{Guest Post} Amazing benefits of Potato Juice and ways to use it

We are quite aware of the fact that kitchen supplies are one of the most extensively used skincare items in one’s routine and the easy availability makes these ingredients one of the most sought after remedies followed in every house. 

One such Ingredient is Potato. We have known potato as vegetable and is widely used as a main food item in every household. Like one of the most popular remedy in which potato is employed is for dark circles which just resist fading in spite of trying an army of eye creams, gels & serums. The regular usage of potato peel or potato juice surely works for genetic dark circles too! 

Let us explore more benefits of potato juice and how this ingredient proves to be a common favorite ingredient for taking care of the skin in a natural way. 

Removing Blemishes- 

Potato juice comes to rescue blemished skin and makes it even with prolonged use. These results show up in the long run and really improve the texture of the skin in a gentle & effective way. 

Treats Sunburns- 

If you are very prone to tanned and burnt by the Sun rays even at the slight exposure to the sun, then you definitely need to check out the wonderful job potato juice does to sun burns. 

Aids in Pre-mature aging- 

The harmful sunrays and continuous exposure to increasing pollution tends to makes the skin inclined towards aging quickly. This can be sorted with the regular use of potato juice to keep fine lines & wrinkles away. 

Treating Puffy eyes- 

If you are someone who gets up with puffy eyes and is clueless about the cure then potato juice is for you to use and get rid of the puffiness.I love doing smokey eye makeup and with puffy  eyes it becomes a nightmare to wear it and its only potato juice which comes to my rescue. 

Glowing face- 

For having a radiant & glowing face potato juice is really effective in doing so. It tends to have a bleaching effect on the face and gives a visible glow to the skin.There is nothing like a glowing face and a beautiful dress which I keep posting on my Indian fashion blog. 

Treating Grey Hair- 

Boiling potato peels and staining its water works very well on the grey strands of hair. Just use this water as the last rinse after shampoo and you will observe a difference in the color of the strand with regular use. 

Lightening Scar marks- 

Potato is also used to lighten scar marks by grating and extracting potato juice and mixing it with multani mitti & lemon juice and applied directly on the scar marks. 

As an anti-aging mask- 

Potato juice when mixed with a teaspoon amount of curd gives an excellent hydrating and moisture restoring mask which slows skin aging considerably and with continuous usage. This mask restores the lost moisture from the skin and makes the appearance of fine lines to progress slowly. 

Lightening Skin tone- 

Mixing grated potato and cucumber in equal proportions and applying it all over the face including areas around eyes works really well to even out the skin tone. Cucumber juice is rich in ascorbic acid & caffeic acid while potato contains starch Catecholase which is an enzyme which helps in lightening skin tone and treating puffy eyes. 

Author Bio: Anamika is the owner  of Wiseshe and Fashionlivemedia.She enjoys makeup and fashion and  playing with her 2 year old toddler. 

Giveaway Competition- New Glossybox Products

Hi beautiful people! How many of you are Glossybox subscribers? Have you got lots of unwanted product and they are just sitting there untouched? I do, I have lots. I want to be giving them away to those who would use them. This competition I will give 5 products sent in the original Glossybox with all the shredded paper and tissue paper. I haven't used any of them, still sealed and in their original packaging. I've taken a few close ups of each product.

Gosh Cosmetic Sundown Lipstick. I am not a lipstick person, I've given a few to my mum already. I'm not giving her this one because she doesn't like the colour and she has too many. According to the Glossybox info card this lipstick gives an intense and long lasting colour to your lips. I've found a photo of how the lip colour looks from Lily Melrose's beauty blog, see below.

Lily Melrose Beauty Blog

Caudalie Divine Oil for body, face and hair. The tag is still on, I have opened it to smell it but haven't used it. I prefer to use natural products (as natural as possible) on myself for example; argan oil and coconut oil for hair, coconut oil and castor oil for face and cocoa butter and vitamin E oil on my body. 

Face tint with sunscreen of 50+. Initially this was very attractive to me because of the high SPF but I don't really use liquid foundation as I have sensitive skin. I have enough BB Cream at home already and I hardly used them too.

Nail Polish Headline. I do paint my nails but this colour is too dark for me. The colour is a bit different in this photo, it's actually dark purple. The colour of blueberry juice to be exact. 

