August Conservation Tip

NATURAL BEAUTY

Shopped for natural cosmetic lately? There are awesome products out there, but unfortunately most of them have a rather stiff price tag. I'm not doubting in any way that they are worth their money, most of them at least, BUT there a lots and lots of good recipes out there to make at least some of these cosmetics yourself. But even better than saving some money is that you are in charge of choosing the ingredients, buy local, get organic and you might even have some growing in your garden! I found a few recipes that seemed simple enough, and have mostly ingredients that you might have at home anyway.

All of them have been tried by me and some willing volunteers, and found worth while...enjoy!


Mint - Cucumber - Mask (1)

You need:
1 cucumber, halved
2 Tablespoon fresh mint
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup kaolin clay

Yields: about 4 masks

Cube 1/2 of the cucumber and put it together with the yogurt and mint into the blender. Blend until smooth. Slowly stir in clay until you have a thick paste. Put on your face and cover your eyes with cucumber slices from the other half. Rest for 10 min and enjoy. Wash off with warm water.

Honey Almond Face Scrub (2)

You need:
1 Tablespoon Honey
2 Tablespoon ground almonds
1/2 Teaspoon lemon juice

Yields: about 2 scrubs

Mix all together and gently scrub your face with circular motion. Wash off with warm water.

Rosemary Body Scrub (1)

You need:

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup pecans, almonds or hazelnuts
1/4 cup sea salt
6 Tablespoon coconut oil
2 Tablespoon fresh rosemary

Yields: 1 whole body scrub or multiple hand and feet scrubs

Give all in a blender and pulse until blended.
Gently rub on whole body in circular motion. Or store in a clean jar and use multiple times for hands and feet, or rough areas like elbows. Keeps for about 1 week at room temperature.
A word of caution: If you use it as a whole body scrub in the shower, do it on the day you are planning to clean the shower anyway.....

Coconut oil is also great just by its self if you have dry skin.

Avocado Hair Mask (3)

You need:

1 ripe avocado
2 Tablespoon honey

Yields: 1 treatment

Mush together avocado and honey. Massage gently into hair and leave for 20-30 min. Wash hair as usual.

Honey Lip Relief

You need: honey

This is an old remedy my mother taught me, since I have really, really dry lips. If it gets to the point where they start hurting from dryness, take a finger load full of honey and smear it gently on your lips. Let it sit there as long as you can bear it not to lick the honey off...;-). Remove remains with a paper towel.

Speaking of lips, on my search for practical "beauty"recipes for this blog, I stumbled upon a great short but informative you-tube movie on how to make lip balm at home. It doesn't seem to be too hard and I will try this as soon as I get all the ingredients together. I'll keep you posted on the outcome of it.
Here the link if you want to check it out:

Quality Homemade Lip Balm Recipe

Of course there are some things that you can't do at home, as for example professionally dyeing your hair. In my quest of going all natural and organic and not let all these chemicals come too close, I found an absolute great and totally organic hair salon: The Plum in San Francisco.  The owner, Danica Winters, created a small organic hair heaven in the middle of bustling San Francisco, that you actually don't want to leave once you got there. To describe the whole concept of the salon would go beyond the scope of this blog, but two words of wisdom from Danica I would like to share: Yes, it is possible to lighten your hair with all organic and natural products and be really, really careful with Henna, it is not as natural as you might think. For everything else, please check out her website:
The Plum Organic Salon & Spa  it's worth it!


(1) Hobby Farm Home, September/October 2012 issue
(2) Whole Foods, "a recipe for the body" card
(3) The Daily Green