This is what you can do for starters -

• Apply hair moisturizer to mid-lengths and the ends of your hair and leave on for some time before you rinse.
• Use a rich hair conditioner and wrap a hot towel around the hair for about ten minutes. The moist, humid environment created will allow deep penetration of the conditioner.
• While styling your hair use two drops of hair serum that is silicone-based. This will tame the frizz and hydrate your hair.
• Cover your hair with a scarf or hat while you are outdoors.

It is important that you follow an appropriate hair care routine during winter and these tips can be a good starting point.

Rice Powder – Make a paste of rice powder and milk or water and apply it on your face. Rub it in gentle circular motions and then wash off.

Melon Seeds – Grind melon seeds in a mixer. You can mix the powder with some water and use it as a face and body scrub. It gently sloughs off dry skin cells, impurities, and excess sebum blocking pores.

Groundnuts – Mix coarsely ground nuts with honey or mink and use it as a face pack. While washing off use a slow circular motion. This face pack cum scrub will moisturize as well as cleanse your skin.

Learning how to dress improves anyone’s appearance, regardless of size. Take a good look in the mirror and observe yourself. This is not an exercise in analyzing and weeping over your flaws. Just take a take a look. Are you larger on top or on bottom? Are you tall or short? Are you dark or fair? Could you use a new hairstyle? A new lipstick? A new shampoo or facewash?

The important thing is not to lose your mind and start obsessing over things. If you don’t like something, don’t cry – find a solution. Then move on.

- No sausage skins, no tents. Your clothes should fit you. This means you need appropriate sizes. No tears over these sizes either. The right sizes will make you look thinner, believe it or not. You’re using the Pink Patch, improving your diet and exercise – your sizes will go down. Your clothes shouldn’t create bulges, or completely obliterate your figure.

- Color me fabulous. Look at your skin, hair and eyes. What colors look best with them? Any color that brings out your eyes or shows off your skin is a winner. If you’re a brunette, add a touch of bright color when you wear black, whether it’s a scarf or a jacket or shoes. Feel free to experiment as well. Just do it before you buy anything.

- The other kind of scale. Have you ever noticed that sometimes if you wear a short jacket with a long dress, you look as though you’ve lost 5 lbs and grown 3 inches? Play with proportions. Sometimes just varying the color of your top and your skirt will do it.

Places to find great deals on decent – and sometimes fantastic – items are stores like Forever 21, Target and T.J. Maxx. Check out the secondhand stores in your area as well. They require some digging, but you’d be surprised at what you can find. Always investigate sales. But think before you buy. You always know when something’s right for you – because it makes you feel wonderful about yourself.

On some level, you may know that this ideal image is just that—an image. You tell yourself that a piece of glossy magazine paper can’t hurt you. You may not actively strive to live up to someone else’s perception of how you should look either. But, on a deeper level, you may be questioning your self-worth based on a comparison of these perceptions and the real flesh-and-blood you. In other words, you may worry that you’re not good enough to hang with the right crowd. If this fear speaks to you, then you may be suffering from the dreaded but silent disease known as sizism syndrome.

Here’s another truth about women and society: We’re taught from an early age that expressing anger just ain’t pretty. So, what happens when you feel angry whenever you look in the mirror and realize that you’re not the perfect female ideal as defined by the media? At first, you suppress that anger. But, eventually, you internalize it, directing it toward yourself. After all, who else is there to blame for not being a Perfect 10? This way of thinking is a sure-fire recipe for a lifetime of insecurity, social withdrawal and depression, coupled with eating disorders, yo-yo dieting and other destructive behaviors.

Okay, now take a step back…back to the last time you looked in the mirror. This time, though, see yourself for who you really are, not for what size you are or how you compare to others. Acknowledge that you weren’t created from a mold. In other words, you are a unique, synergistic sum of your parts and can’t be defined by the size or shape of only one or two.

Ready to give your sizism syndrome some more medicine? Here are a few more tips to swallow (sans the sugar)…

• While you’re on the journey to shed pounds and get fit, lose track of numbers. Strive to achieve a healthy weight and body mass that’s right for you instead of trying to become a size whatever.

• Honor your body and the wonderful things it can do by participating in social activities that promote healthy movement, such as dancing, hiking, swimming, bike rides, etc.

• Celebrate your body! Forget about skinny jeans and tank tops, if they make you feel uncomfortable. Surround yourself instead with soft, colorful fabrics that flatter your personality as much as they do your shape.

• Eliminate words and phrases that spread sizism from your vocabulary, whether you use them to judge yourself or others based on appearance.

• Turn off the television and donate those celebrity magazines to your dentist’s office. Taking a break from media and advertising that promote The Ideal Image can do wonders for your own perception of real beauty.

• Respect your body. Aside from feeding your brain positive affirmations about your body image, make sure that you eat right and get enough rest.

Best of luck!

A facial moisturizer with SPF is essential; all-over sunscreens tend to feel thick and heavy on the face, but we’ve all heard by now that harmful UVA and UVB rays can damage the skin even in the wintertime, or on a cloudy day. Thus, when it comes to facial moisturizer, a gentle formula with SPF 15 or higher is your best bet year round.

Eucerin Everyday Protection Face Lotion is a solid pick. It has SPF 30, whereas most daily facial moisturizers only have SPF 15. At about $10, it’s wallet-friendly as well. On the downside, some people may find this product a bit heavy; it goes on thick and has to be rubbed in thoroughly.

