Oat & Honey Face Mask

Looking for more winter skin care options? Check out our pumpkin + honey face mask, winter face oil, and coconut + rose makeup remover and evening oil.

Hey there! Happy New Year!

Popping in with a quick and simple DIY face mask that’s the perfect fix for dry winter skin.

About a month ago, my skin was really suffering from the dry Colorado air. It was dry and tight, and starting to break out. After ignoring it for about a week, I realized that I needed a fix, but I wanted to keep it simple, and with only three ingredients, this recipe fit the bill.

Oat & Honey Face Mask

As you’ll see, precise measurements aren’t necessary for this recipe.

  • ground whole oats
  • water
  • honey

Use a blade coffee grinder to pulverize about 2 Tbsp of oats. If your coffee grinder is dirty from coffee or other spices, you can easily clean it by grinding up a small amount of rice before grinding the oats.

Place the ground oats in a small bowl and add enough water to make a thick paste. Mix thoroughly to break up any oat lumps.

Add some honey, about equal to half of your oat paste. Stir until blended, and then it’s ready to use!

Apply the mask to your face and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Just before it’s starting to get hard around the edges, wipe off and apply your favorite moisturizer or serum. I use our DIY face serum.

Because this is so easy to make, I recommend making a small amount, about enough for one or two applications. Or you can grind a bunch of oats to have on hand for the next time that you want to make more. I don’t recommend mixing a large batch because it may go bad before you use it up.

Wishing you a happy new year and some healthy winter skin! xo

Waste Less Wednesday: Halloween Costume

It’s our very irregular Wednesday series where we share simple tips to reduce your consumption and environmental impact. You can find our full WLW archive here.

Halloween’s just 5 days away! Don’t have a costume yet? We have a pretty simple suggestion that’s going to cost you less than $10, and you may not even have to leave your house to get it.

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DIY Heart Ornaments

Sometimes we’re just looking for a little something to keep our hands busy while we watch a TV show in the evening. Or maybe we want to pass the time while waiting in the car for takeout food. Remember those days of waiting for your kids at gymnastics practice? Us too. Next year that sentence will be applicable once again, but let’s get onto that ‘little somethin’. Felt heart ornaments! Simple and oh so sweet. If we had our sh!t together, we would package up little gifts to send out to our friends with a DIY kit to create some felt heart ornaments. Maybe you can take that inspiration and run with it?

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Lick-able Cinnamon Brown Sugar Lip Scrub

Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. Here’s a round-up of previous cinnamon posts.

Have you ever used a lip scrub? They’re a gentle scrub, often made with sugar, that you rub on your lips to remove dry skin and add a touch of moisture. They’re a delicious solution to those pesky dry lips that are unavoidable come autumn and winter.

This DIY is so simple that we don’t really have an exact recipe, and as you’ll see, you definitely don’t need one.

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Lip Scrub

I made a tiny batch of scrub – just enough to fill a small cosmetic jar, but you can easily play around with a recipe and scale up or down. Down? Yes! Making a scrub is as simple as putting a dab of coconut oil on your finger with a sprinkle of sugar and then rubbing it on your lips.

  • Mix together equal parts coconut oil and brown sugar.
  • Sprinkle in a bit of cinnamon to taste. I liked mine with a touch more, so I sprinkled and sampled until I was happy.
  • Optional: add a drop of cinnamon essential oil.
  • Once your scrub is well mixed, transfer it to a lidded container.

You can use your scrub any time of day. I prefer morning and evening. At night, I’ll often follow the scrub with a nice thick balm like Ilia’s lip mask.

Mint, Salt & Sand Body Scrub

Mint is our ingredient of the season. Look out for a season of cool posts.

This post was originally published in 2014. We’re republishing it this week because everyone’s at the shore and in need of a good foot scrub. We love the extra heft that the sand brings to this one.

A few weeks ago we shared ideas for rosemary body scrubs, reminding you that exfoliating goes a long way towards making your stems smooth with every shave. Did you try it out? What did you think? Today’s scrub will also work on your legs, but we think it makes a refreshing foot scrub. The sand and salt give it a bit more scrubbing power where it’s needed,  the coconut oil will soften and hydrate, and the mint will cool your hard-working soles.

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