This summer promise yourself that you will look fresh and gorgeous. Even if you are barefaced without a trace of make-up. All you’ve to do is be a true water baby. And by that we don’t mean just splashing in the surf during your holiday by the sea. Water can be your beauty Aid No 1, whenever, whenever you are – holidaying, sweating it out at your office or unwinding on a leisurely Sunday at home. Decide that you can’t do without water on your dressing table.

Aqua Skin

Although you must, as a rule, buy a water-based moisturizer, work out your skin’s needs. Maybe just plain water works for you. Herbal beautician Shahnaz Husain says that flower-based lotions like rose water can be sprayed on the face to tone and refresh it. "A rose-based skin tonic or cucumber water (made by diluting cucumber juice with water) can be used to spray the face," she says. "Keep them cool in the fridge before use. Honey water helps dry skins more, because honey is a humecant. It dehydrates the skin. 

Besides this, make a habit of splashing your face gently with water for instant freshness (try and use mineral water). You can splash as many as 20 times as long as you don’t use very hot or cold water on your skin (which can cause fine vein to appear on your face). Steam face regularly to release dirt (five minutes for dry skin and 10 minutes if it is oily). Pat dry with tissue and moisturize. Moisturizers should be used damp on the skin. This seals in the water and helps skin to hold the moisture better.

Soak Suds

So there you are again, water is your only escape route out of unkempt hair and legs. Soaking feet and hands helps to get rid of fatigue, more so if you add a pinch of salt to the water you use. This softens the dry, dead skin around the your soles, easing its removal. Soak feet for 15-20 minutes. Shahnaz recommends hot and cold contrast soaks for the feet to help boost circulation. Soak your feet first in hot water and then in cold water for two minutes each. Do this for about 15 minutes, once a week.

Bye Bye BO

The drink of life

• You know you should, but do you do it? Drink at least 15 glasses of water a day
• Mix the fruit juice of your choice with mineral water for a healthy soda.
• Is there a waterfall you can get under, or a brook to swim in? Don’t pass up the opportunity. Great for blood circulation.
• Sinking into a bathtub has a tranquilizing effect on the mind. Throw in mineral salts if you can.
• Use water as mouth freshener along with a sprig of mint, honey and lime.
• Make a compress for dry, flaky, irritated skin using water. Use gauze dipped in tolerably cold water. Apply on affected area and leave on for 10 minutes. Instant relief. 
• Sebastian Keipp, who wrote My Water Cure, recommends using water as a healing power to cure disease. "Walk barefoot on grass or immerse your legs in cold water up to the knees. This increases resistance to illness."
• With water, remember, more is always better.

Absolute hair highlight

Shahnaz Husain agrees. "In the summer months, hair collects more dirt and washing it regularly is necessary. Especially in cities where chemical and pollutants to cling to the scalp. In summer, hair should be washed three times a week or more, if needed. But use a small quantity of shampoo and choose a mild, herbal one."

Give your hair a cold rinse prior to turning off the shower-it closes follicles so locks in shine.

Home beauty recipes and remedies have been around for centuries. Remarkable remedies were discovered purely out of necessity. Over a period of time, many home remedies have proven to be effective and natural, therefore healthy! Making your own beauty products costs a fraction of what you pay for over-the-counter preparations. 

Keep in mind any allergies or sensitivity you may have to some ingredients; such as glycerin, lemons, strawberries, eggs, etc. Check with your doctor or dermatologist if you are not sure you can use certain ingredients. 

Pamper your skin with these face packs:

2. Lemons also have exfoliating properties: rub half a lemon on your face with a hint of sugar granules to remove dead cells and lighten a tan. You can also rub on hyper-pigmented areas like elbows to lighten them. Mix with a little cucumber juice to make a natural astringent. Condition your hair with the juice of one lemon mixed with a glass of lukewarm water or get rid of dandruff by rubbing your scalp with hot oil and lemon juice. 

Ways to achieve a Smooth Skin 

2. Blend the egg white and honey well and then apply on the face. This makes your skin smooth and helps to reduce wrinkles. 

3. Blend turmeric powder with milk and apply on the face. It removes the tan and helps to reduce the facial hair. Scrub it off with a good face scrub and then wash with cold water. You can also keep it overnight. 

4. Mix oatmeal along with curds and tomato juice and apply on the face. Keep it on for 20 minutes and then wash it off with cold water. It helps to remove the tan and lightens the skin. 

