Ye olde vanishing cream

Since it will do no good to dwell on the shame and remorse of neglecting my blog for so long, the old spilt milk and what not, I shall dive headlong into a review.

We come back to to good old Vicco.

I am familiar, and very happy, with 3 products from the Vicco stables: Vicco tooth paste which is excellent in dental maintenance but a little expensive (I use Dabur Red), Vicco tooth powder that my MIL swears by, and is considered wholly responsible for the intact set of gleaming teeth that my grandfather was the proud owner of till he died at 80, and the mysteriously labelled Vicco turmeric cream with foam base - an excellent face wash, read my review here.

For the past week, I have been using Vicco turmeric cream, and I cannot figure out what took me so long to try out this old familiar on the store shelves.

There are two variants of this cream: Vicco turmeric cream, and Vicco turmeric WSO cream. On a whim I picked up the latter, although I had no idea what WSO meant. I found out later on the interwebz that WSo simply means "without sandal oil". Huh? (Dear Vicco. What's with unexplained acronyms on your product label? Are you trying NOT to sell your product? On that note, please remove the scary man picture from your foam base product. And tell us on the box what that product is for.)

Vicco face cream is an old fashioned "vanishing cream" - opaque with a pearly sheen, disappearing into the skin quickly, leaving behind a smooth, light weight, non-greasy feel. The cream claims therapeutic value, and i am inclined to believe this because in the past week, my complexion is starting to even out, and small spots and discolourations are fading away.

Vicco turmeric cream may be "nahi cosmetic", but the product does have cosmetic value. Being non-greasy and light weight, you could very well wear it by itself before stepping out. The cream instantly brightens appearance, and being opaque, it should have some sun protection ability though it doesn't say so on the box.

As a bonus, the smooth matte finish this leaves behind means that you could very well use it as a primer over which to build layers of make-up, if you were so inclined. For the uninitiated, primers are creams designed to leave a smooth surface on the skin, over which other make-up stuff like foundation spreads and sits better. Vicco makes a great primer at less than 15% of the cost (L'oreal Base Magique primer = Rs 800+, a tube of Vicco = Rs.50), and a fraction, if at all, of the chemical load. (Disclaimer: primers are usually made of silicone which is supposed to be inert on the skin, but whatever).

For instance, for a no make-up look, moisturize, apply vicco (WSO if you are like me), dust some pressed powder on the oily zones and step out. For a dewy finish / warm lights and photo op, throw on a highlighter. Or a blush and a highlighter. or go all the way with concealer/foundation and the works.

Full disclosure: I have oily / combination skin that usually doesn't need heavy moisturizing, but if you have dry skin, you may need to moisturize before you use this product. Vicco isn't drying, but as a non-greasy cream, I wouldn't expect it to do much for dryness.

I am now also testing the original "with sandal oil" version (what would the acronym for that be, geniuses at Vicco?), and although this cream clearly has an oil base, it vanishes into the skin too, leaving no grease behind. I am impressed. Will know soon if it breaks me out.

All in all, this is a great product that offers great value. Low priced, time-tested, seemingly therapeutic, and a great skin-friendly cosmetic that works as a primer and ought to work as a light-to-moderate sun block.

The curious case of Chinese mobile phones

Chinese mobile phones have been on my radar for a  while now, and recently I got to take a closer look at them.

Some brands like Karbonn are gaining mainstream ground, but there are really lots & lots of brands on the market. Chinese phones are probably best known for being inexpensive, but are also known for making cheap knock-offs of popular mainstream models.

The case for buying cheap mobile phones is that phones, being small electronic items, are easily lost or damaged, making huge investments in them unwise. That said, I personally have a distaste for knock-offs. I can't explain it, but so it is. I don't mind a cheap, original design, but knock-offs and public-deceiving replicas I find distasteful.

Danny, being both ham-handed & forgetful, has wisely avoided the blackberry / iphone traps so far. His phone needs are basic, but his long bus rides to work make an entertainment device useful - a music player, but more importantly, a gaming device or best still, a video player on which he can watch his awful horror flicks.

A couple of months of research, and we landed on the Rocker Sure Diamond (no avoiding tacky names) - a touch phone that is turning out to be quite a delight. Its 3-page screen and reasonably good touch sensitivity make it fun & easy like any touch phone, but is longer & heavier, with a track ball for good measure. The weight might be a con for most, but we don't mind the extra grams.

