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

Coconut + Rose Evening Oil & Makeup Remover

If you’re interested in more DIY skin-care potions, check out these posts.

Today we’re sharing the recipe for a super simple evening face oil.

This potion is much simpler than our winter face oil. As explained in that post, our winter face oil calls for a blend of different carrier and essential oils, each with their own beneficial properties from firming the skin to lightening aging spots.

With only three ingredients, today’s potion is much easier to make, but that doesn’t detract from its usefulness and indulgent properties. This oil smells amazing, and it’s is something that I like to use in the evenings because it does double duty: removes my makeup and moisturizes““““““““““` before bed.

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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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Honey Face Wash

Honey is our ingredient of the season, and you can find our full archive of honey posts here.
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After a bit of trial and error, I’ve finally narrowed in on an all-nature, DIY face wash that I’m loving. It contains honey + a number of other ingredients that combine to create a gentle exfoliation for your skin without a sticky mess. Seriously!

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Cocoa Mint Lip Balm

If you’d like to see more of our DIY beauty potions, click here. You’ll find everything from deodorant to face oils and body scrubs to customized perfumes. Here you’ll find our recipe for a DIY floral lip balm.

Today I’m sharing the most scrumptious yet simple lip balm recipe.  The addition of comfrey and calendula-infused olive oils adds creates a super nourishing base. The blend of unrefined cocoa butter + peppermint essential oils produces an amazing scent.

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I’ve talked in greater details about essential oils in this post. This post reiterates many of the lip-balm making tips that are also discussed in our floral balm post.

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Fire Cider!

Ginger is our ingredient of the season, and you can find our complete archive of ginger posts here.

Have you heard of Fire Cider*? Some consider it a magic elixir others consider it crazy hippie medicine. No matter where you stand on the topic, we can all agree that it’s a bit hard to swallow without a good dose of honey.

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This is a post has been on the back-burner for a while. I’ve been wanting to write it and share one of our trusted winter elixirs, but at the same time, I don’t like to spout magic without having a bit of science to back me up.

In the end, I decided to share a recipe for fire cider along with a few links and a suggestion that you do your own research into food as medicine.

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Activated Charcoal Deodorant

When feasible, we like to experiment with our own beauty potions. You can find a bunch here, from lip balms to face masks to foot scrubs!

We like our deodorants simple and effective. With their long ingredient lists, it can be hard to find simple deodorants in the beauty section. And when we do find something that’s simple and often “natural” it’s often not as effective as we want it to be. Admittedly, that goes for our own DIY blends too.

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But we aren’t throwing in the towel yet, and today we have a new blend that we’re excited to share!

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Solid Perfume Necklace

We love crafting with essential oils. You can see some previous projects here.

One of the homemade gifts that I gave this year were these necklaces. Each contained an adorable acorn locket filled with solid perfume.

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Read on for the simple DIY and an amazing woodsy essential oil blend.

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Winter Face Oil

The cold and dry air of winter has a way of wreaking havoc on our skin and nails. Our remedies include drinking plenty of water and creating barriers to moisture loss.

For our hands, we’re a huge fan of balms. Most of ours are made at home with a combination of beeswax, moisturizing carrier oils, and nourishing extracts and essential oils (think calendula, lavender, comfrey).

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We won’t shy away from using a balm on our cheeks if we’re heading out for a day in the elements, but for everyday use, we want some thing a touch lighter than. And that’s when we grab a DIY face oil.

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