Last week, beauty expert Shahnaz Husain talked about home-made body wash. This week too there will be more information about herbal body wash for healthy skin.
Traditionally, gram flour mixed with curd and turmeric has been a common body cleansing recipe. Take about five cups of gram flour (besan) and about three cups of curd. Add one teaspoon of turmeric. Mix into a paste that does not drip. Apply on arms and legs. Wash it off with water after half-an-hour.
You can also add rice powder to make a scrub. Mix two cups of rice powder with three cups of besan. The ingredients should be adjusted to make a paste. Gram flour can also be mixed with herbal powders to make a scrub for cleansing the body. To the gram flour add curd and rose water to make a paste. Then add one tablespoon each of dried neem leaves, dried amla powder and reetha powder. Make a paste. Apply on the body and rub gently for five minutes. Then wash off with water.
You may take one-third cup of unfiltered honey, one-third cup of coconut oil, one-third cup of liquid castile soap and few drops of essential oil for fragrance. Add all ingredients to a glass bowl and blend thoroughly. Pour into a squeeze-top soap dispenser. Shake 2-3 times well before using and use like any other body wash.
For a body scrub, you can take three cups of gram flour (besan) or oats, one tablespoon each of sandalwood powder and rose water. Add milk to make a paste. Wet the skin and apply. Rub on the skin and wash off with water.
For sensitive skin, take two cups of liquid castile soap, one cup of almond oil, a cup of shea butter and 25 drops of rose essential oil. Heat the shea butter in microwave and mix the almond oil with it. Add castile soap and rose essential oil and transfer the mixture into a bottle. Shake well before use.
Take five tablespoons of raw honey, three tablespoons of oils (castor oil and olive oil in equal quantity), five tablespoons of liquid castile soap and 20 drops of preferred essential oil. Mix all ingredients in a glass or steel jar and store it in a container in a cool dry place. It is a perfect mixture for body wash with life span of around six months.
Natural ingredients like reetha have a very gentle cleansing effect on the skin. Extracts of amla (Indian gooseberry), turmeric, saffron and basil can also be used. They keep the skin healthy and free from heat rash, prickly heat, pimples and other eruptive conditions during summer. Amla helps to restore normal acid-alkaline balance while turmeric softens the skin and is a natural antiseptic. Tulsi and neem have powerful healing and germicidal properties. Many of these ingredients also help to cool and soothe the skin in summer.