Best Budget Friendly Beauty Tips

{SCA}Does your tight budget make even drugstore beauty products a luxury? Don’t fret. You can still have beautiful skin and hair without buying a ton of (or even any!) products. These bargain beauty tips will show you how to turn kitchen leftovers and more into everything you need to look great. Bonus: these tips all use natural ingredients – good for you, good for the earth.

A Spa Treatment for Free

For simple in-home hydrotherapy, start out your day with a hot steamy shower and just as you are finishing switch the water to cold for about 15 seconds. Repeat the process for two minutes. This hydrotherapy technique will revitalize your skin and give it a glow by stimulating the flow of blood through the skin.

Use Strawberries to Fight Acne

Mash together 1/4 cup fresh strawberries with 1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt, spread on clean skin, let sit for 15 minutes, and then rinse well. Strawberries are a natural source of salicylic acid (the same stuff found in acne products).

Four Who’d-of-Thunk-It Uses for Honey

No. 1: As a Hair Conditioner: Massage 1 tablespoon of pure honey into damp hair after shampooing and then rinse out with warm water. Honey is a natural humectant, meaning it attracts and holds moisture in your hair.
No. 2: As a Substitute for Bubble Bath: Mix together 1 cup water, 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup liquid soap, pour into a warm bath under the running water.
No. 3: As a Facial Mask: Honey is perfect for healing acne-prone or dry skin, spread on clean skin and let sit for 15 minutes, then rinse with warm water. Honey is a powerful antioxidant and also has antibacterial properties, making it good for breakouts.

The Perfect Sub for a Pricey Eye Cream

Slice raw potatoes and put them on your eyelids to reduce puffiness.

Fight Dry Skin with Bananas or Avocados

Mash 1/2 ripe banana or avocado and spread on clean skin, let sit for 15 minutes, rinse well.

Tea Time Is Toner Time

Cool Green Tea is a refreshing and cleansing toner – perfect for acne prone skin.

Finally, Something to Do with Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Yes, it sounds bizarre but you can cure swollen feet with a mashed potato foot soak! Just purchase a box of dehydrated mashed potatoes and follow the recipe. Once you have your mashed potatoes add lukewarm or cool water to get the temperature to the right level to soak your feet.

The potatoes will retain heat longer than a traditional footbath and they help reduce swelling and soften skin. To make the experience more glamorous, add essential oils before you put your feet in. Then indulge feet in one of the best soaks you’ll ever.

Bonus: This same concept can be used with Oatmeal. Oatmeal will soothe and deeply restore dry, cracked and painful feet.

A Quick and Cheap Fix for Yellow Stained Nails

Run a freshly cut lemon over your nails to help fade the yellow or mix 1 teaspoon lemon juice with 2 tablespoons water and soak your nails for 15 minutes. Follow up with a moisturizing nail cream or oil since lemon can be drying.