Brighten Your Beauty Routine With These Foods

A bathroom cabinet can be overflowing with assorted personal care products, yet people still may feel that it's difficult to find the "right" ones. With so many choices on the market, that's no surprise!

Something that many people aren't aware of is that foods can double as beauty products. They are less expensive, more readily available, and they often work as well as complex commercial products! Women typically spend more time and money on personal care, but men are slowly starting to catch up both in the amount of time and money they spend. Certain foods can help anyone looking to improve their personal routines.

The simple food and household items below all make great personal care products. Note that all of these examples are bases—you can add any flavoring oils you want to get the aromas you love, which will make for a more well-rounded beauty experience.

Coconut Oil: Eye makeup removers can cause your eyes to sting or burn, and may require a lot of rubbing to get waterproof mascara or eyeliner off. Coconut oil makes the task much easier: just put some on a cotton swab, ball, or pad, and gently wipe off your makeup. You can use any type of coconut oil, from extra virgin to refined.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Face toners tighten pores, helping give you a more youthful appearance and potentially fewer blemishes. Dilute apple cider vinegar 1:1 with water for a low cost, natural toner, and dab it on your face with your fingers or a cotton ball.

Honey + Avocado: Mash these two foods together to create a hydrating, antibacterial face mask. Avocado is full of healthful oils, and honey can kill some of the bacteria that cause pimples. You can use either ingredient alone as a face mask, but they're excellent together since you'll get more benefits out of one application.

Baking Soda: Have you ever experienced product buildup in your hair? With all the styling products we use, it's pretty normal to notice that your hair feels heavy or dull. Mix one tablespoon baking soda with a cup of water as a clarifying rinse when your hair is experiencing an excess of product build up. Wash hair, then pour the rinse over your hair. Massage it in and let it sit for a minute or two. Follow by rinsing it out with water and using your normal conditioner.

Olive Oil: Body oils are hot products nowadays, but they can be made from cheap carrier oils that don't benefit your skin and contain only tiny amounts of the ones the front label highlights. For a boost of moisture, try using plain olive oil as a replacement for an expensive emollient body oil. Similar to coconut oil for eye makeup, you can use any olive oil, from extra virgin to refined.

Salt + Sugar: Even more popular than body oils are scrubs. Surprisingly, a little container that may cost $20 or more is usually composed almost entirely of low-quality sugar and salt. By mixing your own sugar and salt with some oil (any neutral cooking oil will do), you'll have a homemade salt and sugar scrub for a small fraction of the price—and you can control the quality.

Coffee: The caffeine in coffee tightens pores and is touted as a temporary cure for cellulite when rubbed on the thighs. You can use ground coffee mixed with a small amount of neutral oil, or add it to the salt and sugar scrub above. Bonus: it smells delicious!

Corn Starch: The base for many natural deodorant recipes, corn starch absorbs moisture incredibly well. If you've been looking for an aluminum-free way to stay dry and fresh feeling, consider trying a natural deodorant recipe with corn starch as the base.

Goat Milk: Containing an array of vitamins, minerals, and good fats, goat milk is soothing for the skin. Try dabbing the fresh stuff on your face as a toner after washing; just leave it on for 10 minutes, then rinse it off. You can also use the tinned evaporated type, which is a bit easier to apply, though it loses a small amount of the benefits of fresh.

Yogurt: Can a yogurt face mask make your fine lines and wrinkles disappear forever? Sadly, no, but it can reduce their appearance. That's thanks to the lactic acid it contains. Use plain yogurt, not a flavored one, because it contains much less sugar, and dab a thin layer all over your face, rinsing off after 15 minutes.

Mayonnaise: This final DIY beauty trick is perhaps one of the oldest. Mayonnaise makes an excellent mask for your hair! It's easier to apply than oil due to it's thickness, and will leave hair shiny and moisturized. Apply and leave on for a half hour, then wash thoroughly to ensure you remove it all.

The next time you think you need a new beauty product, just look at the grocery shelves instead of hitting up the pharmacy. These inexpensive beauty hacks are regular ingredients that you likely already purchase, and are free of the chemicals found in commercial personal care ingredient lists.