Natural Cleanser

Gram flour/ chickpeas flour/Bengal gram flour (‘Besan’/ ‘chana dal’ in Hindi/Marathi) acts as a natural cleanser to our skin. You can apply it on the face or on full body. Chickpeas look like following.

Its flour (shown below) is easily available in grocery stores or on online shopping portals.

Here are the steps to make a paste of gram flour for external application on your body.

1. Take half a cup of gram flour/chickpeas flour
2. Add less than half a cup of water
3. Mix the mixture well and make a smooth paste
4. You can also add a pinch of turmeric; turmeric also acts as a cleansing agent. But it acts as a spice so we will use very less. You may get burning sensation if you apply more turmeric on the skin. So be careful.
5. Those whose skin is dry can add 2 tablespoons of milk/curd/whipped milk fat or you can also apply coconut oil or any other body oil before applying gram flour paste
6. Whose skin is oily, can add 1 tablespoon of fullers earth (‘Multani mitti’ in Hindi) in the paste
7. If you are not allergic to lemon like me, you can add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in it. Lemon also acts as a great cleanser
8. Please do not make paste too thin or too thick. Keep the consistency in such a way that you can apply it easily on your body
9. Once you apply the paste, it will start drying. Wait for 5/7 minutes until it dries
10. Remove it with cold or lukewarm water
11. You need not apply soap or anything after washing
12. Make your skin dry with a cotton towel

You can immediately sense the difference after using this paste. If you are planning to use this daily, please apply oil before or add milk in it as this could make your skin dry. You can use this once a week or so.

* Please rub very little paste on a small portion of your hand, wait for 5 minutes and wash with water. This is to check if you are not allergic to gram flour or of any of the ingredients in the paste.

In Ayurveda, all the ingredients mentioned above to make gram flour paste are supposed to cleanse the skin and make it smooth. This is a very effective, a pocket-friendly and the most important ‘natural’ way of cleansing your skin.

PC: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gram_flour_AvL.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chickpeas_(3150327572).jpg