Beauty has become fairly high tech these days, with very complex compounds, scientific sounding names and price tags to match! There are some amazing products out there, but understandably some of us want to keep things natural and chemical free. There’s also a growing trend for synthetic fragrance, paraben and sodium laurel sulphate free lotions and potions. Here are a few tips to draw on nature’s larder, which has been providing women with beauty treatments for centuries. Did you know they’re actually some amazing natural products just sitting in your fridge and kitchen cupboards?
Table of Contents
Mix It Up
The first tip would be don’t worry too much about quantities; just mix and stir until you feel you have a good consistency for the purpose you need. There’s no need to get too precise and just enjoy the creative process of mixing up your beauty products. You can create everything from face packs, lip balms, face and body scrubs, face and body moisturizers, hair conditioners and more.
Coconut & Cocoa
Coconut oil is pretty much a staple! Use it as an overnight deep conditioning treatment for your hair, a body moisturizer, a make-up remover, an overnight moisturizer for your face and a lip balm. It’s a good idea to have one pot for your kitchen and one for your bathroom cabinet, you don’t want to risk cross contamination and having to keep carrying your jar from one room to the next. Another good buttery base is cocoa butter, but this is a little more expensive to buy.
Scrub, Scrub, Scrub…
Home-made body scrubs are so easy and there are a few things you can use.
Sugar, sea salt and fresh coffee grounds can all be used as a natural exfoliant due to their coarse texture. Choose one of the three and add a liberal dash of oil – whatever you have at home really – almond, olive etc.
If you’d like to scent it and have the added benefit of a third ingredient, try citrus fruits like lemon or orange, or dried or fresh herbs like lavender, mint or rosemary.
For an alternate face mask, try smashing an avocado or papaya, adding an egg white or perhaps a spoonful of natural yogurt and a little honey or lemon. The combination is great to moisturize and refresh, with the lemon or honey adding an astringent and cleansing property. A touch of oatmeal will help with exfoliation too!
Say No To Panda Eyes
For tired eyes, using two slices of cucumber from the fridge is great – it’s actually not a myth. Slice them fresh and then let them rest on your closed eyes for ten minutes. Another great treat for your eyes is evening primrose oil. If you split a capsule and spread the oil under your eyes, it’s great for moisturizing and reducing dark circles. Used and chilled chamomile tea bags give similar results.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are another lovely addition and are available in many fragrances, just choose your favorite carefully and make sure you understand what quantity to use and where on your body it’s safe to use them (for example pregnant women need to avoid using certain oils); the retailer you get them from should be able to offer advice on this.
If the beauty product you create has a longer shelf life, like sugar or salt body scrubs, you could turn it into a gift by putting it into a nice glass jar and adding a ribbon – a fantastic home-made gift.
What natural products do you love to use?
