Homemade DIY Natural Lip Balm - Chocolate

As always I prefer using a natural alternative to anything that I use on my skin.
My mantra has always been simple, Don't apply to your skin what you can't eat!
Lip Balm has been in my list for a long time now, I had to keep this on hold because of  not getting the Organic Cosmetic grade Beeswax in Bangalore.

I usually have trouble finding the lip balm because, if it has a tint of color it is either too dry or loaded with chemicals, If it is nice and smooth it is seriously pale and makes you look sick. So What better idea than making it yourself to suit your own skin! Let me not drag on and give the recipe! Trust me it's super simple!!

Ingredients :
1. Beeswax  - 3/4th of spoon if solid, 1 1/2 spoon when melted
2. Coconut oil  - 1 spoon if thicker, 1 1/2 spoon if melted.
3. Almond oil - 1 spoon
4. Olive oil - 1/2 spoon
5. Honey - 1 spoon
6. Castor oil - 3/4 th spoon ( if you want it a little glossy)
7. Cocoa powder - 1/2 spoon ( If you want some color)
8. Essential oil - of choice 5-6 drops( Can be skipped)

Steps :

1. Melt the Beeswax in a double boiler,
2. To the liquid Beeswax add all the oils(coconut, Almond, olive and castor oil) and stir it well till it blends.
3. Now add few drops of essential oil, if needed, I added lemon oil, it gives a very nice smell to the lip balm.
4. Once this is blended add cocoa powder( for chocolate brown) , you can change it to beetroot powder for red, or any color of your choice, or you can have a plain lip balm without any color.
5. Remove the tumbler from the double boiler and add honey to it and stir(honey also acts as preservative)
6. With honey it starts to solidify, when warm pour it into a clean box of your choice and allow it to cool.
In about 10 mins it solidifies and you have your nice creamy lip balm ready!

When i was done with mine, my niece commented that it smelled and looked so delicious that she wanted to eat it!!

Note: Castor oil adds a little bit of gloss so it's upto you to add it, If not you can the same quantity of any other oil.

Homemade kajal/Kohl/kadige/eyeliner - DIY and Natural

Eyes have been celebrated as one of the most beautiful organ, Any song you hear be it in kannada, Hindi or English there are atleast 20% of those dedicated to eyes.
Even with my no make-up stance, Kajal is one exception which has always been my personal favorite, but thanks to my super sensitive skin most of the store bought one's used to either irriate my skin or cause dandruff. I later got to know that it is because of hell lot of chemicals in it, yes some of even the most expensive/so called natural one's I have tried.

So here is a simple recipe of kajal.
Ingredients :
1. Almonds
2. Castor Oil
3. Ghee

Step :
1. Arrange the setup of tumbler plate and a diya as shown below.
2. Now using fork hold the almonds to fire and allow it completely char.
3. Let the smoke from burning go and settle over the plate.
4. Once you are done with all the almonds(2-3 is more than enough for 3 months), use a drop of ghee to mix the soot to get the right consistency( Add very little as you don't want a runny kajal which will smudge) and put it to a box.
5. You can apply using finger tip or cotton bud.

Benefits:
1. Almonds and castor oil are great for eyes.
2. It is completely homemade and natural thus has no harmful chemicals, A great relief!!
3. Smell yum with ghee.

DIY Rose Essential Oil - Homemade and Natural

I could call myself an oil person,My skin being dry it just loves oil. At one point I used to stick to plain Almond oil but then I wanted to experiment more, so started making my own light essential oils with coconut oil base at home.

Ingredients : 

1. Rose petals

2. Coconut oil( preferably cold pressed)

Steps:

1. I got some nice deep red rose(about 20), I know the smell is to delicious but don't smell.There will be those teeny weeny insects inside.

2. Now peel out those petals and wash them once.

3. Keep these peels in sun for drying for a day, until all the water drains out.

4. Now use these petal and give a coarse blend in blender.

5. Mix this 100ml oil and bring it to boil (Make sure it doesn't char).

6. Keep this oil overnight when the oil gets all the goodness.

7.  Now using a muslin cloth filter out the oil and use the rose petals in your bathtub for you next nice bath.

8. The filtered oil smells a little different from fresh roses, more like some delicious sweet and it ready to use!!

Benefits:

1. Rose is a very good antiseptic.

2. Ofcourse the smell is very relaxing.

3.  It is very soothing on irritated skin.

DIY Face Powder - Talcum Powder Alternative

One of the most commonly used beauty product is face powder, Majority of them are made of Talc, There is a lot of controversy surrounding Talc with regards to health impact, So that led to me trying out recipes that works as well as good. It is extremely easy to do and smells like a delicacy.

NaturalOrganicandHappy

Steps:
1. Take 100gms of Arrowroot powder , It is a fine powder made using tapioca. This is available in most of the medical shops.
2. Now to most of the Indian skin tone white powder looks like a patch when applied, so now you can add cocoa powder, add it enough to give a light brown tone to the powder. This can be replaced with cinnamon or casia bark powder(known also as chakke), Ground it to a fine powder and sieve it, leave out the bigger pieces and add it to the powder.Cinnamon gives a very nice aroma to it and it is also anti-septic.
3. This loose powder made of 2-3 ingredients feels very smooth and can be stored in air tight container.Treat yourself to this absolute luxury :-).
Let me know how it feels.

Amla shikakai and Reetha shampoo DIY

Having used very less beauty product myself I have loved ayurvedic recipes and products always, When I read few articles about harmful effects of some of the ingredients in shampoo like SLES, parabens I started looking for Organic options in India, but to my dismay most of Organic variety also had these components, that's when i stumbled at this homemade variety.

It is a very simple century old Ayurvedic recipe with just 3 ingredients and from my personal experience very effective.You can these in most of the pooja shops that you find in India.

Steps : 

1. Coarsely crush about 200 gms of  Reetha(soapnut), 150gms of Shikakai and about 100-150gms of Amlaki (Dried Indian Gooseberry)  in a tumbler.

2. Soak this in about 2 litres  of water overnight.

3. Next morning heat it till the mixture comes to 3/4th its level, that is if you have added 2 litres, boil it till the level of water is about 1.5 litres, Allow it to cool and when it is lukewarm just mash all the amla, reetha and Shikakai to a pulp to extract the satva(content or goodness) at this point it will be a little frothy  and its actually fun to extract the liquid.

4. Now move it to a container and refrigerate it, The refrigerated mixture lasts for upto 2 months.

Usage:

1. Take the liquid and apply it on the scalp and massage it , allow it to sit for 2-3 minutes, It will not lather if you have applied oil before.Repeat the process atleast 3-4 times. Now in your last attempt it would start lathering a bit.You can stop then.

2. You can stop at this but if you are someone who likes some scent, you can rinse your hair in lemon solution or add some essential oil and rinse.

This is a completely safe shampoo, as you know all the ingredients and it works well, as good as any store bought, but allow your hair to adjust for sometime.