About the Author
This guest post was written by Jenn of Hello Brio. You can also find Jenn on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.
I’ve been working on switching over to all natural beauty and makeup products for several months now. It’s not an easy transition, and it can be quite expensive.
Growing up, my mom created beauty and health concoctions with plants from her herb garden combined with common pantry items like olive oil, and I thought it was a bit odd. But as a lot of mother-daughter things go, I’ve learned that her practices aren’t so strange: her natural beauty routine is quite admirable – and now I’m following suit! After all, she is in her 60’s and still has fantastic, clear, glowing skin.
So, when life gives you lemons, make all-natural at-home beauty treatments!
Lemons are fruit; they’re natural. They’re inexpensive. Lemon juice has antiseptic, healing and lightening properties, and can also help with acne.
See where I’m going here?
Combined with the right ingredients, lemons can be a staple in many natural DIY skincare treatments. Here are four easy lemon-based beauty recipes: two for face, and two for feet.
And if you’re like me and don’t cook fancy things very often, I picked recipes that call for a small number of common ingredients. I hope you’ll love these inexpensive, surprisingly luxurious beauty treatments as much as I do!
Lemon yogurt peel
For this super-gentle exfoliating mask, you’ll need 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best), 1/4 cup of plain yogurt (I use Greek yogurt), and about 1 tablespoon of honey. Yogurt combined with honey makes a great gentle antibacterial cleanser.
Mix the ingredients together until the mixture is uniform, and apply to clean skin. Leave it on for 10 minutes, and rinse with warm water.
Oh, yeah. And feel free to eat some yogurt and honey if you’re so inclined (it’s one of my favorite treats!).
Sweet honey lemon face scrub
Combine 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and the fresh squeezed juice from a quarter of a lemon. Honey’s natural antibacterial quality gives this nourishing and moisturizing scrub acne fighting properties, and my skin glows after doing this treatment.
This recipe yields about four uses for me. Apply about one quarter of the mixture by gently rubbing it on clean skin, and then leaving it in place for about 5 minutes before rinsing.
You can store the rest of the mixture for later use — just not more often than once every 3 or 4 days.
Oh, and if you happen to accidentally taste the mix, I won’t tell. 🙂
Lemon and apple cider vinegar foot soak
As much as I would love to go to a salon and spend $30+ on a pedicure, I can use this inexpensive DIY treatment to freshen my feet and help make exfoliating easier.
In a container large enough for your feet, combine about 10 cups of hot water, 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/2 a cup of salt, and 2 fresh squeezed lemons.
Soak your feet for about 15 minutes; then pat dry, and use a pumice stone to slough off any dead skin.
I should warn you that this isn’t the most fragrant treatment, and the scent can linger a bit, so I recommend doing it before you shower. Or, use the following recipe to exfoliate and diminish the vinegar scent when you’re done.
Sugar lemon foot scrub
This is my absolute favorite recipe of the bunch. Pamper your feet with this moisturizing, sweet scrub by combining 1/2 a cup of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and the fresh squeezed juice of 1/2 a lemon. Massage the mix on your feet, rinse, pat dry and moisturize.
I find that one batch of this recipe is the perfect amount for my feet, hands and elbows. And wow! This is SUCH a nice treatment. I don’t know that I’ll ever want/need to buy a foot scrub again!
I hope you’ll try some of these easy DIY skincare treatments and love them as much as I do. What are some of your favorite at-home all-natural beauty recipes?
This guest post was written by Jenn of Hello Brio. You can also find Jenn on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.
Fantastic post, and I’m so tempted to try them out especially the lemon honey face scrub… which sounds delish enough to eat!
great recipes!! I LOVE making my own face masks at home. The best one is made with colloidal oatmeal (or oatmeal flour), water, and pure raw or organic honey. I just mix the colloidal oatmeal with just enough water to make it a thick paste. Then I add honey to give it a more fluid texture. Done! This mask is AMAZING at really calming any skin irritation I may have, brings down my zits, hydrates, and softens. I swear, my (very large) pores even look minimized and tight afterwards! You can even add a squeeze of lemon in it if you want a little brightening.
That’s a great tip, and I love how easy that recipe sounds. I will definitely give it a try!
Hi Jenn,
Loved all of the DIY recipes. I’ll be trying out the one for feet tonight. I’m cursed with dry feet & this sounds so pampering n nice 😀 😀
All these look delicious…. uh no, effective! Thanks for sharing the recipe Jenn! I’m so ready to try them all!
Great post! I love natural beauty tricks, I’ll give these a try this week!
I tried out the face scrub, seriously impressed, thanks for the great post!!
I stumbled upon this blog/article via Pinterest. It’s funny because I was just about to google how to use lemons to lighten discolorations on my skin. I’m going to try the lemon+brown sugar+honey scrub and see what it does. Great info. Thanks!
Great! Try the scrub weekly for at least a month for maximum benefits.
Lemon is one of my fave scnets, thank you for the recipes! 🙂
Hey Jenn thanks for posting these recipes. Some questions:
How do you feel about using these lemon recipes with sun-exposed skin? Being that it’s the end of summer here in LA, I’m still getting a good 30min-1hour of sun during my morning runs. The salycilic and citrus products on the market often ward us from using them on days when we’ve been outside. I’m thinking of trying the yogurt-honey-lemon mask at early evening so it’s at least 10-12 hours away from my run times. Maybe even drop the lemon juice down to a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon. I use a 2% salycilic face wash every other night with no problems. Any thoughts?
I found the best eye cream recipe ever: coconut oil and vitamin e mixed together. I will never pay high dollars for another eye store bought brand! 🙂