And finally, Wilkinson Sword razor. I don't shave, I wax so this is no good for me. I haven't opened it, it is all sealed up. I know I've still loads of times but I want to make sure you know it is all new, unused and sealed. Lol.

How to enter competition?

This competition is only for UK. To enter this competition, you will need to do all the following 3-4:

• LIKE my Facebook page if haven't already done so (click here)
• LIKE the post about this giveaway on my Facebook page
• SHARE the post your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ account or which ever one you have
• leave your EMAIL ADDRESS and NAME either underneath this blog post or the under the post that I've post on my Facebook page so I can contact you if you're the lucky winner!

Closing date of this competition is 23rd February Midnight. Each person that enters will be given a number and I will choose a person by random using a random number generator- I will be using this website http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random

I will announce the winner on 24th February. Good Luck!

My Christmas and Trip to Hong Kong Part 1- beauty

Hi everyone, I haven't blogged for a month. I must admit I was lazy to blog after coming back from my holiday. I was lazy to go to the gym and I put less effort in making healthy food. Nevertheless, I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and had lots of yummy food. I had quite a bit. I will quickly show you what I had for Christmas and then move on to my trip to Hong Kong.

I spent Christmas day with my boyfriend and I cooked the dinner. I didn't make turkey or lamb as I'm not a fan of them. I only like turkey when its been stir fried and I hate the taste of lamb. I made roast chicken with roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots, garlic sauteed the brusselsprouts with a hint of lemon zests and macaroni cheese. I spent almost 4 hours in the kitchen cooking and my boyfriend was just sitting in the living room, watching TV and waiting to be fed. But I'm happy that he enjoyed the dinner as he had seconds as soon as he finished his first plate.

I should have turned the chicken around for a better presentation. The other side was browner and looked better. The potatoes and macaroni cheese were actually golden brown but my boyfriend's kitchen light makes everything look really yellow in photos.

 

The recipe for brussel sprouts was from Laura's Kitchen YouTube Channel, she has lots of good and simple recipes. Adding lemon zest gave it a zingy taste and covered the bitter taste.

Voila! Christmas dinner

On boxing day I went home with my boyfriend and had lots of seafood. My dad made majority of it and I cooked two pots of mussels in tomato white wine sauce.

My dad's hands lol. Steamed scallops with some vermicelli noodles, minced garlic and spring onions.

 Just plain boiled prawns with chilli soya sauce dip. I couldn't have this because the scabs on my face, I will talk about that later. There were a lot more prawns than what you see in the photo, I forgot to take a photo in the beginning.
 

 Mussels in tomato white wine sauce, I forgot to add a bit of chilli to give it a kick but it was still good. It felt good having my boyfriend helping me cut up the ingredients and watching me cook lol. We dipped toasted ciabatta bread into the tomato white wine sauce, it was so delicious.
 

Razor clam with vermicelli noodles in black bean sauce and tong ho stir fried in fermented tofu. It was my dad's first time cooking razor clams and didn't turn out too good. He over cooked it a bit. The colour isn't too nice because he didn't add dark soya sauce as I can't have soya sauce at the moment.We also had some vegetable gyoza but no photo for it, sorry. In total, there were six courses and we couldn't finish the last two course.

Back to the main topic, my trip to Hong Kong. Two weeks in Hong Kong was not enough, I didn't have time to go to all the places I wanted to. But I still ate lots of delicious food and did some shopping. In part 1, I will be talking about beauty and part 2 will be about food.

First of all, I've had a mole removal laser treatment done. I did it on the day I left Hong Kong as apparently you're suppose to avoid certain food and ingredients once you have cuts on your face; that includes, soya sauce, vinegar (anything that is sour) and egg. Right before the treatment, I bought an egg tart just to have a final taste of it lol. Hong Kong has some really good egg tart but very fatty.

I had 4 moles removed and they cost $100 each which I thought was a really good price. The whole process was less than 10 minutes and it did hurt! The pain level is a bit higher than when you first had your eyebrows or lips threaded which makes your eyes water. I could hear and smell the moles burning. The laser thing made a "zzzz" noise and burning smelt like burnt flies lol. If you've used those electric fly swatter you know what I'm on about. Once a fly gets caught between those wires and you press On, the fly will burn and creates a bad burning smell. 

