Home remedies to cure dark circles

The skin around the eyes is very delicate and thinner than most other areas of the face. It has no oil glands and has a fine texture. This area requires special care and reflects neglect, abuse, aging , stress, internal health and lifestyle very easily. In fact, dark circles around the eyes can also develop due to hereditary factors, lack of sleep, illness, stress and nutritional deficiencies. Therefore, along with external treatment, it is advisable to take these aspects into consideration in order to establish the cause and bring about the necessary changes.

Dark circles can develop at an early age, like adolescence and early 20s, although it is more common in older people. This is due to the causes discussed above. The way to prevent dark circles is to have a nutritious and balanced diet, including fresh fruits, salads, yogurt and sprouts in your daily diet, along with unprocessed cereals, skimmed milk, cottage cheese (paneer), lentils and beans.

Daily exercise, along with deep breathing, helps blood circulation, oxygenation and control of stress. Adequate sleep and relaxation are very important.

Skin Care for Tattoos to Slow Aging and Fading

For tattoos, understanding the skin as an organ, is the first step to preventing the premature aging and fading of your body art.

Tattoos have become a popular form of personal artistic expression, so learning how to slow the process of inevitable aging and fading of tattoos, will prolong the quality of that body art, ensuring a clear crisp image and bright coloring for as long as possible.

Love the Skin You're In

Skin is not just a lifeless layer of flesh protecting the bodies system of blood vessels, bones, heart and lungs, according to the online Princeton Dictionary it is the "largest organ of the body" and is directly affected by daily care or neglect.

How to Prevent Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are a type of scar beneath the skin. When collagen, a substance located in the deeper layers of the skin, tears it creates a stretch mark. This tearing can be caused by rapid weight gain or loss, sudden muscle gain, pregnancy, and puberty. Stretch marks can be completely prevented if the proper rules are followed.

Stay Hydrated!

In the simplest form possible the way to prevent stretch marks is to keep your skin healthy. I know this sounds very ambiguous, but it really is not rocket science. There are many tips and rules to follow if you wish to keep your skin the healthiest and hopefully stretch mark free:

Drink at least eight 8 oz. cups of water daily. You may need to increase this amount depending on how big you are and how much caffeine you consume. Water will help keep your skin more elastic so that when it does stretch it returns back to its original form without tearing. Water also helps you maintain weight as it helps with hunger as well as digestion.

Vitamins and trace elements for an healthy skin

We all dream to have a nice and soft skin.

Unfortunately, it is often maltreated: pollution, sun, dust.

To have the skin of our dreams, it is necessary to take care of it, not only with daily cares on the exterior, but also with healthy and rich in vitamins and trace elements food.

The vitamins and the trace elements are essential for the skin cells, and for their health.

Here are some of them and the benefit they bring to the skin.

The Vitamin A :

- Its benefits: It protects the skin against ultraviolet aggression by strengthening it and helps accelerate its cicatrization. - In deficiency case: The skin is dry and thickens. - Can be found in: Eggs, butter, dairy products, sea fish, poultry, carrots and green vegetables.

7 habits for a healthy skin

Wondering what you can do to nurture healthy, vibrant skin from the inside out? Tackle stress! Here are seven habits, which if you practice regularly can lead to great looking skin.

Then, watch every inch of you and especially your face start to look younger, less stressed, more alive. Each step chips away at the non-stop pressure and tension that can age you by six years or more.

1. Practice deep breathing

Shift your body's balance of oxygen versus carbon dioxide in favour of energizing, stress-squashing oxygen by doing slow, controlled breathing exercises.

How often? Aim for twice a day.

Why do it? When you focus on your breathing, you're not focusing on anything else. That mental shift helps remove stressors, bringing you to a deeper level of consciousness, a place where you can put things into perspective.

2. Get active

Release the repressed anxiety trapped inside you by putting your body in motion for 30 minutes or more.

How often? Do something, anything, every day, because exercise only tames stress for a maximum of 24 hours. So to reap the most benefits, you need to do it daily. If you prefer, tuck 10-minute pockets of activity into your day – at lunch, after dinner, right after you get up and the house is still quiet. Find ways to sneak fitness into your schedule.

Why do it? Staying active boosts circulation, which delivers more nutrients to cells and skin. It also increases lung capacity, so you can take in more oxygen; lifts your spirits and sense of wellbeing; and fights age-related diseases. And, for many, it's the ultimate stress reducer.

How to Get Healthy, Younger Looking Skin Naturally From the Inside Out

Few human attributes signal health and youth like a clear, glowing complexion. We all start out with a similarly clean slate skin-wise, but by the time you reach your 20s and definitely in the decades that follow your skin will start to reveal what type of lifestyle you've lead.

