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Everyone loves and wants healthy and nourished skin. There are tons and tons of products with and without chemicals are out there on the market. But today I am going to get back to our roots and share a traditional homemade mix that we prepare in our household every year during the summer.
India is known for its traditional medicine and health and skin care practices. Turmeric is a widely used product in both Ayurveda and Siddha practices. Curcumin is a naturally occurring chemical compound which you can find in the spice turmeric. This curcumin compound gives turmeric spice its characteristic bright yellow hue. It also has well-known antimicrobial properties.This makes it an excellent ingredient for skin care mixes. Based on the curcumin content, we classify turmeric into different varieties. I am just going to share the ones that we use for this mix. If you are interested in knowing the other varieties in detail, then you can check this website and also this one.
It is also known as the Fat Variety, the Kundu Manjal, or kizhangu manjal as we say in Tamil. We use this for the skin care mix. We can use this turmeric variety for both culinary and medicinal purposes. You can get the fresh turmeric roots, sundry them and grind them in the rice mill. As the dried turmeric roots are hard, it is difficult to grind them at home. The other options are to buy the dried ones from the store and grind them in the mill or buy good quality turmeric powder directly from the store.
The Kasthuri Manjal / Wild Turmeric is the other ingredient used in this skin care mix. This type is thinner when compared to the other varieties even than the virali manjal type, the ones that we use for cooking. It is highly fragrant as well. You can get the powder or prepare it as per your preference either by getting the fresh ones or dried ones. We bought both the turmeric varieties in the powder form from the specialized stores that carry all these traditional herbs and spices. (Naatu marundu kadai)
Avaram senna is yet another herbal plant popular from India. The yellow flower of this shrub is the state flower of Telangana. The roots, the yellow flowers(dried ones), leaves and even the seeds of this shrub have medicinal uses. It is known for its anti-diabetic and laxative properties. You can find amazing benefits of this powder here. This avarampoo powder is now available on Amazon as well!
All you need is one measure of the yellow turmeric powder and a half measure of the wild turmeric powder and 1/4 ratio of the avarampoo powder. If you can source Vasanai Podi/ Herbal Bath Powder, then you can include 1/4 measure for that too. For example, if you use 100g of the yellow turmeric powder then use 50g of wild turmeric powder and 25g of avarampoo powder and mix. Mix all these powders and store them in an airtight container.
