
DIY Beauty Solutions
While do-it-yourself projects typically involve hot glue guns and MacGyver-like skills, you can also DIY when it comes to your beauty products.
In fact, there are likely a multitude of items in your drawers, cabinets and pantry that could be used in beauty treatments (powdered milk, anyone?). The best part about DIY beauty is that because you’re concocting the solutions yourself, you can customize the formula to address your specific hair concerns, skincare needs or makeup preferences. Here are just a few DIY ideas for some products you can make with simple ingredients.
Haircare
If you’re dealing with dry, dull strands, this mask will instantly make locks more lustrous. All you need, according to Self magazine, are two or three thoroughly mashed bananas, 1/3 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. Mix the concoction together and apply evenly to your hair, letting it sit for 15 minutes before you wash it out. Bananas are high in potassium, which can infuse strength into strands weakened by the sun, heat styling and other stressors. Self noted that the apple cider vinegar acts as a clarifying agent to get rid of product buildup, while the olive oil’s fatty acids hydrate strands.
Skincare
Dry skin is a downer, but Adina Grigore, founder and chief formulator for S.W. Basics, told Refinery 29 that you can mix a moisturizer so rich that parched, damaged skin becomes softer, smoother and fully hydrated. Just mix together 1/2 cup of shea butter, 1/4 cup cocoa butter and a drizzle of coconut oil into a glass bowl. Make sure the bowl can withstand heat, as you’ll be putting it over a a double boiler on low heat for several minutes. Once the consistency is fluid, use an oven mitt to take the bowl off the burner and let it cool. Then put a lid or plastic wrap over the bowl and refrigerate the homemade moisturizer. An hour later you can apply the cream to your face and body – and take a deep breath, because the scent is heavenly.
Makeup
Looking for a great glow? Sometimes it’s hard to find the right shade of bronzer – if it’s too light it’s ineffective, and if it’s too dark it looks entirely fake. The idea is to achieve the kind of radiance you’d naturally get from a day basking on the beaches of St. Tropez, and there’s no better way to get the color just right than to mix it yourself. Self magazine recommends mixing together 1/2 cup cinnamon powder, 1/4 cup cocoa powder and three tablespoons of baby powder and sifting it into a bowl before mixing in four to five drops of coconut oil. By adding body lotion, you can personalize the shade: More lotion will make the bronzer more subtle while less will make a richer, deeper pigment.