So George Orwell really hit the nail on the head when he said, "At 50, everyone has the face he deserves."

In reality, though, your skin will start to show wear and tear long before that. Some of this may be related to your genes if your mother was wrinkle-free until she turned 65, you may be too but more so, it's related to how you live.

The Low-Down on Skin Aging: What Happens When we Get Older?

In your teens your skin may battle acne as your hormones run rampant during puberty, but by the time you reach your 20s expression lines from smiling and frowning will begin to surface.

It's around this time that collagen, which contributes to your skin's firmness, and elastin, which helps your skin’s elasticity, begin to break down as well -- a phenomenon that will continue through your 30s and beyond.

In your 30s, wrinkles caused by sun damage may form, although the real evidence of sun damage won’t surface until your 50s. In your 40s, your skin may become dry as it loses its ability to retain moisture, and dead skin cells will not be shed as quickly. Those expression lines that started in your 30s will also be more pronounced by this time.

How to Protect Your Skin in the Dry, Cold Months

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Winter can be tough on skin, but there's much you can do to defend against the assaults of the season. The skin's primary role -- to protect the body -- is ever more important in extreme weather, and in most locations, that means extreme cold outside and dry, over-heated air inside during the winter. Your epidermis must "weather" these drastic fluctuations in temperature, and often the result is chapped, scaly, flaky skin.

Facing the Frost

The biggest wintertime concern is dehydration. In colder climates, you definitely need to increase the protection quotient. "You must over-treat skin to keep it hydrated," says Barbara Schumann-Ortega, vice president of Wilma Schumann Skin Care in Coral Gables, Florida. That means a shift from lighter skin care products used during warmer months to winter-weight products, such as thicker, cream-based cleansers and moisturizers. These will provide stronger barriers against the harsh environment of winter months. And this is especially important for the face. And if much time is spent outdoors skiing, snowboarding, or walking, for example, your complexion needs heavy-duty protection from brisk wind and winter sun as well.

Dealing with cellulite is as easy as 123

What exactly is cellulite and what is the best way to get rid of it?

Cellulite is nothing more than additional fat cells stored in your body. We all have connective tissue that separates fat cells into little compartments. Women have honey-combed shaped compartments and men have a crisscross pattern. The honey-combed shape compartments are the reason some women have dimply thighs, or cottage cheese looking arms. Getting rid of cellulite is simple, but not necessarily easy. The only way cellulite can be reduced is to reduce overall body fat. You cannot spot reduce or rub a cream on it. You cannot starve yourself either.

Dealing with cellulite is as easy as 123

One of the best ways of dealing with cellulite has been a simple combination of diet and exercise. When it comes to cellulite just like it is in other lifestyle diseases, you will discover that you are what you eat. Some of the suggestions regarding your diet that will be beneficial include:

How to Reduce Cellulite on Legs

Cellulite is a substance that gets trapped in the connective tissue found underneath the skin. It is basically little clumps of fat cells that give the skin a lumpy, orange-peel appearance. Although it is not life threatening, its appearance on the legs can cause a person to feel self conscious. To reduce cellulite, you must treat it the same way you would treat regular fat while placing an emphasis on the legs. According to the Mayo Clinic, losing pounds and strengthening muscles in your legs, thighs and buttocks can diminish the appearance of dimpled skin from cellulite.

Step 1.
Cut down on calories. Reducing weight reduces the appearance of cellulite. Cut your calorie intake by 500 per day and you can lose a pound per week. You must burn 3500 calories to lose one pound.

Step 2.
Eat healthier foods. Cut back on the fast foods, deep-fried foods, processed foods and refined carbs, which can produce fat. Following a diet that consists completely of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, low-fat dairy products, fish, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains will reduce cellulite.

Tattoos: Understand risks and precautions

Tattoos might be more common than ever, but don't take tattooing lightly. Know the risks and understand basic safety precautions and aftercare steps.

You could be the proud owner of a new tattoo in a matter of hours — but don't let the ease of getting tattoos stop you from making a thoughtful decision about permanent body art. Before you get a tattoo, make sure you know what's involved. Also, be certain that tattooing is the right decision for you.

How tattoos are done

A tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on your skin with pigments inserted through pricks into the skin's top layer. Typically, the tattoo artist uses a hand-held machine that acts much like a sewing machine, with one or more needles piercing the skin repeatedly. With every puncture, the needles insert tiny ink droplets. The process — which is done without anesthetics — causes a small amount of bleeding and slight to potentially significant pain.

