#ComeCloser To Radiant Skin

Our skin is one of our five senses.
It is the as valuable as the other four, if not more.

It is our duty then, to ensure that we protect our skin from all such environmental factors, which possess the potential to cause damage to it. Skin-care is to be given its due while taking care to avoid any regimes which may cause side-effects.

Thus, it is very important to say a big NO, in the face, to chemicals and chemically treated products, which may cause more harm than benefit.

Whenever we talk of embracing nature, as a means of therapy, or naturopathy, I am reminded of the ancient goodness of Ayurveda.

While today, we are surrounded by a facade of pretentious products, all falsely claiming to be 'scientifically proven' to show desirable results, the truth is that nothing could be better than age-old, natural skin-care regimes and remedies, for our skin.

Whenever I think of skin-care and beauty products incorporating Ayurveda into their constitution, the first name which pops up in the mind is that of Vicco and their herbal, medicinal products incorporating turmeric, sandalwood and a host of other botanical extracts derived from plants.

Remember VICCO Turmeric Cream, which was not cosmetic, but Ayurvedic? :D

My mother had used some products offered by Vicco in the past in the mid-90s. I must admit that she was pleasantly surprised to see a re-run of their old adverts on the idiot box, as she was reminded of their jingle word-by-word.

If you were to ask me to elucidate my remedies for naturally radiant skin, I would be reminded of three key ingredients at first - water, honey, and cucumber.

If you have not guessed already, it is a three-step process:

• Drink a lot of water. 
• Mix two teaspoons of honey in lukewarm water, to be had just after waking up, and just before sleeping. 
• Place cucumber slices upon your eyes. 

Staying hydrated helps to ensure that the skin remains in the pink of its health. It helps to take care of body processes such as regenerating cells and improving circulation.
         
Honey has been proclaimed as a natural cleanser. It exfoliates the skin to endow it with a certain radiance and a glowing complexion.

As much as cucumber slices are famous for fading dark circles, and reducing the puffiness of eyes, if made to rest on the eyes for a few minutes, they can also be used to aid treatment of a sunburn, after you're done vacationing amid the sun and the sand.

These are some simple, yet naturally effective regimens that I have been following all these years. I'm sure that some of my readers might also have adopted these and many other such techniques to ensure that the glow and radiance never fade away from their skin. :)

Last, but not the least, one should never sleep with their make-up on as the harsh chemicals in these products keep seeping through the skin and harm its cells. One must always wash the face thoroughly, before calling it a day.

I am all ears to know about your skin-care secrets in the comments section!

---

A #MaxFreshMove And A Celebration...

May 25, 2015.
Monday.

It was a different feeling altogether with the dreaded 'Monday Blues' for our entire family this time.
The reason being the declaration of the result of Class XII students, who had spent numerous sleepless nights, contemplating over their academic performance.

Wait. No, that stressed-out teen wasn't me. I have been through this phase already. This time, it was my first cousin's turn.
Coincidentally, it was his birthday too, that day.

She seemed to have been anxiously waiting for that bottle to finally stop spinning on the table. she chickened out on that day, on the mere thought of such important results clashing with her most important day of the year.

To me, this coincidence was not something new, as my JEE results had also been declared on the same day as my birthday. It was a day of mixed feelings this time around too.

However, since the results were announced during the first half of the day, the entire extended family woke up with traces of anxiety and inquisitiveness, as is the case with typical Indian relatives.

As it turns out, the anxiousness crossed all limits when CBSE's website refused to load owing to too much load on their server. After multiple futile attempts, my cousin and her parents decided to wait for another ten to fifteen minutes before resuming their quest to get the portal to load.

After an entire hour of the results being announced by the Board, were they actually able to access the portal and view her result. The entire family was filled with a sense of pride and a wave of congratulatory message from both, the relatives and the school teachers overwhelmed her.

We could not have been happier as my cousin herself, felt content with her results. She hoped that such a performance would establish her at the threshold of a course and college of her choice.

After the initial outburst of joy, all of us cousins planned for a family outing in the evening, as the day called for double celebration. We planned for a dinner outing, at one of our favorite restaurants of all time.

