Things you find in your back yard or your kitchen can supplement your cosmetics to stretch the budget with beautiful results.

Exfoliators

1.                As an exfoliant, you can choose an ingredient with a relatively fine particle size from your kitchen such as ground coffee, Epsom salts, oatmeal, wheat germ, baking soda, crushed aspirin or turbinado sugar. Dried herbs also make a nice addition to a homemade exfoliator scrub.  Other options for an exfoliant are orange/citrus rind.   If your skin is dry or sensitive you can mix the exfoliant ingredient in a base such as olive oil, almond oil, or tea tree oil.  Keep in mind that if you use a base, ingredients such as baking soda, aspirin or sugar will dissolve and love the exfoliant quality.

2.                For a natural enzyme peel, use papaya or pineapple and rub the fruit directly on your face and let it dry.  The enzymes in these fruits can reduce age spots and fine lines and dissolve dead cells on the skin’s surface.

3.                You may wonder why men seem to have smoother skin when they are older than women.  One party of their regimen is shaving.  So you can choose to exfoliate the way that men do – by shaving.  It takes off a small layer of skin.  Use a very gentle razor right after putting on a cleansing lotion.  Be sure to moisturize afterwards.

    Moisturizers

4.                Use olive oil, coconut oil or mashed avocado alone or mixed with your standard moisturizer and/or sunscreen to make it last longer.   These oils are good natural hydrators.

    Eye Cream

5.                Some people swear that Preparation H reduces eye puffiness but all my research indicates that this is not true.  The best thing for puffy eyes is get enough sleep, treat your allergies, avoid alcohol and foods that cause water retention.  Short of that you can use cucumber slices, cold compresses or used cold tea bags to sooth the puffy eyes.

     Eye Makeup Remover

6.                Baby oil or olive oil or almond oil will all gently dissolve eye makeup.  Wash afterwards with lukewarm water.

     Mask/Home Facial

7.                Use a fluffed egg white on your face for a mask. Follow it with steam on your face with cocoa butter and steam over that. Spray Aloe Vera that you have kept in the refrigerator to close your pores afterward.

8.                Grated apple and honey makes a good mask for acne prone skin.

     Acne

9.                Lemons, tomatoes and witch hazel are all proven to fight pimples.  Cut the lemon or tomato open in quarters. Take each piece of lemon or tomato and rub it on your face. Just leave it there.  The acid in the fruit acts similar to salicylic acid on acne

10.          A dab of toothpaste can dry out pimples.

     Hair

11.          Use mayonnaise with heat from a hair dryer to moisturize hair.

12.          Use Chamomile Tea and lemon juice to keep hair looking sun kissed.

 After a busy week at work, school, or being a mom you need to spend some time doing something for you that makes you feel more relaxed and more beautiful.  Spend about 30-40 minutes and turn your bathroom into a home spa to give yourself a facial.  Turn on some relaxing music and light some candles.  Prepare a tall glass of ice water with lemon, or a pot of tea to enjoy throughout your facial.

Pull your hair back with a terry cloth headband or wrap and secure your hair away from your face with a towel.

Cleanse

Use your favorite gentle cleanser and eye makeup to carefully cleanse your face of all makeup.  While you are cleansing spend a little extra timing massaging the skin and kneading around your eyes and temples to help start the relaxation process.

Gently pat your face dry with a clean towel.

Exfoliate

Use a natural exfoliant from your kitchen such as ground coffee, Epsom salts, oatmeal, wheat germ, baking soda, crushed aspirin or sugar.  Or, use a Microdermabrasion kit or Home Chemical Peel, whichever you prefer.

After exfoliating, gently cleanse your face again to remove all residue from the microdermabrasion crystals of the chemical peel

Steam

Follow the exfoliation with steam to open and fully cleanse the pores of products.  If you do not have a home facial steamer, just using a pan of boiling water with a towel over your head.  I usually put a 2 quart casserole pan in the microwave and bring it to a boil.  Start it before you cleanse and exfoliate and it should be boiling by the time you are ready for it.  Put a towel over your head and hold your face as close to the steaming water as comfortable without burning your face.  Let your face drink in the steam for about 5 minutes.  Adding some essential oils to the water can be very soothing.

Apply Mask

Make a natural mask of fluffed egg white, or you can purchase products for use at home.  Masks are available to deep cleanse pores, regulate ph and moisture levels, and for deep moisturizing.

Relax while the mask is on.  I have a wonderful little bean bag eye mask that can be kept in the freezer and applied to the eyes to soothe and reduce puffiness.  If you have one of these, it is a wonderful addition to your facial.  If not, just put some cold, damp cotton pads over the eyes while you are letting the mask do its job.  Normally masks should be left on for 10-20 minutes.

Thoroughly rinse the mask from your face with lukewarm water.

Toner

Apply a spray toner or spray Aloe Vera that you have kept in the refrigerator to close your pores afterward.

Moisturize

Moisturize with your favorite moisturizer and eye cream.

Enjoy your music, your water or your tea, and spend some quiet time just relaxing.

