Do It Yourself: Beauty Tips

Please feel free to leave any of your home remedy beauty tips and comments.

Do It Yourself: Beauty Tips

Need something to do on those lonely boring nights? Pamper yourself! You can either do it alone or with your friends. Here are tips that are easy and inexpensive for you to do yourself. Three new tips will be posted every two weeks. Hope you enjoy them.

It is pleasant to perfume the hair after washing it when the hair is half dry. The following ingredients are required to make this fragrant perfume.

6 tablespoons powdered charcoal
5 tablespoons powders myrrh
1 tablespoon powdered benzoin
1 tablespoon potassium nitrate
2-3 drops oil of bergamot
2-3 drops of sandalwood
mucilage of tragacanth

Mix the powders together and sieve, and then add the oils. Add the potassium nitrate, and then sufficient mucilage of tragacanth to make a stiff paste. Heat the mixture over a water bath and then make into little cones and dry. Just light one of the cones and let the smoke go into the damp hair. The smell is highly aromatic and exotic.

Treatment For Dark Circles

Sometimes dark circles under the eyes can make people look older than they really are.

Grated potatoes can lighten under-eye circles. Potatoes contain an enzyme called catecholase, which is used in cosmetics as a human skin lightener.

Run one spud through your food processor and stuff the raw mash into a piece of cheesecloth.
Apply to the area directly beneath your eye — don't let the potato juice come in contact with the eye itself — and leave for 15 to 20 minutes.
Wipe away the starchy residue

Shea Butter

At bath time, nothing is more luxurious or nurturing for your skin than an all-natural bar of Shea butter soap.

In order to make your own shea butter soap, you will need:

All-natural Castile (olive oil based) soap
distilled water
2 tbsp all-natural, unprocessed shea butter
1 tbsp finely ground almonds (optional, but a nice addition for a gentle exfoliating soap with a nice scent)
A grater
A double boiler, or a small pot that can be placed inside of a bigger pot
Small plastic food containers for molds
A mixing spoon
A drying rack
Begin by setting some tap water to boil in the double-broiler or big pot. Grate your castile soap until you have two cups full. Add this to the inner double-boiler, or the small pot, with ½ cup of distilled water. Melt it over medium high heat, stirring frequently until the soap is completely melted and stringy when you pull up the spoon.
Remove it from the heat. Add the shea butter and almonds, stirring gently until the mixture is well blended. Pour into small plastic food containers and let dry and harden for several hours. They should pop out when completely hard.
Place on the drying rack and allow soap to set for 3 weeks, turning regularly throughout the day to prevent the bars from warping. Then, simply wrap them in plastic wrap to preserve them, or use them in your next bath.

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