10 Tips to Cure Dark Circles Undereyes

Dark circles under eyes occur generally due to lack of sleep, stress, some disease or it may be due to some hereditary disorders. It is common to have dark circles under the eyesThese are temporary and can be treated effectively using following homemade remedies :

1. Mix fresh potato juice and cucumber juice in equal amounts. Soak some cotton in the above mixture and put on your eyelids for 20 minutes. Wash off with cold water. 
2. Cut a cucumber in thin slices and apply on top of each eye for 20 minutes. This will drain the stress from the eyes and cool it down. 
3. Tea bags are found to be very effective as far as curing dark circles is concerned. A cold tea bag should be placed on the top of each eye for 20 minutes everyday. 
4. One can use rose water or almond oil for massaging the under eyes dark circle, to get rid of them. 
5. Gently press the mount below the index finger of your palm. This will enhance eye sight and also remove dark circles. 

How to Reduce Acne (or) Pimples Naturally - 10 Easy Steps

Acne is a blight that lowers the self-esteem and causes a poor self-image of its victims. And it can even leave permanent scars. The good news is you don’t have to take it anymore. Yes - you can clear your skin! Acne can be beaten. Follow these steps and it sure will help you to get rid of pimles to an extent. Step One

Wash your face at least twice a day with a mild cleanser. Use a pH-balanced cleanser without perfumes or too many chemical additives.

Step Two

Touch your face as little as possible, and only when your hands are clean.

Step Three

Avoid squeezing pimples. Bacteria on your hands or on unsterile equipment can lead to more blemishes and possible scarring.

Step Four

Steam your face once or twice a week to help open the pores. Boil water, remove the pot from the stove, drape a towel over your head and hold your face over the pot. Then rinse your face with cold water. (See "Make an Herbal Facial," under Related eHows.)

How to Get Beautiful Skin

You don’t need to spend a fortune on potions and formulas to get beautiful skin. In fact, all you have to do to get glowing skin is to tweak a few lifestyle choices. Here’s how to work toward a better complexion.

Start with a healthy diet. The old saying “You are what you eat” couldn’t be more true — and choosing foods wisely can help ensure that you develop beautiful skin. Base your diet on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats, and limit your intake of oily, fatty foods, caffeine, and alcohol, which may aggravate acne and speed the aging of your skin. In addition, take a multivitamin that includes a full day’s allowance of vitamins C and E, antioxidants that can help your skin fight the signs of aging.

Slather on sunscreen every day. Dermatologists swear by sunscreen as an essential part of any skin care regimen. The sun’s ultraviolet rays can quickly damage the skin, causing freckles and spots, speeding aging, and even causing cancer. Be sure you apply a full-spectrum sunscreen (one that protects against both UVA and UVB rays) with an SPF of at least 15 every day — even if it’s cloudy or you’re spending most of the day indoors.

50 fairness tips:How to get fair skin naturally at home

All want to have a fair face, but only few are blessed to have a really fair complexion. But, do not let worry dominate your mindscape. You do not have to splurge a lot of money in the beauty parlours to get fairer skin or buy expensive fairness cream. The only thing you need to buy a good sunscreen (SPF 30+) before stepping out of home, and when you are at home, it is necessary to wear sun block (SPF 15). You can get fair skin at home by using the products which are available in your kitchen. Here are some tips for getting fair skin at home, which must be used only when you use a good sun block.

1. Scrub a half of lemon on your face daily to lighten your skin tone. Lemon is an excellent bleaching agent, and it is very helpful in ironing out the blemishes of the face. Try this home remedy for getting fair skin at home.

2. Squeeze a juice of potato in a bowl, and apply this on your skin to bleach your face. Your skin's will get fair gradually after using this home remedy.

3. Use tomato mashed tomato pulp on your skin to give a pinkish glow to your skin. Tomato is very good for giving you fair skin tone . Home remedy of tomato also absorbs excess oil of your face to treat open pores of your face.

4. Home remedy of lemon juice and honey in equal quantity and apply on the skin to get fair skin.

5. Take half teaspoon of honey with a pinch of cinnamon; apply on your face to get fair skin at home.

6. Apply cucumber juice with lemon juice to lighten your skin. This home remedy is very useful for making oily skin fair.

7. Apply plain curd on your skin to get fair and soft skin. Curd is a good source of zinc and lactic acid, both aid in lightening the skin tone.Curd is an excellent home remedy for getting fair skin.

8. Apply coconut water to get fair and flawless skin at home. This home remedy is helpful in lightening the scar of chicken pox also.

