Skincare Naturals » Seasons

Using Thanksgiving Leftovers for Homemade Skin Care Videos

Jan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:50:43 +0000

Thanksgiving leftovers for skin care? You bet!

Here are a few videos that I thought you might enjoy to help you clean out your fridge and freshen up your skin.

How to Use Leftovers – on Your Face!

BellaSugarTV: bella.popsugar.tv Facebook facebook.com Twitter: twitter.com This holiday season, find out how your skin can benefit from a Thanksgiving feast. Watch our video to see which fall ingredients make the best beauty boosters, and how to make…

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Leftover Facials

Beauty Expert Stacy Cox showed how Thanksgiving leftovers can be used to reduce wrinkles and under-eye swelling.

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Cranberry Ninja Facial Mask

A fast and easy “double duty” facial mask that you can do yourself! Home-made and organic, this fresh and fab concoction encompasses all of your skin care needs!

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“The Great Pumpkin Facial”

Embrace the autumn season with this tutorial on how to make a fabulous homemade, organic mask in no time at all! Right from your own kitchen, create something that will make your skin glow better and brighter than any jack-o-lantern!

Thanksgiving Facial

Sweet Potato rejuvenating mask facial. Ingredients: 1 Sweet potato or yam. 1 egg Cinnamon Honey DIRECTIONS: Boil sweet potato till tender. Peel skin off potato. Smash potato. Add egg to potato. Add cinnamon and honey to potato. Spread on face and lea…

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LOOKING FOR INGREDIENTS?

If you want a few things to help spruce up your Thanksgiving face mask, you can get some great exfoliants and clays at Skincare Naturals - your do it yourself one stop.

Homemade Face Mask Clays

Healthy Summer Skin Care

Jan — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:02:07 +0000

Over the years I’ve found that having the best looking and healthiest skin is a two part process.

PART ONE- Taking care of your skin from the inside by eating healthy foods.

I have found that the more raw foods I eat the better my skin looks. Greens -- raw are better but some cooked are good too, seem to pack the biggest punch.

QUICK TIPS TO GET MORE GREENS AND RAW FOOD IN YOUR DIET

I get a powerhouse of raw skin care from green smoothies. My skin looks best when I have at least one a day. You can take any smoothie recipe and just add raw spinach or mixed greens. Best option? Grow it yourself. It’s quite easy. I will have more on that coming up.

I also regularly have eggs cooked with baby spinach or greens on the side as well as salsa. If it sounds a little different, try it. I’m hooked! Just cook them beside your eggs for a few minutes so that they are soft but not mushy. I usually add some water to lightly steam my eggs as well as the veggies -- you can also use sliced tomatoes, peas and herbs from your garden. You can add a bit of greens to almost anything and hardly notice if you slice them into small pieces.

A NOTE ABOUT COFFEE: Healthy diet for skin care is also much about what you don’t eat. One of the biggest offenders? Coffee. I have been drinking far too much lately myself and I can see it. If you can cut it out or even reduce it, you will notice a difference (in your anxiety and stress level as well, which is a big part of it.) Btw, alcohol is a close second. If you are using both, see what you can do and watch your skin take on a clear glow from the inside.

PART TWO- Taking care of your skin from the outside using natural ingredients that don’t contain harsh synthetics -- in my experience they seem to agggravate the skin -- bottom line my theory is that anything that goes onto and into the skin that is not biodegradable is likely going to aggrevate/irritate on some level. That’s not science, it’s my own suspicion :0) The implications go far beyond beauty but that is another story for a different day!

This is a video I did last winter. Odd for an article about healthy summer time skin care but it has a lot of timeless information in it, so what the heck! Maybe it will cool you down :0)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVkLFAwYH80

For more information on great skin care nutrition, here is an article from the blog

http://skincarenaturals.com/natural-skin-care-blog/skincare-naturals/healthy-skin-care-nutrition/

Here is an interesting idea -- adding aloe to your smoothies. I haven’t tried it but it could be a great idea!

http://www.aloeplant.info/springing-into-a-smoothie-craze/

Next up is a closer look at simple summer skin care that you can use to take care of your skin from the outside.

Meantime, grab a green smoothie -- or two!

