Quick tips to winterize your skin

If you're like me your skin gets extra dry and itchy this season because of the cold winter air. Here's a quick tip to keep warm and hydrated. When you take your shower and you're about ready to get out, gradually lower the temperature of your water until it's almost completely cold. This will get your blood flow going, insuring to regulate the temperature of your body and it will lessen the shock of getting out of the shower. It's also a sure wake me up for those mornings where there's not a lot of sunlight when you wake up.
You can also use a cream based lotion instead of regular lotion that will keep the skin hydrated longer. I use a shea butter cream or coconut oil in the winter. Hope this helps.

Homemade Vodka tea lemon toner

So if you're like me you start out the day with beautiful glowing skin and by mid-day you look like someone's slapped a chicken all over it. That's okay, you're not alone. Although buying a combination-skin moisturizer is a very good first step, you most likely need to take others. Which is why I've researched a very fun, innovative approach to taming oily skin.

Vodka tea lemon toner

4 tablespoons of Russian vodka
4 tablespoons of Rose hips tea (or a blend that contains it)
4 tablespoons of Lemon juice
4 tablespoons of aloe vera gel

How it works

1- Mix all of the ingredients and place in a clean, dry container. The measurements gave me enough toner for a 60ml bottle
2- With a cotton ball, apply the toner to your face, after cleaning and before moisturizing.
3- Store your toner in the refrigerator as it will help with conservation (a few weeks) and with the tightening of your pores because of the colder temperature

Why it works

- Vodka: is an astringent, we're just not used to thinking about alcohol for beauty related purposes. It works the same way as vinegar.
- Rose hips tea: is also astringent as it has a very high concentration of Vitamin C and helps protect your skin from damage as it contains antioxidants
- Lemon juice: The antibacterial properties makes it perfect to combat acne and it will exfoliate your skin to remove the excess oils
- Aloe vera: will keep the skin hydrated and will prevent the burning sensation of the toner being too concentrated with astringents. It also helps heal scars.

This recipe is pretty straight forward but maybe this video tutorial can help:

Youtube video tutorial

Homemade turmeric face mask

Is it just me or most Indian women are gorgeous?! This is why this next recipe was inspired by an Indian tradition. This recipe is traditionally used on brides to be before the wedding. It basically helps to prevent breakouts, fights acne, blemishes and dark spots.

Turmeric Face Mask

1 Tablespoon of Gram flour also know as Chickpea flour
1 Tablespoon of Turmeric Powder
2 Tablespoons of Milk
1 Teaspoon of Honey

Directions

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well until you get a pasty consistency. Apply on your face and be careful not to get any in your eyes. Let it sit for about 20 minutes, then rinse with warm water and towel dry.

Notes:
1- I could not find any Gram flower so I simply ground Chick peas with the Magic Bullet and I passed them through a strainer for finer grains.
2- Apply the mask over the bathroom counter as this can be quite messy.
3- It's normal for the face to feel stiff after a few minutes as the mask hardens.
4- It's recommended to do this mask no more than twice a week
5- If you need anymore help or you're more visual, check out this video tutorial:

Youtube video tutorial

Homemade flax seed hair gel recipe

I've been looking for an alternative for store bought gels, that either flake or make my hair sticky and yuk because I have to use so much and I came across this recipe on Youtube but made a few changes to make it my own and ensure that it would have optimal results on my hair

Moisturizing Flax seed gel

1/4 cup of flax seeds
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon of aloe vera gel
1 tablespoon of vegetable glycerin
1 teaspoon of argan oil or argan oil treatment
5 drops of Vitamin E
1 pantyhose (to use as a strainer)

Step by step guide

1- Bring the water and flax seeds to boil all the while stirring
2- Wait a couple of minutes until a gooey film develops on the top of the pan; that's when you know to turn off the oven
3- Place the pantyhose over a container so that the gel passes through the hose but the seeds stay in the pantyhose
4- Let the gel cool down before adding the other ingredients
5- After mixing them all together, place the gel into dry, sterilized containers. Since this needs to be kept in the fridge for conservation; I placed some in a bottle and the rest in a bigger container. The gel is a little runny so it's better to use it from the bottle. You can even use it in a spray bottle
6- Keep the seeds in a separate container as you can reuse them for another batch.

Note that you can do this recipe just with the first 2 ingredients. The gel is great for styles like twist outs, braid outs and does not dry out the hair. Also, it's inexpensive since a bag of about 500g of flax seed will cost you about 5$ and you need about 50g per recipe that you can reuse at least once so you can have for about 0,25$ you can make a batch. You can keep each batch in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Enjoy!

Exfoliating Sugar and honey scrub recipe

Exfoliating is an important part of a good beauty routine as it allows regeneration of the skin while getting rid of yukky dead skin cells. This little recipe is simple and effective to leave your skin feeling smooth and hydrated

Sugar honey scrub

1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of sweet almond oil
15 drops of jojoba oil
1 teaspoon of honey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and store in a clean dry container. Do not let water come in contact with your mix as it will cause bacteria to form. You can use this on your elbows, knees and even for mani/pedis and it's good for up to 6 months

Sugar facial

To use this as a facial, simply lather your face with soap using warm water (if you have oily skin add lemon to the water) and add a nickel sized piece of scrub on your face. Gently massage in circular motions for about 10 minutes. Rinse off using cool water to close pores. Pat your face dry with a towel and use your favorite moisturizer.