Category Archives: Do it Yourself

Homemade Skin Toners – Do It Yourself

by Harini

Hello lovelies!

Do you regularly follow CTM routine?. Well, I do (except few cheat days :P). I never gave importance to toning until I came to know that CTM is must for facial skin. I have couple of bad experiences with branded toners and was shocked to see the ingredients list. This is what made me to think about homemade toners. Today I am sharing my homemade toners recipe and I can assure you that they are completely safe to use.

Why Use Toner?:

Why should a toner be regularly used? Skin toner helps tightening pores, restore skin’s natural pH level, remove superficial impurities, and preparing the skin to be moisturized. So, using toners regularly also leaves your skin smooth and supple.


Why Use DIY Homemade Toner?:

The best thing about home made toners is that they are alcohol and paraben free. When a toner is made out of natural ingredients, there is no way it could harm your skin. Plus they are easy on pockets. Now lets see the preparation method and benefits of Homemade Toners.


1. Green Tea Toner : 

We have already seen the benefits of green tea in my previous post. Green tea works great on acne prone skin and also reduces blemishes. To prepare this green tea toner, boil 1 cup of water and add tea bag to it. Once the water is back to normal temperature, squeeze out the tea bag and remove it. Our green tea toner is ready to use. Store it in a clean container and use it everyday after cleansing.


2. Cucumber Toner :

Cucumber toner is very mild and great for all skin types. To prepare Cucumber toner, take half cucumber and grind it well until smooth adding 1/2 cup water. Strain the mixture and transfer into a clean, dry bottle. Your cucumber toner is ready to use.

Quick tip: Both these toners can also be used as eye pack. Just soak them in cotton balls and place it on your eye balls.

How to Use Toner On Your Skin?:

Cleansing is followed by toning in the CTM Routine. Take small amount of toner in a piece of cotton and dab them on your face. If you have stored the toner in a spray bottle, spray them on your face directly. Make sure to close your eyes first and spray them at a distance of 6 cm. Let the toner completely dry and there is no need to rinse it away. Follow with a moisturizer. Use refrigerated toner, I must say its so refreshing. I usually refrigerate them only for a week and discard it later.

Do try this yourself and share you experience. Till next time take care and keep glowing 🙂

Most Effective Homemade Scrubs for Smooth and Flawless Skin

by Arshita

Hello everyone!

The one thing that stands between us and our smooth and flawless skin is those rough dead cells. Once they are removed, we experience smooth, baby-soft skin that is enviable. So, here I am sharing some homemade scrubs to get rid of the dead cells and enjoy smooth and flawless soft skin.

Oatmeal Scrub: By now, we all are proverbial with the benefits of oatmeal scrub. The steel cut oats are best for skin; we can use both full oats and ground oats. Take two tablespoons of uncooked oats or ground oats and soak it in two tablespoons of olive oil. Once, it is completely soaked, take it in your both hands and gently scrub on the face and neck in circular motions. Scrub for 5 minutes and wash with an herbal face wash. Oats work as a great exfoliate and olive oil naturally moisturizes the skin. The result will be a soft glowing skin.

Brown Sugar Scrub: Sugar is used for scrubbing since the time of Cleopatra. Take two tablespoons of brown sugar and mix it with three tablespoons of lemon juice and one tablespoon of coconut oil. Now, gently scrub face and neck area with this mixture and wash with plain water. All the ingredients are best for lightening the skin tone and removing tan while also scrubbing off the dead cells. This scrub will result in soft, smooth and lighter-toned skin.

Almond Scrub: Almond is very good for keeping the skin clear and glowing. Take 5-6 almonds and ground it into powder. Mix it with two tablespoon honey and gently scrub your face and neck area with this mixture.
Almond naturally moisturizes the skin and makes skin glowing; on the other hand, honey removes tan and makes skin visibly clear and smooth. Regular use of this scrub will give you an enviable glowing healthy skin.

Banana Scrub: Banana clears impurities and reduces fine lines. Mash one ripe (not rotten) banana and mix with one tablespoon honey and one tablespoon steel cut oats. Now, scrub your face and neck area with this mixture for 5-10 minutes and wash off with plain water. This scrub will remove your tan and give you an instant glowing skin.

Rice Flour Scrub: Rice flour is vastly used in Asian countries to get smooth glowing skin. Take two tablespoons of rice flour and two tablespoons yogurt. Now, scrub face and neck area with this mixture for 5-10 minutes and then wash off with plain water.

Rice flour is a natural exfoliate, and yoghurt is also natural skin whitening agent. Use this scrub daily before taking bath and you will get a smooth, glowing skin at home.

So, try these homemade natural scrubs at home and in no time get baby-soft enviable skin. I hope you guys like my tips. Do let us know how you like it.

