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Looking beautiful seems like an arduous task, especially when you are not healthy from within and your skin reflects it evidently. No matter how many supplements you opt for or how expensive beauty products you start using, everything can fail, leaving you overwhelmed and even frustrated at times. While there is no remedy for improving your health overnight, there are a few versatile natural ingredients around for enhancing the health of your skin in a short period. Gram flour or besan is one of them. Being one of the most straightforward ‘must-have’ skincare essentials, it can provide you with multiple beauty benefits, thereby making you look flawless. In this article, let us take you through various ways to use besan for glowing skin. These simple DIY recipes of besan face packs, scrubs, masks, and other skin treatments will surely blow your mind.
What Is Gram Flour Or ‘Besan’?
Gram flour (chickpea flour), or besan, is the ground powder of raw or roasted chickpeas (or a variety of gram beans). It contains all the goodness of chickpeas, including unsaturated fatty acids (oleic acid and linoleic acid) and vitamins (beta-carotene, riboflavin, niacin, folate, etc.), which helps in controlling diabetes, strengthening bones, and fighting fatigue. Besan is a very healthy dietary ingredient and an outstanding natural beauty essential. Being the largest producer of chickpeas, India considers it a staple ingredient in its cuisines and uses it in various skincare products. It is also widely used in skincare and haircare treatments that can be tried at home quickly. Gram flour is also quite popular in other Asian countries as a dietary ingredient. Though the raw version of the flour is a little bitter, the roasted version is exceptionally flavorful.
Besan contains higher amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and dietary fibers than all other flours. It is also a gluten-free diet (1).
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Skin Benefits Of Besan
Besan is a traditional beauty home remedy in India. Typically, an Indian woman has used besan as a skincare ingredient since her teen days or childhood. The skin cleansing property of the ingredient is pretty well-known, and it has long been used as a natural face cleanser to keep breakouts, marks, and blemishes, away. It is also a great natural exfoliator that sloughs off dead cells from the uppermost layer of the skin and brings out the fresh layer of cells underneath. When used with some readily available ingredients in the kitchen, besan can also treat various skin problems to give you soft, smooth, and radiant skin. It is favored as the go-to ingredient to treat skin ailments if you are wary of using fancy soaps or other products full of chemicals. Besan is also loved for eliminating suntan and removing fine body hair naturally.
10 DIY Ways To Use Besan For Glowing Skin
When it comes to using besan for glowing skin, you need to find suitable complementary ingredient(s) to meet your purpose. Here are the most effective DIY besan treatments that can give you super awesome skin:
1. Besan Face Wash
For the most basic face wash, use besan as it is or add a pinch of Haldi (turmeric) to it. Take ½ a cup of besan, 1/4 cup of moong dal powder, and ½ tsp of turmeric powder in a bowl. Use it for massaging your damp face once every day to get rid of the accumulated oil and grime in the pores. Keep it on for a minute and wash with water. You can feel tightness in your skin immediately after the wash.
2. Besan Body Wash
Mix one cup of besan with some milk to make a smooth paste of thin consistency. Now to it, add a generous pinch of turmeric powder and juice of half a lemon. Apply this paste all over your damp body and use the other half of the lemon for scrubbing. This will help you eliminate all the dead cells and nourish your body simultaneously. Do this once every week for really glowing and supple skin.
3. Besan Scrub
Mix two teaspoons of besan and two teaspoons of oatmeal powder. Add two teaspoons of raw honey and the juice of half a lemon to this. Blend everything well and scrub your damp face gently with the mixture. This eliminates all the oiliness of the skin and cleanses pores perfectly.
4. Besan Pore Tightener
Besan itself can tighten the pores on our skin, but mix it with little cucumber juice or rosewater for effective results. Apply it directly to the cleansed skin and leave it until it dries. Wash off with plain water. Do this every week for a visible reduction in your pore sizes.
5. Besan Blackhead And Whitehead Remover
Mix two teaspoons of besan with half a teaspoon of fenugreek powder. Make a smooth paste by using water. Apply this over blackhead or whitehead affected areas and scrub well. Wash off with cold water. This will help eliminate the existing blackheads or whiteheads and prevent them from occurring frequently.
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6. Besan Tan Remover
If you have suntanned skin, mix two teaspoons of besan with a pinch of turmeric powder, a few drops of fresh lemon juice, and a little curd to make a thick paste. Use raw milk if you have dry skin. Apply this pack to the tanned areas and leave it to dry. Wash with lukewarm water once it dries. Repeat every week for the best results.
7. Besan Oil Absorber
Besan is excellent at absorbing excess oil that is produced in the skin. Mix besan with little rosewater and apply it as a pack on the face. Throw in some Multani mitti if you want a cooling and soothing sensation. Leave it on until it dries up to some extent. Wash it off. Regular use will constrict pores and regulate oil production, giving you oil and shine-free skin.
8. Besan Acne Cure
Take teaspoonsful of besan. Add half a teaspoon of sandalwood powder and a pinch of turmeric powder to it. Make a thick paste by adding some fresh raw milk. Apply this to the acne and pimples on your skin. Leave until it dries up completely. This mixture will soothe the irritated parts of your skin and have a drying effect on acne and pimples. Wash off gently with water and pat dry. Repeated use is needed for the best outcomes.
9. Besan Skin Lightener
Besan has been used for ages in households to get fairer skin. Make a paste of besan with lemon juice (for all skin types), besan with milk cream (for dry skin), or besan with curd (for oily skin) and apply all over your face and neck. Wash off after it dries. Repeated use will lighten the skin tone considerably over time.
10. Besan Hair Growth Reducer
Mix two teaspoons of besan with half a teaspoon of turmeric powder and half a teaspoon of fenugreek powder. Make a paste using plain water. Apply it to your face to get rid of unwanted facial hair. You can also use it on your hands and legs. Repeated use will retard hair growth to a large extent.
Adverse Effects Of Besan
Although besan is a safe, natural ingredient for your skin, you should still consider a few precautionary measures before including it in your beauty routine. Chickpeas may contain allergens, and the besan made from them can also lead to hypersensitivity reactions like rashes, swelling, headache, runny nose, nausea, diarrhea, rhinitis, anaphylaxis, etc. So, make sure that you are not allergic to besan by doing a patch test before incorporating it in your glow-boosting face packs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Is Ubtan?
Ubtan is a traditional Indian beauty paste made of besan, turmeric, sandalwood, rosewater, and milk. It is used for getting flawless and naturally glowing skin. Ubtan is considered imperative in the beauty regime of an Indian bride-to-be. It is even used on babies to enhance the health of their skin since childhood.
Does Besan Make The Skin Fair?
Besan can lighten the skin tone by exfoliating it gently and making it blemish-free. In addition, it brings out the natural glow of the skin by removing the layer of dead cells, which results in a lighter and brighter appearance.
Can I Use Besan Daily On Skin?
Yes, besan can be used on the skin every day. It suits all skin types and does not cause any problems. However, you must choose other components of your daily face pack wisely, as certain ingredients can dry out the skin and cause damage to it upon regular use.
Is Besan Gluten-Free?
As mentioned earlier, besan contains no gluten at all. Hence, if you are intolerant to gluten and are deprived of all those delicious wheat recipes, besan can be a good replacement choice for you.
Is Besan Good For Hair?
Just like its skin benefits, besan also offers plenty of hair benefits. It cleanses hair perfectly, nourishes dry and damaged hair, fights against dry scalp and dandruff, promotes hair growth, and adds a beautiful luster to it. All you need to do is include it in your regular hair care routine.
References:
- “Gram Flour“, Wikipedia.org
