Aishwarya Biswas’s hands-on skincare Facebook lives are loaded with kitchen raids which make for fuss-free DIYs. We caught up with the founder and MD of wellness brand Auli for some tips and tricks.

You have been uploading a lot of skincare videos. You must be enjoying getting innovative?

These videos are keeping me sane and from what I can see, lots of people are getting more and more engaged with these innovative ghar ka nuskas. And trust me it’s fun to try. It’s something moms are doing with their children and sometimes the children are making the elderly try. For example, my mom is making me skincare ubtans as she has phenomenal skin and I am making her hair tonic as she thinks her hair needs protection. So it’s a good way of looking after each other using kitchen essentials and also bonding! A lot of us didn’t get this opportunity to spend time with family. And now that we have time, we all can look at wellness and protection with new gusto!

Our skins must be breathing like never before. No make-up, no tan, no pollution... how best to pamper it even further?

Protection from sun damage is half the battle won. The other half is food, low stress levels and water. One must do these few things to maintain good skin:

• Use basic ingredients from the kitchen for home remedies but don’t forget to do a patch test.
• Always double cleanse at night — cleanser and facewash.
• Make sure you exfoliate, but do not over-exfoliate.
• Drink tons of water.
• Don’t spend a day without sunscreen, even when indoors.
• Use vitamin C in the morning as it fights against environmental damage.
• Fight free radicals with anti-oxidant rich foods in the diet and serum.
• Every time you steam your face, make sure you close pores with cold water.

What are some of the tried-and-tested things that you have added your twist to?

I have tried so many new things for the first time ever. These six are my favourites and I have shared videos on these too as I have seen magic happen:

1. Daily facial cleanser: Gram flour + fresh tomato juice + milk + turmeric + honey has really taken the cleansing game to the next level. Good to use every day.
2. Tan removal facepack: Honey + curd + potato juice + aloe vera gel (from plant or otherwise) + turmeric. Make it into a paste, keep it on for 15 minutes and then wash it off. If you have oily skin, you can add besan. If you have very dry skin, you can add a dash of olive oil/coconut oil.
3. Anti-ageing pack: Blend honey + milk/curd + coconut oil + lemon juice + turmeric + cooked rice (with starch) in a mixer and apply on your face on alternate days. It will visibly reduce wrinkles and fine lines. A supple glow will follow.
4. Hair tonic (mom’s fave): Mix green tea (after drinking just squeeze out the extra from tea bag in a bowl) + aloe vera gel + vitamin E capsule (if available) + any hair oil that suits you (castor/ coconut/ hibiscus) and shake well in a spray bottle to get a smooth and nourishing leave-in hair conditioner spray for your daily use. Use as many times in a day as you like. Instant shine guaranteed!
5. Sugar face and body scrub: Powdered sugar (for face) and granular sugar (for body) mixed with olive oil + honey + potato juice. Prior to your shower, use it abundantly on face and body with a little bit of water. The mixture will melt into your skin and you will see a shine like never before. Leave the oil on as it will replenish back the nourishment which gets exfoliated. Body polishing once a week is important.
6. Insane hair pack: This one is for instant results! Say bye bye to dry, damaged hair just like that.

Mix: One banana + 1 tablespoon of aloe vera gel + 1 tablespoon of honey + 1 tablespoon of hair oil. Run it through a hand blender and you will have an amazing home-made conditioner, which will instantly fix your dry and damaged hair giving it the healthiest possible shine. Leave it on for about 30 minutes and then double wash with shampoo. No added conditioner needed! Hair will also smell fantastic.

Give us top six kitchen ingredients used in summer skincare...

• Pure honey — one ingredient that will solve so many problems for both skin and hair.
• Cucumber and tomato ice cubes for face.
• Potato slice for face.
• Besan for face and body.
• Turmeric for face and body.
• Milk/curd has lactic acid which is great for face and curd is super nourishing for hair too.

A magical ingredient that you have discovered is?

I have finally gotten around to really understanding honey and why it does what it does, scientifically. It not only cleanses the system from the inside but when applied on skin and hair raw, also gives phenomenal results. It’s magic in a jar. The real liquid gold!

I never knew tomatoes are so good as face cleaners. I have seen instant benefits like skin brightening. Banana was a big surprise! It’s a great ingredient for hair, especially when it’s dry and damaged. Honey and banana are super effective when used as a combo.

An indulgent manicure and pedicure can be relaxing. What would you suggest for home mani and pedis?

Step 1: Mani-pedis at home start with a warm- water-and-salt soak. Add lemon juice and one spoon baking soda for tan removal if needed. You can add shampoo or bodywash in the tub when you soak.

Step 2: Then start by exfoliating the dry skin with the body polish I mentioned before.

Step 3: After a good scrub, use a pumice stone to buff away all dry skin.

Step 4: Then comes cleaning the nail area. You can use a toothbrush with some soap and clean the cuticles and nail beds. Clean with lemon juice once.

Step 5: Then cut your nails and file them if there is a filer handy.

Step 6: Moisturise with coconut oil as a final step!

You can make a cool hand-and-foot scrub with besan + coffee + sugar powder mixed with tomato juice. Keep it on for seven minutes and wash off.

With the stress and anxiety that comes with lockdown, what are some of the great stress busters for your skin?

