Did you know that the best Vit-C skincare product is so affordable that you can get it at less than Tk 10?! As onerous as it is to believe, it actually is real. The only thing you need to do to source the best skincare product at the most affordable price is to shift your perspective on skincare. Rather than brainstorming in the dressing room in front of your mirror while simultaneously scrolling through ULTA reviews, kindly amble a few steps and come to your kitchen; your skincare treasure is eagerly waiting for you!
And if you’re still struggling to grasp my bold statement and wondering what the product might be and where I was able to track it down, then stop toiling, please! It’s lime! That scrumptious green fruit you’d find at your everyday mama’s grocery van! While Hyram might vehemently oppose our skincare Ted-talk today, the world’s oldest surviving system of natural medicine, Ayurveda, has sung in our favour for thousand years. The Vedics or the Ayurveda Shastra experts had formulated this one principle regarding skincare and followed that religiously in every recipe of theirs: If you wouldn’t put it in your mouth, don’t apply it to your skin. Because of this practice of medicine’s proven results, many people to this date have included it in their daily life practices.
Among those practices, skincare can be deemed as the prominent one. “Well, skincare should be natural and very mild so that our skin can relax,” says Hridi Ahmed, the owner of Azuria Organic Skincare and the curator of one of the most eco-friendly and sustainable local skincare lines. She promotes the usage of kitchen-available products in daily skincare by showcasing them as the main ingredients of her skincare products. She also adds, “Kitchen items, for example, turmeric, sugar, honey, etc, as long as they do not contain any sort of foreign chemicals present are okay to use, but of course, one must know how to use them and also take into account that every skin is different and works differently.”
Skin isn’t just a dead layer covering your body. It is such a sensitive organ that when we put products on our skin, they are absorbed by the pores and travel into the bloodstream. With the dint of the internet, people are becoming more and more conscious of the products they’re putting on. Hence the inclusion of natural elements is becoming popular. Safia Farzana from Bashundhara is currently completing her undergrad from North South University. She says, “I use yoghurt, potato juice and honey mostly. Sometimes red lentil paste. I mostly focus on my diet, to be honest. The better you eat the better your skin gets.” Her last statement is actually true when it comes to skincare. As important it is to nourish the skin from the outside, it is also important to treat it well from the inside.
There are many great ways for including random kitchen ingredients into your daily skincare regime. Let’s start with the breakfast pantry elements. Raidya Mariam, an avid coffee drinker, uses the leftover coffee dregs as a scrub by adding some honey. “It actually helps to lighten the skin spots,” she asserted. Another person who swears by the good effects of coffee is TanjilaRafa from Sylhet Agricultural University. Again, Ramisa Tasnim from Khilgaon who’s looking forward to getting admitted to university this year, uses the very common “roti” ingredient, rice flour, in her daily face pack. She says “My face pack contains handmade rice flour, honey, aloe vera and milk. This facepack is sooo nice. It makes your skin very soft and also soothes and helps to get rid of pigmentations. I love it.”
You might like or dislike Bengali lunch items (no judgement on that), but you’re surely going to like the lunch items that these people use as their skincare products. “I grate carrot and cucumber and put it directly on my face,” says Tanzina, a digital creator. Needless to say, carrot and cucumber are famous as salad ingredients. Washifa Astha, who’s a teenager from Rangpur and is a newbie when it comes to the usage of natural products, uses potato slices a lot. According to her, it has truly helped her in controlling her oily face.
All these might seem common to you but there are some unconventional kitchen products that are also used widely as skincare items. Sharika Nawal is a high school student from Uttara. Her breakfast staple is oats porridge, and often, she ends up with leftovers. She uses it as a natural face wash by incorporating some mashed strawberries, especially during this winter season. According to her, it works as 2-in-1 face wash and scrubs. Another kitchen gimmick that she highly recommends is the application of baking soda with toothpaste whenever the teeth are required to shine like Rihanna’s song!
Bushra Khan is the owner of Glass Cosmetics. She says, “Having completed certification in skincare formulation, I can confidently say that there is absolutely nothing wrong in using certain food items as a component of your skincare products. However, I am completely against using dairy or lime juice directly on the skin. I know many people do it but it really is not ideal. Does way more harm than good.” With that being said, a little consciousness and knowledge about the products that we’re applying on our skin would not only help us get rid of any unwanted side-reaction but also would work as an impetus in our attempt to get the skin we desire in a cost-efficient way.
