I get a lot of questions about natural makeup options, and this was definitely one of the tougher things for me to find natural alternatives for. In college, I practically collected makeup, and had endless tubes and compacts of makeup that never even got half used.

While there are some good natural alternatives that you can buy (see list below), the cheapest, easiest and most natural way is to just make your own, and you might have all of the ingredients in your kitchen already!

Natural Skin Care

What you do to your skin before you use makeup is just as important as the makeup you use and there are some great natural options for skin care.

Personally, I’m a microfiber convert, and only use microfiber products with natural silver fibers (antibacterial) for washing my face and for make-up removal. This is truly the most natural option you can use, since you don’t even need soap (and microfiber is great for baby too… no chemicals to irritate skin!).

For deeper cleansing and moisturizing, I’ve also use the oil cleansing method, which leaves skin very soft and smooth. You can also use a natural sugar scrub (equal parts sugar and natural oil) or natural microdermabrasion (baking soda) to make skin look younger.

With proper skin care, the skin will be naturally healthy and you won’t even need to wear makeup most of the time. Most days, I skip the makeup altogether, but  when I do wear it, these are the recipes I use:

Natural Foundation

Homemade Option: At the recommendation of a friend who had used cocoa powder for natural bronzer, I started experimenting with natural foundation options, and came up with a recipe similar to a mineral make-up, though lighter, and smoother…

I start with a base of arrowroot powder (can also use cornstarch, but arrowroot works better) and then slowly add in cocoa powder and finely ground cinnamon powder until you get a shade close to your skin tone. You can then store in a jar or old powder container and use a brush to apply. It took me a few tries of mixing to get the color correct for my skin tone, but most days, a quick brush of this is all I need.

If you want to make it a more solid base so that only a little sticks to the brush, use a few drops of essential oil or vodka to mix with the powder and push down in a compact. This will make it hard like a regular compact.

I’ve thought about adding this combination to some homemade lotion to make a liquid foundation but haven’t tried it yet.

Commercial Options:If making makeup isn’t your thing but you still want some natural options, there are a few good choices. No commercial choice is as natural as the homemade option, but they are a tremendous improvement over any conventional options! Dr. Haushcka Translucent Foundation is the most natural liquid foundation I’ve found and my skin reacted well to it. I also loved Nvey Eco Liquid Foundation. I’ve also used Nvey Creme Foundation which is thicker and is mainly great as a concealer or under-eye cover.

For powdered foundation, my favorite one I’ve tried is Aubrey Organics Silken Earth which doesn’t have titanium dioxide like many of the mineral make-ups and which has almost completely natural ingredients.

Natural Bronzer/Blush

Homemade Option: Similar to above, natural bronzer and blush can be easily made with a base of arrowroot and by adding more cocoa powder and cinnamon to get a darker shade. I’ve also tried powdering dried beet root (in the dehydrator) or dried hibiscus flowers to add a pink tone which works well as long as you can very finely powder them. Store in a shaker make-up container or an old compact.

Commercial Options: For natural blush, I love Aubrey Organic Silken Blush or Nvey Eco Powdered Blush.

Natural Eye Liner and Shadow

Homemade Options:Always be careful when using any products, even natural ones, near the eyes. I mix up several colors of eye shadow using cocoa powder (brown shades) Spirulina (green shades) and arrowroot (light shades). My favorite is just cocoa powder with a tiny bit of arrowroot mixed in for smoothness.

For eye-liner, I either use a tiny bit of cocoa powder mixed with coconut oil, or a tiny dab or activated charcoal on a slightly damp brush. Be careful not to get either one in the eye. I store the eye shadow in an old powdered eye shadow container and apply with my finger or a very slightly damp brush.

To make a smoother eyeliner, I mix equal parts of coconut oil and cocoa butter (about 1/2 ounce of each) and add about 1/2 tsp of activated charcoal to make a black eyeliner that is thicker. You can also do this with cocoa powder for a brown hue.

Commercial Options: Nvey Eco Powdered Eyeliner is the best I’ve used so far and is almost completely natural.

