Beauty Food

This winter weather has been absolutely brutal on my skin. I'm itchy and dry and I look like kinda like Casper. Recently I decided to try some various homemade skin treatments (mostly because I did not feel like going anywhere to buy one ;-) and I ended up finding some great recipes for the spa treatment at home! The best part is that all of the ingredients for these treatments can be found in your kitchen and they are much more gentle on your skin than many of the harsh chemicals found in store bought skin care products. While these may not be recipes for eating they are made out of food so I decided to share them:

Cleaning your skin:
Exfoliant - mix 1 tbsp baking soda with enough water to form a paste. Add a couple drops of lemon juice and gently rub all over face. Rinse with warm water.

After you clean your face, try one of these masks: 
Oily skin - mix 1 tbsp honey, 1 egg yolk and mix in enough oatmeal to form a thick paste. Spread over face and rinse with warm water after 5-10 minutes.
dry skin - mash 1/2 banana and mix with 1 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp sour cream. Allow to sit for 10 minutes and gently rinse with warm water and splash with cold.
Blackheads - beat an egg white with a few drops of lemon juice and spread over your face. Rinse with warm water after 5-10 minutes.
Cooling mask - mix 1/2 cup greek yogurt,1 tbsp honey, chopped fresh mint leaves and a small amount of a pureed cucumber. Spread across face and rinse after 10 minutes

Skin Toner: Grate a cucumber and place in a sieve over a bowl to collect the juice. Add a few drops of lemon juice and use a cotton ball to apply to face. This will tighten skin and increase circulation to the area.

Other homemade beauty ideas:
- put a couple of green tea bags in the tub when you take a bath. The antioxidants are good for your skin too.
- for a quick hair mask, coat hair in mayonnaise and allow to sit for about 30 minutes (put on a shower cap if you have one). Slowly rinse the mayo out with beer and then gently shampoo. Sounds gross, but your hair will be so silky and shiny!

I decided to spare you the image of what these masks looked like on, so I do not have any pics for this post. But I can tell you the treatments worked pretty well, felt great and cost next to nothing. Hope you enjoy them!

Happy Eating.... or treating, or Masking...;)