How to Get Beautiful, Glowing Skin

Is your skin dull and dry? Want to know how to rid yourself of it? Do you want the celebrity-flawless skin look? Follow these steps to improve your skin!

1. Clean your hands. Wash your hands before treating or touching your face. Because if you don't, dirt from your hands can get on your face and might even cause breakouts

2. Cleanse yourself properly. Keep makeup to a minimum, and wash yourself properly afterwards. Certain foundations and bronzers can make your skin irritated and break out, so be sure to remove it all completely.

3. Apply sunscreen, chapstick, and/or lip balm. Optionally, the chapstick and lip balm may have SPF. Sunscreen will prevent sunburn damage to your skin.

4. Wash your face with a cleanser after waking up. You could use Clean&Clear Morning burst, it will wake you up as well as cleansing your face. And another example is like Cetaphil. Think about it: you have been tossing and turning all night on a pillow covered with bacteria and hair product residue.

How To Treat Aging Skin

Aging skin grows thinner, less supple and more delicate, and may require a shift in your skin care routine. You'll need to hydrate and seal in moisture on your face and hands more often to avoid dryness and painful cracking. You'll want to prevent skin cancer, age spots and excessive wrinkles. While you can't eliminate the effects of a lifetime of sun exposure, you can preserve your healthy skin's moisture level and protect it from environmental harm with dedicated daily skin care.

Step 1 Use hypoallergenic products made for sensitive skin. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), soaps that contain perfume, deodorant and antibacterial agents can dry aging skin. Moisturizing lotions that contain fragrance or color can irritate your skin or cause an allergic reaction. The resulting inflammation is a source of dryness and discomfort.

Step 2 Cleanse healthy skin gently to avoid abrasion and cuts. The AAD relates that daily cleansing maintains healthy skin but that mature skin is more easily damaged and takes longer to heal. Use fingertips instead of a washcloth on your face. A soft cloth is gentler for body skin care than loofahs and synthetic sponges.

13 Simple and Smart Skin Care Steps to Reduce Wrinkles

Are you tired of waging a war against wrinkles? There are steps you can take to lessen and even reverse one of the biggest signs of aging: wrinkles.”

13 Simple and Smart Skin Care Steps to Reduce Wrinkles

1. Avoid sun exposure. Try to wear white or light colors, and wear a hat when you’re outdoors. Also, don’t use tanning booths, which can be worse than the sun.
2. Wear sunscreen. For the best anti-aging protection, Dr. Gerrish strongly recommends, “Apply sunscreen with at least an SPF 15 (sun protection factor) thirty minutes before sun exposure to protect your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays. Look for one with zinc or titanium oxide in the ingredient list.”
3. Avoid environmental pollutants. Ozone, smoke, and gasoline fumes are just a few of the pollutants that can age skin and cause premature wrinkles.
4. Start an anti-aging skin care program. June Breiner, MD, an internist in Maryland suggests, “Consult with a non-surgical skin care doctor. There are many products available that thicken your skin and reduce wrinkles.”

6 Secrets to Gorgeous Skin

More than a great wardrobe or a skilled hand with make-up, healthy glowing skin is the key to turning heads.

Just ask Kelly Campbell, a Los Angeles public relations consultant and mom. She regularly gets stopped by strangers complimenting her on her seemingly poreless, lit-from-within complexion.

The key to that gorgeous skin? She was born with it.

“Honestly, I’ve always been lucky to have good skin," Campbell says. “Except when I was pregnant and I broke out from all the hormones, I’ve never had trouble with my skin.”

Yes, some people win the hereditary lottery when it comes to good skin, just as others are blessed with the kind of metabolism that lets them eat vast amounts of pizza, chocolate, and Chunky Monkey without gaining an ounce.

“Not all skin is created equally,” says Paula Bourelly, MD, a dermatology professor at Georgetown University. “You can’t underestimate the value of genetics.”

But genes are just the starting point. Beautiful skin is also about good skin care habits, practiced day in and day out.

Here are, from top dermatologists and Campbell herself, the secrets to stunning skin.

No. 1 and No. 2: Smoking No, Sunscreen Yes

Imagine two people starting out with the same exact DNA. One smoked and sunbathed, the other avoided both. Would that make a difference in the appearance of their skin?

Researchers have the answer to that, and it’s a resounding yes.

A team of experts led by plastic surgeon Bahman Guyuron, MD, of Case Western Reserve University analyzed photographs of the faces of 186 pairs of identical twins taken at the Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. The twins had also filled out detailed questionnaires about their lives and daily habits.

It turns out that siblings who smoked and spent lots of time outdoors without wearing sunscreen looked years older than the brother or sister who shunned cigarettes and tanning. They had more fine lines, deeper and more plentiful wrinkles, and their skin was more mottled.

