It's Christmas time. That usually means it time to spend your cash buying gifts for others. Well if you can steal a way minutes from your "ta-dah" list, you can fashion yourself an exquisite natural skin lightening toner. Better yet, you could give it away as a present.

You can locate natural skin whitening agents like soy, licorice, vitamin E and vitamin C at your local grocer or drugstore. Moreover, you can combine these active skin brightening ingredients in innumerous ways to craft a skin care product unique to your taste and skin brightening needs. Here's some basics steps for formulating your own spot removing toner: Step 1: Gather natural ingredients and utensils Skin lightening ingredients 4 ounces of dried licorice or 4 ounces of dried soybeans 3 ounces of citric acid Fragrant ingredients (These herbs are typically available at the herb and/or tea section of most health stores in jars where you can purchase only as much product as you need) Select one of two herbs that appeal most to your senses:

1 ounce of dried peppermint leaves

1 ounce of dried rosemary

1 once of dried hibiscus

1 ounce of dried lemongrass

1 ounce of dried grapefruit rinds or a potpourri of dried citrus rinds

Alcohol for creating herbal infusion:
10 ounces of grain alcohol or

10 ounces of ethanol

Mixing and storage:
16-ounce Mason jar with lid and screw cap

8-ounce dark colored plastic bottle or glass

1 Cheesecloth

1 Small funnel

2 stick-on labels

Step 2: Grinding

In a coffee grinder, roughly grind the soybeans or licorice with the fragrant herbs you have selected.

Step 3: Create and herbal infusion

Create a label that reads "Skin lightening herbal infusion" and place today's date on it.

Pour 10 ounces of alcohol into the Mason jar.

Now add the mixture of herbs and skin lighteners that you created in step two to the alcohol. Tightly place the lid and screw cap on the Mason jar. Gently shake the jar.

Place the label on the jar.

Now store the jar in a dark closet or cabinet for eight days. Check the jar once a day to make certain that all the herbs are still cover in the alcohol. If not, add just enough alcohol to cover the herbs, reseal the jar, and store it again until day eight.

Step 4: Straining

Place a cheesecloth into the funnel. Place the funnel into a bottle. Now slowly pour the herbal infusion you made in step three through the funnel to separate the herbs. Place a cap on the bottle to store the surplus.

Step 5: The final product

To finish your natural skin lightening toner, add five ounces of your herbal infusion to a plastic bottle. Next, add three ounces of concentrated, or fresh squeezed lemon juice to the herbal infusion.

To enjoy the benefits of your skin lightening toner, use it at least once or twice daily. First, cleanse your skin with a mild soap. Next saturate the toner with a cotton square. Smooth the toner over your entire face, avoiding the eye area, and leave on the toner for five to ten minutes then rinse it off.

Tip:
If the alcohol content of your finished products seems drying to your skin, add four to eight drops of vitamin E to your eight-ounce toner. This will boost the skin brightening effects of your homemade beauty product while preventing dryness.