Natural Mascara

Homemade Option: I don’t wear mascara most days, but when I want a natural option, it is an easy one to make. In a small bowl, I just mix a few drops of Aloe Vera Gel from Mountain Rose Herbs, a couple drops of Vitamin E oil, and a pinch of activated charcoal (not very precise… I know). I mix it up as I use it, though you could also make and store in an old mascara container or in a small jar and just clean the mascara wand between uses. I brush it on with a clean mascara brush, or even a used Bass Toothbrush from OraWellness.

Commercial Options: The two natural ones I’ve tried and love are Nvey Eco Mascara and Organic Wear Natural.

Supplements for Skin Care

I’m firmly convinced that what you put into your body is just as important, if not more so, than what you put on it when it comes to skin health. I used to have terrible acne and since changing my diet and supplements, I don’t break out at all and my past scars have healed. The supplements that seemed to have made the biggest difference in skin health for me are:

• Fermented Cod Liver Oil- for the Vitamins A, D and K, Omega-3s and Antioxidants, all which are great for the skin.
• Gelatin – Which is a pre-cursor for collagen and has made my hair, skin and nails noticeably stronger and smoother (great for cellulite too).
• Magnesium- An anti-inflammatory and lacking in many people’s diets. Topical Magnesium Oil seems to be the most effective for skin health.

I’ve also switched to using microfiber for cleaning my skin, which leaves many of the natural oils in my skin and has made skin care a breeze.

Natural lip gloss and lipstick recipes coming soon

Ever made any makeup? What is the toughest thing to find natural versions of for you? Let me know below! 

I’ve recently had the opportunity to try using microfiber and now I’m kicking myself for not trying it sooner! (Click here if you’d like to try it too!)

A reader, Erin, sent me some great info and a few Norwex products to try out. I certainly had my doubts that a single cloth could clean everything, especially without water, and I was pleasantly surprised. I also did not know that there are microfiber washcloths, towels and make-up remover cloths, and I was excited to try those.

Erin gave a great explanation yesterday of how the actual microfibers work, and I’ve given them a tough trial at my house and they’ve lived up to their claims.

Envirocloth Antibac Microfiber Cloth

This is probably the most versatile of the cloths I tried and I literally cleaned my entire kitchen with it. I started with the cabinets and cleaned the cabinet doors. This cloth took the grease, stuck on food, and fingerprints off the cabinets (don’t you just want to eat at my house now?).

Then, I used it on my granite countertops, and they left them smooth and shiny. I actually thought they had little streaks at first, and then realized that they were the natural grooves in the stone that had been filled in with gunk until then (again, ewww).

I used the Envirocloth to polish the faucet, and used it with the polishing cloth to clean our patio door windows (not so much a fan  of our dogs’ nose art).

Since I don’t have the mop system, I used the same cloth on the floor and it got off all of our spots including: applesauce, homemade playdough, veggie smoothie, coconut oil, egg, mashed banana, and spaghetti sauce (In my defense, I had purposefully let stuck on stuff stay for a couple of days to see how the microfiber did… normally those things are not stuck on my floor!)

It left the kitchen floor clean and the hardwood floors footprint free.

The Envirocloth also did great cleaning the inside of the fridge.

Scrub Antibac Cloth

This one had a rougher texture, and wouldn’t be as good for polishing or smooth surfaces, but it worked wonders on two things I’d previously given up on: the baked on spots on my oven door and the stains on our tub that were there before we moved in. I was shocked that these actually got clean and I wish I’d taken before pictures to show you the difference!

Polishing Antibac Cloth

All of my appliances and fixtures in our kitchen are stainless steel, and it is one of the tougher things to clean naturally. The polishing cloth worked great on the windows and it did wonders for all the stainless. I just wiped them down with the regular cloth and then dried them with the polishing cloth.

I also used the polishing cloth with one side damp and one side dry to clean all the mirrors in the house and it left them streak free.

Dust Mit

For some reason, our house always ends up with a lot of dust. I also don’t like dusting (perhaps this has something to do with it…) as it always seems like just spreading the dust around. I liked dusting with the microfiber mit because it actually picked up the dust.

What surprised me was that even a dry mit on a smooth surface seemed like it was sticking a little as I wiped it across the surface, and I realized that this was because the microfibers have such thin fibers and were probably collecting on all of the dust and previous cleaning products that had been used.

