How To Make Natural Beauty Masks

by Sadia Khan

Even though we weren't out baking in the sun all summer long (and you weren't, right?), our skin and hair often wind up dehydrated and dull at the end of these hot months. Make your hair shine and your skin glow with these all-natural recipes you can whip up with just a few simple, easy-to-find ingredients.

Egg yolks are widely acknowledged as one of nature's best moisturizers. Here are a couple ultra-rich masks to "deep condition" hair and skin.

Egg Yolk & Honey Facial Mask (best for dryer skin types) Mix Together 1 tablespoon honey 1 egg yolk 1/2 teaspoon almond oil 1 tablespoon yogurt.   Honey stimulates and smoothes, egg and almond oil penetrate and moisturize, and yogurt refines and tightens pores.

Egg Yolk, Avocado & Mud Facial Mask

Best for oily skin types

Clay or fuller's earth mud is available in powder form at any health food store.

 

Mix Together

• 1 tablespoon dry clay
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 of a mashed avocado
• enough witch hazel to create a smooth mixture.

Mud dries excess sebum while the egg yolk and avocado replenish lost moisture. Witch hazel tones.

 

Egg & Olive Oil Hair Mask

Mix Together

• 2 whole eggs
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil

 

Smooth through hair. Wrap top of head with Saran Wrap and allow to penetrate for 10 minutes. Rinse well.

 

Fruit Smoothie Hair Mask

This mask sounds good enough to eat!

 

In a blender mix

• 1/2 a banana,
• 1/4 avocado,
• 1/4 cantaloupe,
• 1 tablespoon wheat germ oil
• 1 tablespoon yogurt.

For extra conditioning, squeeze in the contents of a vitamin E capsule. Leave in hair for 15 minutes.

To polish up those patchy remnants of a tan, bring your loofah into the bath with you, and add one of these ingredients to speed up the exfoliating process:

3/4 cup of lemon juice added to your bath water helps to bleach a fading tan and smooth away flaky skin. Or, you can mix a paste with lemon juice plus salt or sugar. Leave on the skin for 30 minutes and rinse dry, dead skin off with it!

Oatmeal is great for soothing a sunburn as well as for exfoliating. Fill an old sock with oatmeal and swish it in your bath water; once it's softened up, you can then scrub your body with it.

Vinegar restores the acid balance of skin and also acts as a gentle exfoliant. Try adding 1 cup of raw apple cider vinegar to a lukewarm bath to ease the separation of peeling skin.

If you're still in a blotchy, in-between stage, you might also want to experiment with gentle self-tanners or bronzers to ease the transition.