Bourelly isn’t surprised. “Many of the things that my patients complain about -- dull, rough skin, and uneven skin tone -- are related to chronic sun exposure,” she says, “and studies have shown that smoking is associated with premature wrinkling.”

Her straightforward advice: Wear a broad-spectrum sunscreen that protects against both UVA and UVB rays with an SPF of 30 or higher, even on cloudy days, and reapply every two to three hours you’re outdoors.

And, for the sake of your overall health as well as your appearance, don’t smoke.

5 tips for healthy skin

Don't have time for intensive skin care? Pamper yourself with the basics. Good skin care and healthy lifestyle choices can help delay the natural aging process and prevent various skin problems. Get started with these five no-nonsense tips.

1. Protect yourself from the sun

One of the most important ways to take care of your skin is to protect it from the sun. A lifetime of sun exposure can cause wrinkles, age spots and other skin problems — as well as increase the risk of skin cancer. For the most complete sun protection:

Use sunscreen. Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15. When you're outdoors, reapply sunscreen every two hours — or more often if you're swimming or perspiring.

Seek shade. Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the sun's rays are strongest.

Wear protective clothing. Cover your skin with tightly woven long-sleeved shirts, long pants and wide-brimmed hats. Also consider laundry additives, which give clothing an additional layer of ultraviolet protection for a certain number of washings, or special sun-protective clothing — which is specifically designed to block ultraviolet rays.

2. Don't smoke

Smoking makes your skin look older and contributes to wrinkles. Smoking narrows the tiny blood vessels in the outermost layers of skin, which decreases blood flow. This depletes the skin of oxygen and nutrients that are important to skin health. Smoking also damages collagen and elastin — the fibers that give your skin its strength and elasticity. In addition, the repetitive facial expressions you make when smoking — such as pursing your lips when inhaling and squinting your eyes to keep out smoke — can contribute to wrinkles. If you smoke, the best way to protect your skin is to quit. Ask your doctor for tips or treatments to help you stop smoking.

Healthy Skin Dos and Don'ts

The key to healthy skin lies beyond which soap you use. It depends on what you eat, whether you exercise, how much stress you're under and even the kind of environment in which you live and work.

All of these things affect how fast your skin ages, and thus how it will look, by influencing certain processes that lead to oxidation and inflammation. Sounds complicated, but it really is not.

Basically, complex chemical processes in your body produce unstable molecules called free radicals. Think of them as Skin Enemy No. 1. Left to their own devices, they go on to damage otherwise healthy cells in a process called oxidation. This is the same process that turns an apple brown or changes a copper roof from reddish gold to blue-green, so you can just imagine the way it can affect your skin. Sun, smoking, air pollution and poor diet all speed production of these free radicals.

Luckily, your body also produces antioxidants, molecules whose job it is to sweep up those free radicals before they can do any serious harm. How you take care of yourself—including what you eat—can increase production of these valuable molecules, literally saving your skin.

Nutrition and Your skin

Women have been using foods as facial treatments for centuries, making masks of egg whites and olive oil, putting cucumbers over their eyes to reduce swelling. But did you know that the food you put in your mouth can affect the health of your skin more than anything you could put on your face?

Although studies find certain individual foods can help you maintain healthy skin, your overall diet—as well as your weight—matters most. For instance, if you're overweight and/or you eat a diet high in processed foods, including white bread, cookies, ice cream and packaged dinners, and low in fiber and fresh fruits and vegetables, you have a higher risk of developing a condition called insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes.

In this condition, insulin, a hormone that "unlocks" the cell so glucose, or fuel, can get in, doesn't work very well. Thus, all this glucose builds up in your bloodstream instead of disappearing into cells where it's supposed to go. This, in turn, damages skin. How? By reacting with the protein fiber network (i.e., collagen and other proteins) that make skin resilient. This reaction creates harmful waste products called advanced glycosylation endproducts, or AGEs, those free radicals mentioned earlier. Fibers stiffen, skin loses it elasticity and you become more vulnerable to wrinkling, sagging and damage from ultraviolet (UV) light.

But eat a varied and nutritious diet, and it's amazing what can happen to your skin. In one study, researchers from Monash University in Australia found people who ate the most fruits, vegetables and fish had the least amount of wrinkles. However, the researchers found, diets high in saturated fat, including meat, butter and full-fat dairy, as well as soft drinks, cakes, pastries and potatoes (called "high-glycemic" foods), increased the likelihood of skin wrinkling. Coincidentally, these high-glycemic foods are also implicated in insulin resistance.