Autumn is very brief in India but we get to feel the nip in the air, the tightening of skin and the cool fresh air before the winter steps in. One is tired of the long sweaty days and looks forward to wearing brighter, bolder colors and the crispness of the air around open hair. Oily skins tend to feel better, dry skins start to feel taut and combination skins are the happiest at this time of the year. Days become shorter and one feels more rushed. However, wake up early and try to go for a jog, you can sleep when you come back if you want to….that is what beauty sleep is all about! Try meditation, yoga and deep breathing. These simple yet disciplined practices make all the difference to the skin.
Autumn is the time to prepare yourself for winter, reorganize your clothes, and go in for warm pedicures and manicures. You can even start to have a bath with lukewarm water and what better way to do so than to add a few drops of lavender and geranium oil to it, leaving you smelling great. Autumn is the time when the feet and hands start to become drier and look patchy and if not looked after, it can lead to more problems during the winter. Always keep a massage cream or oil next to your bedside and make a daily nighttime ritual of massaging it onto the skin. Olive oil mixed with essential oil of sandalwood works wonders. Keep a pumice stone in your bathroom and scrub feet daily to remove dead skin and smoothen the feet. You could use a loofah with some bath gel for the elbow, knees and thighs to dislodge dead surface skin and keep these areas smooth.
It is also a good time of the year for a warm relaxing massage, made more interesting and fragrant by adding sandalwood oil to it, kneading out the day’s tension slowly. A good idea would be to make a natural ubtan for after the massage instead of using soap, this can be very easily made at home with dried rose petals, gram flour, milk powder, sandalwood powder and lemon juice. Scrub this all over the body and wash off, leaving skin feeling smooth and soft, almost like baby skin.
For your face, oily skins tend to feel the need for a moisturizer. But then again it is not essential that if you have oily skin, it will be able to take a cream or moisturizer. Mash a banana and massage it into the skin, leave for 5-7 minutes and wash off for a smoothened out complexion. Dry skins should start to use pure honey moisturizer, massage about two tsp of pure honey into the skin. I really believe that walnut honey or apricot honey is very rejuvenating for the skin. If you cannot procure this, go for what is available from your nearest grocery store. Leave for about 10 minutes and wash off, you will not feel the need to use a cold cream. If your skin is very dry you can mix one tsp each of fresh cream and honey and massage it onto the skin until it has totally soaked up the goodness. Wash off and your skin will feel like new. Many times the skin gets a little patchy during this season. Mix-
Mix a tsp of this with a little milk and scrub the skin daily to expose super soft and glowing skin in no time at all!
Many are also affected by the oncoming of slight coughs and colds during autumn. I would suggest that you take a hot cup of milk every night and add 2 tsp of pure almond oil to it. This will work wonders and I promise your cough will disappear in no time. Also, internal nourishment for the body is just as important as external skin care and what better way to do it than naturally, with the help of fruits and vegetables. Start taking almonds, figs and plenty of dairy products in your daily diet-milk, butter, yogurt, ghee, cottage cheese. Cheese is a natural source of calcium and should be taken in plenty.
Above all, enjoy the changing season and wake your body and mind up to the winter months! Until next time…
An easy ubtan recipe
Store the mixture in a jar and use the required quantity daily instead of soap.
suparna trikha
The columnist is a beauty and nature care expert
@suparnatrikha