The other thing I loved about this one is that the kids enjoyed dusting with it and it was a great job to assign them since there weren’t any chemicals involved and they could take turns running around the house seeing who could find more flat surfaces to dust.

Microfiber Body Cloths

I must admit, when I first talked to Erin about trying microfiber, I wasn’t as interested in the body cloths because I figured they would just be glorified wash cloths. She mentioned that she used them for her kids cloth napkins and now I can see the brilliance of this.

I kept slightly damp microfiber cloths on the table at meal times and it makes it much faster to wipe down the kids, the table, the highchairs, boosters, etc after meals.

For me, I tried a 4-day experiment with just the microfiber and no soap, and they work extremely well (even on garden dirt and sweat… not that I would know on either of those . They worked great and I can definitely see the advantage of these, especially for my chemically sensitive clients who have trouble with almost all kinds of soaps.

My favorite though was the smoother body cloth which I used to remove make-up. I usually use olive oil to remove my mascara, but if I”m tired I just leave it on and touch up in the morning (I know, I know… bad for the skin!). I also then wake up with major raccoon eyes and circles from the mascara. The microfiber removed all of my make-up, including the mascara and then just washed clean. It was less messy than my olive oil solution and much faster (plus, it didn’t waste a cotton ball!).

I also got to try the polishing paste, which worked great for polishing smooth surfaces, and the Norwex detergent, which I used to wash the microfiber. I also tried the odor eliminating spray. They were all free of harmful chemicals and the odor spray was especially great for the kids shoes, which often get muddy or wet and carry home the residual odor. Since it targets protein-based odors, I would guess that it is also good for when a person accidentally leaves clothes in the  washing machine overnight and they get that musty-almost-mildewed smell (Please tell me I am not the only one who has ever done that?)

Over-all I was extremely impressed with all of the Norwex products, and I’m definitely a microfiber convert! I also love that Norwex uses silver for the antibacterial properties. We’ve successfully treated quite a few illnesses with colloidal silver, and it is such a great idea to include the same benefits in cleaning! (not to mention that silver will eliminate bacteria that even bleach won’t kill).

I also think that microfiber will greatly reduce the amount of time I spend cleaning, which is a huge plus. With an obsessively neat husband who doesn’t even handle small messes well, and four little ones who seem to be gifted at making messes, I think the microfiber will save us all some stress! (And, there is a kid-sized mop, which would be really fun for my kids, and would help them clean in the process…)

If you’d like to try Norwex microfiber, please check out this website for more info.

I had another post scheduled for today, but after I got a magazine in the mail from our local hospital (that I have somehow been subscribed to) and visited a friend who had just had a baby in the hospital, this was on my mind.

The article above is from the magazine from our local hospital.  It is supposedly “Your guide to a balanced meal.”

I’ve included the text of the article in bold below with my (highly cynical) commentary after.

Chances are your dinner plate is shaped like a circle, not a triangle. So it makes sense to think of your family’s food choices as part of a circle too.

Ok, we can chalk up one true thing from this article. My dinner plate is indeed shaped like a circle. I wonder how many government dollars it took to figure that out. As for the whole food choices being a circle, it reminds me of something I’ve heard before about food choices… oh yeah… “cause its the circle, the circle of life” (from the Lion King).

That’s the practical idea behind the government’s new MyPlate icon, which replaces MyPyramid. With MyPlate, what you see in the icon directly relates to what you put on your plate.

Brilliant yet again! That old Food Pyramid (which gave King Tut Heart Disease) certainly was outdated and all of us dumb people lacking in government credentials couldn’t really figure out that you were just telling us to eat lots of carbs, some fruits and veggies and very little meat, fats, oils and sweets. Of course, since your health advice has been such a smashing success over the last few decades, I can see why you’d want to update it!

An Easier Way To Eat Healthy. MyPlate is a simple visual reminder to build yourself a healthy plate at mealtimes. For busy parents, it’s a quick and easy way to tell at a glance whether children are getting a balanced meal too. Just remember these basic rules of thumb:

-Make Half the plate fruits and vegetables -  heavier on the vegetables. Include red, orange and dark green veggies and colorful fruits.