A lot of the features like the gravity & shake response have been "inspired" by the iphone, but the makers have actually taken nice features from a lot of phone models to put into this one. The feature-ridden still/video camera is nice enough, the video / music players  are terrific. The dual sim feature is a blessing, there are also games, mail / FB clients and what-have-you, an antenna set up for FM radio, and a stylus for those who have trouble with the touch feature - if you've got big fingers and have tried typing on an iphone, you'll appreciate the stylus. All for under Rs. 3000.


It remains to be seen how long the phone will last - I'll be happy if it runs a year, and at that price, you don't have to worry so much about losing / breaking it. (It was hard to see someone drop an Iphone 4 from a car the other day. Rs. 45K. Ouch.)

Brands like Rocker & G-five have blackberry-type phones too - I saw one the other day that had a trackpad & full blackberry menu & functionality AND a pull-out antenna to watch TV!! (OK, public broadcast doordarshan, but still..)

Pros:
- Ridiculously feature rich - often the best features from several phones are integrated into one.
- No proprietary software / manipulative BS  
- always dual sim, allowing you to blend plans from two providers (talk on one, text on another)
- Very cheap

Fun features: I was very tickled to see that these phones have no qualms about throwing in  cheeky features like fake calls and background noises that let you lie to the caller about you location. No I don't find THAT ethically distasteful. There is a place for righteous lying. Like when the boss man calls. Or your mother.

Cons:
- the phones will most probably not have a long life.

- I hear reports that some Chinese mobiles actually exploded while in use!
- The ethical issues about Knock-off / look-alikes  (between you and your god)

Do your research!

Even if you aren't looking for a look-alike (eesh), a lot of these phones do seem to offer great value for money.

Crystal deodorant

Here’s a cheap, safe(r?) alternative to commercially available deodorants- Potash Alum (potassium double sulfate of aluminium), known in tamil as Padigaram.

Body odor is caused by bacteria growing in the humid folds of skin like the under arms. Commercially available deodorants invariably are scented coktails of questionable chemicals that typically act to block off pores in the area, suppressing sweating and consequently, odor.

I don’t care for the idea of pores being blocked, and prefer to shower regularly and go au naturel when possible. However, most of us, myself included, cannot do entirely without a deodorant either – especially those of us who live in humid climates and need to spend several hours outdoors, inflicting our vile vapours upon the innocent public.

Then, while pottering around in a raw food website (more about that in another post), I found that “crystal deodorants” were touted as safe alternatives to regular deodorants. Some research and roping in CK’s chemistry expertise tells me that these crystals are essentially Alum – ammonium alum in this product's case, but perfectly replaceable with the more commonly available (in India) potash alum.

Older men will remember this as the barber's stone, and gentlemen patrons received a post-shave face swabbing with it in the good old days.

Alum works as a bactericide, and has been used as a deodorant for over 1000 years now. After showering, rubbing alum to the moist underarm region drops the PH value of the skin in that area, rendering it acidic and inhospitable for bacterial growth.

The theory sounded fine, so I am trial running it, this is day 2. So far, I am bloody impressed. Last morning, I used it after shower, headed out and spent the day being my sweaty Sunday self. After about 6 – 8 hours of oily sweat and grime, no discernible odor! Today was also a long, sweaty day out, and Alum held up wonderfully.

My friend is trying it out on her feet that sweat inside shoes and consequently get smelly, and she tells me that she has had a very successful day 1.

Fragrances are important to me, though I hate literally every scented deodorant I’ve tried. Alum doesn’t have any smell of its own, so you can use your favorite fragrance along with it if you wish. Now that I use alum, I've been able to break out my stash of itr (attars). I’m wearing Khus right now, and I smell summer wherever I go.

Despite some half-hearted nay-saying that I saw on the internet about the safety of alum, my logic is simply that alum has been used in our wells to purify/clarify water for ages now, and potash alum is also a common ingredient in certain kinds of pickles.

Sure, over-application on the skin could create enough acid to give you a rash, but used normally, I am convinced you will find this an all-round winner.

You will find alum in old-style herb stores priced at roughly Rs. 20 – Rs.30 for a half kilo of large crystals. Remember that the skin has to be moist, or you must moisten the crystal with a drop of water before use. Don't wet it completely, store dry. No re-application necessary - each application lasts for 10 - 12 hours at least.

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NOTE: People with severe & chronic body odor (persistent despite good hygiene) should try cleaning out their intestines. A thorough 3-day cleanse cures even the worst body odors - tested with positive results by at least two people I know, whose twice a day shower routine wasn't helping with their odor problems.

