Beauty Receipes

Forget the beauty aisle — the secret ingredients for glowing, gorgeous skin live right in your kitchen. Simplify your skincare regimen with these 10 delicious "recipes."
The Hydrating Face Mask
Honey and Greek yogurt are beauty cure-alls, acting as both exfoliators and moisturizers. This creamy mask leaves skin super-soft (but not at all oily).

• 2 tbsp organic Greek yogurt
• 2 tsp organic honey
• 1 tsp sweet almond oil

Combine all ingredients into a paste. Apply a generous layer to face and leave on for 10 minutes, then rinse with warm water.


The Oil-Removing Face Mask

This mask works double-duty— Epsom salt extracts dirt and oil from pores, while papaya and yogurt calm cleaned skin.

• Flesh of 4 papaya
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup Epsom salts
• 1 peppermint tea bag

In a bowl, mash papaya with a fork; blend in yogurt and set aside.
Dissolve Epsom salts in a large pot of water, then drop in tea bag. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Sit with face over pot for 3 minutes, head covered with a towel (like a tent) to seal in steam. Spread papaya mask over face. Leave on 10 minutes; rinse.


The Eye Treatment

Treat the tender skin around your eyes with care and you'll look like you always get your beauty sleep.

• 1 1/2 tsp jojoba oil
• 1 1/2 tsp pure shea butter
• 1 cup water
• 2 chamomile tea bags
• 2 green tea bags

In a bowl, mix jojoba oil and shea butter; set aside. Microwave water for one minute, then steep tea bags for a few seconds. Squeeze out; place a chamomile bag on each upper eyelid and a green tea bag under each eye.
Relax for ten minutes. Toss bags and gently dab jojoba balm around the eyes.


The Lip Scrub
Not only does this scrub create a prettier pout, but it gently perfumes lips, leaving them as sweet as they are soft.

• 1 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• Juice of 1/4 lemon
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• Contents of 1 vitamin E capsule
• 1 drop lemon essential oil

In a bowl, mix honey, sugar and lemon juice. Rub over lips with finger in a circular motion to exfoliate; rinse. Combine remaining ingredients in another bowl. Dab on lips. Extras keep in the fridge for a week.


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The Lip Gloss

Love a lip stain? Get perfect last-all-day color with this two-step treatment.

• 1/2 cup petroleum jelly
• 1 scoop or 2 packets Natural Cherry Pomegranate Crystal Light
• Small jar with lid

Mix petroleum jelly and Crystal Light in a bowl, adding 1 tsp water a few drops at a time, until gloss turns berry red. Use a spatula to smooth formula into jar.


The Brown Sugar Body Scrub

The best way to get ready for warmer weather? Slough off dead winter skin with a scrub that smells like the islands. (Pina colada not included).

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup virgin coconut oil
• 10 drops essential rose and/or sandalwood oil

In a glass bowl add essential oil(s) to the sugar and stir thoroughly. Add hydrating coconut oil gradually, stirring continuously. Stop when the scrub reaches the consistency of moist sand.



The Coffee Body Scrub

Caffeine tightens loose skin, so this scrub acts as an instant-slimmer.

• 1/4 raw sugar
• 1/4 cup ground coffee
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tbsp sea salt

Blend all ingredients and place in an air-tight container. Massage all over body in an upward motion before rinsing off. Can be stored for up two months.

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The Body Mask

This spicy blend might remind you of Christmas but it's ideal for any season. Ginger and cinnamon help to fight illness, while turmeric reduces inflammation.

• 1/4 cup nutmeg
• 1/4 cup tumeric
• 1/4 cup ginger
• 1/4 cup rice powder
• 1/4 cup cinnamon
• 1/4 cup clove

Mix together all spices, slowly adding a drop of water at a time until the spices form a paste. Spread a thin layer over your skin and let dry for 15 minutes. Rinse off in the shower and follow with moisturizer.

The Body Cream

Once you've exfoliated, make sure to hydrate your skin. This easy recipe produces an intensely moisturizing cream that won't feel overly greasy.

• 1/2 cup shea butter
• 2 tbsp avocado oil
• 5-10 drops lavender essential oil

Mix shea butter and avocado oil in a pan over low heat, stirring until melted. Pour into a small sealable container. Add as much lavender as you like. Refrigerate until creamy. Slather all over apres-shower.

 
The Energizing Foot Scrub

Peppermint will leave your tootsies feeling tingly, cool, and shockingly awake (i.e. don't use this treatment before bed!).

• 4 strawberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 8 drops peppermint essential oil

In a bowl, puree or mash berries (which help exfoliate thanks to salicylic acid), then add sugar and olive and vegetable oils. Mix until well blended. Add peppermint oil 2 drops at a time until scrub smells minty. Spoon into jar, then stash in the fridge or use immediately.

Stories that Touch my Heart

9-Year-Old's Conn. Letter to Police Gets Response

• 
  Good Morning America/Courtesy Millie Mell -

A 9-year-old Connecticut boy who saw cars whizzing down his neighborhood street as he waited for the school bus each day did what a lot of adults might not have done. He took action.
Isaiah McLoughlin, of Waterford, Conn., sent a handwritten letter to his local police department asking officers to, in part, call his grandmother "so we can talk about the situation."
Isaiah's grandmother, the third-grader's primary guardian, said she encouraged him to write the letter.

"He's been talking about it to me for months," Millie Mell said of the speeders that "fly" down their residential road at speeds as high as 60 m.p.h. "I said, 'Alright Isaiah, maybe you should write a letter to the police yourself and tell them about the speeders.'"

Isaiah, who signed his note with a congenial, "Your friend, Isaiah," put the letter in the mail on Monday and the very next evening, the department's youth officer, Nicole VanOverloop, came to Isaiah's house to discuss his concerns.
"She talked to him about the speeding and that she was proud of him that he wrote the letter and would pass the information on to the traffic officer and they would come out and ticket the speeders," Mell said.
Sure enough, according to Mell, as she and Isaiah waited for the school bus this morning, an officer was stationed on their street with a radar gun.
"He was a very busy man," Mell said. "He just kept going back and forth with his lights on, pulling people over."
Mell described Isaiah as "very pleased" with the results of his letter but she says there is a bigger lesson for everyone in the actions of her 9-year-old grandson.
"I think it's a great lesson for everybody that if you see something you don't like - that's either illegal or unjust - you can speak up and get results," Mell said. "We all get a little jaded, but maybe three or four people will go slower or they won't go down our road and it'll make a difference."
Waterford Police Department officials were not immediately available for comment.

 

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What's a weekend

What's a weekend when baseball season has started :) well almost nothing. Between running to game, practices and grocery shopping I have time just enough to collapse