Homemade, Vegan Beauty Recipes {Guest Post}

I hope everyone is enjoying the weather as much as I am! It has been beautiful here and I am finally able to open the windows, spring clean, and start on our garden. Spring is such a wonderful time to make things beautiful again, don't you agree? Well, your in luck because today I have Marcela De Vivo who is going to give you some wonderful homemade vegan beauty recipes! I am so very excited about this because homemade beauty tricks never disappoint me. Without further ado, take it away Marcela....

Homemade, Vegan Beauty Recipes

Spring is here, so why not celebrate the return of Mother Nature with these astoundingly natural and amazingly easy to prepare vegan modes of skin and hair care? 

Even non-vegans may want to check out these wholesome natural options, as they often promise the same—or better—benefits without the often dubious chemical ingredients of their drugstore counterparts.

Shampoos and Conditioners

Out of all the alternatives to cruelty-free beauty care products, shampoos and other hair applications can sometimes leave newcomers wary. The prevalence of oils can instill fear of greasy after-effects, while the thinner textures are a wide departure from the creamy consistency of drugstore hair products.

However, vegan hair recipes generally only include enough oils to replenish dry hair, and their watery nature does not lessen their effectiveness.  Since some mass produced animal-friendly hair supplies may contain parabens, a type of preservative that may be linked to hormone imbalance and even breast cancer, this simple homemade shampoo is worth exploring:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup liquid castile soap
• 2 tsp jojoba or grapeseed oil
• 1/8 cup aloe vera gel
• 5 drops of essential oil of your choice

Simply combine in a shampoo-sized bottle and shake vigorously.  For people especially worried about overly oily hair, the jojoba and essential oils can be eliminated.

Scrubs

Exfoliating is essential for any beauty regimen, as it lets clogged pores breathe, cleans up blemishes, and gives skin a silky texture.  Vegan solutions, however, often boast the extra advantage of doubling as moisturizers, especially those that include essential oils.   

Depending on oils you use for these DIY delights, fragrances—and price ranges—can vary greatly, so have fun experimenting with substitutions.  First time users are sometimes put off by the use of salt as the granular element in most vegan scrubs, but salt is remarkable for flushing out toxins and infusing the skin with beneficial minerals.

Here are two favorite selections:

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

This staple is so simple you probably won’t need to make a trip to the grocery store for its basic ingredients:

• ½ cup sea salt (Himalayan Pink sea salt is known to be the best)
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ½ cup brown sugar (the dark kind is preferable)
• 1-3 drops of any essential oil if scent is desired

Mix these elements well and put the mixture in a shower-friendly container.  After you’ve rinsed off, apply to your skin with a circular motion, then rinse and gently towel-dry.  With its olive oil base, this scrub makes post-bath moisturizing unnecessary.

Essential Oil Ambrosia Scrub

This is as exotic as the last recipe is no-frills, though in the end it’s simply a sophisticated variation on the base of all natural scrubs:  a highly moisturizing, invigorating, yet light skin experience. The ingredients are:

• ½ cup fine Bolivian pink salt
• 1 ounce papaya oil
• 1 ounce cherry kernel oil
• 15 drops rose otto essential oil
• 30 drops sandalwood essential oil

You may want to replace the costly essential oils with sandalwood and red rose fragrance oils, but as the Bolivian salt gives the scrub a delightful pink glitter. Substitutions will subtract from the full experience.

Masks

Maybe no other member of the skin care family provides the same sense of deep rejuvenation than face masks—yet they are the most likely to contain an arsenal of synthetic and/or animal-tested products.  Fortunately, homemade vegan alternatives are simple to make, and rely almost exclusively on ingredients you’d find in a healthful breakfast: oatmeal, orange juice, yogurt, and coffee.

A perfect illustration of the elegant purity of vegan masks is the strawberry and rice milk variety.  Simply mash 6 strawberries and ½ tablespoon organic rice milk into a thick paste, apply to your face, and let stand for 15 minutes before rinsing.  As strawberries are packed with salicylic acid, this is one of the very best home-grown ways of eliminating outbreaks of acne.

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer from Los Angeles. She specializes in a variety of health topics, from covering special needs, holistic and alternative therapy issues, to blogging about fitness, beauty and skin care.