5. Apply raw sliced potato on the face. Reduces blemishes and other scars. 

6. Cucumber juice is an excellent astringent. Applying cucumber juice on the face tightens the pores. Wash it off after 15 minutes.

7. Applying turmeric powder along with limejuice removes the tan. Limejuice is a natural bleach. 

8. Dried orange peels mixed with curds help reduce blemishes and scars. Wash it off after 15 minutes with cold water. 

9. Honey makes the skin glow. It makes the skin soft and smooth. Helps reduce wrinkles. 

10. Citrus face packs and sandalwood face packs are excellent for oily skin. 

11. Rubbing ice cubes on the face tightens the pores and increases blood circulation.

It never fails. Just when you thought you’d seen the last of the face invaders, they’re back and larger than life! Suddenly, you feel like an alien, and the only thing you want to do move…to another planet. But wait! Instead of waging war on you skin by blasting blemishes wit supersonic zit creams and harsh scrubbing, take the kinder, gentler approach, just like the women from the past who made good use of everyday items like fruits, vegetables, nuts and cereals for enhancing their beauty. Grandma’s recipes obviously work, because even the most exotic spas of Europe are veering towards herbal and natural therapies.

The best part? You can whip these up in seconds using things that are sitting in the refrigerator or on the kitchen shelf. Masks, facials, packs and cleansers made of homegrown stuff all work in gentle, natural ways to soothe, stimulate, relax, tone or clear the skin. Though you may go according to different or problem skin types, a tutti-frutti approach may be better: everyone’s skin is a combination of oily and dry elements. You might want to use a mask for oily skin on the nose, forehead and chin and mask for dry skin everywhere else.

You can even take a Chinese restaurant approach, and combine, say honey with egg in the same skin category. However, you can cook up your mask, apply it to a cleansed skin and let it do the good work for fifteen or twenty minutes while you relax. Feet up on the pillows or resting on the slant board will double the benefits of any helper you put on the skin. Remember, skin is an all-over affair. Don’t stop with just nourishing your face – spread the good work to hands, to the throats and shoulders. After twenty minutes, splash away the facial with cool or lukewarm water.

What is your skin type? Get a headstart on the road to a dear complexion by understanding the basics:

• Oily sin usually has a shiny surface, visible pores and is prone to breakouts.
• Dry skin often feels taut, slightly rough and tends to chap and flake.
• Combination skin is oily at the T-zone (the forehead, nose and chin) and drier on the cheeks.
• Sensitive skin is thin, delicate and easily irritated. It has a red and blotchy.

Natural Masks

• Break two large bananas, toss into a blender along with half of the peel and one tablespoon of raw honey. Blend to liquefy, pat on, let dry for 20 minutes.
• Mix equal proportions of honey, fresh cream, or oats and almond paste. Pat on, let dry for 20 minutes.
• Peel and pit an avocado, liquefy in the blender with one tablespoon of raw honey. Pat on, let dry for 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water.

Oily Skin Masks

• Wash and core two crisp apples, but do not peel, liquefy the whole thing into the blender. Pat on, let dry for 20 minutes. Splash on with cool water.

• Wash a big, ripe tomato and liquefy the whole thing in the blender. Pat on, let dry for 20 minutes, splash off with cool water.

Two nourishing masks for all skin types:

• Blend two egg yolks, two tablespoons of honey, three drops of almond oil. Pat on, let dry for 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water.

• Grind half a cup of yellow mustard seeds, adding 2 litres of water in it. Also grind in a few rose petals. Apply on skin. Let dry for 20 minutes. Rinse well.

One Clarifying facial mask, good for all skins (to be used occassionally):

• Peel a ripe banana and puree in the blender. Pat on the fruit, let dry for 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water.

Two cleansing and bleaching masks (for faded, end of summer tans as well as winter-drab or season-change sallow skin)

• Add the juice of two lemons to one cup of buttermilk. blend, pat on, let dry for 20 minutes. Splash off with cool water.
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• Liquefy one whole lemon (washed, not peeled) and half an orange (washed, not peeled) in the blender, add one cup of plain yoghurt. blend, pat on, let dry for 20 minutes. Rnse off with cool water.
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Here are a few more any-time masks

• For a glowing skin, cucumber mixed with fresh coconut water gives remarkable results.
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• use mashed bananas and strawberries as a pack to freshen up the complexion.
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• For curing pimples, apply a mixture of haldi (turmeric) and sandalwood on the face.
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Pimples can also be cured with a light massage of rose and sevti flowers extract. The extract is easily prepared by distilling a number of flowers in a distilling apparatus. The extract should be applied on the pimples three times a day