However, we were in for a bigger surprise in the form of the restaurant's owner celebrating their own wedding anniversary, where celebrities Anushka Manchanda and Allu Arjun had been called upon to make the guests groove to their tunes. It was a true star-studded evening.

Our family couldn't have been happier as the entire day had been full of pleasant coincidences and my cousin had a wide grin - from ear to ear - at the end of it all.

--- 

I am blogging for #MaxFreshMove activity at BlogAdda.com. Are you?

#NioxinNowInIndia Revamps My Hair

All pleasant experiences usually begin with e-mails.

Why do I say this?

Being a blogger, I see many event invites making their way to my mailbox, every month.

Given my academic schedules, I am able to attend some, but I have to, with a heavy heart, decline some too.

This event was meant to be attended anyhow, I feel. :)

I am writing about one such pleasant experience, which came to me in the form of an invite from BlogAdda and Nioxin India, as they planned to celebrate the launch of #NioxinNowInIndia.

It did not take long for me to respond in the affirmative and I was in for an afternoon full of information and an unexpected revamp.

I was greeted by Amy upon my arrival at the Wella Salon. I must say that she was conversant with her हिन्दी accent as she introduced us to Nioxin's ideology afterward.

We were a group of ten bloggers, all curious about Nioxin's revolutionary regime.

After an initial exploration of the venue's setup, and a welcome tweet from BlogAdda, we took our seats.

Look at the NIOXIN Setup, not to miss their key ingredients, Nioxin Cocktails placed in elegant glasses! :)

Nikhil from Affinity Salon begun with the presentation about Nioxin and their entire product range, which believed that 'Scalp Health Creates Hair Health.' 

Nioxin follows the Three Step Skincare Approach which consists of Derma Renew, Density Repair and Density Protect.

Their three-part system kits consist of a cleanser, a revitalizer, and scalp treatment.
And, their track record has been pretty impressive in the US.
Their statistics claimed a large group of satisfied male and female clients.

They had a categorization according to hair type, decided as per three factors and rated on a scale of 1-6.

Have a look at it for yourself and do tell me of your type. There are bespoke kits according to your hair type, to suit each one's individual needs the best.

Mine was 5, as I had normal to thin-looking, medium textured, and natural hair.

After the presentation, a question-hour was held, with Amy and Nikhil tackling our queries. 

We were told to brace ourselves to experience the magic of Nioxin, first-hand with a personalized consultation by one of the experts. 

I couldn't have been happier. We were lead to our respective salon stations, turn by turn. 

My scalp was examined by Gaurav, and shown to me, with a compliment that my strands were deep rooted, and an in-salon, exclusive dermabrasion consisting of botanical extracts such as peppermint oil and white tea extract was applied to my scalp, massaged, and allowed to set for ten minutes. 

I let my hair down for the dermabrasion regime! :) 

It left a lingering cool effect, coupled with a pleasant odor. 

After the timer went tick-tick on completion of the stipulated time, I was led to the head wash area, with the application and rinsing of the cleanser and revitalizer. 

And, that is me at the head wash station. 

While the pleasantness of mint made my hair smell great, I returned to my station for the application of the scalp treatment spray, and the blow drying procedure.  

At the end of the regime, I was gifted with smooth and shiny strands, thanks to the magic weaved by Nioxin! :) 

That's me before the regime, with slight waviness, as I always plait my hair, owing to their length. 

That's me after Nioxin's magic, with silky, straight, Rapunzel hair! :) 

I bid adieu with a smile on my face, while raising a toast to Nioxin's product range! 

I have also blogged about my experience for a period of 20 days, with Nioxin, here. 

You can try and experience #NioxinNowInIndia at your nearest salon. This activity is in association with BlogAdda.com. 

MyAirtel, My Best Friend!

