Love your skin… Almond Goodness

So far I know only one person who dislikes almonds, but if you don't like eating them it doesn’t mean that you can't enjoy their goodness in another way.

I love nuts and always choose them as my snack if I am hungry in between meals or just fancy something nice and crunchy! Eating nuts makes me feel fuller for longer and they are a great ingredient for loads of different dishes! Just add some ground almonds to your curry and it will add that lovely extra texture and flavour! 

Did you know that Almond is not a nut, but it is actually a seed?! It consists of an outer hull and a hard shell with the seed inside.

When I write about something natural and simple I always recall my childhood memories and the way my mum was keeping me and my brother healthy! She would always give us a handful of nuts in a small bowl as a snack to keep us occupied while waiting for a dinner and I always enjoyed it!

I can not begin to describe how healthy almonds are! The health benefits we get are endless! It is used for weight loss, digestive system improvement, to ease constipation, also to lower cholesterol. It’s a great antioxidant, looks after our skin and hair. It is so accessible to everyone and yet we forget about the natural and easy way of staying young and beautiful!

In my previous blog ‘Love your skin’ I shared a little tip of cleaning the face skin and now its time to feed it!  

Almond oil is well-known for treating skin problems such as wrinkles, dark circles under eyes, dry skin, black heads, etc. The oil leaves the skin soft and smooth.

Almond face mask

For healthy and refreshed skin apply once a week the mixture of:

2 table spoons of almond oil

1/5 table spoon of honey

A squeeze of lemon juice

Regular use of almonds prevents early appearance of wrinkles, dryness and improves the blood flow leaving your skin glowing.

Oily skin treatment

Ingredients:

2 table spoons ground almonds

1 table spoon rose water

1/5 table spoon honey

Mix all the above ingredients until the paste is even and carefully apply it to your face skin. Keep it on for about 15 minutes and then rinse it off.

Dry skin treatment

Grind some fresh or use pre-ground almonds and mix them with milk or cream. Apply the mixture to your skin and keep it on for about 20 – 25 minutes. Wipe it off gently with a piece of cotton soaked in warm milk. 

I tried it today, just added a little bit of honey to this mixture just to give my skin even greater natural touch. I absolutely loved it and so did my skin!

Apple Cider Vinegar

This is something I knew about since I was a little girl… I remember my grandma saying that cider vinegar helps to control our digestion system and also prevent fat build up in our bodies!

She said that when she was 16 she wanted to be slim and therefore had a table spoon of cider vinegar every day.

Back in my grandma’s young days she tried various diets secretly from her mum. She had to eat everything what’s on her plate and that’s why she used natural remedies to keep her slim!

Apple cider vinegar is not only great for our digestive system but it is also beneficial to the health of our hair! A mix of water and cider vinegar keeps it shiny, prevents dandruff and adds more volume!

Hair cleansing remedy:

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

daily shampoo

The mix of a daily shampoo and cider vinegar should be applied to your hair once a week. Rinse it well to make sure all the vinegar excess is gone. It will prevent dandruff and leave your hair in great condition!  

Hair lotion

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1 L water

Place the mixture of water and cider vinegar into an empty spray bottle and use it after shampooing your hair. It might be used instead of leave in conditioner and works really well! No need to rinse it off! Don’t worry about the smell of vinegar as it will go away as soon as you dry your hair!

! It is not recommended to use cider vinegar for coloured or chemically treated hair because it might fade the colour.

Love your skin...

....and it will love you back!

Finally we had some proper snow in London last night! I am feeling even more Christmassy!

I wanted to write a little bit about skin care. Our skin is amazing and we should look after it all year round! Especially when it cools down outside we must remember that our skin dehydrates because of indoor heating!

However, in the autumn and winter skin care features mostly depend on where we spend most of our time - outdoors or indoors.

Daily cleansing, hydrating and feeding are the main rules of skin care that does not depend on our age or time.

I love little skin care treats but more and more I find myself looking after it in a natural way. I choose my skin care products very carefully, most of them contain natural plant extracts which protect and nourish my skin. I believe that the natural way is the only way to have beautiful and healthy skin.  