This is a photo of me before the treatment. You can see a mole on the left side of my chin, one next to my nose on the left, one on the right side of my face parallel to the one on my chin and one on the nose. My moles are all scabby now. I still go out, they don't look too bad as they still look like moles but bigger. When I first looked in the mirror, I was thinking "why are my moles bigger?" lol. I'll show you the result once they are all off.

I got loads of Korean cosmetic products this time, some are from my cousin, my uncle and Godmother as Christmas present. Korean cosmetic are just irresistible. I love how they branded their products, makes you want to buy everything.

 

Laneige Sleeping pack from my uncle. I haven't tried any of the products as I'm waiting for my scabs to come off. I need to avoid getting them wet as much as possible. Yes, I have washed my face but have been extremely cautious. 

Etude House is one of the places I went to get those cosmetics. Even the shop front is very quirky. I love it!

Anyways that's it for now, I'll blog about the yummy food I had in Hong Kong in my next post. Thanks for reading.

Let a Slimey Snail Help You With Anti-Ageing

Hello friends! What's the quirkiest anti-ageing method that you've heard of or done? Have you heard about the slime from snails is extremely good for your skin and anti-ageing? I only heard about it a couple of weeks ago and I'm rather late with that because a Korean cosmetic brand Missha have already launched a cream that contains snail extracts back in 2010. I also found an article by Daily Mail written in 2011 about snail slime, click here. The article indicates that many European creams have been using the slime for years and Ancient Greeks have been using them too. Wow!

The photo above shows a women having a snail put on her face....I don't think I would ever go for that sort of treatment. I'd rather go for a painful waxing treatment than having a snail crawling on my face. *Shrugs* Just plain disgusting lol. I absolutely hate slimey creatures; I scream when I see worms, slugs, snails, frogs and other slimey creatures. lol.

Nevertheless, if Missha have launched a cream containing snail extract of course there would be other brands that have something similar. I recently bought Dr.Organic's organic snail gel from Holland & Barratt for £19.99, 50ml. They are currently on offer, buy 1 get 2nd half price. It can be used on face and body but I'm just using it on my face right now.

The product doesn't contain 100% snail gel, it also contains other natural ingredients which are all beneficial to the skin; aloe vera leaf juice, lime oil, lemongrass oil and litsea cubeba oil. The lime and lemon grass oil gives the gel a citrusy aroma. The gel is clear like water but thicker. I've read some positive reviews about it like smoother skin and reduced wrinkles. Some have said they are using it as a primer and in fact it does look like primer. 

More about the snail slime

The scientific word for the snail slime is Helix Aspera Muller; a mixture of protein, glycolic acids, elastin collagen, allantoin, vitamins and minerals; this substance helps the snail to quickly regenerate its own shell and skin when damaged. It also protects snail skin from UV rays.

How to use it?

You can use on your face and body, day and night. Use it after cleansing and use in conjunction with a moisturiser after the gel has been absorbed.

Results on myself

I've only used it for a week during day time in conjuction with coconut oil (my day moisturiser). This definitely works 10 times better than those expensive skin care products which I tend to react to most of them. I haven't reacted to snail gel so that's good. I can tell you that you can feel instant result. I say feel because my skin feels a lot smoother and more hydrated on day 1. Not "see" because I don't have wrinkles yet (Thank God), well not major lines anyways. If snail gel is an effective anti-ageing substance than I expect no wrinkles until I reach 40 or later lol.

Thinking about it, snail gel isn't that weird because most Oriental people eats birds' saliva. That is apparently really good for the skin too. I also remember going on holiday to some island in mainland of China and they sold beauty products that apparently contains diamond dust. However weird it is, its better to be using natural ingredients than products that contains harmful chemicals and unnatural of course.

What do you think of the idea of putting slime on your face? Do you use any other weird ingredients for anti-ageing?

GlossyBox the London Edition

Hi my lovely readers! I came back from my little Paris trip on Thursday and found Glossybox waiting for me. =D. This month's is called the London edition, I really like the box. One thing with Glossybox that I hate & love is that I have a collection of boxes in my room, they are too nice to be thrown away and they are taking up spaces!!

