Saturday, May 24, 2014

My Natural Soap

Namaskaram

Today I am going to share with you on some natural living styles. I have a very sensitive skin, hence the more chemical there is in a bath gel/facial foam the more breakouts I get. Not just that, my skin is dry after shower and an oily one after 6 hours. I have to rely on foundation and compact powder to give my skin the glow when I dress up for function or to work. So I choose my products very carefully, and purchase those that use more natural botanical extracts.


To be frank, I have a paranoia on products that we purchase in the store, simply because, they aren't permanent. Today they may sell something that fits to our needs and we buy them, 2 months down the road they are not on the shelf anymore simply because the sales were not that good. What happens to us, the minority? Doomed. The sustainability of these products is questionable. Nevertheless, what those chemicals do to our skin.


One of my closest choices of natural product that i hung on to for years before I started yoga was Skin Food from Korea. Their products are said to be at least 75% natural. I loved them, but they are expensive and more importantly, I still have my skin problem. If there was a way out of this problem once and for all... the universe heard my prayer and one fine day, after our usual yoga session, Master Nava gave us a talk on how to live on natural things. He said when you bathe, do not use soap. No Soap?? How about all the bacteria on our skin. He said we can use the natural grains and natural antibacterial as a replacement. But will that give us the squeaky clean skin that we get after using a bath gel / facial foam.


Our skin creates a layer of natural oil to protect germs and bacteria from entering our pores. By using bath gel and facial foam, yes, we get a squeaky clean skin, but it also washes of the natural oil exposing our pores for more damage. Hence the skin creates more natural oil to layer the epidermis, hence you have your oily skin :).  Make sense?





Here is my home recipe of natural bath gel and facial foam.


You will need



  1. One bowl of unbroken mung dhall
  2. Some Kasthuri Manjal powder
  3. Raktha Sandhana (Red Sandalwood powder)


First, you need to make the mung dhall powder (You can keep this for about 15 days)



  1. Pour some mung dhall in a medium sized bowl. You can do more if you have the time.
  2. Pound the grain in using the pounder. You can skip the whole pounding step if you have a good grinder. I am just afraid I might break mine ;). In a way the pounding is kind of a therapy. It is good to watch the beans fly off the pounder and concentrating in crushing every tiny little bean inside of it :) Theraputic ;)
  3. After pounding the grain should like Step 3 Picture. After broken you can see the yellowish white of inside the grain.
  4. Put the grains in the dry grinder.
  5. Grind them.
  6. The outcome after grinding should look like Step 6. 
  7. Put them in a container, but do not cover the container. Use a big spoon, and keep mixing the flour to air it a little. It will help to let the heat out of the flour. You can cover the container after about 2 hours. The best way is to dry it under the sun, unfortunately I live in an apartment i do not have that facility.


Step 1
Step 2
Step 3




Step 4
Step 5
Step 6






Step 7














After preparing the dhall powder, you can mix them with other natural products. I use Kasthuri Manjal and Raktha Sandhana powder.

Kasthuri Manjal has a lot of benefit, unlike the ordinary turmeric, the wild turmeric does not stain your skin and make it look yellow after use but it leaves your skin with such a beautiful glow, you will be addicted to it :).
Raktha Sandhana is a cooling Ayurveda herb. As you all know Sandalwood will help to cool off heat, Raktha sandhana does the same, but since the face has a much more sensitive skin, raktha sandhana is better to be used on the face compared to the ordinary sandalwood. I purchased mine in Kerala, India during my trip last year at an Ayurvedic store.

Measurement to make the paste


  1. Take a tablespoon amount of Mung Dhall powder
  2. 1 teaspoon of Kasthuri Manjal
  3. 3/4 teaspoon of Raktha Sandhana
  4. Mix them together and make it a paste. You will notice that the paste is slightly grainy. This is because it is grinder at home in a home use grinder. The flour mills has high end machines that can give you a smooth powder. I personally like the grainy one that i make at home, because it gives that scrub effect.









Finally, ENJOY YOUR SHOWER :)

Benefits of this natural bath/facial wash:-
  1. After shower, you will notice that the water still sticks to your skin, the skin is still moisturized and there is a slight squeaky feeling on your skin.
  2. Natural glow, you have the wild turmeric to thank for, for this.
  3. Cool, smooth skin, and the credit goes to the red sandalwood paste.

I have to say, my pimples have gone away and never came back ever since i started this routine. Even though i have a powdery kitchen after all that grinding, i will always stick to this. 

Wishing you Peace, Love, and Harmony
Om


1 comment:

  1. Thank you for helping people get the information they need. Great stuff as usual. Keep up the great work!!! natural beauty products

    ReplyDelete