See a doctor (ayurvedic/siddha) about taking a purgative, ask your mother how to take castor oil, or do a salt water flush for three days, eating only simple, raw vegetarian food on these days. The odor will go away. Caveat: I'm not a doc.

Value buy: Vicco foam base cream

This is a lovely, lovely product. The only soap I use is Carbolic, but on a long day out, Chennai's humidity makes a portable, non-messy face wash tube indispensable. In the past I've used Himalaya neem, pears etc, but then I found this gem and I love it.

This blue tube says "Vicco turmeric with foam  base", and isn't immediately recognizable as a face wash - you will likely find it in the cosmetic aisle on the face cream shelf. (Way to kill a good product with bad labeling, Vicco!)

The contents are an unappetizing brown (and a bit runny, so don't squeeze too hard). You need only a tiny bit for a routine wash. The stuff lathers very well, smells wonderfully pleasant, and does a great job of clearing away oil and grime from the face. I find that it takes care of heat rashes too (the prickly variety).

At Rs. 30 for a 30 g tube, this stuff is brilliant, and lasts quite long.

Look for the blue Vicco tube with the grinning dude (why?) on the cover.

Improving shampoo

Last week while traveling I found a neat way to improve shampoo, and make it last longer.

But first – my favorite and preferred hair wash solution is a mix of powdered shikha (Acacia concinna) and "arapu/chigare” (Scientific name?. Safe, extremely inexpensive, and completely biodegradable.  I mix a table spoon of both these powders with warm water to batter consistency to wash oiled hair. Admittedly, this is not for busy workdays.

Shampoos are convenient, but more expensive than traditional cleansers, non-biodegradable and bad for soil health, and their safety level for human use is dubious at best.

That said, chances are it is going to take a lot of lifestyle change before you give up shampoo altogether, so here are ways to lessen the evil.

I find shampoo use complicated because I find that it dries out my scalp and hair, which means I’ve to either oil my hair heavily, or use a conditioner. Most likely the latter, because even if I oil my hair, shampoo ends up stripping the oil off completely.

Moreover, shampoo is unnecessarily thick. You can dilute it considerably, even though the bottle says not to.

To combat the drying factor, dilute shampoo with part oil and part water. The oil softens the shampoo considerably, and has a superb conditioning effect on hair.

Take about  20 ml of shampoo in an empty bottle, and add 10 ml of oil, and 10 ml of water. Shake well. Upon shaking the contents form a  milky emulsion. Contents will settle, you’ll need to shake the bottle every time before use.  I don’t know yet if the oil will turn rancid, so make small batches just enough for a week.

The effect of adding oil directly to shampoo is very pronounced. You don't have to pre-oil - hair turns out perfectly conditioned and set. The lather is rich and fine, and when you rinse off, don't get nervous about the slightly slick texture - this is similar to the slickness that conditioners leave behind, and will disappear when dry. I am now trying to find the threshold at which oil becomes too much in the shampoo, so I can stay just south of that mark. The water is for dilution only – maybe I can do away with that entirely, I don’t know yet.

Which shampoo?

This should work with any shampoo – use your favorite. I tried it first with an almost empty bottle of Biotique soy protein shampoo. Nice, I loved the smell, but pricey.

I am really not convinced about the value you are getting with expensive shampoos over inexpensive ones. If you are going for a laureth sulfate -free shampoo, you are on to something good, but most of the branded shampoos in the market have the same poisons, so why pay more?

From a value perspective, the cheapest shampoo on the market (from a reputed manufacturer) turns out to be good old Halo (M/f Colgate-Palmolive) from my childhood. There is only the yellow “egg protein” variant available, and only in 1 liter bottles. The price is Rs. 235 for the litre. In Chennai there is a Rs.30 off too, so I got it for Rs. 205. A casual price check on the supermarket shelves tells me that the rest retail at Rs. 150 - 200 and above for a 400 ml bottle.

Which oil?

Coconut is fine. Light, mild scented. I am not sure how other vegetable oils will hold up – for one, the smell should be too intense. I am very tempted to try castor oil though, will let you know what happens.

Coconut oil costs Rs. 140 per litre bought loose at the old fashioned oil merchant’s. Bottled varieties like meera etc cost around Rs. 200, and I find they give you pointless enhancements. (Advansed?? Yeah well,  I am not spending nearly Rs. 300/L for poor spelling, Parachute).

