ayurvedic bath powders it will refresh you and add to your strength and glow of your skin. Those who are not in the habit of having an oil bath can look at regular use of moisturizers and toners.
-To be continued…
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Most often many of us do not realize that as much as we need to take care of our face, neck and hands, our feet also need regular health and beauty care. Let us take a good look at our legs now.
For many women, the thighs become darker than the other parts, especially where the panty snugly fits. For women who are slightly heavier, thighs brush against each other and result in the thickening of the skin. They do not discuss this issue with their GP or with a beautician and the thighs remain with a rough skin texture.
For such problems, especially if you have to avoid infections, try using an anti-bacterial cream after consulting your doctor. You can bleach dark areas of your legs in a parlour. If you use a hand and body lotion everyday, it will help.
During summers, to prevent eruption of rashes, use powders with zinc oxide. It is hygienic to have bath twice a day. Use powder after bath.
Avoid wearing tight fitting undergarments. Your undergarments must be clean. Use cotton underwear because synthetic ones prevent entry of air into the body and may cause darkening of the skin and result in other skin problems.
Pedicure
In Latin ‘pedi’ means foot. Our legs support the weight of our entire body and take us everywhere, everyday. Hence, they are the ones that tend to get more fatigued than any other part of our body. When you feel tired, all you need to do is to put up your feet and relax.
Unfortunately, most people don’t think it is important to devote time and attention to their feet. Pedicure is meant not only to enhance the beauty of the legs, but also to help strengthen the leg muscles. Those who cannot afford a pedicure in a beauty parlour can adopt a simple routine at home too. This will help to add a touch of beauty and strength to your feet.
To be continued…
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HANDLE WITH CARE
Some women are allergic to washing soaps and harsh detergents used for washing dishes or clothes. Their hands may develop calluses, become rough and the skin may peel off. Women who are allergic to chemicals or those who do gardening can use rubber gloves to protect their hands from harsh chemicals or chores.
Some women are also allergic to lemon, orange , tamarind and products containing citric acid. They need to identify their sensitivity to such products and protect their hands from being affected.
Care of Nails
You can guess a person’s health by looking as his or her nails. Eyes and nails reflect the status of a person’s health. There is a tendency among people to abuse their nails. You will find people who handle their nails roughly using them to scratch things out, peel harsh objects or fruits, open tins and cans or packets, itch their head or body, bite their nails or peel them off etc. Some even use their nails to perform tasks which only a knife should do. Usually the tendency is to ignore the nails completely unless they develop an infection or are hurt.
Nails that are not treated properly may become discolored or brittle and keep breaking off. Nails that are not taken care off properly are prone to the invasion of bacteria.
Rub and massage olive gently around each nail of your finger when you do your home care routine everyday. Applying mehndi over the nails not only enhances their beauty but will stay for a long time and is antiseptic too. Those who do not have the time for applying mehndi can use a good nail polish over their nails. Remember to only use good quality nail polish. If you were to use low cost, low grade nail polish, chances are the chemicals in the polish will gradually keep mixing with your food and cause harm.
To be continued…
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LIP SENSE
Did you know that getting enough calcium might help to prevent another problem associated with aging, thin lips? As age progresses, the configuration of the whole face will change, creating an illusion that lips are becoming thinner in older people. Bones may get thinner, due to osteoporosis, which affects the entire skeleton. Or people lose their teeth and get dentures or caps , which changes their bite. Either way, the lips may invert, or turn inward and appear thinner. Also the corners of the mouth may become angular.
Consequently, preventing osteoporosis and tooth loss and getting good bridgework, can keep your lips looking plump and youthful.
Often, lips not only become thin, but also wrinkle. These are called , ‘Whistle lines,’ which are vertical lines around the lips and are almost the exclusive property of older lips. Whistle lines are more pronounced in smokers. Years of pursing the lips to inhale cigarettes accelerates the wrinkling process.
Facial exercises aren’t the way to smooth out these lines, no matter what you’ve heard or read. On the other hand, stretching the mouth, grimacing or contorting the skin makes the wrinkles worse. The only way to erase whistle lines are dermabrasion, chemical peel collagen injections or silicon injections. For those in professions that need constant exposure to people, this may sound a good proposition, but for others, it is advisable to consider the matter with care.
Whistle lines can be particularly annoying because they act as little canals, allowing lip colour to escape from the lips so that it feathers beyond their border. How can you get your lipstick to say put? Wait for the next issue to learn the secret!
To be continued…
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FAIR AND JUST
Bleaching causes skin colour to brighten up at a superficial level. However, in scraiber treatment, we use a sheet which when vibrates and will remove dead cells. This enables new cells to grow. We can use the scraiber treatment to remove dead cells. Those who aspire for a lighter complexion can go in for this treatment once in fifteen days. However, it is not advisable to have the treatment done often.
