1. Rice Water Toner for balancing and nourishing your skin
2. Green Tea Facial Cloths
3. Teeth Whitening Rinse
4. Avocado Hair Mask for Deep conditioning
5. Brown sugar and olive oil moisturizing body scrub
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*Rice Water Toner. Rice has essential vitamins and minerals that benefit the skin. This toner will bring luster back to dull skin and it will also help to tighten your skin with consistent use. My mother told me that growing up in Korea, she used the water that was used to rinse rice to clean her face and it was used to clean dishes!
Step 1: Take steps to prepare rice for consumption. I have a rice cooker and usually cook 3 cups of rice for the week ahead. Put 3 cups of uncooked rice into a large bowl. Run under cold water and then swirl around using your hand to rub the rice against the bowl. This will release some of the vitamins and minerals into the water producing a milky white color. DO NOT POUR WATER OUT INTO SINK. Step 2: Take out a clean container or Large bowl with lid and pour the milky rice water into it. Step 3: Refrigerate rice water and take out and splash small amount on your face. Let your face air dry. If you must dry, use a paper towel and not your normal face towel and pat gently. You can also use this with a cotton ball and rub into your freshly washed skin.
*Green Tea Refreshing Cloths. By now you probably know that Green Tea is full of anti oxidants. They attack free radicals which are associated with aging and also help to aid in maintaining a healthy immune system. Green Tea has cleansing and anti bacterial agents both internally when consumed and topically. The Japanese drink Green Tea (or Sake...let's be real)especially when they eat sushi because it helps to aid in digestion and gets rid of any bad bacteria in the raw fish. This is also why you eat the pickled ginger with it, but I digress. Topically, Green tea is a great way to keep your skin refreshed and looking youthful. Green tea is also known to help acne prone skin. I have oily skin and I am sometimes prone to break outs...I use the cloths as a cleanser and toner. Enjoy!
Step 1: Take 2 tea bags and brew a pot of green tea. Remove tea bags and place into a large zip lock bag. Reserve 1/3 of the tea by setting aside to cool. Drink your tea for the wonderful benefits listed above. Step 2: Take cooled tea and place in zip lock bag as well. Take 7 plain white paper towels (please don't use the ones with decorative ink)and place into the zip lock bag full of tea and tea bags and refrigerate. Every night after you remove your make up you can use a towelette to wash your face or tone your skin. You can also double the batch and use one to refresh your skin during a hot day or after a work out. ***You can certainly soak a facial wash cloth in the hot Green Tea and place over your face like a facial. Very soothing and relaxing.
*Teeth Whitening Rinse. Who has the 20 mins. or the $30 to $100 that it costs to fuss with whitening strips? I don't. I have been rinsing with Hydrogen Peroxide for years. I drink coffee and tea everyday and my teeth maintain a natural pearly white hue. It won't make your teeth glow unnaturally under a black light but it's a cheap, low maintenance, way to keep your teeth white! Step 1: Take a swig of Hydrogen Peroxide and gargle and rinse for a min. of 30 sec. but up to a minute and spit out. If you're a beginner, you can cut it with water until you get used to the bubble producing effect. It does take time. Rest assured if you do this morning and night, you will begin to see a change in as soon as 3 days but usually a week. Make this a part of your daily dental hygiene routine.
*Avocado Hair Mask. This is a great way to restore overly dry or damaged hair. The natural fats in Avocados are a wonderful part of a healthy diet. The benefit of the good fats (mono unsaturated fats)for your body also has the added benefit of adding the natural oils and nutrients into your hair. Step 1: Pit and place the flesh of one avocado into a blender with 1 table spoon of Olive oil and blend for 15 to 20 sec. Step 2: Pour contents into hair and massage your scalp and rub mask into the strands of your hair. Step 3. Collect your hair on top of your head and clip in place. Let the mask set up in your hair for 30 min. Step 4. Rinse and then shampoo and condition as usual with mild products. For extremely dry or damaged hair, do this once a week for a month. Otherwise, you can do this treatment once a month to maintain soft, silky and most of all healthy strands!
*Brown Sugar and Olive Oil Scrub. Bath Salts can tend to have a drying effect on your skin. Sugar scrubs however, have a smoothing effect that helps to keep your skin soft. This body scrub is great to use especially in the dry winter months. Personally, I use this concoction on my feet as a foot scrub in the summer and forgo the all over scrub since the humidity of summer helps the skin to retain it's moisture. Step 1: take 1/2 to 1 cup of Brown Sugar and mix with 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of olive oil (if you don't have olive oil, you can substitute Canola Oil). Step 2: Slather onto skin and scrub away with your hands or a whatever scrubbing loufah you desire. Step 3: Rinse in warm shower water and pat skin dry. Your skin will feel so smooth!
Enjoy these treatments! Remember, you are beautiful through and through. Use these tips as a way to care for and maintain the temple that God created. I pray it helps you to honor God in being a good steward to the body you were given while you walk this earth here and now.
