General Hand Care Tips

Wear rubber or cloth gloves for jobs around the house.

Once you get used to them, jobs like cutting and peeling vegetables are not as difficult as you might first believe them to be. If, however, the gloves (cotton ones) get wet, do take them off and let them dry before you put them on again.

Also do try to avoid direct contact with chemical cleaners, detergents and metal polishes.

Try to protect your hands from sudden changes or extremes of temperature. These are bad for circulation and give rise to chilblains.

Exercise your hands daily for suppleness. You can exercise your hands by bending fingers up and down fifteen or twenty times daily. To pep up circulation, take the fingers of one hand in the other and then gently pull each individual finger.

Lemon Juice for Your Hand Care

Lemon juice acts as a whitening agent. Use pure lemon juice on your hands and leave on for fifteen to twenty minutes. Wash off with warm water. Pat dry and then use a rich nourishing cream. Lemon juice can be drying.

Homemade Egg White Hand Cream

1 egg white
2 tablespoons glycerin
2 tablespoons honey
ground barley

Mix the first three ingredients with enough ground barley to make a smooth soft paste that will not drip off your hands. Apply to hands and leave on for about half an hour. Wash off with warm water. Pat dry.

Homemade Almond Oil Hand Cream

2 tablespoons almond oil
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon rose-water
1/2 teaspoon benzoin tincture

Blend into a fine paste. Use on hands as often as you like. Keep in a bottle and refrigerate. This cream should keep well for about two days.

Hand Care Tips for Dry and Rough Hands

Like all other parts of the body, the skin on your hands can get rough and dry when it is deprived of natural oils. Remember that with every treatment you pick for your hand care, it must be regularly repeated for good results.

One old-time recipe for keeping hands soft and well nourished is to soak about 1/4th kg of oatmeal in a quart of warm water. Leave overnight. Next morning strain it. To the liquid that you get, add one teaspoon of olive-oil, one teaspoon rose-water, one teaspoon of glycerin, one table­spoon of lemon juice and one teaspoon of diluted ammonia and mix well.

Preserve this lotion in a bottle and use on your hands at least three to four times a day.

To repair the damage done by soaps, hard detergents and aids, rub your hands with a mixture made of equal amounts of rose­water and glycerin.

Remedies for rough and dry hands include massaging them with equal parts of lanolin, cocoa, butter and almond oil.

Mix two tablespoons of almond oil with one egg yolk and one teaspoon of honey. Massage well into the hands and then put on cotton gloves. After an hour remove gloves and wash hands with a mixture of equal portions of clear water and vinegar.

Keep the excess lotion in a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator. This lotion should keep well for about two weeks. Use twice daily.

To soften hands, soak them in a mixture of honey and orange juice for about ten minutes. Wash with warm water, pat dry and then apply a hand cream.

Vaseline (petroleum jelly) mixed with carbolic acid, or just by itself, should be left on overnight for softening very rough hands.

Also try rubbing them with camphor ice and massaging them with pure cocoa butter.

How to Keep Your Hands Soft and Pretty?

Your hands are on show just as much as your face; you must look after them. If you've been neglecting them, they will show it.

Men always notice your hands and, believe me, there is nothing that can bring down an attractive woman quite as fast as dry uncared-for hands with chipped nails or peeling nail colors.

Hands usually show signs of age faster than any other part of the body. While you can caver up skin blemishes and feature flaws with make-up, remember that it is harder to hide imperfections of your hands because you don't wear make-up on them.

You could cover your face with make-up, your hair with a wig, your feet with shoes or sandals. But, except for short periods when you could wear gloves, you cannot disguise your hands.

As with all other things, perfect hands, too, are rare. But even if you cannot do anything about the shape and size of your hands, you can make them appear infinitely better if they are soft, clean and graceful.

General house work and cooking can play havoc with hands, leaving them rough, dry and calloused. Hands are one of the hardest worked parts of the body and they need special care.

The first golden rule for hand care is to cream them after each wash. This prevents roughness and dryness. If you do your own kitchen work, keep the hand cream or lotion near the kitchen sink to remind you of the importance of well-nourished hands.

Glycerin, almond oil and lanolin - all three help to soften the skin. Try to check that your hand cream contains at least one of these ingredients.

If your hands are dry and chapped, give them a little extra time before going to bed. After cleaning your hands, pat them dry with a towel, apply a generous layer of cream. Massage well and allow to work overnight.

Useful Tips about Lips & Applying Lipstick

Soft moist lips are good news throughout the year.

The texture of your lips must always be satiny smooth. To soften chapped, sore or peeling lips, use a good lip balm or chap-stick overnight.

Lipstick not only makes your mouth soft and moist, it also helps define your lips and make your teeth look whiter than they actually are.

Here are some useful tips on applying lipstick

If your lips are too thin and straight, apply your lipstick from slightly above the line of the upper lip and slightly below the line of the lower lip. Curve the lines slightly.

If your mouth is too small, bring your lip color a little out of the corners of the mouth.

If your lips have a bluish tinge, a yellow-tinted lipstick worn under a normal color will help. Avoid Indian pinks, bluish reds and mauvy shades.

You can ‘draw out' a timid under lip by applying a dark lip color on the upper lip and a paler one on the lower lip.

For a mouth that is too pouty, reverse the coloring. This time apply a pale color on the upper lip and a darker one on the lower one.

Make your lips look fuller by using a darker and richer shade in the centre and a lighter one in the corners.