I have to have my gentle skin cleanser to wash away the makeup.  No way can I use hotel soap for that.  And we should never go anywhere without our sunscreen - ideally one that can double as a moisturizer.  Traveling is likely to cause those litte bags and dark circles under the eye so we better not forget the eye cream.  If we don’t wear any other makeup, we all run for the mascara before we show our face in public.  And for those of us who do not have a perfect complexion, we need a foundation and/or concealer to cover those flaws.   Speaking of flaws, eye cream is not enough to cover the dark circles after a night on the town so we better not forget that eye brightener/concealer.  Don’t forget the lips.  We always carry at least lip gloss to keep our lips shiny and soft.

Besides the face, we have to take care of our hair.  The hotel may have shampoo and a blow dryer to get us through but we need mousse to shape and style our hair and hairspray to keep it in place.

Last , but not least, I need my body lotion.  Those hotel body lotions rarely have a good creamy moisturizing lotion and sometimes the smell just doesn’t do it for me.

Now the trick is to get all of this into that silly little one quart plastic bag so we can make it through security!

For more details on my specific top ten favorite list, go to: http://www.bestmakeupandbeautytips.com/top10.html

First, the Botanical Balancing Cleanser is very nice.  It cleans well and makes my skin feel soft and smooth.  It also has a nice flower-citris smell and it doesn’t burn or irritate my eyes.  It washes off easily with no residue.  I may have actually found a new favorite cleanser.  The cleanser contains Red Marine Algae and Alpha-Hydroxy Acids.  Geranium and Rosewood work to normalize oiliness, calm and hydrate.  It claims to leave skin smooth and supple and I can attest that this is true for me.

Second, the Gly-Daily Lotion goes on nicely and absorbs into the skin without feeling greasy.  It works well before applying my makeup.  I am convinced that using the combination of the cleanser and the lotion has made my skin tone better and my skin is definitely softer.  The ingredients are Beta Lucan, Licorice Extracts, Alpha-Hydroxy Acids, and Green Tea.  The proprietary Lyphazome Technology claims to be a time release system that transmits the product into your skin over time.

Third, the Eyelyph Serum rivals my favorite eye creams.  It goes on with a rich, silky feel that absorbs into the skin quickly without leaving a greasy residue.  But it leaves the delicate skin around the eye soft and plumped so that lines are less apparent.  It claims to reduce dark circles but I can’t see that it has done any good for that blood vessel of mine that is too close to the surface of the skin. 

It’s too early to tell if these products will actually improve fine lines and wrinkles but so far I like the improvement in texture and tone.  My skin seems to build up a tolerance to products so that after a few months to a year I like to switch to something new for awhile.  It seems to perk up my skin.  These products are definitely on my short list now.

So I started reading and researching.  Yes, we are obsessed and yes, you can damage your skin with over-exfoliation. But no, we are not making our skin too thin from these procedures.  Microdermabrasion and chemical peels – or any kind of exfoliation should only take off the dead skin cells – if done right.  As we age, the dead skin cells tend to cling to the skin a little longer and make our skin look rough and discolored.  Helping speed up the normal process of removing skin cells will help our skin look smoother.  If we use chemicals that irritate or burn the skin, this is not good for the skin because it damages it – but it doesn’t make it thinner.  And yes we should use moisturizers to rehydrate the skin after these  procedures.

The people who need to worry about making their skin thinner are the elderly.  Skin does get thinner with age so the thinner skin will need to be treated more gently to avoid damage.  People with sensitive skin may be more inclined to damage their skin with exfoliation.  But, in both of these situations, thinning of the skin is not the problem.  It is damaging the skin by over-exfoliating.  So, if you are doing this at home and only experience mild drying and flaking after your exfoliation procedure, you have nothing to worry about. 

Strong chemical peels, laser resurfacing and deep microdermabrasion should only be performed by a doctor or licensed professional in order to avoid skin damage.

So I bought the light Bare Escentuals Get Started Kit. It has two colors – Light and Golden Medium. The Golden Medium is too dark and too yellow for me so now I have extra makeup I probably won’t use. Maybe after I tan a bit this summer, I may mix them. I’ll let you know.

It is easy to apply and I was surprised that it actually works as a concealer, too. Using it as a concealer worked well everywhere except my chin which has broken capillaries and is acne scarred. They have a primer product which may help me cover my chin flaws.

It is surprising creamy for a powder foundation but not as creamy as my Skin Caviar. But it does look more natural and seems to last better all day in an air-conditioned environment.

I don’t like the Warmth product. It is too brown for my coloring and couldn’t manage to use a tiny enough amount to keep from getting too much brown color. So there are two products in the kit that I probably won’t use.

The Mineral Veil powder is a nice finishing touch. The brushes are great. I like the concealer brush for my eyeshadow, too, so I may have to buy another one.

So, all in all, it seems like a good (and much cheaper) alternative to my Skin Caviar foundation. And it should be healthier for my skin.

I will write more this summer to let you know how it stands up in the sweltering Dallas heat at my backyard pool-party barbecues.