HD Brows Blusher

HD Brows specialises in brow products but they started to do others now like blusher. I love how this comes with a mirror and a sponge. Full size £17.95 available at www.hdbrows.com

Eylure Pre-glued lashes

I don't really wear falsies but I still love them. This is pre-glued meaning no need to apply the glue and no mess...hmm I wonder how long it will last then. One Set £5.06, available at www.eylure.com

Toni & Guy HairMeet Wardrobe Classic Shine & Gloss Serum

I've tried it the next day and it seems like it has made my hair really smooth and its non greasy. Full Size £7.19 for 30 ml available at www.boots.com

Be A Bombshell Cosmetics Onyx Eye Liner

Ok, I don't know about you but whenever I see the word "Onyx" I think of......the rock snake pokemon. Lol. Yes, I used to love it when I was younger. This eyeliner is in a felt tip which makes it easier to apply. If you're a beginner to liquid eyeliner, start off with felt tip ones. Full Size $14 for 3g, available at www.beabombshell.com

Elizabeth Arden Untold.

Another perfume sample, smells good but I wonder when I will get round to using it. Glossybox PLEASE STOP giving me perfume samples. Full size £48 for 50ml, £69 for 100ml, available at Debenhams

That's it for now, thanks for reading!
What did you get this month? Are you tired of perfume samples like me?

Day at the Free From & Allergy Show and V Delicious Show

Hello lovelies, as mentioned in my previous post (Organic and Natural Beauty show) I was going to a Free From and Allergy show and V delicious show this weekend just went. And I did. Basically there's two events in the same venue, half of the venue was companies selling natural/ organic products and allergy products and the other half was vegetarian and vegan food and drinks. I used to feel sorry for those who were allergic to gluten because it meant that there are lot they can't have but after going to this show I changed my perspective as there were so many gluten free products.

Anyways, I started with the V Delicious show. There were so many gluten free bread companies, and tried almost all of them. Yes, I was there mainly for the food lol.

There too many people that I couldn't even bothered to walk the whole venue. I wanted to look for natural fitness products but didn't seem to find much.

These are some pretty gluten free cupcakes!

My shoppings and freebies

I bought a pack of gluten free tagliatelle, they were selling it for £1. They also did a chick pea fusili but they were sold out :(

I immediately tried it when I got home. I liked it, it tasted much better than normal pasta and I loved the chewy texture. It's made with rice flour and corn.

If you're a regular reader of mine you will know I have Good's hemp protein fit shake and guess what? Good was there. There were selling hemp milk and hemp oil. I bought two carton's of milk for £2. It tastes a bit like vanilla and my mum doesn't like the taste. Weirdo! lol

Aduna was there too. In my previous post about my day at the Organic and Natural Beauty show, I mentioned that Aduna was my favourite company as they were different from the others. This time I did buy something, 170g of fruit pulp loose powder for £15, as a student that is not cheap at all but considering all the benefits it has for the body and skin its well worth it! Oh just a reminder, it is 100% natural baobab fruit pulp.

This is Dr. Bonner organic castile soap. I have been looking to buy castile soap because I have been looking to make my own shampoo. As you may know, shampoos contain a lot of harsh chemicals. I found out that castile soap can be used as a gentle shampoo. Castile soap don't contain any harsh chemicals, it is made with vegetable oil only. Castile soap has a lot of uses, can be used a shampoo, an alternative to toothpaste, laundry detergent, washing up liquid, used to wash vegetables and many more. I bought the green tea scented one. £10 for 1 litre, I felt it was worth it because its about £8.79 for 472ml in Holland & Barrett and Planet Organic.

I bought an organic self tan lotion from the brand Green People for £14. I sort of regret buying this now lol. This is in a cream form, but Tanorganic (the company that I saw in Organic & Natural beauty show) is oil based and I prefer that. 

 

The sachets were freebies from Green People. The little block thing is a handmade soap by another brand which I have forgotten the name lol.

Another freebie, cooking coconut oil.

And finally a free sachet of organic hemp seed

Did you go to any of those shows? Do you like organic and natural products? 