I am extremely passionate about my home made products and I love them all, especially ‘avocado face mask’, but yesterday I tried my home made soda facial scrub for the first time and I really liked it! I am always fascinated by how easily and quickly natural beauty treats can be made at home.


Home made soda scrub

I found this tip on one Lithuanian health & beauty website and got really excited to try it out! Although if your skin is not oily don’t use it too much as this scrub can make your skin very dry. But it can be used once or twice a week as an excellent exfoliating facial wash!  Baking soda scrub removes dead skin cells, revitalises and keeps our face and body skin clean and soft.

The way I made it

I just mixed a pinch of soda in my palm with my daily facial wash until it started foaming. Then applied the mixture on to my face, gently massaged it in to my skin and rinsed it off with warm water.

You can also mix it with a little bit of warm water instead of your daily facial wash.    

Soda scrub for complex skin

You will need:

2 spoons of flour

1 tbl spoon of baking soda

Dilute the mixture with a little bit of warm water to make a smooth paste and gently massage it in to your clean skin. Rinse it off with warm water!

ZZZzzzzzZZZzzz….. ZZZZZzzzzz….

What a perfect Saturday… Just watched my favourite ‘Saturday Kitchen’ with James Martin and lovely Nigella’s Kitchen. I was waiting for this morning all week when I can just sit back in front of the telly and relax… later I had my morning or should I say afternoon shower and I can tell you that there is only one way to deal with the cold: if the coming winter is biting you, you have to bite it back! And that’s what I did! I treated my skin with a warm and 100% natural honey&sugar scrub!

Having my beauty regime in place is great but unfortunately last night I didn’t sleep well!

I am usually blessed with good night sleep and I can sleep wherever and whenever… When I travel back home to Lithuania and if I travel on my own I always sleep in the plane… how lucky am I! A few times I fell asleep just before taking off and woke up when I landed in my country!

My lovely Australian friend Neil suggested that I write about quality sleep and its impact on our health. Also my sleepless night gave me a few ideas… I didn’t sleep because my head was packed with thoughts of Christmas presents… so I got my laptop and simply looked through a few websites, bought some lovely Christmas presents for my family and my friends… only then I calmed down… even thought I was just too excited to have a good night sleep…

Importance of quality sleep

I believe that the simplest secret of health, youth and glowing skin is quality sleep! I recently read loads of articles related to beauty sleep and in summary I can say that sleep is as important as food and water!

It is important not only how long you stay in bed but the quality of sleep. Make sure that you have as few disruptions as possible when you sleep! My boyfriend has attended the ‘sleep well, perform well’ seminar the other day and he said that ‘the biggest interruption is our mobile phones, because usually we have them  somewhere near us and mobile phone radiation wrecks our sleep!’

Impact on our health

Reading some insomnia articles makes me glad I do not have this problem. Some people deliberately sleep less hours and have the excuse of having loads of things to do. This leads people in to dangerous health problems such as irritability and stress. Lack of sleep weakens our immune system and it can also affect our memory and mathematical ability!

Sleep is extremely important for the health of our skin! The lack of good night sleep results in dark circles underneath our eyes and the skin looks dull and lifeless. It also results in early ageing which none of us wants to experience!

Quality sleep benefits every aspect of our life quality, the way we feel, the level of energy and our happiness!

Every person should have their sleep pattern and make it a regular event! We should sleep from 8 to 9 hours a day. Personally for me 6-7 hours is enough. But I do let myself lie in longer on weekends and get some extra beauty sleep!

What can help you sleep?

Switch off all the devices in your room and don’t leave your TV, lap top or speakers on stand by as they produce electrical waves which can disturb your sleep.

When your head is full of thoughts about work or things you have to do, just write them down on a piece of paper. It will help you to relax because you don’t need to worry that you might forget them, literally taking the thoughts out of your brain.

Try some breathing exercises. Concentrate only on your breathing from the diaphragm, breath in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth.

Go to a happy place! If you feel stressed and unhappy just imagine good things which happened to you or things you want to happen!

