At Home Homemade Skin Care

Caring for skin and keeping it soft and supple doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, one can find everything needed for beautiful, soft, radiant skin right in the kitchen! Many over the counter skin care products contain these natural ingredients mentioned below in this article. Why not save some money and just go straight to the source?

Homemade Skin Care - Facial Scrub

Sugar scrubs and facial scrubs sell anywhere from a few dollars to as much as $50 in some of your high end stores, but women don't have to spend a small fortune for a jar of scrub.

To make your own facial scrub, simply mix granulated sugar, yes, the kind you can buy at the store, with enough whole milk to form a paste. Once you have a paste, you can use this sugar scrub on your face and neck, just like the high priced over the counter skin care facial scrubs, by gently rubbing the mixture in circular motions on your face and neck, and then rinsing thoroughly.

Homemade Skin Care - Fruit Skin Conditioner

Fruit can be a wonderful skin conditioner for dry skin. Take about half of an avocado and about half a banana and mash it together with a little bit of olive oil to make it moist, and you have a perfect conditioning mask for dry skin. Simply smooth the mashed mixture onto your face and neck and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water.

If skin is very oily or has dark spots, a mixture of lemon juice, milk, and enough flour to make a light paste and then spread the mixture on the trouble spots. Let it sit for 1-3 minutes and then rinse thoroughly.

If the spots are very dark, using pure lemon juice can help reduce the dark spots, sun spots or age spots. Nothing can remove them completely and it won't happen over night, but using citric acid, such as what is found in lemon or lime juice, can help reduce skin spots over time.

Homemade Skin Care - Oily or Irritated Skin Care

Oatmeal has long been used to help alleviate irritated skin, skin rashes, and other conditions that cause itching, like chicken pox. To help with itchy skin or irritated skin, mix a couple of teaspoons of regular, unflavored oatmeal with a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of whole milk until the mixture is a paste. Massage the paste into the skin and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing with cool to lukewarm water. Hot water dries and irritates skin, so the cooler the water, the better.

Homemade Skin Care - Soft Hand and Foot Treatments

Get two of your worst pairs of socks for this next homemade skin treatment. At just about any grocery or dollar store, you can buy a jar of petroleum jelly for less than a dollar. At night before you go to bed, coat your hands and feet in petroleum jelly and place the socks over them. Sleep with your hands and feet covered like this and then in the morning, use a mild detergent or soap to wash the petroleum jelly from your hands and feet.

This is particularly useful for repairing dry and cracked heels on your feet to get them ready for summer and spring sandals. This method will also help condition your nails and keep them from becoming dry and brittle, tearing or chipping.

Homemade Skin Care - Honey Heals and Soothes

Honey has natural antimicrobial and antibacterial properties to it, not to mention it is an excellent product for smoothing skin. Using straight honey on your face, much like a gel mask, can help keep your skin supple and soft, and might even help with premature aging and fine lines.

There are many other skin care treatments and beauty uses for everyday food found in your pantry or kitchen. Milk and dairy products soothe and moisturize, citrus products help with toning skin and preventing oily skin, natural oils such as olive oil and avocado can add moisture skin, and egg products can help smooth lines and help prevent fine wrinkles.

Cucumbers have been known to help draw water from the body and detoxify, thus why you see many shows and pictures of women with cucumbers over their eyes to reduce puffiness.

Experiment with the different food and products in your kitchen, and you might find some that work well for your skin care needs. Keep reading Michelle L Devon's Associated Content profile for more natural beauty care products and their uses.