One thing we agree on! Vegetables (and some fruits) are good and you should eat them. Of course, you guys lump potatoes (a tuber and a starch), corn (a grain) and even french fried into this category, but we agree there. Also, I’d suggest more like half the plate of green, leafy veggies and some fruits on top, but that’s a small point of difference (I say tomato, you say potato, but whatever).

Thank goodness all of us busy parents have you to help us figure out what is healthy for our kids. Without you, we might never figure out that feeding them McDonalds every day or letting them drink soda is not a good idea. What a relief!

-Make the other half grains and protein. Emphasize 100 percent whole grains, like whole grain breads, brown rice and pasta. Select fish and beans for some of your proteins, and when you pick poultry or meat as your protein food, chose lean cuts in small portions.

Great idea (sarcasm). We should certainly eat more grains than protein, since protein is only vital to hundreds of reactions in the body and is needed for cell growth and repair. Grains on the other hand… we need lots of those (sarcasm again!) to be healthy and get our fiber. We definitely shouldn’t worry about the fact that they are not nearly as nutritious as proteins, vegetables or healthy fats. We should ignore the harmful gut-eroding glutens, lectins and phytates which are causing autoimmune disease at record rates. In fact, since a couple pieces of whole wheat toast skyrocket blood sugar just like candy (See FatHead for explanation), candy must be good for us too!

As for the 100% whole grain thing! Thank goodness for those wonderful bread plants and pasta stalks. I’m so glad they don’t have to grind the grains up into small particles, which would increase the surface area and make them affect the blood sugar even more!

We should definitely eat beans instead of meat too, because it has some protein (and lot of carbs). When we combine the carbs from the fruit over on the other half of the plate with the hearthealthywholegrains on this side and the carbs from beans, we might just be getting close to the 300+ grams of carbs we are supposed to be eating a day according to you guys, even if we are diabetic.

As for fats… those evil arteryclogging saturated villians… certainly they should be avoided. Never mind that they are needed for minor things like hormone production, satiety, healthy reproductive function and more and that they don’t actually make you fat (or cause heart disease)… avoid at all costs. Eat candy instead.

Pour a glass of fat-free or low-fat milk. You’ll get as much calcium and other important nutrients as from whole milk but with less fat and calories.

Oh yes, do that! Of course, the vitamins in milk like the synthetic Vitamin D in minuscule amounts do need fat to be absorbed, but who cares if you are absorbing them, as long as you are getting them! You can’t have your cake and eat it too (unless of course, you use wheat flour and count it as your hearthealthywholegrains).

And calories, those are the bad guys! It doesn’t matter at all if they come from grains and carbohydrates (which raise the blood sugar, get stored as fat and wreak havoc on the body)  or proteins (which are needed for important functions like cell repair) or fats (which are a much more dense and effective source of fuel). As long as we limit those calories, we are A-OK! In fact, someone once gave me a bottle of fat free, calorie free, salt free salad dressing. I might just drink the stuff!

And dairy, we need lots of that! Of course, all other animals don’t drink milk after infancy, but dairy is such a healthy source of (relatively nothing since they pasteurize and process it all out) everything, we should drink it too… maybe instead of the salad dressing!

Keep Portions Sensible! Think small dinner plate not supersized platter.

Well shoot… I was soooo looking forward to that gigantic salad I was going to have for dinner. but of course, that would be way more than half the plate of vegetables, so that isn’t good, and the other half would be lots of meat (and not the lean kind) with good ol’ fatty olive oil drizzled on top and nary a grain or dairy in sight. Yep, better not eat that! It won’t be nearly enough nutrients and way too much protein and fat.

What should I eat instead? Maybe a couple slices of blood sugar boosting whole wheat toast with some hummus, an apple and a potato… yep that would fit, as long as I wash it down with the fat free dairy…. sounds so much more nutritious to me!

And I should probably keep some of those super-healthy (sarcasm) 100-Calorie packs with me at all times so that I can eat small portions throughout the day because not eating every 2 hours would be like fasting, which would cannibalize my muscle tissue (or not!).