The soft chime of the Christmas bells the distant cathedral towers are already bringing in a touch of festivity to the short sunny afternoons that tend to melt away into cold evenings. The fun of celebration and the pain in bidding goodbye to the century is here. And each of us would like to good in the millennium. But as the dry northerly winds brings in an ill omen for your skin, you must be ready with your army of moisturizers, cold creams and cleansing milk to fight away the elements that try to turn your glowing skin into a dry and parched piece of dirt. And if you are not, you better be prepared. For an youthful and healthy skin not only reflects your beauty, it also enhances your personality, turning you into an element of eternal attraction. Hope you wouldn’t be able to resist yourself from being called the star of the evening!

In the days of our mothers and grandmothers, skin care started since childhood. Massaging a body oil and keeping it lying in the open, under the sun, was a regular practice. It not only helped in pigments to synthesize the vital Vitamin D needed for the baby’s bones. With maturity, the teenage girl would be asked to pamper her skin with pastes of turmeric, besan and fresh cream. In those days these simple products were just brought in from the kitchen and never sold in attractive containers with costly herbal labels on them. 

But with the changing scenario of the hectic city life seems to sqeeze out all the energy and youth left in you. The pollution and the dirt is the worst enemy of your skin. Morever, busy working women no longer have time to pamper themselves with home-made products. What they can find time for is just a visit to the parlor, a quick facial and then probably an application of a popular night cream at night during the dry winter months. 

Though synthetic products are flooding the markets, beauticians and skin care specialists are going back to the days of our mothers. They are advising to hold on the age-old home made products to keep your closer to nature. It is nature’s winds that turn your skin dry, yet it is nature that guards the secret to your beautiful skin. 

Our skin is made up of different layers. The outer epithelial layer our epidermis is the most likely target of our environment as the harsh elements can hardly reach the dermal layer that lies below. The epidermis constantly peels off and rejuvenates. But during this course of molting the skin looks dry and you tend to lose the natural glow that you were so proud of. The peeling off is more likely to occur during the winter months as the winds are dry and squeeze out the natural oily texture of the skin. Again there are many who are allergic to the cold environment. They suffer from painful allergic manifestations that have a detrimental effect on the skin and can even lead to infections. They fail to acclimatize with the sudden change in the climate and the greatest effect is felt on the skin. Skin happens to be the reflection of how you are affected by changes in your environment.

Another important enemy in modern city life is the wide range of pollutants that precipitate in what we call the winter smog. These pollutants not only darken your skin, the dirt particles clog the skin pores and do not allow the skin to breathe. In the process your skin shrinks and you look older.

But you can turn your tomorrow into the day after with regular hair and skin care programme. Remember, your scalp is also a part of your skin and requires regular attention, otherwise your hair too will fall off easily and little can be done once this downfall starts. good skin is not one that has been taken for granted and abused with a variety of products, but one where you know what products your skin needs. The texture of all skin types are not same and nor do they have the same requirements. The first step of our skin care treatment is to have knowledge of the skin type – whether it is dry, oily or neutral. The attention you give to your skin today will definitely be reflected years later. 

However, application of various products only on the outer surface does not lead to an ultimate healthy skin. What one needs is a healthy diet and a peaceful mind. The meals should have ample amount of juicy fruits and vegetables along with at least ten glasses of water a day. Intake of liquids help your skin to retain the essential oils automatically and acts as a natural protection against dryness. The diet should be deficient in vitamins, specially vitamin C and vitamin E.

Both these vitamins are essential to keep the skin soft and supple. Though most of the modern skin care products contain vitamin E, it is advised to drink milk and eat the white of an egg to assure regular intake of vitamin E.

And as far as vitamin C is concerned a lot of green vegetables and fruits will serve the purpose.

Again, there are certain parts of the body that require special care during the winter months. These are you feet and hands. Specially the feet tend to crack and they are the most neglected areas, constantly exposed to dirt and dryness. Your scalp too needs special mention as many of us suffer from the dandruff that can have long term effect on the like hair fall. And what about your lovely nose? It must look horrible with the blackheads crowding on the soft exposed part.

Three elements of skin care are needed for any skin during winter. These are a deep cleansing milk to remove the dirt or excess oil adhering to the skin. This is followed by astringent applications that cools, tightens and tones the skin enabling it to maintain a natural balance. And last but not the least an oil based nutrient rich in vitamin E to nourish the skin and keep it supple