At 2:1 ratio, Halo+coconut oil works out to Rs. 180 per litre, which is substantially cheaper (on the average around 70%) than even the mid-range varieties like Sunsilk, and you don’t have to buy a conditioner, which makes it even better value.

I’ve just washed my hair with this mix, and  while I do (ahem!) have naturally soft and silky hair, my hair feels even more fabulous than usual (:-D). Those of you with dry, frizzy conditioner-dependant hair, please try this out and let me know.

Like I said, go with more oil than what I have suggested, or try out various proportions till you find one that works for you.

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U P D A T E  !!!
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CK has as usual beaten me in the value-for-money race. He sees my coconut oil, and raises me rice bran oil.

Like coconut oil, rice bran oil has no strong scent or colour. However, it is slightly more greasy without being too viscous, which ought to make the conditioning effect better than the thinner, lighter coconut oil. And here's what'll interest the hardcore value hunter: coconut oil costs Rs. 140 per liter, while RB oil costs roughly half as much at Rs. 70!! That means a 2:1 halo to RB oil mix totals to Rs. 160 per liter!!

I'll try it out myself to test the feel, and post here.

Found a handloom wholesaler

In Anna Nagar, (2nd avenue, near Santosh) I found  a wholesaler selling fabric from Chirala, AP. Huge but unassuming godown, loads of fabric from soft clothing material to curtain and upholstry material. Great range of Kalamkari and "daboos" fabric that is lovely for making the kind of clothes I wear. There are nice soft, chanderi and raw silk varieties too.

I find that for retail customers who walk in, the pricing is a bit arbitrary - I got the feeling that they just randomly quoted a number. Price ranges from 85 - 100 bucks per  meter on an average, with expensive fabric retailing at Rs.120.

The range is great, the fabric quality is exceptional, and while I don't know if the price is a steal, buying 2.5 meters and having a kurti made will still work out to about 40% cheaper than buying at fabindia, which is the only readymade store where I've seen sensibly stitched kurtis in these fabrics.

I have a vague memory of Madarsha (Purasawakkam) having really cheap kalamkari fabric (I am talking about rs. 60 / meter), but not sure if it was the same fabric quality. Must walk into fabric stores in T Nagar too, and take a lookie.

There is also the good old pantheon road with its streetside fabric merchants, but again, must check t see how the quality compares.

Anyway, back to the wholesaler I found, a couple of my friends raided the place really well, while I remained true to my no-more-new-clothes mandate, didn't buy any. Bought some curtain material for MIL though, upon her request.

A propos the dress shopping embargo, the 40 kurta thing is still bugging me. I'm gonna give away at least 10. They are all well used, but still perfectly usable. Might as well give it now when someone can still use it. And if I pare my wardrobe down, later in the year I can eventually pick up some fabric for myself too, maybe  ;-B

Value : Stainless steel drinking bottles

Don't use plastic water bottles, for all the obvious reasons - they are polluting and unhealthy, not to mention wasteful.

The stainless steel bottles you see below are a great option. If you are in Chennai, Santosh in Anna Nagar carries them, and I assume so will any well-stocked steel utensil store like Rathna. They cost roughly between Rs. 150-200 depending upon the size, and will last for years.

The bottles come in sizes from 300 ml to a liter. Keep them at home, keep one in the car and drop a smaller one in your office bag, so you don't have to buy packaged water. Irrespective of the size, the heads are all the same, which means you can mix caps. And by the way, they come with a variety of caps - flat lids, looped ones like you see here, and even sippers which make them nice for kids (or cyclists).  I use the really small one (300 ML) to carry breakfast porridge to work, if I am going early. Oh by the way, the caps are made of plastic yes, but my water sits well below the neck, and since they make the bottle completely leakproof, I'll make my peace with them.

These bottles aren't insulated though, so if you leave your bottle in the sun, the contents will get warm. But the water will still smell and taste fine, unlike the plasticky smelling water from a regular bottles that've been left in the sun. Eek. (Packaged water sits in those plastic bottles for god knows how long before you get to drink it.)

Among reusable bottles, there are also Sigg bottles and their clones, and here is my gripe with them:  while they look snazzier, they are much more expensive, are made of aluminum, and to keep the aluminum from getting into your water, the inside is coated with "food-grade enamel"(which their CEO claims is safe). In any case, it all seems unnecessarily complicated, and why bother when there is simpler solution?

I remember using steel bottles for a while when I was a kid - the steel was of very thin gauge and used to get badly dented, and also, the bottles used to have a lot of ridges just like a Bisleri bottle, which was idiotic because the ridges were impossible to scrub clean on the inside. That way, I love the smooth curves of my current set of bottles, with no place for dirt to hide. I wash them with salt water, baking soda and a bottle brush.