STEP UP TO THE PLATE. MyPlate was developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Wait, what? The U.S. Department of AGRICULTURE is telling us what we should eat? You mean those guys who approved Monsanto’s request to grow genetically modified crops and test them on their own? The same guys who bailed out Domino’s Pizza (lots of saturated fats there) to give the dairy industry a boost? That same organization who’s leader was once a top proponent for Monsanto’s push for genetically modified crops?

Now why would the USDA have any interest in telling us what to eat? They only regulate foods like corn, wheat, soybeans, processed dairy, factory meats…. oh wait! Oh… its all starting o make sense now! (Note to self: consider hiring USDA for brilliant marketing campaign)

It’s designed to translate the government’s 2010 Dietary Health Guidelines for Americans into practical information that you can apply to your meals. Together, these tools help you get the right number of calories for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. That’s crucial at a time when obesity rates have hit epidemic levels.

How wonderful that we have those sweet, unbiased people at the USDA (who regulate all those heart healthy whole grains and low fat dairy) telling us to eat more heart healthy whole grains and low fat dairy. Surely, they are just concerned about the health of consumers and don’t care  one bit about where their funding comes from.

Measures like these will certainly reduce obesity, just as they’ve been doing for the last couple of decades under the government’s guidance (obesity rates have been rising). If only all of us dumb Americans had been smart enough to figure out that that pyramid thing was trying to get us to eat more whole grains these last few decades, we’d all be thin and healthy by now and heart disease and diabetes would be things of the past! (statistics show we actually eat less fat than we did a few decades ago).

[I'm practically choking on sarcasm by now, in case you didn't notice!]

Many people also don’t eat the variety of foods needed for optimal nutrition and health. Both adults and children often come up short on fiber, potassium, calcium and vitamin D.

MyPlate helps you to remember to choose a varied diet.For gauging portion sizes, the old guidelines talked about servings. The new oens refer to cups for fruit, vegetable and dairy and ounces for grains and proteins – units more familiar to home cooks

Yes, we need more varied whole grains! Of course, vegetables have more fiber and potassium… and foods like sardines and bone broth (lots of fat!) have more calcium… and we could get some Vitamin D from, you know, the sun… but we do certainly have to include those grains and dairy in our variety.

There are hundreds of fruits and vegetables, but we can’t let all that variety cover more than half our plates! where would the beans go? and the lean meats cooked in oxidized vegetable oils? Certainly, we must limit our vegetables to half our plate so we can make room for our whole grains and small portion of lean meat…

The article concludes by giving you resources to read more from the USDA (sorry, not linking to it!) and the hospital’s own website. You could even hire a dietitian to help you eat all that stuff in case you still can’t figure out that you are supposed to eat a lot of hearthealthy whole grains.

I wonder when the USDA and the medical community are going to figure out that these recommendations won’t really help anyone be healthy. Of course, where do people go when they get sick? The hospital!

What a coincidence!

As for me? The MyPlate recommendations won’t be on my plate! But this might…

What do you think? Is this article just bad health advice or a brilliant marketing scheme?

Coconut cream concentrate (also sometimes called coconut butter) is an incredibly tasty and filling way to get in your healthy fats! It is my favorite on-the-go treat, and I even keep a small jar in my purse for times when the kids or I get hungry while out.

It is super easy to make and can be flavored with cocoa powder, nuts, dried fruit, etc for yummy variations. If you like coconut at all, this is a great way to enjoy it!

Homemade Coconut Cream/Butter Ingredients

• 1 cup of shredded coconut or coconut flakes
• 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil
• Optional flavorings including: real vanilla extract, chopped nuts, raisins, cocoa powder, chia seeds
• Food processor or high powered blender (I use a vita mix)

How To Make Coconut Cream

1. Pulse the shredded coconut or coconut flakes in the blender or food processor. At first, it will be powdered, then it will start to stick to itself and become smooth like almond butter.
2. When it starts to get thick, add 2-3 TBSP of melted coconut oil and keep blending until smooth.
3. add any flavorings and mix by hand
4. Store in a jar, in or out of the fridge or take as an on-the-go snack.
5. Enjoy!

Insultingly easy, I know! It’s one of my favorite ways to eat coconut. What’s yours?

