Hippocrates said my favorite thing about food, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be they food”. He was right, if we are eating right and in a healthy way one will feel better. Heck if your feeling better your going to look better. But I’d like to say food can be thy beauty treatment as well. It’s safe, simple and no more then a few simple ingredients from your kitchen.
My favorite food to use as a beauty treatment is honey. Now before I move on I want to say honey is great for burns and cuts. I once grabbed hold of a cast iron skillet that had been in the oven that I had set on the stove and forgot to get an oven mit or think the handle would still be roasting hot and burned my hand really good. I reached right over for the honey and slathered it on and let it sit on the burn and finished dinner. Whipped a bit of it off to eat and then later put a tad more on. The next morning I really expected to see a raw red mark that the hot handle would have left. Nothing. Just a slight difference in my skin. It never peeled or swelled up. Honey has natural antibacterial properties plus vitamins and minerals so it works great to help heal the skin.
I have to share that the stuff you get in your local grocery store in the cute little bear or honey hive is not the kind you want to use for eating or beauty treatments. That stuff is full of added sugars and other things and when it is being processed it is stripped of all the good things that make honey the food of the gods. So buy from a local apiary.
Honey seems to moisturize my dry winter skin and soothes it in the heat of summer. It also gives it is a nice glow. I also use honey for pimples and acne. I have a couple of teenagers and one who gets a break out now and then and he was shocked when I told him to rinse his face in warm water, slather some honey on the pimples and put a warm compress on it. Sit for a few mins and then rinse. He did this and later his pimples popped and his face cleared without the red irritation. It works good to loosen blackhead too.
I use straight honey as a wash on my face as well as I make a scrub several times a week. It leaves my skin incredibly soft. Nothing I have ever used compares. A honey scrub is easy to make. Here’s all you need.
You need about a tablespoon of honey and then maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of cornmeal.
Mix in a small bowl and then scrub into your face.
It exfoliates and nourishes the skin all at once. If you don’t have cornmeal you can use sugar in it’s place. I was told by my honey guy that women in Brazil use this trick.
In the winter I get one or two patches of dry skin. No lotion on the planet has helped and I make sure to keep hydrated and eat foods that don’t bother me (in my case cow dairy causes dry patches and pimples on my face). But they come back on super dry days. I’ve used the above honey scrub on those patches and the itching stopped and the skin felt and looked better in a few hours.
My second favorite tip is for soft lips. We all know someone who is hopelessly addicted to lip balm of some sort. They have them everywhere and never leave home without one in their pocket or purse and more in the car. The thing that drives me nuts is it’s these same people who always ask me as they are applying lip balm for the umpteenth time if I want to use some and shove a dirty looking tube of who knows what in my face. Um thanks for the sweet offer but no thanks.
Now I am not bashing chapstick or any other lip balm. I do have a couple myself that I use if I am not home and I have been say out all day and forgot to do the simple trick I am about to share with you. But I don’t go using it like crazy as it’s been proven and even shown in graphic detail on Dr.Oz’s show and many other articles that over use of lip balms can actually damage your lips and cause them to become even dryer. Not to mention, for me, I can’t stand the taste of the stuff. Only one I can stand to taste is made from beeswax and I only can get it once a year at a craft show in my town and that causes me to use it ever so gingerly.
So what do you use? Coconut oil.
Take a little bit and apply to your lips. The smell is heavenly if you like coconut and in the winter who doesn’t like the smell of something tropical? It wont feel like its really on there and it lasts nearly all day. Your lips will be oh so soft from using it. Use the oil in your Thai or Indian cooking for a great added flavor and you wont beat yourself up over the price.
So there you have it. Two simple beauty treatments straight from nature to your kitchen waiting to be use.
Till next time,
Blessings!
Shelly
Shelly's Cookery 
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