Sick of spending a small fortune on beauty products when you’re not even sure what’s in them half the time? Have a go at making your own beauty treatments! You can make some quick and easy beauty treats using ingredients that you’ve already got at home.
What Kind of Things Can I Use?
Here are just a few of the everyday food items that work well in beauty treatments, and their main benefits.
Plain yogurt: This can be used as a quick and easy face mask for all skin types. It can also be used as a hair mask for dry and damaged hair along with egg and mayonnaise.
Honey: As honey has anti-bacterial properties, it’s a popular ingredient in face masks. If you’ve got dry skin, try a honey face mask as the moisturising qualities mean that it won’t make your skin too dry after using.
Banana: When mashed up and used in a face mask, banana can make a great face mask for dry skin. You can maximise the moisturising benefits by mashing it with olive oil.
Avocado: if you’ve got dry skin, this is another good option for using in a face mask. As with banana, it works even better when mashed up with some olive oil.
Strawberries: These are great for mashing up and using in a face mask for oily, spot-prone skin. Strawberries are a natural source of salicylic acid, which is frequently found in spot-fighting products. Products containing salicylic acid can be far too harsh for even oily skin but using strawberries as a natural alternative gives you the opportunity to get the same benefits without aggravating your skin. You can also use strawberries in a hair mask along with mayonnaise to make your hair shinier.
Sugar and salt: Either of these can be used as the basis of a homemade body scrub, depending on how coarse you want the grains to be. Just add some oil of your choice and you’re good to go!
Olive oil: As mentioned earlier on in the post, you can mash olive oil with ingredients like avocado and banana to create a ultra-moisturising face mask for dry skin. You can also use it on your hair alongside ingredients like egg and banana depending on the desired results. Because it’s good for moisturising, you may want to add it to homemade body scrubs as the oil-based part of the scrub, especially if your skin is usually dried out by shop-bought body scrubs.
Apple cider vinegar: This can be added to hair masks for shinier and healthier-looking hair in conjunction with ingredients like egg and olive oil.
Recipes to Try Out
Ready to try out some homemade beauty treatments? Here are some simple ideas to have a go at.
Clarifying Hair Rinse (to use after washing your hair)
You’ll need: A large apple, 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 2 cups of water
- Peel the apple and cut into small pieces
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a blender
- Strain the mixture so that you get rid of anything that is still solid
- Once you’ve washed your hair, rinse with the mixture and follow with cool water to rinse it off your scalp
Conditioner for oily hair
You’ll need: 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, half an avocado, 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
- Peel the avocado
- Mix the ingredients together
- Apply the mixture while your hair is still dry, avoiding the roots.
- Leave on for around 20 minutes. Massage to the scalp and leave for an extra 5 minutes.
- Rinse with warm water so that all traces of the mask have been removed.
- Wash hair with a deep-cleansing shampoo to follow.
Homemade beauty treatments are a great way to save money and as an added bonus, this is also a good opportunity to use up any leftovers that need to be used up imminently. Because you’re using natural ingredients, your skin will most likely thank you for not using harsh ingredients that could aggravate it. If you’re not sure how you’ll react to certain ingredients, do a patch test before you try it out onlarger areas of your face or body.
So have you tried making your own products? How do you like them?
Terrific post! I make my own deodorant and toner (recipes here http://pennyprudence.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/beauty-on-the-cheap/). The deodorant is much like the old Aromacreme by Lush, lasts for three to six months, and is made of baking soda, corn starch, cocoa butter, and essential oils. It takes literally five minutes to make, too!
@Penny. Cool. Thanks for the recipes. I will check them out.
I have to admit that some of these things sound strange to use as beauty products… but it makes it that much more interesting. Thanks for a very creative post.
@20’s finances. You should give them a try or have your wife try. It honestly is really cool to use your groceries to look after your skin.
*cough… *cough… I hope I’m still welcome here, as my gender may not be the usual consumer of beauty products. But, I do have a question for all your great readers… I seem to get “bags” under my eyes… and I’m looking for a simple, cheap solution (other than sleep… I still have them). Any ideas?
@Doctor stock. Dark circles can just be a biproduct of thin skin. I have really thin skin under my eyes and therefore my dark circles are quite noticeable. They can be also be a sign of dehydration too . Here is a recipe you can try that might work. I would do it every day for two-four weeks to optimize your results. It has worked for me before so give it a try.
Grate cucumber / potato and squeeze fresh juice out of gratings. Dip two cotton balls in it and keep these cotton balls on eyes. This relaxes eyes and relieves tiredness of eyes.
(Potatoes contain an enzyme called catecholase, which is used in cosmetics as a human skin lightener.)
NICE… thanks. I’ve also been told I simply need to use a hydration lotion… think that might do it?
Perhaps I’ll do a before and after post… and give it 14 days to the new me 🙂
Creative post! I got hungry reading it lol. My mother makes all natural beauty product but she never uses these items. I’ll pass this post along to her maybe it will help
@YFS. Cool. I would be interested to learn her recipes. Thanks for sharing mine. Hope she likes them.
Dr Stock, I’ve seen (in the movies) people using cucumber slices over their eyes – I wonder if this tightens up the skin and reduces the appearance of wrinkles…
@Marie. It does because it hydrates the skin causing fluid under the eyes. The more fluid the less dark the circles.
I’ve never tried this, but I’ve been told that teabags work to reduce dark circles under the eyes. Get the teabags wet (i.e., make yourself a cup of tea?), refrigerate, and then lay the cool teabags over your closed eyes (and over the circles).
@Funny about money. I have heard that too. I have tried it as well and it does work if you are consistent with it.
I’ve been using sugar and salt as body scrub, avocado for facial mask, Aloe Vera for daily moisturizer. This homemade beauty products are really good to maintain young and healthy skin.