Do not go to sleep extremely hungry and also do not drink too much liquid before bed!

What helps me to sleep?

My mum visiting London

Occasionally I can’t fall asleep when I am cold, stressed or hungry, also if I slept too long that morning…

Nice, crisp clean and cute bed sheets and a tidy room help me to have my beauty sleep.

Just letting in some fresh air to my room before bed time helps me to have my quality sleep.

Warm milk is a good old cure for sleepless nights, also herbal teas like camomile tea and especially cinnamon tea. See the recipe in my ‘Lovely cinnamon’ blog.

From all the reading I’ve done on good night sleep I loved the sentence that ‘the bed should be used only for sleep and sexual relationship and not for reading or watching TV. Excessive time in bed seems to fragment sleep.’

Yellow miracle

We all use this juicy citrus fruit in our daily life and it is a well know source of vitamin C. Lemon adds taste to our food and drinks, we use the well known combination of honey and lemon when we feel ill, we decorate our dishes and deserts, especially I love decorating my signature cheesecake with a lemon zest, nothing can beat the lovely smell…

Lemon is not only good for our health, not only a tasty and refreshing yellow fruit but it also helps us to stay beautiful in the most natural way! Consuming lemon keeps our skin brighter and younger!

Beautiful hair

I found this tip in one of my favourite health magazines and I use it all the time after my home made hot oil and rosemary hair mask. I love the fresh smell and feel of my hair. Just mix 2 lemons juice with 1 litre of warm water and rinse your hair after shampooing!

Little tip: Don’t rinse your hair with hot water as it dries it out and your hair looses its liveliness! When you blow dry your hair give it a cool blow at the end, which will keep hair cool, light and beautiful!

Keeping your teeth healthy  

I always check the condition of my teeth when I go home to Lithuania for my holiday because it helps me to keep it in a good health. Last summer my dentist told me that my gums are a bit tired and I should try lemon juice and soda mix. As soon as I came back home, I checked my mum’s cupboards for soda. I then mixed one scoop of tea spoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) with a little bit of lemon juice and a little bit of water. After brushing my teeth in an ordinary way I then washed my mouth with this lemon & soda water and gently brushed my teeth for about a minute. It’s amazing how you can feel the difference straight away as this fantastic natural mix has ability to whiten and polish the teeth surface and also refreshes gums!

Beautiful nails

Everyone likes to have nice and looked after nails. Here is something affordable, easy and natural. Lemon skin is an ideal tool to polish and strengthen our nails. I remember doing it when I was a little girl. My mum once told me that nails grow stronger if you soak your hands in lemony water. Just be careful if you have irritated skin! You can simply drop a few drops of lemon juice on each nail and that will strengthen your nail surface. Peal a peace of lemon zest and polish your nails with the white peel and I promise your nails will grow stronger!

The Challenge.. the Results..

So I am sitting now in front of the computer on this lovely Sunday afternoon with a big cup of peach flavour green leaf tea...  In my blog ‘why cottage cheese' I have set myself a challenge to stay away from coffee for a week and I am happy to say I have kept my promise! Having in mind that I am a coffee lover I thought it will be much harder to resist, but it wasn’t really! I did miss it though, but I was absolutely delighted by smooth and enjoyable taste of lovely green tea!  

Last Monday I armed myself with green, white and fruity teas and been drinking it all day long. I have to say I feel great... I think green tea has some magical powers... My skin looks lively and healthy and my stomach was keeping well!

I do not like going shopping to Oxford Street in London, it’s just too busy and too crazy, but there is one little shop I love in Tottenham Court Road and it’s just round the corner from my gym so I had a peek the other day for the tea selection they have. And I got myself this lovely caffeine free peach flavour green and also white leaf tea and I am loving it! It tastes as good as it smells... just a little bit of honey... a slice of lemon...  and I am sorted!

Tea history

Tea originated in China 4000 years ago! Green tea has been used as both a beverage and a method of traditional medicine in most of Asia, including China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea and Thailand, to help everything from controlling bleeding and helping heal wounds to regulating body temperature, blood sugar and promoting digestion.