Simple Tips for a Lovely Beautiful Smile

An attractive and lovely smile can be a very great asset. Nothing can be more upsetting than discolored teeth and a bad breath.

Always use a mouth wash after meals, and especially if you've just had a spicy meal. Listerine is a great refresher of foul breath. Bad breath can also be a sign of dental trouble or stomach disorder.

Brush your teeth regularly at least twice a day. Once before sleeping at night and once again when you get up in the morning. Use a firm toothbrush of medium hardness. The best way of brushing your teeth is by moving your brush up and down, nor side to side. This helps dislodge food particles hiding in the little crevices between the teeth. Message your gums to stimulate circulation.

Visit a doctor regularly - at least once every six months. The doctor will help you to keep a check on plaque and tartar formation as well as tooth cavities. Plaque builds up to provide a hard crusting over the enamel surface of the tooth. Tartar is formed by calcium deposits forming behind and between the teeth. Both tartar and plaque are extremely harmful and can lead to painful and unnecessary gum disorder.

Rose water cleans the mouth and acts as a mouth wash.

For refreshing your mouth, dilute a few drops of peppermint spirit in half a cup of water and gargle with it.

To make teeth sparkle bright, mix one teaspoon of table salt with one teaspoon of soda bicarb, and brush with this mixture.

To keep teeth healthy and strong, take calcium tablets occasionally.

Always end your meal with some raw and crunchy food or vegetable. This ensures that sticky deposits are removed from the back surfaces of the teeth.

Sweets, chocolates, squashes - all these are bad for the teeth.

Wherever possible, replace them with natural sweets or unsweetened fruit juices.

Strong tea or coffee and, cigarette smoking all discolor teeth.

The twig of a neem tree makes a natural freshener of mouth and cleanser of teeth.

If your teeth are crooked or your mouth overcrowded, make sure your toothbrush has, rounded bristles. Rounded bristles prevent wounding and bleeding of gums as well as make your brushing more effective.

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground oats

2 tablespoons aloe vera gel

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon almond oil or olive oil

Before you start preparing this scrub, grind the oatmeal using a coffee grunder or food processor. It has to be of sandy consistency, flaky and light otherwise it will scratch the skin.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until it resembles a paste

It should be applied on moist skin, the best time is after you took a shower. It will help the skin cells slough off faster.

Use circular motion and massage gently using your fingertips.

Rinse off with warm water.

A Guide for Spectacle Frames

Instead of being a handicap, spectacles can sometimes become one of your most attractive accessories.

Here are some tips to help you choose your spectacle frames.

Frames must suit the shape of your face. Ideally a short face takes shallow frames best; while a long face adapts best to deep ones. While deciding on the line of the frame, follow the shape of your eyebrows as closely as possible.

If your nose is short, your frame should be light in color and set high on the top of your nose.

If your nose is long, your frame should fit low on the nose. If your eyes are close-set, keep the bridge of the frame colorless.

If, however, you feel that spectacles are just not right for you, contact lenses are the answer.
Get yourselves the best glasses or contact-lenses that money can buy. Be sure to go to a good modern ophthalmologist who will test your eyes thoroughly.

Remember, well-fitted and attractive glasses help you to look and feel years younger because they remove the strain in and around your eyes.

Homemade Anti-Wrinkle Cream Recipes for Crows-feet

1 pound pure raw lanolin
I small bottle sweet almond oil
Melt the lanolin over a slow fire and gradually add the sweet almond oil. The mixture must not get too thin.

Castor oil, olive oil and petroleum jelly are all good for combatting crows-feet.

The raw potato compress (Home Cure for Dark Eye Circles) is also good for fighting crows-feet.

Home Made Eye-wash Recipes

To boiling water add a pinch of boric acid. Allow to cool. This eye-wash is good for tired inflamed eyes.

People who suffer from weak eyesight or inflamed eyes should use this eye-wash:

Mix one teaspoon of plain boiled water with two table­spoons of rose-water and five drops of tincture of eupho­rias. Blend well.

Simple Eye Care Tips

Never make the mistake of using old bottles of eye drops. Drops that have been stored for too long can become infected with germs or moulds as they change chemically. These can be positively dangerous.

If your eyesight is weak, you must wear glasses. However, wear your glasses only when you need to. Eye muscles cannot relax as long as you are wearing them.

If you cannot do without glasses, take them off for a few minutes, from time to time, during the day. Take this time off to do some eye­ relaxing exercises which are given at the beginning of this chapter.

Also people who wear glasses should have their eyes re-tested every two years.

Natural Eye Care Remedies & Tips

Cucumber slices on the eyes are tremendous revivers for tired, red eyes.

Increase your water intake to at least eight glasses per day. Other than doing tremendous things for your complexion, this helps to keep eyes clear and healthy. In some cases it is also known to remove dark circles.

Use salt to remove puffiness of the under-eye area (preferably sea salt). Dissolve one teaspoon salt in one cup of hot water. Soak two small cotton pads in this solution. Apply to eyelids until the pads cool. Then rinse with cold water.

To get rid of crows-feet or the tiny lines around the eyes, hold a cold water wash-cloth against your dosed eyes for a couple of minutes every morning.

Always massage your eyes in the same direction as the lines. Horizontally, never up and down.
For grit in the eye, introduce one drop of castor oil into the eye, using a dropper.

For cataract, take homoeopathic Calcarea Iodine 6.

For scaly eyelids, take at least one teaspoon of vegetable oil every day on salads or vegetables.