I’ve been, quietly, continuing on my natural beauty route. The funds to get a full-on homemade arsenal have been non existent. It’s quite the investment. Money and time. So, I’ve been on a budget regimen until I can graduate.

Honey, lemon juice and a variety of oils have been featuring heavily in that routine.

I use raw honey to wash my face each night. It has a host of benefits outlined here by Crunchy Betty. I don’t really have problem skin (other than that monthly hormonal bump or two, which havn’t shown up in FULL EFFECT since converting to this method) so I can’t speak to its ability to cure acne or other ailments. It does keep things feeling smooth and clean, though.

The benefits of ingesting fresh squeezed lemon juice and warm water are touted just as often as the use of honey. Yoga Journal includes it in its Ayurvedic (ps- I can’t pronounce this word) practices: “Squeezing half a fresh lemon into some warm water will help to wash the GI tract, flush out the kidneys and stimulates good bowel health.” That all sounds good to me. I’ve also heard tell that it can stimulate digestion throughout the day. I make good use the gutted, post squeeze lemon as another skin treatment. I swipe my juice coated hands over my face and use the carcass to apply juice to my knees and elbows. The acid is great for lightening dark spots and many African American people suffer from hyper-pigmentation on other areas, too.

While I can’t get with the oil cleansing method (its too messy and I never feel like it absorbs fully) I have been using a mixture of oils on my skin and hair. A small pump bottle filled with a slapdash mixture of sweet almond, jojoba and grape seed oils is always handy for a post honey wash boost at night and a post lemon juice treatment in the morning.

I’ve had pretty fantastic results with adding these same oils to homemade shampoos.
Which I’ll tell you all about, next time!