Watermelon is packed with vitamins A, B, and C -- all of which keep skin glowing, protected and healthy. To boot, this fragrant, rose-colored toner looks smashing in a glass bottle.
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons fresh watermelon juice (see note below)
1 tablespoon vodka
2 tablespoons witch hazel
2 tablespoons distilled water
*Yields 4 ounces
Directions: Combine the watermelon juice with the other ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Pour into a clean bottle. To use: Apply to skin with a clean cotton pad.
*Note: To make fresh juice, put watermelon in a blender or food processor and strain to remove all solids
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Beauty-full Tea
This tonic is an herbal remedy that supports beautiful skin and complexion from the inside out, and helps to build the immune system -- providing strength and stamina to the body.
Ingredients:
5 moringa tree leaves
1 cup red clover blossoms
1 inch slice of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon rose hips
*Note: You can find moringa tree leaves at your local seed store, online, or you can grow and dry them if you live in California.
Directions: Add all of these ingredients to your favorite pot of green tea and steep for 5 - 10 minutes. Drink throughout the day.
Recipe courtesy of: Melinda Joy Miller and Carla Gentile Day
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Island Lip Gloss
This lip gloss is made from a cocktail of tropical beauty ingredients like macadamia nut, coconut oils, and cocoa butter. Macadamia nut oil is lighter than many other oils so it absorbs easily into lips, plus gives the gloss a touch of nutty flavor and scent.
Directions: Place all ingredients in a heat-resistant container and warm up the mixture in the microwave or in a hot, but not boiling water bath until the cocoa butter and coconut oil are melted. Then, stir mixture well and pour into something like a lip gloss container or small plastic box. Allow the mixture to cool completely. This gloss can be worn under or over a colored lipstick or stain. Store in a cool, dry place.
Recipe courtesy of: Janice Cox
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Gentle Eye Makeup Remover
Castor oil is actually a nifty way to remove eye makeup (who knew?). The following combo of castor, canola and olive oils easily takes off even the smokiest eye makeup.
Directions: Mix the three oils together and pour into a clean container. To use: Pour a small amount of the mixture onto a clean cotton pad and gently wipe over upper and lower lashes and lids.
Recipe courtesy of: Janice Cox
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Moisturizing Hair Wrap
Using herbs straight from your garden, mix up this hair remedy to leave your strands soft, shiny and to help minimize, um, shedding.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup of hot water
Rosemary
Sage
Fenugreek Seeds
*Note: You can find Fenugreek Seeds at your local seed store or online.
Directions: Crush a little bit of each herb (rosemary, sage and fenugreek seeds) with fingers and put into cheesecloth. Tie the cheesecloth and steep in hot water for 10 minutes -- this will make a very potent tea. Next, warm the olive oil on the stovetop and add the tea, blend well. Once mixture cools, apply to scalp and massage in, working through dry hair. You don't have to use the entire amount, just use enough to coat every strand (it shouldn't be dripping with oil). Wrap your hair in a towel or hair wrap. Leave for 20-30 minutes, shampoo out.
Recipe courtesy of: Melinda Joy Miller and Carla Gentile Day
While it's fun to try out the latest, buzzed-about beauty products, there's something really charming (and affordable) about cooking up your own beauty recipes. But before you get intimidated, know that you don't have to be Julia Child to give yourself a farmer's market facial. In fact, some of these recipes only require a single ingredient -- like raspberries, which make a great after-sun face mask -- pretty amazing considering the laundry list of un-pronounceable ingredients we're used to seeing in our beauty products.
And with all the beauty joys that sunnier days bring, like wavy locks and less makeup, also come the woes of swimming pool hair and sunburned noses. Which is why we got DIY beauty product recipes from Janice Cox, author of "Natural Beauty for All Seasons", to help cure those issues, plus warm weather herbal remedies designed by sustainable gardener Melinda Joy Miller and the owner of the Steam Salon in Los Angeles, Calif., Carla Gentile Day. Use their beauty tips to learn how to take things like sage from your herb garden (see, you can use it for something other than spicing up pasta) and make beauty products like a hair remedy out of it, or a must-be-eaten-today melon that you picked up from the market and turn it into a face mask.
Making homemade beauty recipes is really just about mixing nature's best offerings with stuff that you have in your pantry and medicine cabinet to create beauty products that will make you feel like a natural beauty. The possibilities are endless for what beauty products you can create, so use these recipes as a starting point, and as you begin to think outside the beauty aisle, you'll soon be brimming with creative ideas for what to do with that too-ripe avocado �
