Best avocado beauty hack

OK this is so simple and so good.

Put leftover avocado skins into your bath. Simple.

Yep, you’ve already eaten the lovely nutritious flesh, but don’t throw those skins away!

Pop them in your bath and they will give you the most beautiful moisturising bath ever. You could even rub the skins against your elbows and knees to make sure you get all the goodness from the last bits of flesh as well as the skins themselves.

And that’s it.

If you have more time and/or would like to, you could make a very easy quick face mask with mashed avocado, a little natural yogurt and a dollop of honey.

if there’s any left over, just add it to your bath along with the avocado skins.

This is so easy and so good I’m just going to leave it right here.

Except to say it might be a little bit messy on cleaning the bath, but nothing too horrible.

Do try it!

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Home-made DIY lime coconut sugar body scrub

You actually can’t beat a sugar and oil scrub (I don’t think).

This one has my favourite lime citrus scent and is super-easy to make as well as super-moisturising on the skin.

It’s adorable. If a body scrub can be adorable - and why not?

And the scent just makes me happy - and these simple pleasures are counting for a lot right now.

It’s the same basic recipe as my rose coconut sugar scrub, but with different scent.

You’ll need:

3/4 - 1 cup white granulated sugar

1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut oil (mine was solid ‘cos it’s really cold here right now!)

Zest of 1-2 limes - I had to used two cos the first just wasn’t giving up that zest

Juice of 1 lime

A few drops of lime essential oil if you have it and would like it - it does make the lime fragrance just sing that bit more so I would definitely add if you can

Mash it all up together, put it in a jar and that’s it done!

I think this is really lovely - it’s zingy and fresh and a really good moisturising scrub.

If you have any leftover (as I did) just put it in a little bowl and keep by the sink for an easy-to-reach hand scrub.

Hope you love it too …

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Simplest hand softening moisturiser

With all the frequent hand-washing and hand-sanitising over the last few months - and still continuing - my hands are pretty dry and scaly to be honest.

So I asked friends for recommendations for their favourite (cruelty-free and natural) hand creams.

I have some great suggestions that I look forward to trying, but one of the suggestions I was able to try right away.

Like within a couple of minutes of reading it … because it’s simple and natural and uses two ingredients that most of us will have at home already.

And I do love a natural home made beauty product as you’ll probably know!

This lovely suggestion was given by my friend Leah who also said it’s the only thing that cleans her hands after making her resin jewellery.

Side note: I have some of her earrings and love them. In fact I think I have now about five pairs! Some of the resin studs and some drop silver leaf earrings. She makes lovely things and they’re super good value too. Her Etsy shop is HERE.

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Ok, back to the magical dry hands saviour!

This is it.

Olive oil. And sugar.

That’s all.

Mix together and then just massage into your hands, and round the nails and up onto your wrists. It’s a really good scrub and feels great.

Rinse off and wash hands with a nice gentle soap and that’s it.

I have been doing this every couple of days since hearing of it and my hands are already so much better - and they feel so, so good when you’ve just finished it too.

Literally, I dry my hands after the soap washing stage and then can’t stop stroking them!

Gratuitous hand photo included as I just had my nails done for the first time since lockdown and am ridiculously happy with them.

Do try this lovely, simple olive oil and sugar hand scrub - it really, really works.

It feels amazing. I’m sure you’ll love it too.

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DIY rose coconut sugar body scrub

I love making home made beauty treatments, always have done.

Even as a child I’d read all the herbal and natural remedies books on my parents’ bookshelves and make anything I could …. honey face masks, or chamomile tea hair rinses, or well, anything I heard about and could find the ingredients for really.

I’d had this rose essential oil on my Christmas list this year and was so pleased to receive it! I’ve recently discovered this brand and am really happy with the oils I’ve tried so far, they’re really good value too.

Realised yesterday that I hadn’t yet tried it, so decided to make a body scrub for my bath later that evening.

This is very simple, smells amazing, made my skin incredibly soft and moisturised and also left floating rose petals in the bath which was just lovely and luxurious.

Rose is nurturing, comforting and just right for when you need to be gentle and take care of yourse

You’ll need:

approx 3/4 - 1 cup white sugar

approx 1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut oil (mine was solid as it’s quite cold but you can use liquid of course)

a small handful of dried rose petals (mine are actually a ‘cooks’ ingredient’ from Waitrose, but you could dry your own or they’re easily available online)

10 drops rose essential oil

Mash it all together until it’s completely mixed in and the oil and sugar combined and then put into a clean jar …. and that’s it.

In the bath take a good handful and just enjoy that beautiful scent, the scrub of the sugar and the indulgent moisturising of the coconut oil and then just relax for a while in the rose petal water …

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Coconut milk and honey bath soak

So there I am on Saturday evening, having just made my favourite salad with the chicken and rice poached/cooked with a mix of water and coconut milk, and I was about to put the half a tin of coconut milk left into a bowl and into the fridge …

And then I thought, but wouldn’t that be amazing and gorgeous and nourishing in a bath?

So I ran a very hot bath and threw it in along with a tablespoon of honey.