This week’s theme is “Getting Adventurous” since we’ve gotten the hang of the basic dietary principles and can now start incorporating some of the more exotic and fun aspects of healthy living.

I’m a big fan of Water Kefir and Kombucha for their probiotics and beneficial enzymes. They do require specific cultures though (available here) so if you don’t happen to have a SCOBY sitting around your kitchen, you are pretty much out of luck.

Luckily, as there is an easy lacto-fermented drink that you can make with basic ingredients from your grocery store, and your kids will probably even drink it!

I made probiotic lemonade recently and it was wonderful! It is very easy to make and is ready in just a couple of days. If you don’t have the water kefir grains or kombucha starter to try those drinks… make a batch of this to try today!

Probiotic Lemonade Ingredients:

• Juice of 10 lemons or limes
• 3/4 cup sugar or sucanat
• 1 cup of whey
• 2.5 to 3 quarts of filtered water
• gallon size jar

How To Make Probiotic Lemonade:

1. Pour the sugar into the gallon size glass jar and add just enough hot water to dissolve the sugar.
2. Add lemon juice and fill the jar about 3/4 full with filtered water.
3. Make sure the liquid is at room temp and add the whey.
4. Cover tightly and let sit on the counter for 2-3 days. The longer it sits, the less sugar in the final product.
5. After 2-3 days, keep in fridge and drink 4-6 ounces per day. The flavor will continue to develop in the fridge.
6. Since the sugar ferments out, it is rather tart. Add a couple drops of stevia if it is too tart for you!

I present to you my favorite salad ever! While our garden is (somehow) still producing strawberries, I’ve been eating this salad as much as I can! I’ve even eaten this for breakfast with eggs on the side. Sometimes, I add grilled chicken and it is an entire meal.

Ingredients:

• Spinach (or other greens)
• feta cheese
• strawberries
• cashews
• cucumber slices
• olive oil

How To Make It

1. Put vegetables on plate.
2. Top with Feta, strawberries and cashews
3. drizzle with olive oil
4. Enjoy
5. Repeat!

Now that we are just on the verge of Tomato and Pepper season, I wanted to share this recipe for cultured salsa. Fermenting salsa is an easy way to make it last longer without canning and it adds a probiotic boost.

We eat and drink a lot of fermented foods, from Water Kefir Soda to Sauerkraut, and fermented salsa is definitely one of the easiest ways to get the benefits of fermented foods in your diet.

If done properly, fermented salsa will last months in the fridge or in cold storage and get more probiotics with age.

Lacto Fermented Salsa Recipe

Ingredients and Supplies:

• 2.5-3 lbs of tomatoes of choice
• 1-2 onions
• 4 (or more) cloves of minced garlic
• Fresh Cilantro to taste (I use 1/2 cup or more)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 2 TBSP sea salt or celtic salt
• Spices to taste ( I use oregano, pepper, cumin, chili and cayenne)
• Peppers (sweet or spicy.. I use cayenne and habanero but sweet peppers work great too if you don’t like spicy!)
• 1/2 cup whey (make your own!)

How to Make Fermented Salsa

1. Chop tomatoes, peppers, onion and cilantro and mince garlic. If you have a food processor, your could definitely use it to speed up this step!
2. Toss all ingredients into large bowl
3. Add the juice of the lemon and lime
4. Add salt and spices to taste
5. Add whey and stir well to incorporate.
6. Pour into quart of half gallon size mason jars and cap tightly.
7. Leave on the counter for approximately 2 days.
8. Transfer to fridge or cold storage (oh, I wish I had a cellar or basement!)

Will last up to 8 months (that’s the longest I’ve tested!) if kept cold and flavor will intensify slightly over time. I find it actually tastes best after a couple weeks in the fridge to let flavors mingle a little more.

A Fast and Easy Tip

If you don’t have the time or ingredients to make your own salsa, you can get the benefits of fermented salsa by fermenting store bought salsa as well. If possible, use the fresh made salsas in the refrigerated section, but you can ferment canned versions also.

I tried this after reading this tip from Cheeseslave, and it works great. I had a lot of salsa that I had canned last year, and I’ve fermented it all before using it now to up the probiotic balance. I also fermented my homemade ketchup, barbecue sauce, pasta sauce, etc and they all tasted great!

