The Beauty and the Bride

Healthy habits go a long way in maintaining the skin, hair and weight. If you are a health conscious chick, you probably are quite prepared for your upcoming wedding already. However these few homemade skincare tips can really celebrate and enhance your beauty even more. While for my more relaxed and not-so-health conscious brides to be, these are your miracle tools to achieve that flawless skin on the wedding day.

Our kitchen contains such magical ingredients that can whip up effective and efficient potions for skincare and bodycare much better and cheaper than most cosmetic products available in the market. Incorporate a few of these in your pre-bridal routine and watch the results for yourself.

• Have you heard it enough already? Well maybe you should really start following it now. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. It will flush out all your toxins and hydrate your skin and giving you a natural dewy skin that will make any make-up glow on your luminescent skin.

• The cleanse, tone and moisturize cannot be emphasized on enough. However another skincare ritual that must be incorporated in your skin care regime is scrubbing once in three days at least. A great homemade scrub is your oatmeal. Boil and mash some oats, mix it with a teaspoon of lemon juice and apply evenly on the face and neck. Let it dry for 20 minutes and then run your fingers in a circular motion on the mask before washing it off. Regularly doing this for a month will give you a more even and glowing skin.

• Oils are one of nature’s biggest blessing to us. Take a mixture of a few drops of almond oil, coconut oil and olive oil and apply it on your face, and all over the body. Massage with your fingertips for about 10 minutes. Use a cleanser and lukewarm water to wash it off. Then splash some cold water on your face. It works wonders by giving you the most soft, blemish-free and supple skin. Fairness and glow are added incentives. Try this for two weeks and see it work even better than your salon body polishing and face polishing.

• Wedding preparations involve a whole lot of check-lists, the guests, the venue, the invitations, the vows, the décor..its endless. Amidst such heavy-duty preparations we are not able to always apply and reapply sunscreen and wash off our makeup every single day before sleeping (though we absolutely should). What it results in is a lot of unprecedented skin damage. Well brides, don’t panic. There is an easy concoction that can reverse this damage considerably. Take two teaspoons of fresh carrot juice and rose water and make a mix of it. Apply it on your face and let it set on the skin. Wash off after some time, it will heal sunburns tan or even inflammations of the skin on regular use and give a hydrated and youthful looking skin. What more you can also store this concoction in your refrigerator!!

• For overall health and great skin on your wedding try ditching alcohol and coffee for at least two months before the wedding. An occasional binge can be forgiven but try avoiding it at most costs as it can lead to tired looking and patchy skin.

• A beauty treatment, all Indian brides swear by is this mixture of milk, turmeric and gram flour (these are ingredients easily available in all Indian kitchens). If you can lay your hands on these products ensure you apply the paste of these three ingredients for at least ten days prior to the wedding, to see the most luminescent and youthful skin. Milk is a natural moisturizer, while turmeric removes blemishes and lightens skin tones while gram flour is a good exfoliator.

• Experiencing some sagging or loose skin? Obviously you will be worried and going to your dermatologist repeatedly. But before pressing the panic button, take some delicious honey, olive oil and lemon juice. Make a potion out of it and apply it on the sagging skin, you will notice more shapely and firmer skin after fifteen days of application.

• While our beauty regime consciously or unconsciously concentrates on our face, it must be remembered that being body-beautiful is just as important. So continue with those cardio and crunches as well to have a well-toned body that looks great on your wedding day. But here is a little secret for you. While if you manage to knock away those pounds, it’s absolutely brilliant, but in case you don’t , there is a one-stop destination for the most beautiful wedding dresses in all sizes and silhouettes that fit you like a dream, check out Adorona.com and fret not!! After all stress is your worst enemy during these pre-wedding preparation times. It makes you put on weight and also causes acne and zits on the face. Try and avoid it all costs.

• You will be surprised to know the role the modest orange juice and other citrus fruits can play in your path to wedding glory. Kiwi, apples, lemons and oranges are all great sources of Vitamin C. Regular intake of lemon and orange juice can help you cure acne marks and scars on your face. Lemon juice application is great for scar removal and skin lightening.

• A hugely beneficial and easily available drink, green tea is a great antioxidant and very skin friendly. The used green tea bags can be refrigerated and then used as cleansers on the skin; it rejuvenates the skin immediately and makes it look soft and fresh. This is also a great remedy for tired eyes. Apply these tea-packs as eye bags and keep them for 15 minutes. Your eyes will be soothed immediately. Cucumber slices are also a great option to soothe tired eyes.

• A yogurt and strawberry face pack is your go-to homemade remedy for dull and tanned skin. Yogurt has hydrating and purifying effects and properties that can actually improve the texture of your skin, while strawberry has cooling and antioxidant properties that removes dead cells and dullness from the skin.

• Our hair is the best accessory that we have, and on our wedding day it’s going to add a great deal to our wedding look, so it’s important that we keep our hair healthy and properly nourished. A few home-measures can go a long way in achieving lustrous, beautiful tresses.

• Eating lots of bananas, apples and drinking lots of milk will definitely give you beautiful hair. Besides that, before you splurge on that all expensive salon hair treatments, try the homely hot oil massage. Take coconut oil, almond oil and olive oil, heat it and massage it gently on your scalp. Keep it overnight and was it off in the morning to reveal stronger, silkier hair. Do this routine three times a week to see quick and drastic results.

• A great natural hair mask is egg yolk, yogurt and green tea. Blend in the three ingredients and make a fine mixture. Apply this hair mask on the scalp and as many hair strands as possible. Cover your head for 45 minutes and then wash your hair with shampoo and condition. This restricts hair fall and stimulates hair growth (is a great remedy for thinning hair.) It also brings luster and strength to the hair.

So here is hoping this post has been of some help to you my dear brides to be and will make you an even more prettier and happier bride.