Remember those teen days when your mother or grandmother used to talk about the benefits of sandalwood for your skin, and you never paid attention to it? Well, ladies, that age-old advice is something that you need in your life to look healthy and glowing. These days environmental stress, excessive sun exposure, poor food habit, and an unhealthy lifestyle never fail to steal your actual complexion. Sandalwood is one of the most readily available and widely used natural skin whitening ingredients that you can ever use. If you are bothered about your skin getting dark and patchy, this should be a staple in your skincare kitty. This article will talk about some awesome DIY sandalwood face packs for skin whitening that would help you get a flawless look effortlessly.
What Is Sandalwood?
Sandalwood is a type of wood belonging to a slow-growing, evergreen, and over-harvested tree Santalum Album, native to India and Indonesia. It has smooth and gray-brown bark with small beautiful flowers. The tree is highly valued for its oil called sandalwood oil (also known as East Indian sandalwood oil or santal oil or white saunders oil), which is steam distilled from the tree’s heartwood and roots. The main active ingredient in sandalwood is santalol which, being a powerful sesquiterpene, contributes to its deep woody aroma. A sandalwood stick can also be dried completely and crushed into a fine, smooth powder in order to prepare a paste.
Different Uses Of Sandalwood
This distinctive sweet, fresh chypre scent of sandalwood can last for decades, and hence, sandalwood essential oil is widely used in modern perfumery as a base note of the fragrance. The medicinal uses of sandalwood are also quite popular. The ingredient possesses good antiseptic, disinfectant, anti-inflammatory, astringent, diuretic, sedative, and antispasmodic properties. In addition, it is a wonderful emollient with superb blending and harmonizing qualities, which make it a must in cosmetic production. Sandalwood has also been a part of Indian spiritual traditions for centuries as it is considered sacred and of great religious significance (1).
The genus Santalum has more than 19 species and Santalum Album has the most heavenly fragrance among them. But this one is pretty rare and expensive. Hence, other plants within the genus are traded as ‘sandalwood’ these days.
Benefits Of Sandalwood For Skin
According to anecdotal and formal researches, sandalwood has excellent benefits for the health of your skin, and it can cure a number of skin conditions too. Here are the reasons to consider it as a true skin savior:
- Due to its minute gritty texture, sandalwood is a potent natural exfoliator. It keeps your skin free from accumulated dead cells, dirt, dust, and excess sebum so that it can breathe and look healthy.
- The exfoliating property of the ingredient keeps your pores clean while its antibacterial and antiseptic properties clear out bacterial infections, thereby eliminating acne and breakouts.
- Using sandalwood powder installs its oils directly into the skin and moisturizes it deeply. In addition, it makes sure that your skin never cracks in the sun or wind further.
- As sandalwood comes packed with antioxidant qualities, it protects your skin from oxidative damage by reducing the appearance of signs of aging and boosting your skin’s elasticity for a younger look.
- The calming and soothing properties of sandalwood can help your sunburn heal faster than ever while decreasing inflammation and preventing excess skin peeling.
- Regular application of sandalwood can restore your skin’s natural health and glow while giving it a refreshed and rejuvenated look.
Why Use Sandalwood For Whitening Skin?
Sandalwood can reduce the concentration of melanin in our skin, which eventually helps whiten it. Also, sandalwood’s distinctive fragrance endears it to many people, and the fact that it doesn’t need too much work and doesn’t get messy contributes to its popularity. Powdered sandalwood is also readily available in the market and can be used with various other products for easy DIY face packs. It is widely used in readymade face packs too.
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DIY Sandalwood Face Packs For Skin Whitening
As sandalwood itself is a skin-lightening agent, you can use it either in the form of oil or as a smooth fine powder (be careful not to use raw sandalwood oil on your skin). However, you can also make different sandalwood face packs at home to whiten your skin and enjoy many other benefits simultaneously. Just follow these guidelines:
1. Sandalwood And Milk Cream
A whitening sandalwood face pack can be equally moisturizing for the skin. Mix two or three teaspoons of sandalwood powder with fresh raw milk or milk cream or rose water in quantity just enough to make a smooth paste. Apply it all over your face evenly, wait for 20 minutes, and wash off with lukewarm water. Both milk (or milk cream) and rose water add to the skin whitening properties of sandalwood to a large extent while offering deep moisturization.