Aveeno Positively Ageless SPF 30 Daily Moisturizer is a good alternative for those in search of a lighter-weight product. Aveeno’s patented Active Photobarrier Complex provides broad-spectrum coverage and works to reduce fine lines and wrinkles.

For those who are especially fair-skinned (or for anyone wants to play it safe), Cetaphil’s new UVA/UVB Defense SPF 50 provides the highest sun protection factor of any moisturizer designed specifically for the face. In addition to its broad-spectrum, long-wearing coverage, it absorbs quickly and leaves no residue.

Olay Complete Defense Daily UV Moisturizer SPF 30, Sensitive Skin is a light, non-greasy formula with aloe and green tea extract to reduce sun damage by fighting free radicals and reducing inflammation. Studies indicate that topical green tea polyphenols are likely to delay some signs of aging.

Men: still feeling squeamish about using a “women’s” moisturizer? Try Anthony Logistics for Men Facial Moisturizer SPF 15. The no-frills bottle is anything but girly, and the product contains bilberry, sugarcane, maple sugar, orange and lemon extracts to diminish fine lines and blotches, plus panthenol to retain moisture and vitamins A, C, D and E to nourish your skin.

First, you can set the mood by lighting candles, preferably a soy candle since they are earth friendly, natural, last longer, and emit significantly less soot. Next, lets gather some of the spa products you may want to enjoy. Here we reveal some of the secrets the spas keep from you:

Refreshing Face Massage
Most spa facials involve some kind of face massage to boost blood flow and help the products absorb better. The key ingredient in most of the products is a grape extract. “Grapes contain hydrating glucose and powerful antioxidants that fight skin-damaging free radicals” says Regine Berthelot, head aesthetician at Caudalie Vinotherapie Spa, in NYC.

How to create your own:

• Take a warm shower to open up your pores

• Cut a chilled red or green grape in half

• Slide the flat side of the grape over your skin, starting between your brows and moving out toward your temples. Sweep up to your forehead, then down your nose and over your cheeks.

• Finally, you may want to follow up with a Revealing Mask, which tightens the appearance of pores and evens out your tone. Try Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Revealing Mask, $42.

Citrus Burst Pedi
So you have been hiding your feet behind those boots and socks, and it’s time you reveal those beauties. Icky callused skin and unkempt moisturizing have left your feet unbearable to show.

Here we reveal a bursting technique:

• Submerge your feet in a bowl of grapefruit, orange, or lemon juice (you can use one or a combo of all three) diluted with equal parts warm water

• After 5 minutes, slough your heels and the balls of your feet with a pumice stone

• Then massage your entire foot with an oil-based sugar scrub (MAKE YOUR OWN by combining ½ c. brown sugar and ½ c. olive oil)

• Rinse it off, and slather on a body or foot balm (Try Thymes Essentials AHA Foot Cream, $18. It contains exfoliating alpha hydroxyl acid and hydrating shea butter.)

Now that we have revealed some of the secrets, we hope you indulge yourself to a nice day at your very own Spa at the comfort of your home. By cutting back on unnecessary expenses, you can still treat your body, mind, and soul with these homemade remedies.

Hope you enjoy!

Any spa secrets of your own? Please share! Just leave a comment below.

Start by waking yourself up with a cool shower. While in the shower, exfoliate your entire body. Sleep deprivation often cause dry, dull looking skin. Exfoliating will remove dead skin cells and make your skin appear refreshed and healthy. Apply a moisturizer right after you get out of the shower. Make sure your face is thoroughly moisturized so makeup will apply smoothly. Dry skin makes your face look dull and unhealthy.

If you are sleep-deprived you will most likely have puffy eyes. If you know you are going to be short on sleep, drinking extra water can help prevent excess puffiness. If you wake up in the morning and your eyes still look swollen apply a something cool to them. Cucumbers work but so do chilled tea bags or even just cold spoons.  After you have gotten the swelling to go down, smear a thick concealer under your eyes and blend thoroughly and use a few over-the-counter eye drops to banish redness.

Highlighting certain features can make you look refreshed too. Sweep a shimmery bronzer across your cheekbones and forehead and apply a white sheer eye shadow to the inner corner of your eye and right under the outer edge of your brow to look bright eyed and bushy tailed with minimal effort.

Try to limit coffee and simple carbohydrate intake, which only offer temporary energy. Eat a high protein breakfast and limit yourself to a cup or two of coffee and drink water for the rest of the day. Squeeze in a short workout if you can. Even twenty minutes of exercise can give you energy and make you look refreshed all day long.

Even if you can’t get your 8 hours every night, you can still look your best for that early morning meeting or for breakfast with the girls.

Sun Smart
Exposing your eyes to the sun can cause more harm than good. Cumulative sun damage can cause raccoon circles and darkening around your eyes. Prevent these problems by applying a broad-spectrum SPF that won’t sting your eyes. Neturogena Sensitive Skin Sunblock Lotion is a fave of ours! ($9.99)

Potato Slices
Potatoes have a skin-lightening enzyme called catecholase. Cut a potato into two thin slices and leave these slices on your eyes for 10 minutes so the juice can seep into the skin. This will fade your rings temporarily. Perform this routine twice a week to even out your tone.

Secret Makeup Tip!
The secret to covering up circles is a yellow or peach based concealer in a shade slightly darker than you would normally use to neutralize the purple skin. Apply this concealer with a brush for precise coverage. Try DuWop Circle Block, $28.