Simple truth

Over the last few decades green tea has been subjected to many scientific and medical studies to determine the extent of its health benefits, with some evidence suggesting that regular green tea drinkers have lower chances of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer.  Although there is no scientific evidence that plain green tea can produce weight loss, a green tea extract is useful for "obesity management", since it stimulates fat oxidation.

Green tea consumption reduces risk of heart diseases, bad cholesterol, increases metabolic rate, fat oxidization, lowers incidence of cancers, prevents of the death of brain cells (less chance of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases).

Green tea also contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C), minerals such as chromium, manganese, selenium or zinc and all of these are great for our health, and I like green tea because of the zinc as it keeps my skin healthy and my hair 

shiny!

It’s very complicated how green tea works to benefit our health. It is a complex biological process and the easiest way to explain it is that green tea makes our body and immune system stronger and keeps away all the bad intruders. In this way our body is strong enough to fight various illnesses and also cancer. To fully benefit from this drink we should drink at least 8 cups of green tea per day and ensure the tea is the best quality!

 

Making green tea

I once read that we shouldn’t pour boiling water on to the tea (not only green tea) as it loses all its goodness and we should always use fresh water. Water left in the kettle loses vitality and makes tea taste dull!

So sit back...get yourself a cup of lovely green tea enriched with your favourite flavours, enjoy it and stay healthy!

Let it shine…

I love mid autumn when colourful leaves rustle under your feet… The weather is crispier but still mild… and you just want to wrap yourself into something warm and enjoy the feeling of the coming winter…

At this time of the year I get really concerned about the health of my hair. I love looking after it and treating my hair well so it looks healthy and shiny. The healthy lifestyle is vital for the health of our hair and there are so many signs warning you about the lack of vitamins in your daily diet. If your hair becomes thinner it can mean you are not getting enough protein with your food and if your hair looks dull you might be lacking zinc! If you want to have shiny and fabulous hair you need to sort out your daily menu and make sure you eat enough vitamins and minerals necessary to maintain a healthy scalp!

Why our hair is falling out?

The reasons may vary. It might be caused by stress, poor diet, especially smoking! Hair loss is common after giving a birth or if you stopped using contraceptives, but the good thing is that our hair has ability to revive itself every season and it has been proven by scientist that August and September is the time when we lose the largest amount (abut 50 – 100 hairs a day) and it is because of the lack of iron.

Hair maintenance

Our hair is structured from protein called keratin (95%) which contains sulphur. If we don’t consume enough of this protein then hair gets thinner. To prevent this from happening make sure you eat more products such as fish, cottage cheese, cheese, yoghurt, chicken, eggs. It only takes eating 4 boiled eggs a week to get your shiny hair back (100 g of egg yolk contaisn165mg sulfur)!

Things to know

Apparently the more we pamper our hair and use loads of different hair treatment products such as serums, leave in conditioners etc the more hair loses its ability to keep its natural moisture, and it becomes weaker, requiring more and more care.

Also keeping hair covered is not a good thing! We should wear hats only when it’s necessary!

Each person has approximately 100 – 120 thousand hairs on their head. In one month they grow about 1-1.5 cm. The hair growth process is at its fastest amongst 15-30 year old people and women’s hair grows faster than men’s!

Little tip (hot olive oil & rosemary herb mask)

Last week I was wandering around in a beauty shop, just looking for new brands, new products. There are so many... which one to choose... I picked up a small box of hot oil hair treatment... and then I though why should I buy one when I can make my own!? I have all the ingredients at home and I don’t need to spend any money and it is as good as any expensive beauty product, even better, because it’s all natural!

hot olive oil & rosemary hair mask 

Once again my kitchen becomes my little beauty lab and I do enjoy it! And my bathroom becomes a little SPA escape... I pour ½ glass of lovely olive oil into a cooking dish and put it on my gas stove, sprinkle ½ glass of dried rosemary leaves and start heating it up... the smell is gorgeous... I love rosemary in general and I think it’s a fantastic herb! I then sieve the warm oil to separate it from the herb and then rub it into my hair, especially hair tips. Wrap it up with the towel to keep the warmth in and leave it on for 30 minutes to one hour, although I usually leave it for a little bit longer...  and then just shampoo it twice to make sure all the oil excess is washed out. The hair is silky and soft and that’s the result I was expecting!

