Turmeric Facial Moisturizer

Here's a recipe for a naturally tinted facial moisturizer. I used turmeric because of its amazing skin benefits. Just do a google search for "turmeric skin benefits" and you can read all about it. A word of caution if you're going to attempt this: use the turmeric sparingly and only use a little bit when applying it to your face; using too much turmeric can give your skin a yellowish hue. However, if you do end up using too much and you look like Lisa Simpson, don't panic: it's removable with a little sugar and water mixture.

Ok, so here we go.

In a double-boiler (or mason jar in a pot of water), combine the following ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Grapeseed Oil
1 Tablespoon Castor Oil
1 Teaspoon Beeswax
1 Teaspoon Vitamin E Oil
2 Capsules Turmeric - You can also purchase turmeric as a cooking spice, but I bought it in capsule form.

Heat and stir until almost fully melted, then turn the heat off and keep stirring until the beeswax has completely liquefied. Then, pour your moisturizer into a container, let it cool for a couple hours or stick it in the fridge. Only apply a little bit to your face because a little goes a very long way. I was nervous about turning my skin yellow with this because my skin is so fair, but instead it just gave it a deeper tone. In fact, my sister said she thought I had gone tanning when I saw her after using this only twice.

Oil-Based Face Wash (Yes, Seriously)

Using oil to wash your face sounds disgusting and completely counter-intuitive, right? Well, not exactly. After years of trying to figure out how my skin could possibly be super dry AND acne prone at the same time, I finally got rid of all of my drying acne "solutions" that I've probably spent hundreds of dollars on over the years. As it turns out, drying your skin out won't solve any of your skin problems and caking on chemicals just doesn't sound all that appealing to me. So, after some research, I found that some people are suggesting that some acne issues are exacerbated by products like benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid because the skin has to produce an incredible amount of oil to counteract the drying effects of these ingredients, thus producing more acne. I'm not a dermatologist, but it makes sense to me.

The first time I washed my face with oil, I used pure coconut oil, rubbed it between my palms for a few seconds and rubbed it on my face. Then I ran a clean washcloth under hot water and placed it over my face for about a minute. This is supposed to open the pores and pull out impurities, but I think that if you just apply the oil in a hot shower in the morning, you'll get the same effect. In any case, coconut oil was too heavy for my skin and it didn't seem to absorb very well. Other people swear by it though, so I say give it a try if you're thinking about switching to an oil-based face wash.

After trying a bunch of different oils and mixtures, I finally came up with one that I'm really liking. Even after you rinse it off, your skin feels soft and smooth, but not greasy.

Here's What I Used (Measurements are not exact, at all)
1/8 cup grapeseed oil
1 tsp. castor oil
1 tsp. witch hazel
1 cap-full tea tree oil (about 1/2 tsp...I think)
1-2 drops of peppermint oil

Shake it all up in a bottle and use it to wash your face and remove makeup (yup, you can throw out your synthetic makeup removal products too!). I have incredibly sensitive skin and it doesn't irritate my skin, so I'm thinking this recipe should work for most people with sensitive skin.

Homemade Peppermint Honey Lip Balm

This was my very first homemade undertaking, but one of my favorites because it was so simple and I ended up making a ton that I gave out as Christmas gifts. The measurements don't need to be exact really, just remember that the more beeswax you add, the harder your lip balm will be. You can find all of the ingredients I used online if you don't want to go to the store.

Preparation & Ingredients
Containers: I knew I needed small containers to hold the lip balm, and I'm sure I could have found something online, but then I noticed when I was painting one day that I could use small paint solvent cups instead. You can find these at Michael's or AC Moore if you don't have any hanging around.

Beeswax: The next somewhat obscure ingredient I needed was beeswax. Apparently Whole Foods doesn't sell this, but, again, Michael's and AC Moore do! They both always have 40-50% coupons in their weekly flier, so I printed one of those and ended up with a big block of 100% pure beeswax. Plus, if you're a teacher, you get 15% off if you bring your teacher ID or a pay stub with you to the store. If you know someone who keeps bees, you could also ask them to purchase some. I still have over 3/4 of the block I bought left and I've used it for quite a few projects so far.

Virgin Coconut Oil: This is easy to find. You can get it at pretty much any grocery store. I got mine at Ocean State Job Lot because it's only $5 for a 14 oz. jar.

Grapeseed Oil: Again, easy to find at any grocery store.

Honey: I'm not even going to address the acquisition of this. However, I will say that I think raw honey would have dissolved and blended better, so I'll probably get some for next time. I know Whole Foods sells raw honey, and I'm guessing a lot of other grocery stores do too, but I haven't checked.

Peppermint Oil: Just make sure it's pure extract and not imitation.

Combining the Ingredients
People suggest using a double boiler to heat the ingredients together. But, I'm cheap, so I just filled a pot up with water and put a mason jar in it. It worked fine. Also, I didn't need to worry about ruining any pots because beeswax is next to impossible to wash off of whatever you put it in.

I put the following ingredients into the mason jar and put my stove on medium-low:

• 1 part beeswax (again, the measurements here are approximate)
• 1 part coconut oil
• 1 part grapeseed oil
• A little honey (not really sure how much I put in, I just kind of squirted some out of the bottle)

Stir your concoction frequently and turn the stove off once the mixture is almost completely melted. Continue stirring until all of the ingredients are melted and blended together.

Pour the mixture into your paint solvent cups (or whatever you're using), quickly add a couple drops of peppermint oil to each cup, and stir a bit before the mixture begins to harden. You don't want to add your oils until after you remove the mixture from the stove because it evaporates quickly, but the mixture can also start to look chunky and gross if you don't add the peppermint oil soon enough and the mixture has already started to harden. Just work quickly and you'll be fine though.

And that's it. Now just wait for your lip balm to harden (or put it in the fridge if you're impatient) and you have your own homemade peppermint-honey lip balm.