Category Archives: Homemade beauty

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The Oat Spa

If you read my ode to the oat a few days back, you’ll know I was planning to try out a couple of recipes from Margaret Briggs’ book Porridge: Oats and their many health benefits (available on Amazon for just £2.99.)

Well I did. I mixed, I slathered and I wallowed in oats. With some success. I tried out three recipes from the book, as follows:

Oatmeal cleanser for sensitive skin

250ml warm water; 120g oatmeal; 1 tablespoon of honey

Blend ingredients together until smooth.

Cucumber face mask for sensitive skin

1/4 large cucumber (peeled and seeded); 1 tablespoon of whipping cream; 1/2 tablespoon of honey; 8 teaspoons of finely powdered oats

Blend ingredients together until smooth.

Oatmeal bath soak

2-3 cups of porridge oats; 3 tablespoons of olive oil; 5 drops of essential oil; old pair of tights or muslin cloth

Mix essential oils with olive oil. Mix in oats. Place in tights or muslin and SECURE ENDS! Add to a warm bath.

The cleanser was really nice although the quantities in the recipe left me with LOADS of the stuff. I wasn’t sure how long it would keep for (although it could probably be safely kept in the fridge for a couple of days) so there was a bit of wastage there. I’d recommend halving or even quartering the amounts. You’ll still get plenty. To use, simply massage a small scoop into your face. It has a surprisingly creamy, smooth texture and feels really nice on the skin (provided you’re not thinking too much about smearing cold porridge on yourself). The oats have a mild exfoliating effect without irritating sensitive skin so it’s a good dual-purpose option. It’s messy though; much like my homemade chocolate face mask which you can read about here. Do wipe off the excess with cotton wool or kitchen roll before rinsing. You will clog up your sink if you don’t.

The recipe for the mask makes much less product. It’s probably about 2-4 applications, depending on the amount you use, so a good option if you’ve got some friends round! It felt a bit tingly on the skin but that wore off. I’m not sure if it made that much difference to my face and if you aren’t keen on the smell of cucumber I’d suggest you avoid it, but it was fun to try and certainly didn’t seem to do my skin any harm…which is something!

My all time favourite oaty treat though was the bath. I did add essential oils, although these are optional and best avoided if you have very sensitive skin. If you really want to add them, good options are lavender for it’s relaxing, sleep-inducing properties or chamomile for its skin-soothing properties. I used sweet orange for the heavenly smell.

I used a muslin cloth, being irritatingly out of laddered and/or holey tights (although you can bet your life if I’d been looking for a pair to WEAR, there’d have been plenty). I just piled on the mix, then caught up the ends and secured with a hair elastic. This worked brilliantly and I think the cloth will be salvageable. Once added to the bath, make sure to give it a shake around every so often. I also squeezed it a few times once it was nice and saturated, and was rewarded with dribbles of milky, oaty water that made the bath nice and cloudy. Sounds revolting, feels AMAZING on the skin. Oats are brilliant for soothing irritable skin and mine definitely felt better afterwards. I was also left with a moisture-rich film on the surface of my skin afterwards, which helped me hang onto that feeling for longer. I’m definitely trying this one again and may make an oat-bath a weekly or fortnightly event. I reckon regular oat bathing could make a big difference to my eczema when it’s flaring up.

One tip though. Wait till the oat parcel is dry before you undo it and chuck the contents away. It is seriously yucky to do this when it’s still wet and slimy.

There are plenty more recipes in the book, as well as a load of recipes for edible porridge, most of which sound great. Well worth checking out. And if you do experiment with oats in your beauty routine, let me know how it goes…

Call that a bath? THIS is a bath. The one in my mini-moon cottage to be precise. I spent a lot of time here. I didn't put oats in it...

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Homemade beauty for chocoholics (for EXTERNAL use)

A few days ago I wrote a post about a couple of the great chocolate products out there – http://naturalbeautycabinet.com/2011/06/12/beauty-products-for-the-chocoholics-jason%e2%80%99s-cocoa-butter-moisturiser-and-raw-gaia%e2%80%99s-raw-chocolate-face-pack/. But when it comes to foodie beauty, you can also try your store cupboard for a quick beauty fix. So for all you beauty DIYers, here’s my take on the homemade chocolate face mask.

I used:

1 tbsp cocoa powder (not hot chocolate mix – this must be the best pure cocoa or you won’t get the same antioxidant effects); 1 tsp honey (runny honey – you’ll never get anywhere trying to mix the hard stuff); 1-2 tsp oats (I just used rolled porridge oats); 2 tbsp creme fraiche.

The cocoa powder contains the antioxidants that I raved about in the last post. The honey has natural antiseptic properties and also has the ability to hang onto moisture making it an effective humectant. The oats have excellent anti-inflammatory properties and, in this mask, act as a gentle and effective exfoliant. The creme fraiche contains lactic acid, which is an alpha hydroxy acid. These are commonly used in anti-ageing products for their rejuvenating effects on the skin.

DIRECTIONS: Blend all four ingredients gently together until they form a paste. If it needs to be runnier, add a little more cream. If it’s too liquid, add a bit more cocoa powder. Apply to freshly cleaned skin. Leave to dry for 10-15 minutes then remove with lukewarm water, gently massaging off for an extra bit of exfoliation.

[Warning: don’t think you can skip the mixing bit by using Nutella. It doesn’t have quite the same antioxidant benefits and, quite frankly, it’s a waste of good Nutella.]

It may look lumpy and sticky but the warmth from your fingers as you apply it will melt the mask and make it easier to spread. Make sure you STAY IN THE BATHROOM! At least until you’ve applied the mask and it’s slightly set. I am not going to pretend this isn’t messy. It’s seriously messy and it’s a lot easier to clean chocolately oats off tiles than carpet…

The mask will dry slightly but it won’t set, so it shouldn’t feel uncomfortable or tight. As with any beauty product, if you experience any more than slight tingling, or you experience prolonged tingling that gradually worsens, then remove it straight away with cool, clear water. As expected, it smells amazing and ‘yes’ I did lick some off and ‘yes’ it did taste really nice!

Be careful when removing it. I’d actually recommend wiping off the oats first using damp kitchen roll, so that you don’t clog off your sink. Then you should find that the residue washes off easily with lukewarm water. Afterwards I noticed my skin was a little red in the ‘hot’ zone (either side of my nose and between my eyebrows) but that settled down and may have been due to the mild exfoliating effect of the oats. Otherwise my skin felt pretty soft and refreshed.

This is messy. I’ve said it before, but there’s really no getting away from it. And if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of washing oats out of your eyebrows, then it might not be for you. But it’s strangely satisfying to create a beauty product from four such simple, common ingredients. The odd gooey drip aside, the mask is pretty easy to apply and, as you can see from the picture, once dry it stayed put and didn’t migrate down my neck or into my eyes. There was a bit of mild tingling on application but that disappeared after a minute or two and was never uncomfortable.

Generally speaking, I’d give this a thumbs up. It’s definitely one for lazy, rainy Sundays when you’re not in a rush to go out. But for people who want a more natural approach, it’s a great option. Is it better than the Raw Gaia Raw Chocolate Face Pack I reviewed previously? I think it performed nearly as well. But it tasted better….!

Homemade chocolate face mask or rainy-festival-fashion statement...? You decide.