Beauty In A Nutshell // Two-Minute Glow Scrub!

The other day I looked like I belonged to a zombie novel with my skin looking terribly tired and dull. Ever been there? I remembered seeing a lady commenting on a beauty blog once how this remedy works for her better than store-bought skin brighteners and needless to say, I got to the task to give my...well, verdict! And look what we have here, a successful beauty potion, tomato sugar scrub!

I think a lot of people use this technique with lemons for darkened knees and elbows and even for facial exfoliation. Lemons don't react well with my skin leaving it crimson and burning; so if you're lemon-sensitive, try tomatoes! They are amazing!

Tomatoes are especially epic for oily skin as they remove all excess oil due to their astringent properties. Their high vitamin C content ensures a sparkly radiance and they are also pro pore-shrinkers! Plus, tomatoes have high acidity levels making them great for drying out mild-severe acne! Don't they seem like your dream beauty all-rounders?

You'll need:
1. 1 tbsp white granulated sugar
2. One third tomato cut from the top

You only need to scrub this on your face for two minutes and can then relax while the juice soaks and beautifies your skin for another fifteen minutes!
How to use:
Having the tomato cut from the top makes it easier to hold while you massage it on your face. Use the cut tomato chunk to swirl into the sugar. You'll see that the granules get mushy enough on the surface of the tomato cuzza the juice so that it's not too harsh for your facial skin.

Can you see the sweet sugary mush above? That's how you want it to be. Now massage this little guy over your face for about two minutes making sure you have a firm hold on the tomato so that the juices released work in combination with the sugar to exfoliate your depressingly tired skin. If you find the sugar crystals dissolving, swirl the tomato in the remaining sugar and continue massaging until you've used most of the tomato juice. If you have any excess, rub it over your hands! Now let the tomato-sugar mix sit on your face for about fifteen minutes and then rinse with cool water.
When I did this, I could immediately see clear skin and NOT the glow but five minutes later when I checked in the mirror I had the most beautiful sparkle you could have on a bare face...and it lasted the whole night and the morning next! I plan to use this once in three-four days to get my skin renewal done!

If you have dry skin, make sure you follow up with a good moisturizer to get the pH level back! Let me know how this fared for you! (PS: I have combination skin)

Another quick beauty tip : Make sure you limit your time on your gadgets since harmful rays from the screens can really dull out your skin and make you look grey!
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Loadza Love
Nash

Cravings Ravings//Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani

I know you've heard of Biryani, (you just had to, you can't answer no to that) but have you ever heard of Hyderabadi Biryani? Hyderabad is a state in India, the home to the most wondrous Biryani creation ever. It's succulent pieces of marinated meat layered with aromatic rice. This is one dish when you work smart and hard for, your results actually surpass that effort. Yum.

Inspiration Nation//Stunning Photo Backdrops for $0

Sometimes I pretend to wear my photography princess crown and just twist around ideas for different cool-looking backdrops in my head. I've smacked my lips at all those beautiful food recipes with such gorgeous backdrops, not to forget, Foodgawker makes it worse for my amateur mind. Add to that fact, I'm super-thrifty and you get this...

Most of the time you need to make do with what you have; so these gorgeous photo backdrops were born from empty pizza boxes and some "laying haywire" pillowcases.

Your read that right.

This is so ridiculously easy, but as ridiculously flexible and versatile to suit different moods too! More tips at the end of the post!

You'll start by collecting an empty pizza box(es), and variety of pillowcases/cushion covers (feel free to go wild with patterns and colors, solid colors are awesome too!). Next get a roll of masking tape, double-sided tape and scissors and that's it.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.Begin by ironing out any creases on your pillowcases.

2.If you fully lay open the pizza box, you can map it into halves (the top lid and the bottom base). On one half, place one pillowcase and tape over the extra fabric (using masking tape) onto the other side to secure.

3.Take the second pillowcase (a matching one from a set or another entirely different one) and tape it like in (1) onto the other half. 

In the middle where the two pillowcases meet, secure them to the middle edge of the box using double-sided tape.

3. Make sure you pull the fabric taut over the whole surface area. This is in fact the most important step!

4. Have the completely open and stretched out pizza box stand up both half-sides making an angle in between. And you should have a free standing photo-background. No support whatsoever required!

I did one pillowcase on one half, a pretty floral and a red palette-d pillowcase on the other half.

Keep these props handy for quick photography sessions to add instant glamour!

Have these stand somewhere across a window but not directly in front so that you get beautifully diffused light gliding over your photo subject!

Remember lighter colors bounce off light. Depending on the time of the day, you may want to substitute lighter background for darker ones if it's dark, or choose one darker and lighter for either side like I did!

See how it makes different facets of the subject glint? 

If you have more time at hand or you are a more of a stitch-chic you may want to sew a removable cover for each side. That's not me, really, but I bet my mum would be up for it so that she'll have to avoid taping them everytime!

My suggestion would be to collect a few bunch of pizza boxes or other similar sorts over time and designate a backdrop fabric for each box!

A con though is that you can only use for maybe smaller -medium sized subjects . It's relative to your thinking though!

Here's the really amazing part besides the customization. You can even use giftwrap or fat quarters apart from thrifty pillow covers. Other than that, use retired tees that are too small/big are also a great idea!

The above picture shows how you can even blur up the backdrop for a more subtle addition to your picture when you want more focus on your subject!

Have a fabulous week ahead and I hope this post helped those of you who were stumped about expensive photo backdrops! (You can also check out my epic DIY gallery here! <3)

If it did, please share and pin it to let other pals join in the fun!

Skip over at Craft A Doodle Doo's Pinterest and Facebook page and join me there or become a subscriber for totally rad free creative DIY updates!

Ready to wear your photography crown yet?

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Lots of love and loadza hugs,

xoxo Nash