Like the Montagues and Capulets, winter and skin will never get along.
Trapped within poorly-ventilated turtlenecks, glowing summer skin morphs into a monster. It cracks, peels and breaks out in unidentifiable bumps that may one day emerge as pimples.
It's a disaster, but it's not worth spending a fortune on drugstore skin products when some of the most highly effective cures already live in your kitchen.
Honey, known for its healing properties, teams up with ingredients like coconut oil to make a salve better than any you're likely to find for sale.
When the winter gets tough, the tough get cooking. Here's how to DIY your way back from the snowflake-laden land of dandruff.
A coconut oil scrub for when your skin feels like basilisk scales.
You'll need:
2 tbsp aloe vera gel
1/4 cup sea salt
1/4 cup oats
1/3 cup softened coconut oil
To make this Country Outfitter hand treatment, begin by beating the aloe vera and coconut oil together in a bowl using a spatula or spoon. When it's thoroughly mixed, pour in sea salt. Rub gently into the backs of cracked, sore hands.
The rub: Coconut oil deeply hydrates, while aloe vera and oats soothe irritated skin. Sea salt efficiently sloughs away dead skin.
A honey dandruff shampoo for when your scalp scratching starts to freak out your coworkers.
You'll need:
2 tbsp raw honey
1 cup water, preferably filtered
This clarifying shampoo, care of Empowered Sustenance, means you'll need to make a fresh batch every two or three washes so the mixture doesn't grow mold. Yep, that's how fresh it is.
Beat honey into warm water, making sure to dissolve clumps. We recommend keeping this one in a jar with a lid, so it's easy to shake up. After you've rinsed that out, pour some apple cider vinegar over your scalp to act as a conditioner.
The rub: Honey, an antimicrobial, helps heal damaged and itchy scalps (which likely causes dandruff).
A bacne-proof mask guaranteed to get you a beach body in December.
You'll need:
2 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 lemon
Everyday Roots engineered a mask so simple, even the least Martha Stewart among us can do it. Mix honey, cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon into a thick paste. Let it sit on your back's problem areas ten minutes before hopping in the shower. By doing this, you'll put a stop on skin that's both painful and embarrassing.
The rub: Honey kills breakout-causing bacteria while cinnamon does double duty by both fighting acne and exfoliating the skin.
Citations: Everyday Roots (everydayroots.com), Empowered Sustenance (empoweredsustenance.com), Country Outfitter (CountryOutfitter.com)
