Papaya Hair Quencher

What you’ll need:

• 1/2 papaya
• olive oil (depends on how dry hair is)
• 1 teaspoon honey

Directions:

1. Puree papaya with some olive oil and honey.
2. Apply to damp hair and leave on as long as you like.
3. Rinse then shampoo out excess oil.

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Spring into these facials

Yogurt and Banana Mask

1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon honey
1 medium banana

Mix all ingredients in a bowl together until its well blended.  Apply to the face and leave on for 15 minutes.  Rinse and pat dry.  This mask provides excellent moisture to your skin, reduce wrinkles, and will balance your skin complexion.

Exfoliating Oatmeal Mask

1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon sweet almond oil or olive oil
1/3 cup of oatmeal

Prepare the oatmeal separately in a pot with water.  Let it cool down for a couple of minutes.  Apply it as a scrub gently rubbing in a circular motion to your face, avoiding the eyes.  Rinse with warm water and pat dry.  This mask will wipe away any old skin.

Exfoliate & Moisturizing Mask

Imbalanced Complexion

Ingredients:

-1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
-5 tablespoons honey
-2 cup ground oatmeal

*To learn what these ingredients do click here*

Directions:

1. Add ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix until a smooth, thick consistency.
3. Apply to face.
4. Leave to dry.
5. Then rinse off and pat dry.

This masks can be done up to 2x’s a week.  They helps to exfoliate and moisturize the skin.  

Flowers for your skin..

Flower extracts are big news in skin care these days.  But their anti-oxidant and body boosting benefits are anything but new.  Start introducing them to your beauty regiments when they are full in bloom.  These are just a handful of flowers and their benefits but there are plenty more with additional benefits.  What type of flowers grow around your area?  Put them in your baths, while your soaking your feet, and even in your facials.

• Hibiscus: The tropical flower is a natural source of alpha-hydroxy acids which exfoliate skin, speed up cell turnover, and help control acne breakouts, all of which can encourage fresher, younger, and smoother looking skin. They also increase moisture and improve flexibility and elasticity.
• Jasmine: Extract of jasmine is gorgeously nourishing for skin and works to reduce fine lines and increase elasticity.
• Lavendar: Perfect for stressed skin, lavender’s beauty benefits aren’t to be underestimated.
• Orchid: A powerful antioxidant, is known to reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles and acts as a humectant that moisturises, soothes and conditions skin.
• Poppy: These pretty petals help calm and soften your skin, and possess powerful anti-inflammatory properties. The poppy can be found in products formulated to soothe, condition, protect and hydrate.
• Rose: Rose extract is brilliant for intensive moisturising, which is why it’s one of the most popular floral extracts used in skincare products. It’s ideal for those with particularly dry skin. Rose is thought to have spot and pigment reducing power too.
• Geranium:  Known for its toning, anti–inflammatory, and antimicrobial strengths, geranium can also help relax tight muscles.  Oil from leaves not the flower.
• Sunflower: The seed oil of sunflowers is rich in vitamin E and fatty acids, which help repair, calm, and soften the skin.
• Daisy: Use daisy to brighten the skin and achieve a more youthful look.

Always make sure the flowers are not poisonous before you pick them.  Look up the native flowers in your area.  Make sure to always perform a test strip on your arm first before applying anything to your face.  

Benefits of adding Spring to your facials…

Adding oatmeal, honey, flowers ,and yogurts to our treatments are a perfect way to bring Spring into our beauty regiment.  Not only that but we all know that they are good for your complexion; but how good for you?

Many floral extracts have antinflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties, which can help strengthen your skin. To protect their delicate blooms from harsh elements (like strong sunlight, bugs, and bacteria), flowers have compounds in their petals, leaves, or seeds that help restore and nurture life.  And those same compounds can protect your skin. Floral extracts can uplift, soften, and strengthen your skin. Each flower will produce a different effect on the skin so you have to choose your flower of choice accordingly to what you are looking for.

Yogurt for your skin?  You betcha..and you’re gonna want to know why.

