skincare tips Archives

April 14, 2022 By GOQii 1 Comment

Welcome Summer With Sunscreen

We all know the Ozone layer is depleting, making the Sun’s harmful rays stronger than ever. It is only natural for us to take the necessary steps and protect ourselves from these rays. In this article, we will help you understand the importance of Sunscreen and why they are necessary to face Indian summers. Before we get to why you should be using sunscreen, it is also important to pick out the right product for you.

Choosing the Right Product

There are numerous brands out there which sell sunscreen. The key to choosing the right one is to know your skin type. Based on your skin type, you can opt one for oily skin, sweat-proof, etc.

You might have seen the term “SPF” on sunscreen bottles. This stands for “Sun Protection Factor”. The SPF rating determines how much protection you will receive from the sun’s UVB\UVA radiations. A SPF of 30 gives you 97% protection, and SPF of 50 gives you 98% protection and an SPF of 100 gives about 99% protection. SPF between 30-50 is good enough for Indian skin.

Reasons Why You Need Sunscreen

The summers in India are often very ruthless. The most important thing to understand is that nobody is excluded from the use of Sunscreen. People who tan easily, people who don’t, fair skinned, dark skinned, children and everybody else, should use it if you are going to be exposed to the Sun.

The UV rays from the sun are one of the major enemies of our skin! While Vitamin D is necessary, these UV rays damage our cells which results in wrinkles, dark circles, premature ageing, inflammation and acne. UV Rays can even cause skin cancer.

These are enough reasons for you to start using sunscreen. Even though sunscreen doesn’t avoid these conditions completely, it is a very important step towards protection from the sun. Remember that a higher SPF won’t have any effect on sensitive skin. To get 100% protection from the sun’s powerful rays, you will need clothes that cover your entire body, sunscreen, and a hat or something to cover your head.

How To Use It the Right Way

Take a small amount, approx a small coin size of sunscreen on your palm
Apply it gently on your face
It should look white when you apply it on your face
Apply it 15 minutes before you step out so it can be properly absorbed by your skin
You can apply it twice a day

If you are someone with any kind of allergies or other skin problems, consult a doctor. With expert advice, you can choose the right product for yourself and make the most out of it.

Now you’re all equipped to welcome summer with a smile! For more summer tips, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce

March 17, 2022 By Harpreet Kaur 7 Comments

Hair and Skincare Tips For Holi!

Holi is a festival of fun and mirth with plenty of colors and zeal. The tradition is to wish a Happy Holi by smearing colors at each other. Few decades ago, the colors used in Holi were derived from dry flowers and leaves. Even sandalwood paste, saffron, turmeric, henna and fuller’s earth were used to play Holi.

However, with rapid change in times and instant solutions, came cheaper, easily available industrial colors that replaced the natural ones. These industrial colors contain a variety of harmful compounds like malachite green, auramine, methyl violet, copper sulphate, aluminium bromide, prussian blue and cobalt nitrate. They are often mixed with starch, wheat flour and micadust.

The colors are disastrous for the skin as they increase the chances of allergies and infections. The most commonly affected areas include the face, scalp, forearms, neck and hands. So, how exactly do you avoid being affected by these harmful chemicals? The answer is quite simple!

Pre-Holi Hair and Skincare Tips

Use Organic Colors: You can make skin-friendly, natural colors at home. For instance, you can use roasted chic peas powder to make gulal. If you have hypersensitive skin, it is best to avoid chemical colors
Oil Your Way to Safety: Apply coconut oil, mustard oil or olive oil on your hair and scalp before playing Holi to prevent the color from blocking the pores
Apply Aloe Vera gel and oil on your body to create a layer of protection on the skin. Don’t forget to cover the ear area
Blend Castor Oil with Coconut Carrier Oil and apply it half an hour before playing Holi. This will protect your skin from chemicals. It also helps the colors come off easily during bath
Use Vaseline on Your Lips to keep them moisturized. You can even apply it on your ears
Use Sunscreen on your exposed skin to avoid skin damage. Try keeping yourself as covered as possible
Apply Transparent Nail Paint on your nails to prevent the color from getting inside the skin
Stay Hydrated all the time by drinking water and juices regularly

Post-Holi Hair and Skincare Tips

Clean your skin with baby oil. Do not scrub the skin for at least 48 hours post Holi
Use natural ingredients like curd and chic peas flour to exfoliate the skin and cleanse it
After bathing, apply moisturizer liberally all over to seal the moisture in
Avoid using make up or anything harsh on your skin for a few days. Let your skin breathe and get back its natural moisture
Wrap a couple of ice cubes in a thin cotton cloth and use it to soothe your face and neck area. This will help protect your skin from dryness and sunburn
Mix 2 tablespoons of Olive oil with 4 tablespoons of honey and a few drops of lemon juice. Apply this nourishing pack to your hair and scalp. Leave it on for 30 minutes and rinse it off with warm water. Use a light herbal shampoo and a good quality conditioner as well

By Adopting these simple measure before and after the festival, you can make it an enjoyable experience! Were these tips helpful? What do you do to protect your hair and skin during Holi? Let us know in the comments below!

