The recipes I'm linking to might not actually be for anything to eat, but they are all made with edibles. They are DIY natural beauty treatments, like masques, scrubs, and soaks. It's common knowledge that many foods help different parts of our bodies with antioxidants, vitamins, and other healing effects when we eat them, but slathering them on ourselves is apparently another effective use for them.
Recently, I've been moving, slowly but surely, away from beauty and personal care products laden with synthetic and, quite frankly, scary chemicals toward more natural skin care, and many of these products are full of foods (and plants and minerals) with different healing and fortifying properties. Conventional skin care tends to be filled with preservatives that extend shelf life at the cost of pumping a product full of chemicals. These chemicals are absorbed by our skin and thus into our bodies. And while it does seem too soon to tell what sorts of long-term effects these products might have on us, the very fact that they might even HAVE long-term effects on us that are undesirable is enough to make me think twice about using them for the rest of my life. So I'm gradually swapping out my traditional skin care products as I finish each for natural alternatives.
It's nice to know, though, that you can make cost-effective and easy pampering products at home, because skin care can get expensive. I've certainly tried a few of these, like using honey to moisturize or cucumber slices or cold used tea bags on puffy, tired eyes. But I'll probably whip up a few of these concoctions next time I feel dehydrated or in need of a boost. One thing I learned recently is that apparently lemon juice applied to a bug bite as soon as possible after you get it helps soothe the itchiness and irritation. Plus who doesn't love the smell of lemons?
Do you find yourself feeling the same way about skin care products, or does the use of chemicals not bother you? Have you ever tried any home remedies using common kitchen ingredients that you find to be highly effective? Dish!
3 comments:
Loved this entry! I often worry about skin care products-- particularly eye creams, which you are only supposed to use once a day. Is it worth it to expose ourselves to chemicals that are only safe to use in small amounts daily? I'm going to try these natural treatments you linked to.
I'm also interested in common kitchen/household ingredients that you can use for cleaning, like vinegar and baking soda. Vinegar, I swear to God, is the best cleaning agent in the universe. And it tastes damn good on a salad with some oil.
Perhaps we can look forward to some cleaning products you can make out of ingredients in your fridge/pantry? ;)
I am completely in agreement with you about the vinegar! It's a miraculous thing, no?
Perhaps I will post in the future about natural cleaning products! That is next on my list of to-do's: starting to replace the scary cleaning chemicals in my apartment for ones that are natural.
I am definitely going to swap to a natural eye cream next. I am completely vain about my skin, and I brag about how I'm nearly 30 with NO crow's feet! Suki is apparently a great natural skin care products brand. Their eye cream is pricey, but you use so little of it that I think it might be worth the steep price!
i'm in the slow process of making this switch too, so thanks for the link :)
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