Beauty on a Budget: 3 Items In Your Fridge That Will Change Your Beauty Routine

Despite all of the fancy ingredients in our favorite lotions, face masks, and hair treatments, some of the best ingredients in our beauty routine can come straight from our refrigerators! Here are five must-haves:

1.  Moisturize with coconut oil.

Of course, you can cook with it – some even say cooking with coconut oil rather than vegetable oil can help us lose weight – but the real beauty of coconut oil is in it’s moisturizing properties. Use on your face to reduce wrinkles, on your knees or elbows to reduce flakiness or, my favorite, as a deep-treating hair mask. Scoop out about a tablespoon and rub it in your hands to turn it to oil, then apply to your hair. Pop on a shower cap for 30 minutes – or even overnight. Shampoo and condition as you normally would and voila! Silky, shiny, hyper-moisturized hair.

Here’s the key: use 100% coconut oil – you’ll find it in the baking aisle – rather than the stuff in hair care aisles, which not only includes processed ingredients, but will cost a lot more money!

2.  Avocado – it’s not just for guacamole any more.

Mashed avocado mixed with a bit of Greek yogurt and honey makes a great facial mask. Simply combine the ingredients until, apply to your face and let the mixture sit for about 20 minutes. Use a damp, warm washcloth to remove it from your face. Hooray! Soft, moisturized skin – without a big price tag.

3.  Bananas as a cracked heel cure.

While winter is definitely the hardest season on our feet, summer can be just as brutal. Walking around in flip-flops leaves the balls of our feet and our heels vulnerable. Here’s what you do: mash up a banana with a bit of dry corn meal, this will form a paste. Simply rub this mixture all over your feet and then sit back and relax – no walking around, you want it to really sink in. Rinse after about 30 minutes and you’ll have softer feet; after a few treatments, the cracks will be gone!