Safe, reusable, and economical in the long run.

Value : Carbolic soap

Remember the red Lifebuoy brick from childhood?

In a world of gooey last-a-week cream soaps and "bathing bars", few people know of or remember carbolic soaps.

Through the last century or so, carbolic soaps are credited with saving more lives from succumbing to infection than are drugs. Even now, this cheap and trusty old soap is a sanitation staple in health centers serving the poor in countries the world over.

{In the strictest sense, using a "bath powder" (grain or pulse meal mixed with herbs - cheap, healthy and biodegradable) is the finest bathing solution I've experienced, but more about this in another post.}

When it comes to soaps, I personally believe that there is no such thing as a beauty soap. The only thing a good soap can and ought to do is clean and disinfect without being harsh on your skin, or leaving semi-tested chemicals behind. As for slimy shower gels that are a pain to rinse off, I have nothing but contempt for them.

A carbolic soap meets all my bathing requirements. The soap has been around for a long time, each bar lasts a long while, it thoroughly cleans, disinfects and deodorizes, and doesn't leave my skin dried out either (but I moisturize in winters). It blasts through rashes (I have sensitive skin) and is supposedly very effective on acne. The smell is strong and aseptic, which is perfect because I want to smell clean, not like jasmine or seaweed or a tropical fruit.

There are a few other uses for the soap too. For minor scrapes and cuts, washing the spot with water and leaving on a film of carbolic soap for a while protects against infection. My grandmother used to do this for our little scrapes, and my dad tells me he used to do the same when he was a kid.

Carbolic soaps have been popular bug repellants for a while now, and in my personal experience, this is perfectly true. Commercial mosquito repellents can cause severe allergic reactions and/or respiratory problems, as they have for my mother, while a simple shower can give you a lot of relief from bugs. Apart from showering with the soap, I discovered a way to add a bug repellent booster dose. In Madras the mosquito menace is acutest in the evenings, and yesterday I had showered in the morning with carbolic but wasn't sure if the smell still lingered. So I took a dry bar of the soap and rubbed it all over exposed parts - arms, legs and feet. Yes, mosquitoes do steer clear of you!

There must be small manufacturers of the soap in various parts of the country, and among known brands, Nirma has a carbolic soap though it doesn't seem to be available in the south. I personally use "Carbolic" by Karnataka soaps & detergents. When I'm not using an herbal bath powder (and that is most of the previous year), this is the only soap I've used for almost a year now, and I simply love it.

The soap retails at 14 bucks for 150 gms and lasts a really long time. Sadly, this soap is not freely available everywhere (a situation that I find is increasingly the norm with many good, honest products), but I have often seen them in Big Bazaar.

If you live in Karnataka, you can pick the soap up in bulk at a KS&D factory outlet, and you'll get it for a couple of bucks cheaper.  (While you are at KS&D, don't miss another wonderful product - Mysore detergent bar, a yellow laundry soap that is inexpensive and skin-friendly - dermatologist Dr. Thambaiah of Madras recommended yellow detergent cakes. But I just checked their site, and I don't see it listed. Another lovely product dead??)

Apart from personal use, given how these have been preferred by doctors in primary care centers around the world, a box of carbolic soaps  can be a novel and very useful goodwill gift if you are looking to help a health facility that serves the poor, or a welfare-based school, or a home for children or the aged.  

The carbolic soap is a wonderful product, and it would be a shame to see it die because of lack of demand.

More on the topic of toilette:

My bathing routine simply involves Carbolic soap and a scrubbing brush. For brushes, go for fibre loofahs like this one. In Tamil Nadu, you'll find these in small grocery outlets or herbal medicine stores selling at 5-10 bucks bucks a piece. Or you can go to a health & glow type outlet and throw away 50 - 100 bucks for the same stuff.

Khadi gramodyog has round idli-like loofahs for 10 bucks each, made of fragrant vetiver! But remember to soak any natural fibre brush in water for a couple of days to soften it up. It can be quite rough on the skin when new.

If you have no choice but to go plastic,  these damn things make pretty bubbles, but are bloody useless as scrubbers. You are better off with these - very very cheap, no-nonsense and effective. Just be nice and try to make one last for a long long long time, so that you reduce plastic waste. Once it is shredded from use, it can still scrub tiles or your bike or car.

That's it for this post. Bye!