HAIR CARE

• Beat the egg yolk until it’s frothy. Add 1 tsp of baby oil and then beat ag ain. Add the mixture to the water and massage into the scalp and throughout your hair after shampooing. Rinse well. You can also use a tsp of olive oil instead of baby oil.

• Mash an avocado well until it is really creamy. Apply it on damp hair an d cover it with plastic cap 30 minutes. Rinse well
• Place olive oil and boiling water into large glass bottle or jar with a lid. After the mixture cools, massage it on your scalp and cover your head with a shower cap, then wrap your head in a hot towel that has been soaked in hot water then wrung out. After half an hour shampoo your hair as usual.
• Grind tender hibiscus leaves and the petals of the flower together and apply it all over the head. Leave it for nearly 30 minutes and shampoo it as usual.
• Make a thin paste by mixing 6 tbs of rice or wheat barn with the help of hot water. Apply mixture after shampooing the hair. Then, take a damp towel and warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds. Wrap warmed towel to hair and let it set. Lightly shampoo hair and rinse with water.
• For silky shine (http://living.oneindia.in/beaut y/hair-care/shining-ha ir.html), mix 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and 3 cups of distilled water. Pour it over your hair after shampooing. Do not rinse it with water
• Apply cup of mayonnaise on the damp hair and wrap your head with semi hot towel. Leave it for 20 minutes and shampoo it as usual.
• To create a luxurious hair mask, apply mayonnaise or yogurt alone. You can even add other food pulps like mango, avocado, banana and squash to it.
• Mix mashed avocado with coconut milk until its smooth and about as thick as shampoo. Leave it for 15 minutes and rinse well.
• Put 1 small jar of real mayonnaise and 1/2 of an avocado in a bowl and smash it with your hand until its mint green in colour. Apply it all over your hair and leave it for 20 minutes.

Now cherish your beautiful hair freed from the chemical hair conditioners

SKIN CARE

Cleansing

• C leansing is the first essential step in your daily skin care routine.
• Cleansing the face 2-3 times a day; is adequate for normal skin. If your skin is oily a more frequent cleansing i.e. 4-5 times a day is necessary. If your skin is dry it is best to avoid frequent washing and you may have to use a suitable oil-based cosmetic cleanser instead of soap, which has a dry effect.

• There are several alternatives to soap and water cleansing.

• Cleansers can be in the form of creams, milks, lotions, gels and liquids. All are, a mixture of oil, wax and water which have been formulated to suit different skin types. Cotton -pad dipped in fresh milk available at home, is an equally effective cleanser.

• The right way to apply cleansers an d creams on your face is in an upward and outward movement. The skin should not be stretched, dragged or pulled. Leave the cleanser on fo r a minute or two so as to loosen the dirt and make up. Remove it either using a cotton wool or with a tissue paper, again using an upward and out ward movement. Finally rinse with water.

Masks

• Basically all face masks have some sort of a cleansing action. Various ingredients are used in the masks, depending on the skin type. Clay, form an important constituent of many face masks. They help to remove dirt, sebum, and dead skin so that the skin looks clean, soft and youthful.
• Fullers earth is a special type of clay often used in face packs. It contains aluminium silicate. As it dries on the skin, it absorbs the superficial dead cells and blots up any excessive oil on the skin. It is therefore excellent for an oily skin but should not be used on dry skin. Kaolin is also fine clay which has been used for tummy upsets because it absorbs toxins from the system. It removes grime, oils and dead cells. Kaolin is also best for oily skin and best avoided for dry skin.
• Another ingredient of some of the masks is the peeling or the exfoliating agent-these remove the top layer of dead cells from the skin, leaving behind fresh youthful skin. Oatmeal and bran are the commonly used peelers. Oatmeal is obtained from oats which is rich in Vitamin B and Vitamin E
• Also added to many masks are natural ingredients-cucumbers, curds, lemon juice and Brewer's Yeast. It restores the acid / alkali balance of the skin.

Freshening
The skin care products include cosmetics like skin fresheners, toners and astringents which basically contains alcohol and water. These products are used after cleansing the skin to freshen and tone up the skin; they also restore the acid/ alkali balance of the skin. Having cleansed, wipe away any last traces of dirt or oil with a skin freshener or toner (cleansing milk) which suits your skin type. Non alcoholic fresheners are for dry and sensitive skin. Those with alcohol (astringent) are for oily skin. People with combination skin should use toner and astringent.

Mosturising

• Regular use of a suitable moisturiser benefits your skin. The moisturiser not only replaces the water lost from the skin but also prevents its loss to the surroundings. It protects the skin against the drying influences of the environment such as the effects of the sun, cold and heat. Tinted moisturisers are very helpful under foundation. It always keeps the make up moist.
• A moisturiser is particularly helpful for dry skins. Oil free moisturisers can be used for oily skins.
• There are two types of moisturisers: Oil - in water emulsions and water -in -oil emulsions. The moisturiser you select should suit your skin type. For normal skins, a water based moisturiser containing a little oil is suitable. Sensitive skins and dry skins need moisturisers having high oil content.
• Protecting
• The sun, is the environmental factor that is most harmful to the health and appearance of the skin. Ultraviolet radiation from sunlight can cause permanent damage to the skin. It can cause the skin to sag, lose elasticity and form wrinkles. Severe sunburn can even cause skin cancer.
• Sunscreen and foundation protects the skin against the damaging ultraviolet rays. It also shields your face from direct contact with dirt or pollutants in the air and helps the skin against loosing its necessary moisture.
• Sunscreen's come in lotions and creams . A sunscreen with the sun protection factor (SPF) of number 15 can block most of the sun's ultraviolet radiations before it can damage the skin. The SPF number indicates the length of time; the product will protect the skin. Sunscreens should be applied at least 10 minutes before you go out in the sun

GET RED OF BLACKHEADS

• Use an oatmeal or almond face mask to cleanse your face. Mix either oatmeal or almond powder with enough rose water to make a soft paste that spreads easily on the skin. Rub it on your skin with your fingertips. Leave it for about 15 minutes and then rinse off with cold water.
• Rub biter guard gently on your face to peel them off for ever. Do it once a day for nearly 3-5 days.
• For 1/4 cup boiling water add 1 tsp of Epsom salt and three drops of iodine. Let the mixture cool until it's comfortable to the touch. Saturate a cotton ball with this mixture and dab on blackheads. This method will help them to loosen, so that they can be easily squeezed with a gauze pad.
• Warm a little honey and apply on the affected areas. Wash off after 10-15 minutes
• Apply undiluted lemon juice, two to three times a day.
• Wash the skin gentle, natural exfoliating product and pat the skin dry. Later steam your face with boiling water, and a few drops of tea tree oil to open the pores and soften the skin. Apply a clay mask, such as betonies clay or seaweed clay mask to absorb the oil in blocked pore. Leave it for more than 10 min and rinse of with warm water.
• Remember, the best way to remove blackheads is to be gentle and soft. An overly stress on the face will only force the blockage deeper into the skin, causing many skin infection.

KANTHA WORK

Kantha is basically close running stitch filled inside a design.

Though the work is simple, the final appearance is beautiful. Different shades of thread; double shade or single

shades can be used aesthetically according to your taste.

REQUIREMENTS
Embroidery frame
Embroidery thread
Tracing Paper
Carbon Paper
Needle

METHOD:
First trace out the design you have chosen on the fabric using tracing paper and carbon. Stitch the outline and then fill in the design with running stitch leaving very little space. The model is shown here to get the idea of the stitch. The stitch shown on the right side should be longer and the space in between should be minimum possible.
Running Stitch: Take two strands of thread, tie a knot at one end and start stitching. Take the needle up from below the fabric, leave some space, take it down and up again repeatedly till the outline is fully done. Start stitching inside the design in the same way until the whole design is filled.