For more on skincare, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

Wish you all a Happy and Healthy Holi!

#BeTheForce

March 16, 2022 By Arooshi Garg 6 Comments

Celebrate a Skin-Friendly Holi With Natural Colors

Holi is the festival of colours in India that also marks the arrival of spring – a season of joy and hope. The festival is famous for its colours and how people apply them to each other’s face. I remember one horrendous incident a few years ago that left my face scarred due to an allergic reaction and I was on anti-allergens for over a month. The culprit was a toxic paste colour that my skin came in contact with. I, therefore, thought I should share some good ways to enjoy a safe and non-toxic Holi this year.

In the last couple of years, chemical colours are being used to celebrate Holi as they are cheaper than natural colours. Chemical colours can be very harmful to the health and skin of individuals as well as the environment.

Use of safe, natural and eco-friendly colours, can help to save our environment and conserve our biodiversity. Natural colours are obtained from skin friendly sources such as turmeric, flower extracts, sandalwood powder, mehndi (Henna), etc and are safe to use.

Here’s How You Can Create Safe, Non-toxic Colours

Brown color: Brown is one color that is never spotted anywhere in the color markets during Holi. So go ahead and surprise your visitors with this different and amazing color! Acacia catechu (Kattha) – which is commonly consumed with betel leaves (pan) gives a brownish color when mixed with water.
Other methods: Boil tea or coffee leaves in water. Cool it and use it.
Saffron: Soak a few stalks of Saffron in 2 tablespoons of water. Leave for a few hours and grind them to make a fine paste. Dilute that with water as per the desired color strength.
Other methods: The Flame of the Forest, commonly known as Test, Palash or Dhak, is the source of the wonderful, traditional color for Holi. For fragrant yellowish-orange colored water, the flowers are soaked overnight in water and can also be boiled.
Green: Save a trip to the parlor by using green colored henna powder (Mehendi) this Holi. Either use it separately or mix it with an equal quantity of any suitable flour to get a lovely and natural green shade. Make sure to use pure henna that does not have Amla (Indian Gooseberries) mixed in it, as this would be brown in color.Dry henna will not leave color on your face and can be easily brushed off. When mixed with water, it will leave a slight color, thereby making it a fast color.
Other methods: Dry and finely powder Gulmohur tree leaves or crush the tender leaves of the Wheat plant to obtain a natural green color for Holi. The color can also be obtained by mixing a fine paste of green leafy vegetables like spinach (Palak), coriander (Dhaniya) or mint (Pudina) in water.
Blue: Dry Jacaranda flowers (Neeli Gulmohar/Jungle Badam) in the shade and grind them to obtain a beautiful blue powder.
Other methods: The blue Hibiscus, which is found in Kerala, can be dried and powdered just like the red hibiscus, or crush berries of Indigo plant and add water to it as per the desired colour strength.
Yellow: Mix two teaspoons of Turmeric powder with twice the quantity of gram flour (besan). Turmeric and gram flour have magical qualities that are very good for the skin. Ordinary wheat flour (Atta), refined wheat flour (Maida), rice flour, ground nut powder, fuller`s earth (Multani Mitti) and even talcum powder can be used as substitutes for gram flour.Other methods: Flowers like Cassia fistula (Amaltas), Marigold (Gainda), Yellow Chrysanthemums and Black Babul yield different shades of yellow. Dry the petals of these flowers in the shade and crush them to obtain a fine powder. Mix an appropriate quantity of the powder with gram flour or its substitutes and see your festival come alive without any harmful effects of chemically-loaded colors.
Pink: Slice or grate one beetroot and soak it in 1 liter of water for a wonderful magenta. Boil or leave overnight for a deeper shade and dilute it before use.
Other methods: Boil the peels of 10-15 pink onions in half a liter of water for a pinkish color. Remove the peels before using them to remove any unneeded smell. You can also soak pink Bauhinia variegate (Kachnar) flowers in water overnight or boil them for a bright pink color.
Red: Red Sandal Wood Powder, which has a beautiful red color, is extremely beneficial for the skin and can be used in place of Red Gulal.
Other methods: Dry red hibiscus flowers in shade, powder and add any flour to increase the bulk. For a bright orange-red, mix a pinch of lime powder with 2 spoons of turmeric powder and a few drops of water. Use the resulting paste only after diluting it with 10 litres of water. Peels of Red Pomegranate boiled in water, juice of tomatoes and carrots diluted with sufficient quantity of water to remove the stickiness also give a natural yet beautiful red color.
Black: Last but not the least, comes black. Often derived from very dangerous sources like used batteries, this color may cause a lot of trouble later. However, for a safe black color, boil dried fruits of Indian Gooseberry (Amla) in an iron vessel and leave it overnight. Dilute with water and use.
Other methods: Extract juice of black grapes and dilute with sufficient quantity of water to remove stickiness.