The sandalwood-milk face pack is perfect for moisturizing normal, dry, or combination skin. But, milk tends to make the skin a little oily leading to breakouts. Hence, the sandalwood-rose water face pack is the right choice for oily skin.
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2. Sandalwood And Turmeric
You can diminish your existing acne and prevent further breakouts while whitening your skin with sandalwood. First, prepare the acne-busting face pack by mixing a pinch of turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon of fresh rosewater with 1 tablespoon of sandalwood powder. Next, apply the paste thoroughly to your facial skin and keep it on for 15 minutes. Finally, rinse it off with plain water. It will help you get rid of acne and pimples and fade their marks and scars away. As a result, you will get whiter, blemish-free skin over time.
3. Sandalwood And Gram Flour
No matter how whiter and lighter your skin is, it will never look flawless without a natural radiance. Sandalwood mixed with gram flour and water can add a beautiful natural glow to your skin while making it whiter, thereby giving you a gorgeous appearance. Apply the pack on your face, wait for about half an hour or until it dries up, and then wash off. However, you might need to slather some moisturizer on your face after using this pack.
4. Sandalwood And Lemon Juice
A sandalwood face pack can also work as an excellent anti-tan agent and whiten our skin tone significantly. All you need to do is add some lemon juice to it. Lemon juice is a powerful bleaching agent, which lightens our skin tone by removing suntan and other blemishes from it. Hence, when the juice of half a lemon is squeezed into 4 teaspoons of sandalwood powder to make a smooth paste of medium consistency, it makes a great whitening face pack with superb tan removal qualities.
Lemon is an astringent, which dries up the skin and causes irritation at times. So, if you’ve got inflammation or dry skin, be careful not to use it in your face pack.
5. Sandalwood And Rosewater
A simple paste made of sandalwood powder and a little rose water can help you treat your dark circles while improving your complexion wonderfully. Just apply the paste in thick layers to the areas under your eyes and go to bed. Wash it off the next morning with plain water. This overnight treatment will banish your panda eyes and efficiently lighten the skin under your eyes. You can also apply this pack all over your facial skin focusing on your under eyes to get an overall whitening effect.
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Buying Commercial Sandalwood Face Packs
Making your face pack at home with pure sandalwood powder is the best way to whiten your skin and make it free from a host of other common issues. However, there are also several good commercial face packs containing sandalwood that you can buy from the market. So, here are a few tips to choose the right commercially available sandalwood face packs for skin whitening:
- Always read the ingredients used in the product carefully before buying to ensure that it does not contain harmful chemicals or other compounds.
- Use Ayurvedic or organic sandalwood face packs as far as possible as they are far more likely to contain authentic ingredients.
- If a pack has neem along with sandalwood, it is generally meant for people with oily skin who are prone to acne and pimples.
- Try a pack containing saffron with sandalwood as this doubles the skin lightening abilities of the product.
Is There Any Side Effect?
Whitening your skin by artificial means can harm it in the long run. You may end up lightening it in patches and enhancing your aging process at the same time. But using natural ingredients, such as sandalwood can improve your overall complexion and soothe any form of irritation your skin may be experiencing in a completely safe manner. Therefore, a sandalwood face pack is indeed the answer for a fair and glowing complexion with absolutely zero side effects.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How Frequently To Use Sandalwood Face Packs?
You can use sandalwood face packs daily on your skin. It is a natural ingredient that will make your skin whiter and take great care of it.
Is Sandalwood Good For Hyperpigmentation?
Sandalwood works excellent for hyperpigmentation when combined with almond. You can prepare a paste of almond, sandalwood powder, and rosewater to treat the pigmented areas of your skin.
Will Sandalwood Face Packs Heal Acne Scars?
The healing properties of sandalwood can cure your acne scars and fade their marks even faster than many other commercial scar healing products.
Can I Use Sandalwood Oil Instead Of Powder?
Of course, you can. Sandalwood essential oil is a highly powerful alternative to sandalwood powder, and they offer similar benefits for your skin. But make sure that you buy sandalwood oil only from a reputed brand in order to get the best possible quality.
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References:
- “What Is Sandalwood?“, LiveAbout.com
