Bath Powder - Natural, Healthy and Simple

Bath Powder - Natural, Healthy and Simple

If you are a person who is concerned about reducing the amount of chemicals your body is exposed to, then you should know about an ordinary/extra ordinary bath soaps which most of us use.

Avoiding processed food, choosing organic foods, pesticide-free produce, hormone-free meat is wonderful, but that is not all enough.

We cannot completely escape from all the chemicals and toxins our body is daily exposed in the modern world. But, at least we can make better choices where ever possible.

One small change we can make is the soap we use. Our skin covers our body.. its living, breathing organ, and the first line defence organ of our body.

Our skin has many functions. One among them is to absorb substances that are good for our body like vitamin D from sunlight or healing herbals. Our skin can also absorb BAD stuffs which we expose it to daily. These chemicals weaken our immune system and eventually lead to all skin problems and even some internal abnormalities.

I am not going to go into detail of what chemicals does these soaps contain. Instead, let me show you an alternative which I follow. Its the home made natural bath powder. Its very simple and healthy.

This bath powder which I use, is very mild, has soothing fragrance, is an excellent scrub, and above all I am happy with the results. This bath powder removes most of the unnecessary facial hairs, removes black and white heads, fights against body odours, improves complexion, makes skin smooth and soft and believe me if I say 90% of foot cracks disappears.

Let me take you to the recipe of the bath powder the way I like it.

Ingredients:

• Gram dhal or channa dhal - 500 grams
• Green moong dhal - 250 grams
• Raw rice - 250 grams
• Vettiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) - as required (I buy for Rs. 25 and add to the mix)
• White turmeric (poolaan kizhangu in Tamil and botanical name is Curcuma zedoaria) - 100 grams

Procedure:

• Sun dry all the ingredients. 
• Give it in the flour mill and grind it to powder.
• Store it in a air tight container.
• Take 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of the powder in a bowl. Add little hot water.
• Mix it well to make paste. 
• Within 2 minutes the paste is ready to be used as body wash. 
• It will become thick after cooling. Add more water if required.
• Let it be in a thick dosa batter consistency.

Tips:

• The white turmeric in this powder gives an excellent fragrance.
• This paste is an very good scrub. 
• In the beginning, try with just 1 and 1/2 teaspoons or 2 teaspoons of powder. Add more if you want later. 
• This will not give lather like soaps. It will be plain like a simple gentle scrubbing powder.
• Use daily for 3 months to see the difference in your skin.
• Store all the powder in a big box. Take small amount in a small air tight box and store it to use daily. This is to avoid opening the main box daily as the powder might loose the fragrance.
• The ingredients I have mentioned above are my favourites. You can add more if you wish. You can add kasthoori manjal (wild turmeric - Curcuma aromatica), regular facial turmeric, dried neem leaves, dried orange peel etc., 25 to 50 grams of each depending on the sensitivity of your skin. Always start with less quantity if you are a beginner.
• Adding regular facial turmeric (gundu manjal) in the bath powder, which is a best antibiotic, will give slight yellow colour to your skin after bath. You can skip it if you do not want the yellow tinch on your skin.
• You can skip all the above fancy herbs in the bath powder and can use only rice flour or only gram dhal powder as bath powder. This basic bath powder is far better than the soaps.
• Do not buy the ready made dhal flours and rice flours from shop for bath powder. Buy them as whole grains in shop and get it powdered.
• For babies, you can just use the gram dhal flour as bath powder.

Start using this natural bath powder. Avoid using soaps, talcum powders, body lotions and other cosmetics on daily basis. Let your skin breath freely.

Its a small step towards a big change. Let us be the change.

Happy living !!