Tips For a Skin-Friendly Holi:

Cover up: Nothing can beat covering the maximum part of your body with full sleeved clothes and trousers. But the old remedy of using mustard oil, coconut oil, olive oil or vaseline over your entire body on the morning of Holi does wonders in removing the colours easily
No warm water: Do not use warm water for bathing/removing colours. This can lead to the fastening of colours. Instead, always opt for cold water to wash the colours off. You should also try to remove the dry colour powder with dry hands rather than using water as it spreads even more after water application.
Stay Hydrated: Drink lots and lots of water as skin tends to get dehydrated with the use of chemicals. You can try other refreshing water-based drinks too. For instance, a virgin mint mojito, or fresh lime and buttermilk, to beat the heat out of your body!
Hair Care: Before you use a shampoo, rinse your hair with water to allow the additional colours to wash off. It is extremely vital to condition your hair to prevent any hair damage. Make a simple hair pack by soaking a few fenugreek (Methi) seeds in four tablespoons of curd. Apply this pack or egg yolk on your scalp and wash your hair with a good shampoo after 30 minutes. You can also apply a mixture of honey and olive oil for deep conditioning.
Face: Do not scrub the colour off with soap. Opt for a mild cleanser and follow it up with lots of moisturizing cream. If you feel any skin irritation during the process of taking off the colours then take 2 tbsps. of calamine powder and mix it with a few drops of honey and rosewater to make a paste. Apply this on your face and once it has dried up, wash it off with water and apply a moisturizer. You can also take off the colour with a mixture of Gram Flour (besan) and milk. If you are unable to do anything else, simply apply a generous amount of Multani-Mitti on the entire face and body to revive your skin.
Natural body scrub: You can use a homemade scrub by mixing the following ingredients: 2 tbsp. wheat bran, 1 tbsp. sandalwood powder, 1 tbsp. rice flour, along with some poppy seeds (khus-khus), few drops of honey and a mashed tomato. Scrub your body with this to clear off the colours and to bounce back to your fair and glowing skin.You can also rub a piece of papaya on coloured areas of the face and body to get rid of the colours. There is another good body scrub you can use to wash off colours. Mix curd, gram flour, orange peel powder along with little turmeric, a few drops of lemon and 1 tbsp. of olive oil. This will help clean your skin.

Post Holi Skincare Regime

For the next two weeks, apply a Multani Mitti face pack every alternate day to ensure that your skin remains soft and supple. Do not go for any skin treatments like waxing, threading, facials, or apply any other external medication on the skin for 2-3 days after Holi. Your skin is very sensitive after Holi. These treatments may cause an adverse reaction.

We hope these tips help you. For more, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce

April 21, 2021 By Madhu Soni Leave a Comment

Dietary Sources Of Minerals For Clear Skin

minerals for clear skin Who doesn’t want a radiant, glowing and youthful complexion? Little do we know, our skin is like the blueprint of what goes inside the body, stress levels, sleep and lifestyle in general!

Clear skin is not just determined by the lotion and creams that one applies but is predominantly influenced by the food that we eat. Health experts in this field say that minerals play an important role, so we need to feed our skin inside out. Apart from vitamins A, C, E, K, these minerals have a tremendous power to provide clear and youthful skin. Minerals are like spark plugs which keep our engine running!

Some Important Minerals For Clear Skin

Most of us pay attention to vitamins but neglect these minerals which are required in very minimum quantities. A few of them include:

Selenium: has great antioxidant properties which help in protecting against the harsh UV rays. It supports skin elasticity and flexibility. It is also said to protect against skin cancer. Dietary sources: fish, brazilian nuts, chicken
Zinc: Having sufficient amounts of zinc in your diet helps in reducing the amount of oil production in the skin. Excess oil in the skin can support bacterial growth and infection and block the pores. Having 8-11 gm of zinc helps in having acne free skin. Zinc also helps in healing injuries. Dietary sources: almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds.
Magnesium: is such an important mineral that magnesium deficiency can speed up ageing. Fast food, aerated drinks and alcohol can leech the body of magnesium. This mineral is not only good for skin but hair, teeth and the bones as well. Dietary sources: buckwheat, barley, coconut, walnuts, beetroot green, spinach.
Calcium: Commonly known for stronger bones and teeth, it is equally essential in providing healthy skin too by aiding skin elasticity and firmness. Dietary sources: milk and milk products, sesame seeds, oranges, chickpeas, and nuts.
Copper: is like a catalyst which speeds up the production of the protein elastin which keeps the skin flexible. It also prevents skin pigmentation. Dietary sources: walnuts, Brazilian nuts, sunflower seeds, cashew nuts, mushroom and soybeans.

We hope this article helps you get that clear skin you’ve always wanted, naturally with the right nutrition. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more skincare tips, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

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