Looking your best means that you have not overlooked the details. Give yourself a manicure and pedicure in good time. A good pick-me-up treatment for the hands is to rub them with sugar and lemon juice.
First keep a bowl of rose water in the fridge, with cotton wool pads soaking in them. Then apply a pick-me-up face mask to leave your skin soft and glowing. Mix half a teaspoon honey, one teaspoon rose water and one teaspoon dried milk powder. Mix into a paste and apply on the face. Wash off after 20 minutes. For oily skin, apply multani mitti instead of milk powder.
After applying the face mask, take two of the cotton wool pads soaked in rose water and use them as eye pads. It helps to remove fatigue and brighten the eyes.
During festivals, traditional Indian attires seem just right. You can wear saris with rich borders or try plain crepes or chiffon saris with brocade blouses. Instead of blouses adorned with mirror work, sequins or crystal heavy gold work go in for beads, stones and crystal trimmings on clothes.
Try a churidar-kurta ensemble with a heavy sequined dupatta.
One-colour outfits allow you to experiment with accessories. The same outfit looks different with different accessories. For the night, warm and richer colours can be worn like shades of red, magenta, maroons or dark pink. Purple can look really rich. During the day, you can go for lighter colours like yellow, light pink, lime green, pista green, mauve and light blue.
Jewellery is one of the most important accessories and goes a long way in enhancing beauty and also sets off our outfits. Where grooming is concerned, it is the final presentation which matters. Jewellery actually puts the finishing touches to our attire and the look that we wish to present. It also helps in adding style to the clothes we wear.
Shining yellow gold is not so favoured these days. Dull oxidised gold is more favoured than bright yellow gold.
But I think traditional jewellery, especially in India, will never die out. Festivals are a good time to wear our traditional jewellery like jhumkas. To look special, when you go shopping keep a lookout for unusual pieces of jewellery, watches, beads relating them to the outfits you possess. Good accessorising does not always need a big bank balance. Costume jewellery can be safely worn, without detracting from style or class, provided you select good pieces. You can choose jewellery made from metals like copper or bronze.
For formal night wear you can set off your outfit with one piece of heavy jewellery like long earrings or an exotic choker. Long, dangling gold earrings can be totally out of place with morning wear, but may be glamorous at night, worn with a vibrant sari or salwar kurta.
