Posts tagged honey

Every once in a while, your skin deserves to be pampered a bit. A great way to do this is by treating your skin with a mask every week or so. Facemasks are actually the easiest beauty products you can make at home. All it takes is mixing up some ingredients which are good for the skin and you’re done.

Today I’m making a facemask with three ingredient’s which work wonders on your skin. The key ingredient in this facemask is turmeric. Turmeric is a spice used quite often in the Asian kitchen, but it works great for skincare too. In India it’s called “holy powder” and it is famous for healing wounds and infections. This mask works great for every skin type.

For this face mask you will need yogurt, honey and turmeric. Yogurt contains alpha-hydroxy-acids, which gently dissolves dead skin cells and thus exfoliate the skin. Honey is a natural antiseptic due, it attracts the dirt from skin pores and it moisturizes the skin. Turmeric is anti-bacterial, freshens the skin, makes it nice and soft, reduces puffiness and when regularly used it’s even supposed to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. So it’s a real miracle worker for the skin.

Start with a teaspoon full of yogurt.  The yogurt will be the base of the mask, but don’t use to much, or your mask will become to watery and run down your face.

Now add a teaspoon of turmeric to the yogurt and mix it up.

Now lastly add a teaspoon of honey to the mixture. Mix it up again, and your mask is ready to use. The mask is a bit thin, but it will stick to the face quite good because of the honey.

To use, apply a thin layer on the face. Is the easiest to do this with a brush. If you don’t have a brush for applying face masks, you can apply it with your fingers, but it will be a bit messier. Let it sit for about ten minutes before rinsing it off with warm water.

Warning: turmeric is a staining herb. It will give a yellow color to fabrics and other materials. It will make your face a bit yellow too, but this will come off quite easily. Make sure to wash your face thoroughly after using this mask. Using a face wash or scrub will make this easier. I recommend using this mask in the evening, when you won’t have to go anywhere.     

(Source: making-beauty)

Many store-bought lip products contain a lot of mineral oils, like petroleum jelly, which actually don’t do your lips any good, but just makes them feel soft for a little while. On the internet there are lots of stories about lip products being addictive or harmful for your health. While non these horror stories are scientifically proven, I would rather be sure than sorry and make a lip balm with only natural products with moisturizing properties.

To make this lip balm you basically need beeswax and oil. I chose olive and almond oil, because these are very good skin moisturizing oils and I already had them at home. You can go as crazy as you want with this. You could just use one simple oil, or you can use about 10 different oils. It depends on what you like. Other oils you can use for this recipe are apricot kernal oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, shea butter or cacao butter. If you want your lip balm to be a bit firmer, I recommend you use coconut oil, shea butter or cacao butter. As an extra ingredient I used honey in this lip balm, for it skin healing and moisturizing properties and it’s sweet taste  

Begin by making a double boiler. Fill a pan with some water and bring this to a boil. When the water is boiling, turn down the heat and place a heatproof jar or cup in the middle (I used a measuring cup)

Add two teaspoons of beeswax to your measuring cup. Now stir constantly until all the beeswax has melted.  

Now add your oils to the mixture. Use seven teaspoons in total. I added four teaspoons of olive oil and three teaspoons of almond oil. You can play around a bit with this part. Add as many oils as you like, but just make sure you end up adding seven teaspoons in total. Mix everything together.

Now turn off the heat , and take the jar out off the hot water. Add one teaspoon of honey to your mixture, and stir well so all off the ingredients are combined.

Keep stirring until the mixture is beginning to turn solid. Now pour your mixture in to a little jar or an old cleaned out lip balm container. If you have some lip balm left over when your container is filled, just pour it into a bigger jar. When your container of lip balm is empty, you can simply heat up the extra mixture again and refill your lip balm container. Or fill more lip balm containers right away and give the extra ones as a present to your loved ones.

This lip balm is very good for moisturizing lips, but it doesn’t stop there. You can also use this balm to treat dry spots on your body or for softening your cuticles. It’s just a great natural moisturizing balm

Original source: Zellweger, C. “Maak uw eigen natuurlijke cosmetica” Book, Dutch. Webpage author: www.wildandwise.com        

(Source: making-beauty)

Exfoliation is good for soft and glowing skin, but for some skin types it can be a little harsh. That’s why today I’m making a body scrub with some moisturizing ingredients in it. It’ll give you a good scrub, but also leave your skin soft and moisturized.

Today I’m adding honey and coffee creamer powder to my basic scrub recipe (see my previous post), to make it soothing and gentle for the skin. Olive oil is very moisturizing and honey has great softening abilities, is antibacterial and great for any skin type. Coffee creamer powder helps softening the salt a bit more. So these ingredients combined make a lovely scrub.

Start off with a cup of salt. The salt grains are the components of the scrub that will exfoliate your body.

Now add some olive oil and mix it up with the salt. Make sure that the mixture is not too wet and not too dry. All of the salt should be covered with oil and there should not be any excess oil on top of the salt.

Now add one tablespoon of honey and one package of coffee creamer powder.

Mix everything up and your custom made natural body scrub is done. You may want to add some extra salt or oil if your scrub turns out to be too wet or too dry. Make sure you have a nice balance between dry and wet ingredients. 

Now step in the shower and rub on the scrub. Give your body a nice massage while getting rid of dead skin cells. Be careful using this scrub if you have any wounds on your body, because the salt stings.

For skin that is really dried out and sensitive, use this milk and honey facial treatment.

Milk is a natural emollient, and is rich in vitamins and minerals. It soothes and moisturizes the skin and helps relieve dryness and itchy skin. Honey has antibacterial qualities and is a natural cleanser and softener.

First, pour some milk into a bowl.

Add three teaspoons of honey to your milk, and stir thoroughly until the honey has dissolved in the milk.

Now your facial treatment is ready to use. Soak a cotton pad in the mixture and apply this to your face. Let it sit for about ten minutes, until it has dried. Now rinse your face, and you should have soft and hydrated skin. 

(Source: making-beauty)