CHICKEN WORK

Chicken Work is almost similar to Shadow work. Like Shadow work, Closed Herring Bone stitches are done on the wrong side of the fabric but the stitches are not done as perfectly as in Shadow work. In chicken Work, stitching is always done with white cotton rough thread and the fabrics used are thicker than those used for Shadow Work - usually cotton. Though both follow the same stitch they have a totally different appearance.

REQUIREMENTS

Embroidery frame
White cotton thread
Tracing Paper
Carbon Paper
Scissors
Needle

SHADOW WORK

Shadow work as the name implies, is the shaded part of a design worked on the wrong side of a fabric. Shadow work is usually done on fine transparent fabric like Organdy, Organza etc. and the Stitch used for shadow work is Closed Herring Bone Stitch, also known as Double Back Stitch. The colour of the thread appears delicately through the fabric giving the design a shadowy appearance.

REQUIREMENTS
Embroidery frame
Embroidery Thread

Thread-different colours)
Tracing Paper
Carbon Paper
Scissors
Needle

First trace out the required design on the wrong side of the cloth using carbon and tracing sheet. Take two strands of embroidery thread, put a knot at one end and start stitching.
There are two methods of stitching:

METHOD 1
Bring the needle to the right side at 1, in at 2, out at 3, in at 4, out at 5 and so on.

METHOD 2
Bring the needle through A take a small back stitch and insert the needle at B
Bring the needle through C, insert the needle at D Bring the needle through E and Insert at A Bring the needle through F and insert at C.
Bring the needle through G and insert at E

BEAD FLOWERS

REQUIREMENTS
Beads- Various Colours Silver Wire or Gold wire (feed wire)

Stem Wire

Green or Brown Tape

Wire Cutter

Pliers (Long nosed)
Binding wire

Beads

Round Glass Beads are usually used for flower making. Glass Beads are available in a variety of colours and different textures. Clear crystal beads lined with dye, transparent beads with the light shining through giving a jewel like appearance

and Chalk or solid beads which are not at all transparent. Large beads are used on stem wires for finishing the stem of a flower or the centre veins of leaves.

Basics of Petals
Petals can be of different shapes like round, pointed, loop, wrap shape etc. Some designs have the petal pointed at one end and some at both end.. You can make all the petals of the flower continuously with one wire or make each petal with different wires and join them to make a flower.

Basic count
A basic wire to string the basic count of beads, around which the design is formed is needed for both round and pointed petal. Take a silver or gold wire cut out a piece of wire to string the basic number of beads needed for the particular design. The lower end of the basic wire is the 'bottom' of the petal and upper part is the 'top' of the petal. The shape of the top and bottom of the petal depends upon the design.

Stem
After making the flowers. Make a loop with the feed wire left. Decide the length of the stem. Say if it’s about 12", cut a 24" length piece from the wire and fold it in exactly half, so that the stem will look thick. Or use a thick wire for the stem. At the end of the stalk make a small bend and hook it on the loop below the flower. Then wind the green tape around the stem completely. Binding Flowers or leaves to the stem.
Hold a binding wire very securely against the stem. Bring the bottom of the petal or leaf close to the stem wire with its hanging stems downward. Wind the wire tightly around the stem. Each leaf or petal is attached one at a time with the same piece of winding wire.
When all petals have been joined to the stem go around the stem with the binding wire another two turns and cut away.

HANGING BUTTERFLIES

REQUIREMENTS
Thin Cardboard

Pencil
Tracing paper
Sketch Pen
Nylon Thread or fishing line

These can be easily made with attractive colouring; this will surely delight your children and brighten up their bed room or bathroom. This is a very cheap and easy way to make a mobile butterfly. Create a hanging mobile with different kinds and sizes of butterflies.