Tag: scrub

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DIY Antioxidant Face Mask

cucumber and oatmeal with mortar and pestle

Besides eating them, the best way to benefit your skin with antioxidant vitamins is to use them topically as facial treatments. Masks and scrubs made with antioxidant-rich fruit and veg can help give you a brighter, smoother complexion.

Mash the fruit or veg and use alone or with a little olive oil as a facial mask, or add oatmeal, cornmeal, clay, or rice powder to make it a scrub.

Look for:

  • vitamin A: Encourages healthy skin cell production. Smoothes wrinkles.
  • vitamin C: Evens skin tone and contributes to collagen production. May help prevent and treat ultraviolet (UV)-induced photodamage.
  • vitamin E: Moisturizes and softens.

Try these:

Banana: Emollient, cleans pores. Vitamins A, C & E

Cucumber: Refreshes and hydrates. Vitamins A &

Mango: Prevents collagen damage. Vitamin C & E

Melon: Moisturizing. Vitamins A & C

Orange: Exfoliates. Helps dry out acne. Vitamin C

Strawberry: Removes excess sebum. Vitamin C

Tomato: Unclogs pores and balances oil production. Vitamins A & C

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D.I.Y. Herbal Spa Meetup

bath salt

“The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage every day.” -Hippocrates

BIG THANKS to Jennifer Goodheart at Acadia Herbals, Brittany Wood Nickerson of Thyme Herbal, and everyone at the “D.I.Y. Herbal Spa Meetup” on Sunday! SO much fun to relax and swap tips and recipes with other bathtub goddesses while sipping Jennifer’s delightful Jasmine-Lemongrass tea 🙂

(Join our herbal group at Meetup.com if you’d like to catch the next meetup!)

Brittany advocates using salt scrubs to keep skin exfoliated and moisturized for its optimal health, and explained how this also supports our lymph and nerves.

She demonstrated an easy-to-make recipe that I know will leave you feeling just sparkling:

  • 1 cup finely ground sea salt
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp. lemon peel powder
  • add a few drops of lemon, sweet orange or grapefruit essential oil if you’d like to make it aromatic

I talked about my great love for tub teas (of course!) and all my favorite ingredients for a bathtub spa including salts, baking soda, oatmeal, and apple cider vinegar.

Vinegar restores skin and scalp’s natural pH and is said to draw pollutants out of the body. A soak in a bath with a little vinegar can help relieve sore muscles, itchy skin and sunburn (*but be aware that vinegar can irritate open sores and sensitive skin).

Herb-infused vinegars are really simple to make and make a fabulous addition to your herbal pantry. Some of my favorite blends are:

  • 3 parts rose petals, 1 part spearmint
  • 1 part rosemary, 1 part lavender
  • 2 parts lavender, 1 part lemon balm,  1 part lemon peel

All you need to do is add 1 oz. (weight) herbs to 2 cups apple cider vinegar. Let it steep for 1 – 2 weeks, then strain.

To use, add ½ to 1 cup of vinegar to the tub when it’s filled. Makes a great salad dressing too!