MyAirtel is a magical app for your smartphone, for not only taking care of your various accounts with Airtel – be it DTH, prepaid, postpaid, landline, broadband and IPTV, but for also letting you perform a number of other activities in a very impressive and innovative way. The MyAirtel app from Airtel is in fact a bundle of smart features that work in such a wonderful way that the moment you download it and start using it, you are bound to become its fan. If I have to select three key features that best fit my lifestyle, I would go for the following three:

 

1.  'I Want To'. I have become fond of this feature that acts like a genie. It is something which makes my wish come true. The versatility and flexibility that this feature provides is marvelous. I can recharge my prepaid connection's talk-time balance. I can also choose any of the options among these – buy, pay, order, recharge, view, and record. So the moment I have to pay my bill, it is just a click away. I just have to go to MyAirtel App and do it. 

Similarly if I want to view my transaction history, that is again as easy as using any of the innovative features of this app. In fact “I Want To” is a tailored feature and you can create shortcuts of your most frequently used features under it. So it is a sort of a personalized screen where you create a shortcut to your most frequented, or required features. Some might have two and others might have five features under their respective screens of the 'I Want To' feature. 

2.  Along with the 'Downloaded Services' of features bundled with the  MyAirtel app, you can add more features or services, separately provided by Airtel. The best thing is that in this way, you bring all your required Airtel services on one screen, to be used via a single app. 

So, if you want to add Airtel Live in your MyAirtel App, it is quite easy to do so. The same goes for other services from Airtel that are not bundled in this app. You can add One Touch Internet from Airtel here if you require to use it regularly. It is not that you cannot remove any unwanted Airtel Service at a later stage once you have added it. Removing a service is as simple and quick as adding a service. 

3.  The user interface and usability is designed in such an innovative manner that it gives you a touch of perfection and complete satisfaction. In any application design, especially for mobile apps, the quality of the user interface is as important as the stability in code. 

If the code is managing the show from behind the screen, it is the user interface that, if designed well, keeps end-users hooked to the app. That is what is quite a strong feature in MyAirtel app. 

I like my new best friend, MyAirtel very much. 

Would you like to befriend it too? :)

#EkNayiLeague And Kapil Dev

When the masters of the trade decide to create something, it is obviously going to be a masterpiece. Who can forget the well-crafted batting by Kapil Dev in the semifinals of World Cup 1983? His full name is Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj. Born on 6th January 1959 in Chandigarh, this Arjun award winner cricket legend from India is a great asset to the country. He demonstrated how a strong willpower can turn the tables around and win over any kind of situation.

Kapil Dev held the record of taking the most wickets for a long time in both the formats – tests and one-day internationals. He holds a unique record of scoring more than five thousand runs and taking more than four hundred wickets. That is an unbeaten all-rounder record held so far.

Kapil Dev is one of the greatest fast bowler India ever had and a superb all-rounder. He was the captain when India clinched its first Cricket World Cup in 1983. He has been the coach of the Indian cricket team for the tenure, October 1999 – August 2000. The right-arm pacer is about to launch a new league, #EkNayiLeague and the guesses are doing the rounds as to what it could be.

On Twitter, soon after joining in the last week of April, Kapil Dev started hinting about the new league through his tweets. The hints were that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Vierndra Sehwag, all cricketers and Kapil Sharma, the ace comedian would be the part of the league.

The launch of the league is scheduled today in Mumbai and the sides being taken, are about a reality quiz show, a virtual betting show, a trading show or a virtual cricket game show. Well, it could be a show, or it could also be part of an online portal.

Whatever it is going to be, which will be known in few hours, it is going to be quite interesting and fun-filled. There would be enough of seam bowling, out-swingers, in-swingers, pacers, and yorkers from Kapil Dev’s side. On the batting front, Kapil Dev has been very effective hooker, puller and could also drive strongly to make the ball cross the boundary either for a four or a six.

So let us wait and watch what bounces to us from within the Pandora box of this Haryana Hurricane for us.

After retiring in 1994 from Indian Cricket, Kapil Dev started his venture in hotels. He also is an expert commentator during international matches. Kapil Dev’s love for golf is a well-known phenomenon.

He is respected as a good player in golf too, though that is his personal passion, not something where he would like to compete with others in related championships. But one thing is for sure. The new league that Kapil Dev is about to start is going to be power packed melodrama.