What do you think? Is your kitchen a small scale chemistry lab? Do jars of foods in various stages of fermentation clutter your counter as they do mine? What’s your favorite?

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Oil Cleansing

Use olive, coconut or almond oil with Castor oil to clean your skin instead of a harsh soap. This will cleanse your skin naturally and keep from pulling out natural oils. My personal blend is 25% Castor Oil (don’t use straight!) and 75% sweet almond oil.

How to do it: Rub a small amount of oil onto dry face and massage into skin for several minutes. To remove, Soak a clean washcloth in steamy water and place on face until it starts to cool. Gently use the washcloth to wipe your face until the oil is gone. Softest. Skin. Ever! Here’s a website with much more detailed info if you are interested

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Natural Bronzing

Until I switched to eating healthy, I never tanned well at all! I used to try all kinds of natural “bronzers” and self tanning lotions (cringe on the ingredients!) in hopes of golden skin. Now, I’m excited to be able to tan easily, but for days when I want a slightly more bronze look, I head to the kitchen…

How to Do It: Mix cocoa powder, cinnamon and arrowroot (optional) until you get a shade you like. For me, this was at least half cocoa powder, about 30-40% cinnamon and a little arrowroot, but experiment to get your skin tone. Store in a small jar or container and brush onto skin for an instant bronze look. Bonus: it smells good! You can also mix this into lotion for a liquid version!

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Food Facial Mask

No need to drop a lot of money at the spa for great skin, just rub breakfast on your face instead! Many foods are also beneficial for your skin too!

How to Do It: Use honey, plain yogurt or whipped egg whites by themselves or in combination for a great toning facial mask that leaves skin glowing.

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Naturally White Teeth

Use strawberries (I know they are red!) and baking soda as a highly effective and natural teeth whitener. Oil pulling (swishing oil in the mouth and then spitting) is also an effective way to whiten teeth.

How to Do It:Make a paste of equal parts mashed or pureed strawberries and baking soda. Put in mouthguard or tooth tray and leave on teeth for up to 30 minutes. Repeat a couple times a week until your teeth are as white as you want. To speed things up, swish with 1 TBSP of olive oil each night for 20 minutes and then spit and brush well. This supposedly helps remove toxins too, but I can certainly vouch for its whitening capabilities!

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Natural Hair Conditioner

For an occasional hair strengthening treat, mix up some other breakfast foods into a natural hair mask. This certainly isn’t one for everyday use, but it makes hair shiny and smooth and even works on really curly hair (according to a lucky friend with lovely curls!)

How to Do It: Mix one banana and one avocado and puree until smooth (great way to use over ripe bananas and avocados!). Add essential oils if Banana isn’t your fragrance of choice. Comb through clean, damp hair and put a shower cap on. Leave on for at least 15 minutes and rinse out in the shower. Go sign up to audition for a hair commercial!

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Sugar Scrub

Sugar is not good for your body. It is, however, great for your skin! Since your skin doesn’t metabolize and store glucose or fructose like your fat cells do, sugar is a great way to tighten and smooth skin! Sugar scrubs in stores are expensive! Sugar scrubs in the kitchen are not!

How to do it: Mix equal parts of white or brown sugar and olive or almond oil and add essential oils of choice (optional). To exfoliate skin, rub the mixture onto skin and massage in for a couple of minutes. Rinse off with warm water. Enjoy!

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Natural Microdermabrasion

Ever seen those ads for microdermabrasion (not even sure I’m spelling it right!). Well, they look expensive and I’m leery of the chemicals they might contain. No worries though… the kitchen can help! Baking soda is a very effective natural and gentle abrasive that pulls off dead skin cells and makes skin glow!

How to Do It: Wet face with warm water. Pour some baking soda into hands and massage into your face for at least 3 minutes. It will sting a little (its called abrasion!). Rinse with warm water and pat dry.

Those are all strange kitchen ingredients I’ve put on my face, hair or skin. What are your beauty tricks and tips? What is the strangest thing you’ve tried in the name of beauty?

