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Carrot Face Mask

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As I have pointed out earlier that not only fruits but vegetables also make great face masks and are extensively endowed with nutrients required for our skin. Spinach serves as a great hydrating face mask and beetroot can be used to give color to a pale complexion.
Today, I would like to discuss carrots with you. Carrots are, as you all are well aware, rich in vitamin A and helps improve our vision. But, actually, carrot is also very helpful for oily skin. It clears the extra oil from the skin and also takes care of pimples, acne and dark spots. Boil a carrot for 15 minutes. It would turn very soft and easy to mash. Mash it or blend it with lemon juice, orange juice or even the water in which it was boiled. Apply it on your face for 30 minutes and wash off with cold water. Your skin would be glowing. You can open your pores before you apply this mask as it helps carrot to act better on the skin. 
For people with dry skin or normal skin, you can blend carrot with honey or milk cream or even any nourishing and moisturizing fruit.

Milk Turmeric Solution for glowing skin

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A very simple remedy which works for all skin types and not only protects skin from all kinds of outbreaks but also improves the skin tone and makes your skin flawless and radiant. This remedy can also be stored for some days in the fridge so you need not make it everyday.
Buy turmeric root from the market. Make sure they are long and thin and rich in color. If they are more brownish than yellow, they are old roots. Try to buy new or better if you can plant them in your garden. Turmeric is really good for health apart from its beauty uses. Take a cup of raw milk (better if it is cow or goat milk) and boil in a single root of turmeric in it for an hour or so till the root loses its color. Let the milk cool. Discard the root and refrigerate the milk. Dip a cotton in the milk and apply it on your face. Wash your face with this solution as much as possible or at least make a habit to use it once a day or once in a week. This would control the oil production in the body and also improve your skin tone making your skin flawless. Turmeric also helps in preventing skin breakouts. Thus, this solution is great for all skin types. You can also use this milk to mix your face packs and scrubs.

Natural Moisturizers for Oily Skin

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Oily Skin mostly feels like a bane to everyone who has it. And, most likely, it is. Because, the skin is prone to the onslaught of acne and pimples and regular outbreaks. A slight imbalance of food habits can also tip the scales and result in more oil production. And, there seems to be nothing one can do about them. But, the boon part of having oily skin is that you are not prone to wrinkles and fine lines as much as people with dry or normal skin are. But, this seems like a small compensation when you have to invest so much amount of care to tend to oily skin. 

Cleansing is not that big a concern. There are a number of natural ingredients which can clean the oily skin. Milk, citrus fruit juices, tomato, besan or any other flour, baking soda, clay masks are all great cleansers when it comes to oily skin and they also tend to control the oil (sebum) production in the body. Green / Black Tea can act as a toner. But, my concern today is how to moisturize oily skin? I have been asked by many of my readers how to take care of oily skin. But, I am, honestly, clueless when it comes to moisturizing the oily skin. You can not use any ingredient like milk cream or oils like you can for normal or dry skin.
I would say that there are two ingredients in my mind which can be used to moisturize an oily skin. And, yes, oily skin also needs to be moisturized. Otherwise, it gets dull and greasy. 
First ingredient I would vouch for is aloevera. Aloevera gel, fresh from the plant, can be used to moisturize any skin type. But, aloevera is actually a little drying. So, I think it will suit oily skin well. And, it is great for acne and pimple prone skin.
Second is a product – any calamine lotion. More commonly, one we get in India, is called Lactocalamine. The blue bottle is suitable for normal to oily skin. The main ingredient of any calamine lotion is Kaolin clay which is very good for oily skin. 
But, I am confused as to is there any other natural ingredient which can be used to moisturize oily skin. I would not vouch for honey as a moisturizer because commercial honey has lot of preservatives. 
Another thing I was wondering was how does application of oil affect the oily skin? I know many of you would be horrified on the mention of such a thing and cast it directly as outrageous. The obvious answer would be that it would lead to more inflammation and acne and other kinds of outbreaks. But, is it really true. 
Update: I recently visited Marie Veronique Organics site and found this which I am directly copy-pasting from their site:

Most people get a bit nervous when they hear the words oil and skin in the same sentence. But there’s no reason to get nervous. In fact, waxes, not oils, are the major cause of skin congestion. Applying oils to the skin, without the interference of a wax barricade, gives your skin the essential fatty acids it needs. These fatty acids, called lipids, form an environmental protection barrier that prevents the elements from assaulting our skin, keeping all skin types healthy. Research indicates that a compromised lipid barrier may be at the root of skin problems such as eczema, acne and wrinkles.
MVO oils maintain the integrity of the lipid barrier, preventing moisture loss and dehydration. At the same time they inhibit peroxidative and oxidative damage. The reason you should care about that is, in a word, wrinkles. Upon contact with light, lipids will undergo what is known as peroxidation. These peroxidized lipids lose their barrier ability and gaps occur in the lipid matrix, resulting in a loss of skin resilience and the formation of wrinkles.
A word (or two) about acne. Treating oily skin with oils may seem even more counter-intuitive. But think about this:

  • Scrubs, harsh soaps and other drastic treatments that strip off your topmost lipid barrier do a number of things that may actually aggravate the problem.
  • Oil-stripping actually prompts your skin to produce more oil, but it may be more of the oil that you’re trying to control.

Topical applications of fatty acids alleviate breakouts by re-stabilizing the lipid barrier, thus restoring anti-microbial activity on the skin’s surface. What’s more, because lipids dissolve lipids, MVO oils actually break up congestion at the source.

Marie Veronique is a former chemistry school teacher who got into making her own products because she could not find any good sunscreen. And, now she is one of the biggest names of the industry. The best thing is that her products are all organic. And, she is one to advocate oils for all kinds of skin. So, I hope I have convinced you to try applying oil and see the results.


[Do share with me how you control your oily skin]