If you have some left over oil from your hair mask, don’t throw it away but use it to soften your hands!

I just love all these small homemade treats! They are great to warm you up on cold, rainy and dark autumn evenings!

Luscious Avocado

I can now say that avocado is one of my favourite salad ingredients ever! Some time ago I was very sceptical about this lovely peace of fruit but because I didn’t know how great it is for not only making salad but also making little treatments for my skin! I highly recommend eating avocados (unless you are allergic) as much as you can and I can guarantee you will not regret it!

In the United Kingdom the avocado became widely available in the 1960s when it was introduced by Marks and Spencer under the name 'avocado pear'. However, many customers tried to use it as a dessert ingredient like other pears (e.g. with custard), and complained to the store that it was inedible. As a result, Marks and Spencer dropped the word 'pear' and labeled it simply 'avocado'.

Good to know:

Avocados are high in valuable fats and appear to have a beneficial effect on blood serum levels. Aavocado is the second fruit (after olives) with the highest monounsaturated fatty acids - 20%.

Loads of people avoid avocado because of its fatty content, but this is a big mistake! The monounsaturated fats reduce overeating and are a big help to digestion system.

It is also one of the richest sources of fibre among all fruits and vegetables. Filled with vitamins A, B, especially B3 (folic acid), great anti-oxidants like vitamins C and E, calcium, iron, potassium and other powerful health maintaining nutrients!

Avocados are:

• Very low in sodium
• Very low in sugar
• High in dietary fibre

Stay smooth with avocado…  

Avocado is not only delicious fruit and a perfect salad ingredient but also an amazing little treat for your home made face mask! Avocados are high in fat but most of the fat is monounsaturated and that’s why it is considered a healthy fat. An avocado is good for your skin because of its omega-3 fatty acids, avocados contain both vitamin C and vitamin E, which act well together as a powerful skin anti-aging combination. It smoothes your skin, keeps it plump and youthful looking and helps prevent dryness.


Indulge yourself with avocado

On my way home from work I popped into a shop and was looking for something light, fresh, super healthy and then I saw those lovely green avocados staring at me on the shelf. I instantly grabbed one of them and my brain was sending me an image of this perfect avocado evening with a bowl of nice salad and an avocado mask for my face. Once again I was excited  by having a double benefit from just one fruit.


I have halved the avocado and used one side for my lovely salad. Just chopped tomatoes, cucumber, yellow shiny pepper, tore a few green salad leafs, chopped some dill, parsley and basil left over from my cottage cheese day mixed in my creamy and luscious avocado, splashed a little bit of smooth and lovely olive oil, squeezed some lemon juice and had it ready in just minutes!


The other avocado half I used for my face skin treatment. It can not get any easier to make this mask! Just grind peeled avocado, mix it with a dash of olive oil, crack one egg yolk and apply onto clean skin. Keep it on for about 15 minutes and rinse it off with warm water. Mix avocado with egg whites if your skin is greasy! You will feel the freshness straight away! Try it and love it!

Little Filter Coffee Secret

Coffee is a very fascinating product to me! I love the smell, I love the look and I love the taste…  But how (un) healthy is this drink? In my opinion the worst thing that happens to coffee drinkers is that they become addicted!

I drink coffee just because I like it, but to be honest it doesn’t affect me as much. If I want to sleep even a hundred cups of coffee will not help to keep me awake! But I like the process of making coffee…My childhood memories recall coffee shops, making coffee on the sand and my mum says it tastes great. I have never tasted something like that though… I was too young and I haven’t seen anything similar recently… also I remember my mum’s sister using little wooden coffee grinder… and I still remember that magical smell… and not being allowed to taste it… I had a high blood pressure and therefore this drink was forbidden to me until I moved to Italy for 3 months where I discovered the best coffee ever!