And don’t forget to use save a bit a few of the berries to mash up and put in your face mask! (remember to always do a patch test first to test for sensitivities, especially if you have sensitive skin.)

Green and Clean – Window Cleaner

Jan — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:31:30 +0000

I’ve been cleaning windows like crazy around here (btw, that’s not me or my windows. But I like them!).

I can’t believe the difference it makes, and with spring just around the corner, it just seems the right thing to do.

Why not let the sun shine in!

My new favourite glass polisher is plain old rubbing alcohol. It lifts grease, finger prints and adds loads of shine.

Here’s how I use it.

1. Clean the windows with a cloth and water in a pail with some essential oils and soap in it. A good sponge works well for the stuck on stuff once it’s been softened up by the water. This works very well on fly doo doo – we had a huge amount of flies around here last summer – it seemed to be their year. If your windows aren’t so dirty you can use a spray bottle with water and essential oils added. Be sure to shake it first.

2. Wipe with a dry cloth to get most of the water off.

3. Slightly dampen a cotton pad with water. It seems to boost the rubbing alcohol and you don’t need as much.

4. Put a bit of rubbing alcohol on the cotton pad. The magic begins.

5. Shine your window. It will come up like glass! It also will get the residual dirt and grime along with a little germ killing action.

I use it to polish the front of my microwave too. It’s never looked better! (you may want to do a test spot on yours if you try it, it may depend on what kind of microwave you have.)

Here are a few more ideas for making your own environmentally friendly window cleaners.

Making Your Own Non-Toxic Window Cleaner

Window-washing may not seem like a potentially harmful activity (unless you fall off of a ladder).

But there are potentially harmful chemicals such as solvents in commercial window cleaners, and each time you use them you are inhaling toxic chemicals, getting them on your skin, and putting them into the environment.

Below are some inexpensive, easy-to-make recipes for effective window cleaners. You probably have some of these ingredients on hand. If not, these products are inexpensive and diluted with water so they last a long time.

1. Vinegar
No list of home-made cleaning products would be complete without some mention of vinegar. A germ killer and grease cutter, white vinegar (not apple cider, balsamic or other “fancy” vinegars) is responsible for those streak-free, clear results we all desire for our windows. You can clean windows with just vinegar and water - 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon vinegar per 2 cups of water (going too heavy on the vinegar may cause fogging). Or, you can combine this ratio with:

2. Liquid soap
To the above vinegar-water solution, add 1/2 teaspoon castile soap or other biodegradable, natural liquid soap. Spray on, wipe with a soft cloth, and use a squeegee to scrape off the remaining cleaner. If you just have bar soap (a pure coconut soap works wonders as a cleaner – especially on stainless steel) you can soak it in what ever liquid you are using for a few minutes – some will dissolve into the solution.

Simply using soap and water is an option, too. Mix 1 tablespoon castile soap with 2 cups of water. Soak a sponge in this soapy water and apply liberally to windows. Use a squeegee to remove the excess and wipe dry with crumpled newspaper or a soft cloth. If you want to use bar soap, just shred a little into the water and shake gently as it dissolves. Be careful not to use too much or it will clog and become too thick – a little dab will do!

3. Club soda
Perhaps you have heard of club soda’s ability to remove stains. It can also be used to wash windows. Combine 1 tablespoon white vinegar per cup of club soda and spray onto windows. Use a soft cloth or crumpled newspaper to get streak-free results. I have personally never tried club soda to wash windows. I would love to hear from you if you have.

I like to do my windows when it is not too cold so that the water/window cleaner solution doesn’t dry fast enough and not too hot so that it dries too fast – both result in streaks. A nice sunny day that warms the windows is just right – and makes for an enjoyable task. Crank the tunes and your all set!

A good non toxic environmentally friendly window cleaner is so easy and cheap to make, there is no reason to use chemical cleaners that not only pollute the environment, they also get in your lungs and on your skin (which then may be absorbed into your bloodstream).

Especially if you have the kids help – and press their fingers, noses and tongues and what ever else is handy against them on a regular basis!

And when you use essential oils, there is so much flexibility and choice as to what scent you feel like infusing your home with, it’s just a matter of a few drops to change your home from citrus, floral, spice or coniferous. Can’t beat that!

Grab your own Green Cleaning Kit here.