My Homemade Natural Henna Powder Recipe For Hair

Here is the most amazing hair treatment I use for my hair regularly. I have chocolate brown soft curls. Henna is something I use to use since my school days. I have been using brands like nupur and coronation but, they on usage made my scalp extremely dry, my hair rough and frizzy like crazy. After 5 years, now I got the perfect powder for my hair. This is completely homemade chemical free natural and better than any henna out there. Let’s see the procedure. Shall we?

You Need:

  • Fresh Mehendi Leaves.

That’s all. I know some think it’s difficult to get but try and ask your maids. You will be pleasantly surprised

Procedure:

  • Get the leaves from the plant. Make sure you don’t have small twigs in them.
  • Dry them under sun till they are crisp like chips.
  • Powder them in a mixer. Use the larger jar first you get to make powders and then the smallest jar. This way you will get the finest powder. Otherwise it will be a bit fibery when water is added.
  • Store it in a dry air tight container. No water should come in contact with this.
  • Tada.. You are done!


Extras:

You can add amla, hibiscus, methi or any other natural ingredient in powder forms only. It will add to the nutrients. I use hibiscus leaves. Dry them and add. Even the powder of dried flowers can be used. Curry leaves also make a great addition.

How To Use?:

Mix the powder around 4 spoons in an iron tava. Use curd or tea decoction only. Leave it over night. Add 2 egg whites in morning and apply all over dry and already shampooed hair and even on the roots. Cover yourself in a shower cap and let it work for 2 hours. It should not get dry.  Rinse only with warm water. Dry yourself naturally and apply oil for an overnight colour sealing technique. Use pure oils only if possible. Castor oil works the best and after that almond oil works great too. Coconut oil or any other can be used. Wash in the morning with a good shampoo and condition your hair. Dry naturally.

The 4 spoons come for medium length and thick hair. I have just above chest line length hair and quite thick too. The henna swells after coming in contact with the water in tea or curd so it suffices. Curd if used gives a deep reddish brown tinge where as tea gives dark brown with slight red notes. Brown haired people can use teal for a shiny mahogany hair. Black haired can use with curd to give natural highlights to their hair. Concentrate on ends and the lengths than the roots for a natural gradient colour effect. My scalp is lighter so it looks honey brown and my ends mahogany brown.

Ingredient Wise Benefits:

Henna colours your hair, conditions, gives immense shine (refer to my clicks). It has healing properties and even heals any bumps or wounds on the scalp due to itching, dandruff and excessive scratching. We used to use it on fungal wounds, injuries for a scar less antibacterial treatment. It will help heal wounds without scars.

Curd is a very good anti dandruff treatment. The lactic acid will not only remove dead cells from you scalp, also smoothens your hair and locks the colour. It is a very good oil regulating agent for oily scalp.

Egg white is one of the best known anti frizz treatments for curly frizzy hair. The extreme protein content in it strengthens hair form roots to tips. It even seals splits.

Tea decoction works as a colour enhancer, anti oxidant, shining serum, smoothens and helps in damage
repair very well. I use tea instead of curd.

The iron form tava not only enhances the colour but also is extremely good for hair health. (You will notice a black substance in the morning after you mix it. Don’t worry it’s the iron seeping out because of the tea decoction working on the tava. It is very very good for the colour. Don’t ignore it)

My hair looks reddish coppery brown because of the direct sunlight but its deep mahogany actually.

The Differences:

Staying powder: The market henna as I have observed over years and I am sure many would have noticed, you can see your shampoo lather and water turning orangish every time you wash it. My henna stayed for a month solid without fading. I did notice a bit of colour the very next day but that was the residual powder left on my scalp not the colour loss from hair. Since I colour once every month, I noticed that the colour only got enhanced deeper and didn’t lose any.

Chemical Problems: Market henna uses food colours to give the colour where as natural henna is all natural. These food colours even cause skin cancer on prolonged usage and can even damage our nerve cells. (Not to scare you but please be sure to use it unless you don’t have any other alternative).

Other Side Effects: Over 5 years, my hair became extremely frizzy; dandruff which wasn’t in my history became a daily nuisance; redness and bumps all over my hair for excessive itching and scratching. I used lot of homemade treatments and commercial market ones but all of them got neutralized with the henna I used. As soon as I switched, my dandruff was gone in just 5 washes, hair recovered from damage and frizz with the help of tea and olive oil. My wounds are gone and scalp is clean as ever.

Benefits: Obviously homemade has more benefits in regard with nutrient content, softening, shiny, replenished hair recovering from damage. My splits have gone completely and I have not seen any since 5 months. I used to envy straight hair but now, I love my gorgeous curls to death. Thank you mama!  It was her of course who helped me.

I hope you find this useful and any more doubts please feel free to ask. Also there is another homemade treatment for henna coloured hair which I will be doing soon. Stay tuned girls!