What not to do:

Being a coffee lover I am not in a position to criticize, but I would recommend avoiding drinking coffee on an empty stomach. This is my bad habit and I am trying to quit doing that.

The Choice…

There are so many articles discussing the impact of coffee on our health… and I think it is just endless debating… there is no straight answer yes or no just like loads of other issues on this planet. I use to drink much more coffee, but now I just have one nice cup of coffee in the morning and am trying to drink more teas, especially green tea throughout the day and I feel so much better for it. It is proven that green tea gives you more energy than coffee and I do believe it is true!

 

Little Filter Coffee Secret

Did you know that filter coffee grounds may be used to soften your skin? It works as well as body scrub!

When I was younger I use to work in a coffee shop during my summer holidays and once I had a bad experience with washing up liquid. My hands were terribly dry and my skin was rough and irritated. I used creams, but it didn’t help. But my mum (of course) had a solution! After drinking her coffee she didn’t throw the coffee grounds away but used them to rub into my hands! And you know what, it feels really great while little bits of soaked coffee grounds massaging and softening your skin…

 

If you don’t drink filter coffee, ask your friend or a member of family to keep the coffee grounds (just make sure they are fresh) and use them when your skin feels dry and rough. It really works! Especially in winter when we become a little bit more fragile…

Just 2 table spoons off coffee grounds are enough to make your hands smoother, then just rinse with warm water and apply some cream, feel the difference and enjoy the feeling! You can also try applying it on the whole body, skin loves it!

I did it this morning and I simply love it!

The Power of Nature

I believe in healthy lifestyle and I truly believe in Nature. My biggest inspiration has always been my mum. Since my childhood she tried to keep me and my brother away from antibiotics, she always was and still is seeking for the natural ways of healing the body. Even now she is sharing her knowledge with me and I love our ‘Skype’ conversations about vitamins, new home made beauty products, new recipes, shiny hair, healthy skin, our favourite health magazines and lots of other interesting stuff. 

When I go home I know she will have loads of exciting and natural beauty treats in her little cupboard and I know that after my visit in Lithuania, most of them will end up in my little cupboard in London.

We have an incredibly vast choice of beauty products these days, with the variety of brands and range of prices we forget about the simplest ways of staying beautiful. Most home made beauty treats do not take long to make, they smell amazingly good and fresh plus your pocket does not cry!

I am very excited to convert my kitchen into a little beauty lab and experiment with our daily essentials like salt, oils, sugar, honey, lemon, coffee… just name it! It takes only a few minutes to make a body scrub to make you glow, face mask to refresh your skin or a hair treatment to make it shine and the results I get are amazing! Your body will be really thankful for looking after it!

Celebrity tip

I once read that Jennifer Aniston is using a salt scrub to keep her body skin healthy, and radiant. Salt scrub exfoliates and stimulates the skin giving it the glow, healthy feel and appearance. The only negative I found using salt scrub is that it can be unpleasant if you have irritated skin or if you have injuries which haven’t healed yet as it will ‘chew’ your skin. But go for it if you are sure you do not have harmed skin, because the benefits from the salt scrub are terrific!

Little tips from my home beauty lab:

Sugar & honey scrub

My home made sugar&honey scrub

Body scrub is a perfect tool to refresh your body and it will give you a SPA experience in your own home! Its not only a pleasant smell, it removes dead, rough skin and stimulates the skin to feel softer and appear more refined. Sugar is a natural exfoliant and your skin feels much smoother after using a sugar scrub. These scrubs feel luxurious and are believed to be mildly aromatherapeutic in addition to being great for your skin.

The Romans had the right idea when it came to sugar. They used honey to sweeten foods and used sugar for medicinal purposes. It was also a cosmetic treatment used to draw moisture to lips and other areas of the body

I love using my own made sugar scrub! Its so easy to make it, just mix:

1/5 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of honey

3-4 tea spoons of your favorite oil

Rub it into wet skin and pay more attention to problematic body parts such as elbows, knees, heels. Rinse it well with warm and then cool water. Enjoy!