Shared at Conversion Diary and Fight Back Friday

This is another of my favorite homemade tincture recipes. We don’t have to use it often, but when one of the kids is sick, or we are traveling and their schedules are crazy, this natural tincture helps them sleep peacefully.

This recipe is good for adults too, if you struggle with insomnia or anxiety. It is a mildly and naturally relaxing and calming tincture that is great for sleep disturbances. All of the ingredients are available here and the minimum quantity available to order will make quarts of this tincture!

Homemade Sweet Dreams Sleep Tincture Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP dried Yarrow flowers (relaxing and nutrient packed)
• 2 TBSP dried Catnip (naturally calming)
• 2 TBSP dried Oatstraw (also helps with bed wetting)
• 2 TBSP Chamomile flowers (calming and relaxing)
• 1 TBSP dried Mint leaves
• 1 TBSP dried Hops flowers
• 1 TBSP dried stevia leaf
• boiling water
• 2 cups 80 proof or stronger vodka or rum
• glass quart size canning jar with airtight lid

How to Make Sleep Tincture:

1. Put all herbs in glass jar
2. Pour boiling water to just cover the herbs and mix well
3. Fill the jar the rest of the way with alcohol (don’t use rubbing or grain alcohol!)
4. Cap with airtight lid and leave in cool, dark place for at least 2 and up to 8 weeks, shaking daily.
5. After several weeks, strain the herbs out and store in small tincture bottles for use as needed.
6. Normal dose is 2-3 droppersful for adults and 1 dropperful for kids over two.

I order all the ingredients that I don’t grow in my garden from Mountain Rose Herbs, which is the best source I”ve found, but you may be able to find some of these locally. Start with a very small dose, especially in children, as it typically works very well, even at low-doses.

Ever have trouble sleeping? What’s your remedy?

Even water with lemon or lime gets boring after a while, and when you need to rehydrate, you often need added electrolytes.

Before you stop by the store for a Gatorade on the way to the game, try making your own natural version! It is easy, just as fast, and a lot more healthy.

Regular Gatorade contains: Water, sucrose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, citric acid, natural grape flavor with other natural flavors, salt, sodium citrate, monopotassium phosphate, red 40, Blue 1. (This is from a picture of the grape flavored Gatorade label.

I’m all for re-hydrating, but are the monopotassium phosphate, mystery “natural flavors” and artificial dyes really necessary?

Around here, for times when more than just water is needed for hydration (softball games, triathlons, labor, etc), we make our own version, which I prefer… never much liked Gatorade or Powerade myself anyway.

The easiest sports drink that is nutritionally amazing (they even used this stuff for plasma infusions during the pacific war) is plain coconut water or coconut water with a TBSP of added lime juice. Coconut water has more potassium than sports drinks, and more natural sources of sodium. A lot of athletes swear by it these days, and I will be drinking it in labor.

The only downside to coconut water is the price. If you want an inexpensive (and still healthy and tasty) alternative, this versatile recipe is the next best thing…

Homemade Natural Energy and Sports Drink Recipe

Homemade Natural Energy and Sports Drink Ingredients:

• 1 quart of liquid (options: green tea, herbal teas, coconut water, plain water, etc)
• 1/8-1/4 tsp Himalayan Sea Salt (regular table salt will work, but it doesn’t have all the trace minerals)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed Calcium magnesium tablets or powder (optional)
• 1/4 cup or more of juice (optional. Can use grape, apple, lemon, lime, pineapple, etc)
• 1-2 TBSP sweetener (optional)- can use honey, stevia, etc. I suggest brewing stevia leaf into the base liquid for the most natural option.

[As an example, my normal recipe includes 1 quart of tea (brewed with Red Raspberry Leaf, Alfalfa, Nettle and Stevia),  1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 tsp calcium magnesium powder (about 1,000 mg), and 1/4 cup grape or apple juice]

How to Make Natural Sports or Energy Drink:

1. Brew tea if using or slightly warm base liquid
2. Add sea salt and calcium magnesium (if using)
3. Add juice and mix or shake well
4. Cool and store in fridge until ready to use

Another easy alternative is just mixing Vitamin C powder or Emergen-C with water and a little juice!

Ever drink sports drinks? What’s your favorite?