July was a fun month!! I saw my parents after a long time and we all went for a road trip together. Much needed break after 6 months of hard working without any leave.
We all started from Hyderabad at 6am on the 11th July morning and reached Mysore at 4pm the same day (we took a few stops on the way). We checked-in at the hotel and decided to visit the Vrindavan Gardens at Mysore. It is a beautiful garden and has a musical fountain. The next day we saw the very famous Mysore Palace. It is a very beautiful palace. I would recommend, when you visit the palace make sure you have atleast 4 hrs. to see everything that it has to offer. I love history and so I completely loved it. I was awe struck by the workmanship and the intricate designs and paintings.
The entire time we were at Mysore I kept insisting on visiting Cauvery emporium. I had to buy the Sandalwood face pack. I had this face pack around 10 yrs. back and was my savior while I was down with chicken pox. I applied it every day after the spots fell off and believe me, I had no marks at all. In a month, nobody could tell I had chickenpox. I completely love the pack. I tried in Bangalore, a number of times but could not find it. As soon as we finished the trip to the palace, we went straight to the emporium and bought my face mask.
We started the same afternoon for Ooty. From Mysore to Ooty is a beautiful drive, sunflower fields on both sides of the road as soon as you start from Mysore and then you enter the Bandipur national park areas. You can easily sopt deers, wild boars, peacocks, monkeys, bison and if you are lucky(which we were), you can also spot a wild elephant.
We reached Coonoor (it’s a couple of kms. Ahead of Ooty), that’s where my sister and her husband are currently living at around 5pm. What a beautiful place to live!!!
The entire trip was amazing, lots of places to visit and amazing eating joints. You can’t miss the home made chocolates. I will not talk about all the details, but if any of you want the details of the trip let me know.
There is a shop called Greens at Upper Coonoor which has a lot of organic stuff, cloths, spices, honey and most important beauty products, though not many. I bought a pack of different flavor honey, a honey and bees wax lip balm and apricot scrub powder.
When you are in the nilgiris and you don’t buy tea; will be unfair. So, we bought tea from a small shop in Upper Coonoor (sorry forgot the name of the shop). The owner of the shop himself is a tea taster and so he suggested some of the best as per our taste buds. I love green tea, so he suggested I try something called as ‘white tea’, sound weird, heard it for the first time. I had a similar reaction when I heard it too. He told me that this tea contains the most antioxidants. I had to buy this and so bought a small pack of it (its expensive 500Rs for 50gms). I love it..it’s now my daily cup in the morning and also before bed. Below is the link if you want more info about white tea – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tea. While we were looking for tea he showed us some other good stuff like Papaya mask and Aloe Vera gel. Though I had heard a lot about both these things with regards to skin I had never tried the packed version of it and so I had to buy both these things. We also bought a few oils from the same shop.
Heena Oil – I have a bad migraine. My sister told me about the oil. I can do anything that takes the headache away and so I bought it. I recently tried it and OHHHH MYYYY GGGOODD.. headache was gone in no time. I love this oil.
Organic Eucalyptus oil is an antiseptic and till now I haven’t gotten a chance to use this oil.
Winter green oil – It’s good for pains and strains. I used it for the first time today and felt a relief. I have to try it a couple of times to actually give a better review.
Now a review on all the products I bought and I will start from my favorite.
– Honey and Bees wax lip balm – it’s very light, high on moisture. It feels like a lighter version of Vaseline. I have been using it for the past 1 week. I now use a lip pencil and fill my lips roughly and then apply the lip balm. It looks stunning! I have received a lot of compliments lately!
– Sandalwood face pack – I feel in love with this 10 yrs back. Recently I have been using this almost every alternate date. It doesn’t dry my skin. I have been using this for the past 15 days and I have been noticing that my skin tone has improved, a lot of spot marks have lighten.
– Apricot scrub powder – It’s a powder and you can mix it with milk, cream, water, rose water, honey.. Whatever you can get your hands on!! I tried it on my face as soon as I missed it with milk, it was a little too rough but was good on my body. The next time I had to use it I mixed it with honey and forgot about it for an hour. When I used it after an hour of mixing it was very gentle on my face as well and too gentle on my body. I’m getting use to it.. As it is natural, I think it’s better for the skin!
– Aloe Vera gel – I have always used a gel from the plant which is a little cumbersome. This gel out of the jar is easy and convenient to use. I like the consistency and it gets dissolved in the skin like a miracle.
– Papaya face pack – My mom always use to tell me that papaya is great for a glowing skin, eat it and apply it on the face!! I find applying papaya on the face really grose. I tried this face pack. My skin felt great after every time. I have used it only twice and every time I used it I felt good.
I would recommend that everyone who goes to Ooty/Mysore should try these products.
Blushes & Sparkle 