Issue link: https://fredparent.uberflip.com/i/124782
Tip Making Your Own Beauty Products Summer is just around the corner and it's time to prep your skin for shorts weather. Winter tends to leave you with dry, parched skin. Removing those dead layers of cells will reveal the younger cells beneath and leave your skin feeling soft and smooth. But you don't need to spend up to $15 on products at your local bath store. You can save tons of money and avoid dozens of harsh chemicals — that you can barely pronounce — by making your own body scrub, body wash and even lip scrub at home. For a body or lip scrub, you need to start with an exfoliant. You can experiment with fine sea salt; raw, white cane or brown sugar; ground coffee; oatmeal; almond meal; flax meal; rice bran; wheat bran; or ground nut shells. If you are allergic to nuts, avoid nut-based products. Add an oil, such as extra virgin coconut oil, grapeseed oil, extra virgin olive oil, almond oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, macadamia oil or hazelnut oil. You will need to experiment with the amount of oil in the mixture and the type of oil you use. Some oils are heavier than others and leave a heavier film on the skin. Add pure essential oils, which you can get at a local health food store, like Harvest Market in Spotsylvania. Try vanilla, lavender, rosemary, peppermint, lemon grass, eucalyptus, chamomile or orange. You can mix essential oils and even add other ingredients including coffee, lemon zest and honey. Finally, you may want to consider adding a bit of a natural antibacterial to the mix, such as grapefruit seed extract or citric acid. Join MTM on Sunday, May 5, for a class on making your own beauty products, laundry detergent and cleaning supplies. For more information on the class and a sample recipe, log onto our webpage at www.fredericksburgparent.net and click the Mommy Trader tab. www.fredericksburgparent.NET 27