At hindsight let me warn you I have really bad skin owing to my extremely high IG levels and years of dedicated utter carelessness but there was a phase when I tried so many things and doled out thousands on skin care to fix it. And then one day Wisdom knocked my door and luckily I opened. Anyways, over the past few years I have been trying to consume everything consciously to protect the only thing I feel is really worthwhile Planet Earth and MY HARD EARNED MONEY even more so.
Consuming less and switching over a lot of unnecessary stuff isn’t just great for mother nature but can lead you to save a million in a fews years if thats your motivation. Ok getting to the point I have never been someone who jumps straight into a trend just because its gaining momentum. Three years ago when I stopped consuming meat it actually happened overnight, there was no conscious thought but an underlying realization maybe. This wasn’t even my stepping stone towards veganism and saving the planet. I still enjoy my morning Coffee with milk immensely and those 20 minutes of making and having it gives me unfathomable happiness so I knew I don’t have to give this up just yet. Remember Self Care Self love first !
But every little contribution does count and here are a few things I thought were completely unnecessary ‘ for me’ so I switched for the good and thought would share with you. I will also try and give a brief number on how much buck I eventually saved and tripled in a mutual fund 😉
Rose Water
My holy grail for 2 decades now and after just a 30 minute online research and two you tube videos led me to the greatest discovery on earth , how incredibly simple was it to make steam distilled pure rose water at home in flat 30 minutes. The result is absolutely fresh zero preservatives, organic toner that you can Spray on your Face to instantly feel like you were standing in the middle of Mughal Gardens or the Garden of Versailles if that’s more upmarket. Ok so my favorite Rose water brand unfortunately wasn’t the most cost effective Dabur one , the Kama Ayurveda one I really liked and it cost me about INR 300 a bottle that lasted a month. Self made Rose water costs only INR 20 a month. So I briefly saved Rs 3450 a year and 12 plastic bottles choking mother earth. I know I deserve the NOBLE for this.
Face Serums
I switched to a simple Cold Pressed Coconut Oil as a bedtime ritual and ditched the serums. Like thousands others I jumped onto the night serum bandwagon after 30 concept too. Infact I was already 35 when I thought it was an emergency literally that I didn’t use a night time serum. I have an extremely sensitive skin and shall be very honest here out of the Five serums I tried over a couple of years 3 gave me a breakout and rash like never before. Openly Sharing the some high end to nominal serums I tried that literally did nothing for me. Infact some are so famous and women swear by them across the world so I was 1000% sure my Skin was about to change forever. It did but in a bad way !
Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair – INR 8250
Kiehls Dark Spot Corrective Serum – INR 4450
Add to this 3 or 4 drugstore/startup Brands each costing 1k and upwards
Hair Serum
After switching to good old coconut oil for my nighttime bed ritual for face , I decided to do away even with the expensive Argan Oil hair serum I used to absolutely love, it was a pretty good product but did nothing extra . Simply switched to a Hot coconut oil massage before washing my hair and the results were so surprising. ‘ Don’t know why I stopped my weekly champi’s ever in the first place ‘. I know why because they are a bit more time consuming. But anything for looking like Rekha when I hit 60’s so let’s do this instead 😛 Annual Savings INR 2800 I used the Moroccan Oil Brand which was quite pricey. Also isn’t Cold Pressed Coconut Oil super Versatile. From Cooking to Hair/Skin, healing wounds and rubbing it on my Fiddle leaf its just like they say a “God Sent “.
Face Scrubs
Okay this switch was damn easy because I usually bought one and that sat on the Bathroom Shelf untill it got expired and sometimes beyond that. My only reflex here was exfoliation is necessary for great Skin. Didn’t realize you don’t need a store bought tube for that. A simple sugar and honey does the trick. In my case with sensitive skin rice flour makes good dosas and exfoliates like a charm. I mix it with a tablespoon of curd and rub it gently for a minute or 2 and then let it sit for another 5 minutes before washing off. Easy and so so good, my skin loves it. Average Scrubs I got were anything from 200 bucks to 500 bucks so I assuming I saved at least 1000 bucks.
Face Packs
Just Like the Scrub this was another Multivitamin prescribed by the Skin gods. I never sweared by any Brands and picked anything new on the shelf or the buzz of the beauty world from charcoal to aloevera. I now resort to 2 salons for those pampering sessions , my Kitchen and my Balcony both has ingredients that most brands promise and both work equally well or better. And in days I need extra Hydration when travelling I use the Rs 100 sheet masks by Korean brands, works like a charm for me.
Now lets Total shall we !
So here you go these are some things I switched and they worked for me , my skin and my pocket in a good way, I am no skin care expert and have had my sessions with various dermatologists from time to time. But by gods grace the Skin is behaving so much better after I gave up the fancy stuff and actually stopped worrying about ageing, freckles , wrinkles. I never was a disciplined Skin Care student anyways and you could be someone who totally enjoys deep Skin Care rituals unlike me and there’s nothing wrong about that. But if you are someone like me lazy and irregular , consider switching to simpler ingredients from the Kitchen that don’t come with a shelf expiry mostly or a hefty price tag. Hope you enjoyed reading this. And yes I almost forgot ( Age I tell you ) all this sums upto 10- 15k a year that I can invest or splurge onto things I really really love. I am writing after 5 long years and a little bit of feedback and your kind words would go a long way to encourage me to blabber more often.
Heading to rub the Aloe on my Face Now. Have a Nice Day ! CIAO
Kamakshi
