DIY home remedies
Your skin will never say no to some extra pampering. So if you’re stuck indoors, ransack your kitchen for common herbs and jadi booti that can work wonders for your skin. Raid the spice cabinet and grab the milk and honey from the refrigerator.
You’ll be surprised at how you can mix-and-match just these five ingredients to make some seriously spicy, natural and effective face masks that your skin will thank you for.
Snackin’ a punch
Experimenting with some healthy food can be an excellent way to spend a weekend indoors. When it comes to the homemade munchies, our favourites are are ragi (nachni) and baked potato chips. If we’re really trying to manoeuvre our way around the scale, we’ll opt for a tomato or watermelon and feta salad and for those days when hunger pangs strike us every two hours, we rely on the quick and easy DIY dry fruit nutri-bar with some almonds, raisins and walnuts.
Break into a (bit of a) sweat
The rain doesn’t necessarily have to be a reason for you to skip your workout, you know. Yes, you can’t really go for a jog but there are more than enough things you can do at home to get your body moving. For starters, there’s always the tried and tested Suryanamaskar that gives your internal organs the ultimate stretch. Jogging on the spot, lunges, running up and down the stairs of your building are all great to help you break into a bit of sweat. And not to miss, almost all yogasanas including facial yoga and deep breathing done for just 15 minutes can drastically improve blood circulation and give your skin that natural, healthy flush.
Get pretty feet
Because there’s always a puddle you’ll step into and gumboots that will step on you and way too much muck for your toes’ liking, your feet will thank you for all the loving they’ll get during the monsoon. So put on your fave movie and get your pedicure kit together to cut, clean and scrub your dirty feet pretty. If you want to make it a bit more fun, you can even get a bunch of your closest girlfriends together and host a home style mani-pedi, mimosas and movie night.
Bonus tip: We swear by the new Lakmé 9 to 5 Longwear Nail colours that come in some super fab candy shades and look fantastic on your hands or your toes.
Treat your tresses
Just like you do your feet, pamper your hair with the longest hot oil massage. The rainwater makes your scalp more prone to infections in the monsoon and the humidity makes your hair appear dull, limp and damaged. A relaxing, hot oil massage will give your hair the deep conditioning it deserves and improve blood circulation to your scalp in turn making your hair look and feel nourished. If you can, coax your mum into giving you one. Nothing can beat mom’s head massages, can they?
Written by Girija Naiksatam on Jul 29, 2014