There are some good household treatment methods to improve one’s complexion.
You can make a paste of neem, green gram flour, turmeric (kasturi manjal), and medicinal ingredients such as Boondikai powder and kuppai menichcharu. Any dabba chetty shops will have these products. Mix all the ingredients in equal quantities and rub over your body to get an enhanced complexion over days.
Take the extracts of orange and lemon and mix with rose water and apply on your body with a sponge. Wait for sometime and wash off. If you do this frequently, it will help lighten the skin.
When you go out in the sun, ensure that you don’t wear tight clothes, especially the blouse. Many a time you will find that women who where tight clothes have a tanned skin which contrasts with the skin that is covered with clothes. This contrast is very prominent. It is better to wear loose garments. Also try to use sun screen lotion to prevent your skin from darkening due to exposure to sun.
Ensure that grime and oil do not accumulate on your face and neck. Try to avoid using handkerchiefs. It is better to use face tissue because if you keep using the same hanky again and again, there is a tendency for sweat, grime and bacteria to spread over the face. Throw the tissue away after wiping your face one or two times.
To be continued…
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CARING HANDS
Hand problems like rashes and dermatitis may need medical attention. Hand eczema, rash and dermatitis describe general skin problems marked by inflammation, 
itching, redness, crustiness, blisters, watery discharges, fissures or other unpleasantness. Often the cause is unknown. The most common type of hand dermatitis is housewives’ eczema, usually aggravated by irritating materials such as chemicals or detergents. Allergic contact dermatitis is caused by an allergic reaction to some substance your hands have touched.
The best way to tackle hand problems is to go to a dermatologist to find out what the culprit is. If no one substance can be identified and eliminated, then protecting the hands is the best idea.
Here are a few suggestions:
Check ingredients. While hand creams and creamy soaps are of possible benefit, people with dermatitis should be careful. Fragrances, coloring agents, deodorants, preservatives and even lanolin may aggravate the problem. Doctors recommend using plain white petroleum jelly as a moisturizing agent.
Baby your hands. Sometimes women with babies are vulnerable to dermatitis. Protect your hands when touching soiled diapers, harsh detergents and the usual run of household chemicals and also during extensive handling of food, especially fruits.
You may decide to wear gloves. Rubber gloves can irritate hands. A combination of plastic and cotton gloves would be ideal. You can use cotton gloves as a liner under the plastic gloves for added protection. Do not wear plastic gloves for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. If water enters the glove, immediately remove it. Wash the insides of the gloves several times a week by turning them inside out and rinsing them under hot water. Allow them to dry thoroughly and sprinkle them with talc.
Avoid contact when you handle shampoo, hair lotion, hair cream and hair dye, by wearing plastic gloves
Avoid wearing rings when doing housework. Take of your rings before washing your hands to avoid soap caking under them. Clean your rings frequently with a brush.
Frustration and emotional stress can also express themselves in hand dermatitis. Hence take care of these aspects.
Damage to hands isn’t permanent and can be quickly reversed. The skin on the hand completely regenerates so with proper care it can become as soft and lovely as a baby’s So cheer up!
To be continued…
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YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR COMPLEXION
Normally, when we do a facial and/or bleach, the face becomes bright and radiant. But the complexion does not change. Moreover, when you go out in the sun, even if you have a make-up on, your face tends to darken. . Recently, certain beauty treatment procedures have come up which can change and improve your complexion. We call this, ‘Fairness secret.’ This whitening treatment can enhance dark complexion and is beneficial for those who are about to get married as well as those who like a fair complexion. The Fairness secret treatment is nothing but a combination of cleansing, toning and facial masks, which will over time improve the complexion and brighten up the face.
This treatment can be done on women over fifteen years. There is no upper age limit. As soon as you commence treatment in one of our clinics, you can feel the difference in just one sitting. In about 4-5 sittings, your face would have acquired a fairer tone. After a few sittings, you can continue this procedure at home , with our counsel.
Neck
If you look at many women you will find that their faces are glowing but their neck will not be as bright. This is because most women concentrate on improving only the face and do not pay attention to the neck.
If you wear heavy chains or a 2-3 chains continuously or wear neck-tight jewelry like chokers frequently the colour of your skin in the neck region will darken. Some chains we wear do not allow air to enter. Such chains will lead to darkening of the neck area. Some women are allergic to jewelry made of brass, bronze and other metals. Some are allergic to silver and even gold. The allergy leads to darkening of the neck area. Warts may erupt and spoil the beauty of the neck. By adopting some treatment procedures, we can cure such conditions and improve the beauty of the neck. We will see these in the next issue.
To be continued…