• Aging: Yogurt contains lactic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid that helps to smooth rough, dry skin and prevent premature aging such as fine lines, wrinkles and age spots. Lactic acid helps to dissolve dead skin that accumulates in the pores, causing a dull and cakey appearance and aids in closing large pores, making skin look younger.
• Acne:  Acne-prone skin may benefit from yogurt, with its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. It is also rich in zinc, which is commonly known to aid in the healing of acne blemishes. Yogurt naturally kills impurities that lead to breakouts, keeping the skin fresh and clean.
• Discolorations: Yogurt has a mild bleaching effect on the skin when used over time. Skin that is blotchy and damaged due to environmental factors, such as too much sun exposure, can achieve a more even skin tone with a yogurt mask. This is also an excellent and gentle treatment for age spots. Any type of plain yogurt works for skin discoloration.

The benefits of honey are immense not only when digested on the inside, but also to our complexion when applied to the skin?

• Acne: Honey is naturally antibacterial, so it’s great for acne treatment and prevention.
• Aging: Full of antioxidants, it is great for slowing down aging.
• Complexion boost: It is extremely moisturizing and soothing, so it helps create a glow.
• Pores: Honey is clarifying because it opens up pores making them easy to unclog.

Believe it or not but your skin craves oatmeal as well.  Not only is it a super rich food but your skin just adores this stuff.

•  Fights Dryness: Oats contain polysaccharides, which become gelatinous in water and leave a fine protective film on the skin, preventing dull, flaky dryness.
•  Moisturizing: Oats are full of healthy, lubricating fats.  Very good for itchy skin especially if you have dermatitis.
•  Defense building: The proteins in oatmeal help maintain the skin’s natural barrier function, which ensures that the world outside the skin stays out, and what’s inside the skin stays in.
•  Pore cleansing: Oats are filled with natural cleansers (called saponins) that gently remove dirt and oil from the pores.

Raw honey and oatmeal are amazing natural beauty solution for all skin types because of its healing skin benefits. It does wonders for a wide variety of skin ailments such as acne and enlarged pores, rosacea, eczema, hyperpigmentation, sensitive, old, dull and itchy skin.

With a few simple ingredients from your kitchen you can achieve a radiant Spring glow to your complexion without breaking the bank.

 

Brightening Facial Mask

You don’t need much to make a simple facial mask.  Look no further than in your kitchen for a variety of homemade and cost effective beauty treatments.  This is a great mask to help brighten your face.  With Valentine’s Day around the corner I can feel the beauty in the air.  Treat yourself like a Goddess and watch how your confidence will spike… and believe me it will not go unnoticed.  When you feel great about yourself, the whole world notices.

You will need:

• sour cream
• apple cider vinegar
• honey
• bowl
• mixing apparatus

Combine 2 tablespoons of sour cream with 2 tablespoons of honey and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.  Apply to cleansed face and leave it on for  a good 20 minutes.  Then rinse it off with tepid water followed by a cool (not cold) rinse.

This can be done up to two times a week.

This mask heals the skin, exfoliates, brightens, and moisturizes.  It also refreshes pores, fades acne marks and even prevents blemishes from coming up!

Milk Moisturizing Mask

• Mix 1/4 cup of powdered milk with enough water to form a thick paste.
• Thoroughly coat face with mixture and let dry completely.
• Rinse with lukewarm water and pat face dry.

Pumpkin facial

Salvage your winter skin with this seasonal scrub.

• 2 teaspoons of pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon milk
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon spice

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients in a bowl into a paste.
2. Brush onto cleansed skin
3. Let dry for 15-20 minutes.
4. Rinse with warm water.
5. Follow with serums and moisturizer.

Pumpkin Hair Mask

• 1 cup fresh pumpkin, cubed (can used canned if in a bind)
• 4 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon almond oil or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon jojoba oil (optional)
• 1 squirt of regular conditioner (makes it easier to wash out)

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients in a bowl.
2. Apply mask evenly to hair and scalp. (Avoid the scalp if oily)
3. Wrap hair in hot, damp towel for 10-15 minutes (You can leave it on while you take a shower)
4. Rinse well or wash out.

Pecan Body Scrub

• 2 oz. crushed pecans
• 2 oz. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. almond oil
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2-3 drops essential oil for scent (optional)

Directions:

1. Crush the pecans.
2. Blend the sugar and pecans together in a small bowl.
3. Stir in almond oil and the honey.
4. Add your choice of essential oils.
5. Massage directly onto wet skin in a circular motion.
6. Rinse with warm water.
7. Follow with moisturizer or lotion.