I made the bath very hot to make sure they melted and blended and dispersed so didn’t get into it for quite a while after to let it cool down of course but when it was I also added a few drops of lavender essential oil.

It was so good I thought I really should work up a more instant, useable and elegant way to enjoy a coconut milk and honey bath soak.

This time I started by putting the coconut milk and honey together in a pan and heating very gently, stirring, until they were just warm and combined, and then removed from the heat and allowed to cool before pouring into a bottle.

It made enough for two baths and it lasted perfectly well overnight on the bathroom windowsill without any ill effects or separating again.

Next time I’ll try keeping it in the fridge to see how that works as an alternative.

This is such a lovely super-moisturising bath soak - it’s so simple to make too and feels really luxurious.

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Simple, natural, softening bath 'milk'

When I was in my early teens I was obsessed with natural remedies for health and particularly for beauty products.  

I was brought up in a family that was very into organic products, and eating natural foods (yep, I was that kid with the smelly celery soup in a flask and a carrot slice for my packed lunch when everyone else had white-bread cheese sandwiches and a packet of crisps - hard actually at the time but I'm so grateful for it now).

My sisters and I were taken as often to homeopathic doctors and to the reflexologist as we were the GP, and I was always (especially as a complete bookworm) reading my parents' cookbooks and books on herbalism and natural health.

And of course, I started making all sorts of lotions and potions .... and after a very long break (although I've always maintained an interest in organic products and natural health) I've started making some things again.

Recently I made an Argentinian cake recipe shared with me by my friend Marcela - and one of the ingredients was oats.

After making it - and it was good, here's the recipe - I had tons of oats left over. I don't like oats or porridge but didn't want to throw them away (HATE food waste!) and suddenly remembered one of my favourite teenage beauty treatments - making the simplest ever bath milk with oats.

You just need some little muslin bags - like those ones you use to make bouquet garni (or my tom yum noodles!) - that are easy to find and buy online.

You scoop in a handful or two of oats and then let the hot water run over the bag - or pop the bag straight into the bath of course.

The oats release the most beautiful milky substance that's great for keeping your skin soft ... I even squeeze the bag out more once in the bath and use it as a quick exfoliator by rubbing the bag over my skin.

I also usually add a few drops of a favourite pure essential oil - lavender or wild orange usually.

And that's it. Super simple, super cheap - and very good.

Also on my bathroom shelf are Epsom Salts which I use in a morning 'detox shower' and my home-made body scrub made with sugar.

There's just something that to me feels so good about using natural ingredients and making something easy yourself that's also really lovely to use.

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Citrus sugar body scrub

Every time I make a body scrub I wonder why I ever run out of them!  They are unbelievably easy to make and honestly, SO good to use.

Better than ones you buy, that's for sure - and they actually take less time to make than going to the shops. And of course, you know exactly what's in the products you're putting on your skin.

The one I made today is a Thai-influenced citrus-scented sugar scrub. 

For the sugar element use white granulated sugar for a softer scrub and raw/ Demerera sugar for a coarser scrub.  (Don't use brown sugar as it's basically white sugar with molasses and molasses won't be nice on your skin!).

I like quite a coarse body scrub so I'm making mine with half white and half Demerara - change the ratio as you like of course.

Please do note that this scrub is much too abrasive for use on your face or delicate decolletage and go very very easy on your tummy if you try it there.  

It's great for the upper arms, bum, thighs, knees and feet though! 

OK, let's do it. 

Find a jar - of any sort, but of course it's nice to have a Kilner or something that looks pretty in the bathroom - and yes, thoroughly wash and dry it first.

Get your ingredients together: 

Raw sugar / demerera sugar

White sugar

Coconut oil, or sweet almond oil - or even a light olive oil (NOT a vegetable cooking oil!) 

I've got my favourite fractionated coconut oil from doTerra. 

Essential oils - your choice really ...

I've used doTerra oils and combined Wild Orange, Lime and Lemongrass.  Use what you have and if you don't have any essential oils well, firstly, why not?! And secondly, some vanilla or almond extract would be lovely too if you have either of those in the cupboard.

I put equal quantities of the brown and white sugars into the jar (I used 7 dessert spoonfuls of each) and mix well (with a spoon or, um, a chopstick).

Then pour in the oil gradually and stirring so you can see the texture - you can always take a pinch out and test it on your arm to see what it feels like. I added 2 dessertspoons.

Stir until it's well combined.

Then add your essential oils - I had two drops each of Wild Orange, Lemongrass and Lime essential oils from doTerra.  I do recommend doTerra as they are very pure oils so you get the health benefits as well as the fragrance benefits, and they're not synthetic).

And stir again! That's kind of it really - although I realised that I needed a little more oil so added another spoonful and stirred.

When you want to use it, just make sure you're in the bath or shower and use on wet skin - it is too abrasive to put on dry skin. 

Take a small handful at a time and exfoliate then rinse off completely in the water.

I forgot how lovely it smells and how soft it makes your skin ... hope you like this one and do let me know if you try it and what fragrances you use.

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