As we have entered the fall/autumn season now in the Northern hemisphere, I thought it is a good time to slightly tweak my facial regimen. I have already shared with you the regimen during summer in this blog post. Fall is vata season – cold, windy, dry, light qualities start increasing inside us and outside us. We need to focus on increasing moisture to combat the dryness that we will experience during this season. Also important is to avoid overly cooling ingredients and slowly switch to more warming ingredients. To combat the lightness element of vata, we need to add some heaviness and grounding in our regimens.
I have tried to use common ingredients in this facial, so that you won’t have to shop for “esoteric” herbs before trying this. So, let’s dive right in and see what the fall facial looks like.
Ingredients:
- Tomato (a small 1 inch piece)
- Uncooked Rolled Oats (1 tbsp)
- Milk (1 tbsp)
- Raw Honey (2 tsp)
- Peeled Almonds (optional) (2 coarsely crushed)
- Avocado (mashed) (1 heaped tablespoon)
- Flax seed powder (1 tsp)
- Organic milk (1 tbsp)
- Turmeric (haldi) (1/3rd tsp)
- Rose Water (1 tbsp)
- Cotton Balls (2)
1. Preparatory Steps
Wash the face with a cleanser that you normally use for your skin. Pat dry. Take a tomato piece and gently rub it in concentric circles all over your face and neck, ensuring that the juice evenly spreads all over. The tomato juice acts a gentle, all-natural bleach to help remove tan marks or dark discolorations on your face, while still avoiding the harmful, toxic effects of a powerful, chemical bleach. It also gives a nice, healthy glow to the skin.
You could use lemon juice as well – I just thought of varying it up since I don’t use tomato generally in summer season for this step and using tomato gives the skin a lovely glow. Now, tomato is great for oily skin and may be a little drying for dry skin. Feel free to use lemon juice in this case. However, the next few steps use extremely moisturizing ingredients, so it’s your choice!
Mix 1 tbsp water with rose water in a cup. Dip cotton balls into the water and place on your eyes. Lie down and let the tomato juice stay for 5-10 minutes on your skin. Wash with water and pat dry. Place the cotton balls back into the cup – you will use these again.
2. Exfoliation with a Scrub
Coarsely grind oats (you can simply mash dry oats with your fingers) and peeled almond together. You can skip the almond completely, if you want to (I do). Take a tablespoon of powdered oatmeal (with or without almonds), add a teaspoon of honey (preferably raw) and a tablespoon of room temperature or slightly warm milk. Mix well. Use this scrub to gently exfoliate the skin. Oatmeal is great as an acne remedy, heals skin and opens the pores. Lean over a sink while doing this. Take a tiny amount of the mix and apply to one area of the face or neck. Then, using circular movements, gently scrub the skin, portion by portion, until the entire face and neck is covered.
Lie down with the rose water cotton balls on your eyes. Keep this on for a few minutes, until it gets slightly dry. Wash it off. Pat dry.
3. Steaming
Steam the face using an electric steamer or by placing the face over a pot of hot water. Be careful not to spill hot water on yourself. Do this for at least 4-5 minutes or as you feel necessary. This step is essential for opening up the pores of the skin.
4. Face Pack
- Mash avocado and place it in a cup. Avocado is a rich source of Vitamin E and monounsaturated fat – very effective in moisturizing the skin and combating aging related symptoms like wrinkles. It gives us the oiliness to combat vata dryness as well as the heaviness to combat vata lightness.
- Add flax seed powder to the avocado. Flax is rich in omega 3 fatty acids which hydrate the skin, and antioxidants that protect the skin. If you have allergies to flax or if you don’t have it available, you may skip it. Like avocado, it provides lubrication and heaviness to the skin regimen.
- Add honey. Honey is well reputed for its skin benefits – hydration and anti-aging to name a few. Honey provides the necessary warming against the vata coolness, in addition to its other skin benefiting properties.
- Add milk. You may also use fresh cream here instead.
- I forgot to add turmeric, but you may if you want to, at this stage.
- Mix well with your fingers.
- Apply this pack to your face and neck.
- Lie down with the rose water cotton balls on your eyes. Keep it on for 15-20 minutes. Before washing it off, just massage the pack well all over the skin. Wash and pat dry.
5. Moisturize
Moisturize your face with a thick layer of your favorite skin moisturizer.
Follow this regimen once every 2 weeks to see maximum benefit. You can always use this in combination with the other facial regimen that I had earlier posted, depending on variations in weather and how you and your skin feel.
Don’t forget the other important ways to improve skin health:
- Healthy diet. In fall, include lots of warm soups, fresh fruit and root vegetables and lubricate your insides with quality fats.
- Hydration – drink lots of water!
- Beauty sleep – ensure that you get adequate hours of sleep – at least 7-8 hours per night. Go to bed early!
- Do a self oil massage – abhyanga – as frequently as is possible.
- Exercise moderately.
- Practice some yoga, breathing and relaxation/meditation techniques regularly.
- Think positive thoughts!
Do give this a try and let me know how it went. Choose wisely and live well!