The Organic and Natural Beauty Show

Hi! What a great sunny week right? I've been out in the sun (with sunscreen on) for a bit to boost my vitamin D. =D

On Monday, I went to Organic and Natural beauty show at the London Excel, it was free. Apparently this is their very first show, and I think it was pretty good for their first show. I was meant to blog about this event a couple of day ago but my internet wasn't working, finally got it fixed!

At the entrance, they had some goody bags that you had to pay for £1. I bought one as it's only a pound and I know there will be some sample products. lol. There were 2 magazines, a couple of promotional flyers and food sample products, not beauty products!

There were so many skin care brand, too many that I didn't know where to start. And because of that I sort of lost interest, I was looking for products that wasn't for skin.

I found a couple of Argan oil companies, they both sell 100% natural Moroccan Argan oil. Argan oil has been one of my favourite beauty products recently. I currently use Organix Argan Oil but contains a lot of other chemical ingredients. So I was very interested in these companies.

Alassala stand.

I first visited Souss Argane, and they were only selling one product at their stand, Argan oil for both hair and skin. I actually like that because its simple, you won't be bombarded with too any choices.Second Argan oil company is called Alassala, they had two products; Argan oil for face and body and another for the hair. I had a look at the ingredients and both said 100% Argan oil. So I asked the owner what's the difference, and he said they are the same but it's just a way of marketing the product. Ok that's strange.

Another company, Eden, was selling Argan oil as one of their products. They specialise in oils. They also sell jojoba oil, avocado oil, and rose hip oil. They are all pure and natural no other added ingredients. Great stuff!

Aduna

My favourite company was Aduna (see photo above) because they were different. They don't sell skin products but food. (Trust me to be looking for food products at a beauty show lol) They sell 100% natural baobab powder. Not sure what baobab is? It is a fruit from Africa. If you've watched the Lion King, you will have seen this fruit. In the beginning when the monkey put some juice on to Simba's forehead. That was the fruit. I know this because that's exactly what the lady at the stand told me lol. The lady also said that baobab is almost fifty percent fibre, contains 14 essential vitamins and minerals and has one of the highest antioxidant capacities of any fruit in the world. It helps improve skin health, energy metabolism and there were other benefits she mentioned that I forgot. Basically good stuff!

Although I've been trying to use more natural and organic products but after this show I realised I am more interested in products that are made with minimal ingredients and doesn't not have words that you can't even pronounce. But I know it's hard to find skin care products with minimal ingredients.

Anyways that's it. This Sunday I'll be going to V Delicious show at the Olympia. A vegetarian show that is co-located with Allergy and Free From show. Thanks for reading!

Late April Glossybox

Hello beauties! This month's Glossybox arrived a bit later than usual, I thought it got lost in the post or it got sent to the wrong address. It does happen you know because I received someone else's one time and so ended up with two Glossybox that month lol.

Anyways this month the box design had a vintage and floral design that was designed by Pearl Lowe.

Modelco Cheek + Lip Tint in Rosy Red

Got a cheek and lip tint by Model Co. I've never used a cheek or lip tint before and after trying it on my lips I quite like it. It's extremely light, I couldn't feel it on my lips. Unlike lip gloss or lipstick, sticky and sometimes   feels heavy on the lips. You know that feeling. They've given me a full size of this product; 10ml at the price of £15. Pricey or what?

Essie Nail Lacquer

I got a nice summery peach colour nail polish. I tried it on my toe nails and looked quite nice. But the brush wasn't too good, it left lines on my nails or maybe its the quality of the polish. I don't know.

Sunsense Daily Face SPF

People still use tinted moisturisers? I thought it has taken over by BB Cream or even CC Cream now. But anyways the SPF 50+ is what I really like about it. This is a brand from Australia. 

Nip + Fab Coconut Latte Body Butter

I find body butter the best for skin, other regular body cream doesn't work as good, for me anyways. I opened this and only 2/3 of the container was filled. Despite that it smells good, I love the smell of coconut. Makes me want to eat this up!

Yves Rocher France- So Elixir Purple Parfum

For the first time I'm actually happy to have received a perfume sample because of its packaging. Its in small cute purple bottle, normally the samples they send are in those regular tube. Smells ok but I think its more for my mum so I gave it to her.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!