More Beauty Products You Could Probably Do Without

You can see this post, along with Many others in the weekly carnival of pecuniary delights.

http://pecuniarities.com/carnival-of-pecuniary-delights-no-1-the-madoline-hatter-pecuniary-art-edition/3669

I remember when "buff puffs" first hit the market right around when I was in puberty...and desperately in need of skincare miracles.

It was followed by a bunch of high priced, and not so high priced (but often harsh) exfoliating cleansers.

I just wanted to share my 2 standard home recipes for keeping my skin exfoliated, soft and smooth. They share two of my favorite qualities...cheap and easy to make.

Gentle face-cleansing exfoliant

1 tbl. of baking soda

enough water to form a paste.

That's it. Use the paste to gently scrub away layers of dead skin using the pads of your fingers.

Cheap and easy. No harsh detergents.

Moisturizing exfoliant for hands and feet

I hate callouses on my feet. A few years ago a pharmacist sold me a "miracle foot scrub" that really was miraculous. It left my feet feeling smooth and moisturized. Sloughed off foot callouses with ease...and also did a great job of preventing little bumps from ingrown hairs from leg shaving.

It contained some kind of essential oil that left my skin feeling tingly. It moisturized and imparted a healthy sheen.

It cost me $25.00 for a small jar. I bought it on one of those days when I was looking for a shopping "pick me up". The kind that always had me living from paycheck to paycheck.

And pretty soon I had used the jar up. I decided to have a look at the label to figure out where I could get more...and stumbled across the ingredients list. Turns out is was basically oil, salt and some kind of menthol.

So of course I had to make my own. I started out by going online and looking for basic recipes as a guide, like these ones

Then ended up formulating my own based on what I read. Here's the recipe.

1/2 cup of iodized salt

1 tbsp of honey (optional)

enough olive oil to hold the salt together (feel free to experiment with other types of oils).

Use a small amount of the salt scrub in the palm of your hand, and rub it in to your feet for 1 minute before rinsing (the water from the shower will dissolve the salts, and leave the oils behind to moisturize your skin). You can also use it as a body scrub to gently polish away dead skin cells and leave your skin smooth and glowing.

***Please note. Don't make too much of this in advance. If you do, it will go rancid before you get a chance to use it all up. Also make sure not to get it wet, as the water will dissolve the salt, and make it useless.

Because I am somewhat lazy, as well as cheap, nowadays I generally just keep a box of baking soda, a box of salt and a bottle of olive oil on hand in the bathroom, and mix it up as I need it at shower time.