Swathy and Sky

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Skin Care

Lemon for acne scars {Reader’s Tips}

· · 24 Comments

This was submitted by Amee. She says:

Use lemon juice about 20 min twice or thrice in the week. It helped me a lot to remove the scars which probably cause due to acne and also helps me to even out my complexion.

Do join my giveaway here. And, a note to all those who have entered the giveaway, do not forget to answer the question about what you like and dislike about the blog. Its a mandatory entry and those who do not answer it would be disqualified from the giveaway. If you have by mistake entered no answer and want to edit your answer, you can simply click on the ‘edit’ option adjacent to the ‘DONE’ in the rafflecopter form. If you are not able to find it, drop me a note and I shall get back to you.
And, read more Reader’s Tips here. 
PS: Hey All, I guess I am going to take a break from blogging for like a week or so coz I am really not able to concentrate. So, I shall leave you with Reader’s Tips everyday. Hopefully, I should be back by Sunday, if not before. Take Care till then 🙂 

PS 1: I was indulging in some creativity so do you like the changes to the template? Do share the feedback? Ok, yes, I love cartoons a lot 😀

How do I use Essential Oils? {DIY}

· · 22 Comments

When I had posted my haul last week, many of the requests were on how to use the essential oils. The answer to that is that I use EO’s practically in everything. So, let me just share some of my tips.
Essential Oils used in Skin CareSkin Care
  • I use couple of drops of EO’s if I make my own scrubs any time. For example, today I made one – yogurt + besan after long long time and I used 10drops of ginger and 10 drops of Bergamot. But, that’s actually a lot. Limit it to 10 at max. 
  • I am using Fig and Honey moisturiser currently. So, I added a couple of EO’s to it. I have around 150ml bottle of the moisturiser left so I could add up to 3ml of EO’s (that’s 60 drops of EO’s). The math is done here. I added Patchaouli, Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Rosemary, Cedarwood, Frankinscence in equal drops (10 each). And, that’s a lot, trust me. You can see a layer of oil over the moisturiser when you add. So, don’t go overboard!!! 
  • I add at most 10 drops of any EO to my bath sometimes if I want to relax. I have used Lavender, Neroli and Ylang Ylang till now. 
  • I have made a toner using the EO’s. I will post the recipe soon. 
Essential Oils used in Hair Care
Hair Care
  • Let’s start with the hair oil. I have added ginger, cinnamon bark, rosemary to my hair oils as they help in hair growth.
  • Moving on, the next product is shampoo. I had added 20 drops of Rosemary EO to my Dove Shampoo and now, I have added 20 drops of Rosemary and 20 drops of Ylang Ylang to my Pantene shampoo. 
  • Similarly, I added essential oils to my Liz Earle Botanical Shine Treatment and L’Oreal Total Repair 5 Masque. Though, I haven’t used them since I have added the EO’s coz of the treatment. 
  • Also, check out my DIY aloevera scalp gel for hair growth which is entirely based on the efficacy of the essential oils. 
So, those are some of the tips on how to use essential oils in day to day life. And, of course, my perfume oils too. So, how do you use the EO’s or plan to use them??

    Open Pores? {Reader’s Query}

    · · 22 Comments

    “I am having normal to skin, I don’t have acne problems but I have some tiny pores around my cheeks and in the forehead. Please do suggest me a solution for this. I don’t know how I got this pores , I use to scrub my face once in three days. I thought this should be a problem so I have started to use scrub once in one week.”

    Open Pores and Causes
    Open pores are one of the worst problems of a smooth and flawless look. I do have huge pores on my cheeks, upper lip area and even forehead and sometimes, when my face is too oily, these pores look even bigger which is such a buster for me. Open pores are not exactly a problem but can occur to anyone at any age. 
    In fact, the size of the pores is dependent on two factors, neither of which are under your control – heredity and age. Yes, if either of your parents have large pores, your tend to get large pores and sometimes, the size of these pores tend to increase with age or rather the prominence of the pores increases with age. 
    How to control the Open Pores
    Reducing the size of the pores is impossible. So, any product which promises to do that is lying. Ok, yes, it is possible to get a flawless look with the help of foundations or tinted creams but if you use mineral makeup, sometimes, the pores can get enhanced instead of getting covered up depending on the quality of the product. This can happen with cream foundations too at times if its not blended well. Thus, to get a flawless look, it is essential to have a good brush for application as well as a good product. 
    Also, since the size of the pores is more, the dirt can get entrapped more easily and likely, there is more dirt inside so cleansing of the pores becomes essential. Generally, oily skin has larger pore size and consequently, more secretion of sebum. Thus, the pores have to cleansed on a regular basis. Three times a week is a good routine.
    Home Remedies to reduce the pore size
    These are temporary solutions and can be done as a quick fix.
    • Egg White mask: makes the face firmed up, lifted up and pores size also gets decreased. 
    • Ice cubes: Cold constricts the pores size and gives a flawless blending of the foundation. 
    • Cucumber: Similar to ice cubes effect. 
    • Honey: helps in making the skin smooth. 
    What do you do for open pores?