There are 26 steps to looking good this winter, as we get the experts to give us the A-Z of beauty in the cold season. So start at the very beginning!

Your skin has declared winter, even if you are still in your linens. So start now if you don’t want to be left with dry, parched and problematic skin in the complete user-friendly DIY manual. Just follow the letters…

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1. Aromatherapy : Kick-start the winter months with great smelling essential oils. Pour them in your bath, light them up as candles or give yourself a massage. Best winter aromas are patchouli, rose, sandalwood and ylang ylang.

2. Body Butters : Try these DIY recipes for body butters.

• Egg yolk can be mixed with olive oil and applied on the body. The proportion should be 3 tablespoons olive oil with one egg yolk. Add the juice of half a lemon. Apply and wash off after 20-30 minutes.
• One part olive oil, two parts yoghurt and one-forth part orange peel power. This can be applied and washed off after 20 minutes.
• Yoghurt and washed off after 20 minutes, before a bath.
• Honey is natural moisturiser. Just add two tablespoons of honey in a bucket of water while taking a bath.

3. Cleansing Right: the basis is simple – remove excess sebum, makeup and dirt from the skin in a gentle manner using cleansing milk thoroughly removing all traces of dirt in the evening and once to refresh in the morning. If the skin is normal to dry, it should be cleansed twice a day with a cleansing cream or gel. A cleanser containing aloe vera and lemon is good, as aloe vera has high moisture retention ability while lemon is a natural cleanser.

4. Delicate Skin Care: Eyes need to protected more around this time to postpone wrinkles. So invest in a good night cream for the eyes, or better still, massage eye area with few drops of almond oil before sleeping.

5. Exfoliate Right: Exfoliate once a week for oily skin and twice a month for normal/dry skin is recommended.. Exfoliation aids absorption of essential oils into the skin, so a massage is useless without it. Coffee, sea salts and sugar wok as best natural exfoliators.

6. Foods: eat fish, turkey, chicken cheese, beans, tofu, oats and eggs. Slow-release, unprocessed carbohydrates are also good for helping to keep your blood sugar and serotonin level up. Green leafy vegetables are rich in vitamin C and many minerals, so get a daily dose of greens, like palak, methi and sarson ka saag.

7. Get Glowing: Application of mask twice a week especially after Exfoliation nourishes the skin, giving it that glow. Try this one: one table spoon almond paste, one teaspoon cashew paste, one tablespoon pistachio, one tablespoon fresh cream(malai), one tablespoon wheatgerm oil, one tablespoon rose water,1/4 cup red lentil paste (masoor dal).let dry, then wash off.

8. Herbal Teas: They work as great winter warmers so take your pick from ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, or a combination. Chamomile and jasmine work wonders in curing a cold or upset stomach.

9. Inside Out: feel worm inside while beaming outside. Take a glass of warm milk with saffron (zaffran), cardamom (elaichi), ground almonds and a teaspoon of honey with breakfast.

10. Join Care: joints tend to get stiff in winters, so give them a soak once a fortnight in sea salt and herb infused bath water.

11. Kiss The Sun: take in the mild, morning sun after a full body oil massage for that much needed Vitamin D. ( you might want to go back to sleep though!)

12. Lather Your-Self: Take a luxury bath without soap. Lather yourself with homemade strawberry shower gel inside. Take one cup fresh strawberry, one cup cream, two cups of warm water and few drops of almond oil. Blend all till you have a smooth, creamy liquid. Pour this strawberry mixture onto the loofah and smell great all day with soft, soft skin.

13. Massage Regularly: Sesame (til) or almond oil are great for this season, to which you can add a few drops of pure essential oil of lavender, rose or sandalwood. He oil can be warmed before massage Specific parts of the body should be massaged according to the specific problems.

• Small circular strokes should be used on the joints of the arms, like shoulder, elbow and wrist joints.
• The abdomen should be massaged with circular movements, starting out from the navel and going outwards. For the upper abdomen, the direction should be the lower abdomen the circular strokes should be from left to right.
• For the back, the massage should be from the base of the spine, working upward and outward from the backbone to ribs.

14. Nourish Your Skin: Apply a weekly mask using ground almonds, milk, carrot and orange juice. Apply on face and body. Wash off after 30 minutes. Take two parts milk and one part each of carrot and orange juice.

15. Oxygen: take in fresh oxygen every morning by practicing slow breathing exercises (hypo-pranayama) and gradually your body will come in a natural state of balance.

16. Prim and Proper: Nails and hair tend to get brittle during the cold season. So don’t forget to spa them too. Regular pedicures and head massages become ever so important.

17. Quick Fix: important date tonight? Try this recipe; take a teaspoon each of tomato and cucumber juice, a few drops of lemon juice, wheat flour and milk. Mix thoroughly with one tablespoon raisin, making a paste, apply to skin and leave it on for 20 minutes; then gently massage and wash it of with lukewarm water.

18. Rest, Assured: Take an afternoon nape or at least eight hours of uninterrupted night sleep in winters. Massage your feet; cover them with cotton socks, play instrumental music and you’ll sleep like a baby.

19. Steam and Sauna: Steam helps open pores, which is more important in colder months as the body is not sweating. If you massage just before the sauna, oil gets absorbed better, leaving you with glowing skin.

20. Treat Your-Self: You’re going to be layered, you’ll need the fat and it’s still going to many months before you get into that swimsuit, enough reasons to enjoy the occasional mud cake. Plus chocolate works wonders for your skin during this time. (Will give you the happy feeling without the zit.)

21. UVA Protection: Apply SPF 15 sunscreen with additional UVA protection. The intensity of UVA radiation – responsible for skin ageing is the same all year round.

22. Vitamins: Eat more antioxidant vitamins like A, C and E. Vitamin A, found in yellow orange and green vegetables, egg yolks, liver, butter, and fish oils has anti-ageing properties. Vitamin E in vegetable oils and nuts has anti-inflammatory effect to soothe skin. A glass of orange juice or a shot of Amla will help you tank up on Vitamin C. A mood boosting supplement is B complex.

23. Water Wise: As soon as you get out of the bath, apply moisturizer while your skin is still wet as this help trap the water in the upper layer of the skin and decrease dryness and itching. Take bath with warm water instead of very hot, which will be kind to your skin and not strip it off essential body oils.

24. X Factor: Winter is the perfect time to snuggle n=and cuddle, so go ahead. Remember, nothing like a hot session in the sack to get your blood circulation going, making you glow with passion.

25. Yoga: Winters make us all lazy. Don’t want to go for a run at five in the morning? Get started on yogic exercises and Pranayam. These can be practiced indoors and any time of day.

26. Zingadelic: Now your skin is the perfect canvas to bring on some fun. Red, crimson and purple for the lips, lime green, white and gold shimmer for the eyes. A little pink glow on the cheeks and you are set to go from glum to glam.

(Tips by Shahnaz Hussain, beauty expert; Ajai Malik, SPA Manager Espace; Colin Hall, SPA Director Anand) – Deepti Jakhar)