• Facial yoga is a real thing! Do some facial exercises.
• I cold spoon my eyes to get rid of the puffiness and dark circles.
• Do some meditation and breathing exercises for good blood circulation.

Adhuna Bhabani

Adhuna Bhabani, founder and creative director, BBLUNT, is fan of natural textures and feels now is the best time to show your hair the love it deserves. A chat...

As our lives change forever, how are you coping with this shift?

By drinking a lot of water, deep breathing, trying to keep fit and listening to some jazz! But yes, these are unprecedented times and self-isolation is crucial if we want this pandemic behind us. I definitely don’t think it’s been boring. It’s been good to rethink possibilities — how we’ve been conditioned to live our lives, how accustomed we’d grown to social settings and shifting the focus inwards, for introspection, for family and more so to indulge in some self-care.

Can you share with us your quarantine diary?

Between chores and spending time with my daughter and my dogs, my diary is blocked with virtual discussions and training sessions with our team of stylists to keep them engaged. This is followed by live sessions on Instagram with my friends from the industry and addressing audience concerns pertaining to hair on BBLUNT’s social handles.

Our salons maybe inaccessible, but our team is still always at your service — making sure you have a stylist at home when you need one. Together with Osh Bhabani and Avan (Contractor), we are working with them to regularly put out tips on our Insta page to maintain your hair and grow it out till we can have you in our chairs once our salons reopen! We have also started taking online consultations with our clients.

Coming to hair, it’s in a mess for most of us. What is the best way to take care of your hair at this time?

• Your hair is what you eat and being home allows for healthy, balanced, home-cooked meals vs eating out at the office cafeteria, at restaurants or getting take out. Consider this a good body cleanse and detox. Don’t forget to stay hydrated and drink plenty of water.
• Rushing to go where we needed to be meant we don’t take time to really cleanse our scalp, let alone condition our strands well. So take enough time, now that you have it, for a hair wash.
• The heat and humidity that accompanies this trying time will make it harder for your hair to be at its best. But, avoid frequent hair washes or over-washing your hair.
• Slather on a leave-in conditioner after a hair wash, to slightly damp hair. Clamp it on from mid-lengths to ends of your hair. This will leave your hair nourished and hydrated.
• Continue to show your hair some love by habituating yourself to drying your hair gently after a wash, minus a hairdryer. Allow it to air-dry naturally.
• Don’t forget to brush your hair.
• Staying at home gives you good reason to give your hair a break from heat styling tools and embrace its natural texture.
• Every once in a while it’s good to focus on rejuvenating the hair and scalp with a good deep conditioning and now that you have the time, seems like a good routine to put into place. With the help of a great product, it’s best to include deep conditioning in your haircare regimen.
• For everyone at home, a great and easy-to-do solution that you can try is to first cleanse your scalp and hair with any shampoo that you prefer or have access to at this time. Gently towel-dry your hair, then apply a conditioner or hair mask you have available. So starting at the ends, work the conditioner up to the mid-lengths of your hair. Really knead the product thoroughly through the hair and wrap it in a hot towel for 10-15 mins for a quick-fix deep conditioning. You can give yourself a nice scalp massage while at it using the tips of your fingers in a circular motion to really stimulate the blood flow that feeds the root of the hair. This in turn provides for a healthy scalp.
  

How best to handle damaged ends? Should we take up scissors and go chop-chop?

I understand that due to the lockdown people have limited or no access to many services, including frequent salon visits for regular services like haircuts, trims, colour touch-ups and are hence looking for alternatives or ways to try out these services at home. One of the most frequently searched queries that people are looking for is DIY haircuts.

I’d like to tell our reader that it’s better to leave certain things to the experts rather than taking matters into your own hands and regretting it later... in this case, it is leaving haircuts to the hair-stylists/experts. Thus, instead of opting for a haircut at home, we encourage them to grow their hair and promise to be there to help them manage it better. This brought to life our on-going initiative — the #GrowOutChallenge. This was started by our co-founder, Avan Contractor, who took up this challenge and set the ball rolling. The insight was to ensure consumers don’t have any hair mishaps at home whilst empowering them to try new looks and styles.

But I understand that growing out your hair also means facing issues like split ends, hair thinning, difficulty managing it... which is why our team of stylists, led by Avan, are giving out frequent tips that will help you maintain your current style till the situation improves and we’re back at our salons.

Any special tips for those with coloured or treated hair?

Hope you are using a colour treated shampoo and conditioner and that you haven’t yet run out. Use a leave-in cream to nourish and hydrate your strands. This also protects it from the sun and pollution — environmental hazards like dust, harsh UV rays as well as thermal pollution.

Greys are a big problem. How best to handle it?

My advice would be to grow it out for now. Use this time to give your hair a break from colour as well. But if you really can’t take it any more, there’s always BBLUNT’s Salon Secret, a high-shine creme hair colour. An at-home, ammonia-free, salon-quality hair colour that we created for days like these. The shades are keeping in mind Indian skin tones and you can either order this online from any of our e-commerce partners — Amazon or Nykaa or you can pick it up at any local modern trade or general trade store near you, if they are open.

How is your hair behaving in this period?

I prefer wearing my hair naturally and short. However, I am growing my hair out, too, during this lockdown. I am a wash and go kind of person and I like wearing my hair in its natural state.