Diwali, through my eyes!

Hello lovelies,

Hope you all had a great Diwali. I had a great one, my last Diwali before wedding. It felt so good just thinking that next year, I would be celebrating all festivals with my husband and my in-laws. This Diwali, I decorated my house but could not do anything elaborate as a close relative had passed away. We had pooja at our home, my family and my father's cousins.

Coming to the post, here are a few pictures for you all. Hope you enjoy:

How to use CTM the right way!

All of you must know by know that CTM is the most important skincare routine. After you load your skin with makeup for a good 8-12 hours, CTM helps your skin rejuvenate and breathe. You all know how important it is to clean your face twice a day, but do you know that using CTM in a wrong way can be a disaster? Read on to know the right way.

CTM stands for Cleanser, Toner and Moisturizer. So the first step is Cleansing. There is no right or wrong way for using a cleanser. So let's move on to Toner.

How horrible do open pores look. Those big puddles  that anyone could fall into (Okay, I am exaggerating it here :p). All oily skinned beauties will agree with me that we all love Toner as it really helps in reducing the pore size. But using it wrongly could be a disaster. Here's how to do it right. After you have cleaned your face, take your toner on a cotton pad. You should not saturate the cotton with toner, it should be that the cotton should be wet. Now comes the trick, instead of wiping your face with the cotton, you just have to "PAT" the cotton on your face. You heard it right, wiping your face with cotton will stretch your skin and make your pores even larger. How many of you knew this?

Coming back to the next and the last step which is the Moisturizer, NEVER rub your moisturizer between your hands and then apply on face. The lines on your palm absorb all the moisturizer and there would not be any product left for the face. The correct way is to take the product on your hand and then make dots on your face. Thereafter, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BLEND THE MOISTURIZER. I am really stressing on the fact because moisturizer has to be lightly rubbed in and not blended in. With your fingers, just spread the moisturizer lightly, applying little or no pressure. The pictures below will make it clear-

     

So the next time you go for your CTM routine, just remember the right way. Hope this article helped. See you all soon.

My long hair... what I do?

All of you must have seen the advertisement where people had to wear sunglasses to avoid the shining hair of a girl... Pretty unrealistic no?

Some people really manage to have beautiful and shiny hair. And there is a long story of efforts that they put in. It is not an easy task and takes a lot of time and effort.

In this post, I will reveal what I do for my hair. First of all, I would give a brief introduction of my hair. I have waist-length brown hair. They are wavy and are super oily at the roots. I usually keep them tied in a pony tail to avoid damage (And save them to be flaunted after wedding... intelligent me :p)

I really love my hair in this picture. This picture was clicked last winters, more or less, my hair look the same now.

So, what I do to maintain my healthy hair? First of all, let me share, I do not use any hair-styling products on my hair. I keep them the way they are, wavy. That contributes a lot towards the texture of my hair. 

Here are the tips that I always follow-

1) ALWAYS towel dry my hair. I never use a blow dry to dry my hair as it can really damage the hair. When using a towel, do not rub very hard, just cover your hair with the towel. That's all.

2) Never comb wet hair. Wet hair are prone to breakage as the roots become weak. When the hair are half dry, half wet, first de-tangle them with your fingers and then with a wide tooth comb. Keep your hair on one side and start combing from the ends of the hair, slowly going upwards.

3) Avoid hair styling tools as much as you can. I know we all love well styled hair but the more we use these hair styling products, the more it damages them in the long run.

4) Always get your hair trimmed every 2 months. We all love to flaunt out tresses but who likes split ends? It takes away the charm from our beautiful tresses. So make it a point to chop of those unwanted, ugly looking ends regularly. It will make your hair more healthy and bouncy.

5) Always oil your hair before shampooing. I have super oily hair and thus, I have to wash them every alternate day. I oil my hair the night before shampoo and keep it overnight. I use coconut oil and castor oil. You can use any oil you prefer. 

6) Always cover your hair when you are out. I carry a stole with me always and cover my face and hair with I am under the sun. Sun damages the hair and can take the shine from your hair. So, always keep a stole/scarf in your bag. Also, make sure to clean the stole/scarf every week.

7) Make sure to tie your hair before you sleep. Tie them in a pony/braid so that they do not tangle. But make sure that the rubber band is not too tight.

8) Use silk pillow covers. Cotton pillow covers are harsh on your skin and hair. You can develop wrinkles because of sleeping on cotton and can take the shine from your hair. 

9) Drink atleast 2 litres of water to keep yourself well hydrated. You can also include fruits with high water content but if you can manage to drink water, there is nothing better. Make sure to complete you maximum quota of water by 6:30 p.m.

10) Use hair mask on a regular basis. A hair mask creates a layer on your hair and

thus prevents your hair from external damage. You can use homemade hair mask or buy the ones available in the market. For a DIY mask, mix egg, hung curd (I prefer hung curd as it does not drip. When I used normal curd, it used to drip, making it messy, and also caused rashes), 1 tsp of any conditioner, 1 tsp honey, 2 avocados and mix them well. Apply the mask for 2-3 hours and wash off. KEEP YOUR EYES TIGHTLY CLOSED WHEN YOU WASH OFF THE MASK. If the egg goes inside your eyes, it will cause itching and make the eyes red. The redness goes away in an hour but it is really uncomfortable.

11) Avoid junk and oily food as much as you can. The fact has been stressed on a lot of times. I do not think it needs any explanation. 

12) Lastly, avoid stress. We all struggle with our share of problems but nothing does more damage as stress. Just take your problems as a part of your life and deal with it with a smile. A strong attitude is all it takes to tackle any issue you might be facing.

So, these were the tips that I follow for my healthy hair. Hope these help you too. Do let me know if you have any more tips.

* Images have been taken from Google.

Diwali decoration at Select Citywalk

Hello people,

Me and Mr. R went for our wedding shopping this Sunday. We checked out clothes for him but did not buy anything. We saw a suit for him at Van Heusen and the guy looked really good. We might pick it up, but we are still looking for more options.
Coming to the point, the mall was beautifully decorated for Diwali. Mr. R managed to click a few pictures. Hope you like them.

2 months to go!

It seems as if it was just yesterday that I had my roka  ceremony, although it was way back in April 2014. (Was it really way back? Silly me :p) As soon as the dates got fixed, me and Mr. R would count days for the D-Day. We thought we had so much time in hand and it seemed so difficult to cross that time. We wished to play our life in a fast forward mode and just reach the D-day, escaping all the tensions and the chaos associated with weddings. But who has ever been successful in that attempt?

And now that we think about it, we realize that time actually flew. The relativity of time is a strange concept. It seems as if the clocks forget to move when we are in office but when we are together, the clocks conspire against us. Time literally flies. We wish we could stay together for more but then, we console ourselves that there will be a day when no clocks would plot against us, the relativity would not affect us, there will be a day!

With just 2 months left now, a lot of work still needs to be done. I am mostly through my shopping, just winter wear and few small things left. But then, new things keep coming up everyday and I guess that will go on even till the last day. But no matter how much the chaos, everything eventually falls into place. With just a few days left and the excitement creeping over, I am looking forward to a new phase of my life.