All Natural Beauty Products

I find soap too drying for my face, cleansers are pricy and a lot of the time if they are gentle enough they don’t clean effectively.  Several years ago when my daughter, Rachel, became an esthetician we began looking at the products on the market that were all natural, supposedly.  We found many to have parabens, even the ones from the health food store.  So I used my knowledge as a Chef and my background in herbal medicine to study the traditional oils and ingredients in cleansers.  I learned to formulate and them started experimenting. I came up with this cleanser; it is inexpensive to make, works really well as an exfoliate, cleanser and has essential oils that nourish the skin.  After I began using it I found it so effective that I stopped using glycolics and other exfoliates.   I will also tell you how to do a great facial at home for almost no money.

WONDERFUL CLEANSER

3 cup water
2 cups baking soda
1/2 teaspoon almond oil
2 drops lavender essential oil
1 ½ cup honey
1 Tbsp. Dr. Bonners Almond liquid soap
2 teaspoon glycerin
1 teaspoon Vitamin C
1 teaspoon Salicylic acid – you can crush up aspirin for this or buy it through a formulation site.
3 Tablespoons Xanthan gum

On low heat, combine water, honey, almond, Dr. Bonners, oils. Remove from heat and let cool about a minute. Add honey. Whisk. While whisking, add ascorbic acid and salicylic acid. Whisk slowly, do not inhale powders. Now add baking soda, a little at a time, it will thicken this mix a tad. Add xanthan gum a tablespoon at a time to thicken. Let sit a few minutes, adjust thickness. I like it to be kind of thick, like a hair conditioner. Apply to the skin like a soap and rinse off with tepid water.

You will notice your skin feels incredibly clean, soft with no tightness or dryness. The honey is a humectant, a good moisturizer and an natural preservative.

FACAIL MASK

This mask with make your skin feel as great as any high percentage glycolic peel and it helps even out skin tone by fading the brown splotches some of us get.

Make a paste out of baking soda and lemon juice.  Apply to your face and leave on for about 3 or 4 minutes the first time.  This is a fairly strong fruit acid so use for short periods at first, you will feel it burn at first.  Use Rose Oil to sooth the skin after washing it off.  Ultimately use it about once a week and your skin will get used to it.  Hold a towel under your chin as you are doing this as it tends to dry out.  You can use half of the lemon to re-moisten it if needed.

Deodorant-  I don’t use it all the time, as eating clean means every low amount of body odor.  But I found that very few all natural deodorants actually worked.   Finally, two years ago I found Weleda’s Citrus Deodorant and it works!!  Loved it.   BUT at $16.00 for 3.4 ounces I was loath to re-buy it.  So, I looked at the ingredients and made it myself.

CITRUS DEODORANT

Buy one bottle of grain alcohol. Buy one small bottle of lemon oil, organic.

I used the Weleda bottle and mixed my own, using 3 1/4 ounces of alcohol and added 1/4 teaspoon of oil, shake well, spray on and enjoy.