I’ve long since given up most of the conventional beauty products found in stores, and I’m pleased to share that my beauty regime has not suffered. What’s more, my wallet is fatter and I’m doing my part to help fight the buildup of plastic waste that accumulates in our landfills when we toss away a used plastic beauty product container. How do I accomplish all of these feats, might you ask? The very thing that helps keep me healthy and beautiful on the inside: food!

Using food to create beauty products is not exactly a new idea – many groups of people throughout history have used everything from teas to fruits to wheat to spruce up their outer appearances.  What I like to do with food, however, is use it to replicate those products I used to buy habitually – you know, the ready-made stuff that is priced its weight in gold and lines supermarket shelves everywhere.

Re-Creating St Ive’s Apricot Face Scrub

When I began to make my own beauty products, one of the first items I wanted to create was some sort of replica of St. Ive’s Apricot Face Scrub. As a teenager, I loved this stuff — it smelled good, it made my skin feel baby soft, and it tightened my pores with a simple swipe of the stuff. But, it’s also full of extra ingredients (at an extra cost) that aren’t really so good for me — or the environment. Thus, I applied some vegan good to this classic formula, and — voila! — the apricot-oatmeal-sugar face scrub.

You’ll need:

• 1 organic apricot
• ½ cup oatmeal
• ½ cup unbleached organic sugar
• ½ cup filtered water

The instructions are simple:

• Wash an organic apricot. Remove its skin. Mash it in a bowl with a fork.
• Add a half cup of water to the bowl.
• Add half a cup of oatmeal – preferably whole oat, organic (hey, this stuff is going to get absorbed through your skin!). Mash the oatmeal into the apricot mixture.
• Measure half a cup of unbleached sugar – brown sugar will smell heavenly, but any type will do the job – and then thoroughly stir into your concoction.
• Now, massage this stuff on to your face and on any rough skin patches you might have. Bonus: if any gets in your mouth when you’re rinsing, you might actually enjoy it! It’s delish! Leave on for about 10 minutes.
• Rinse off with warm water, and now enjoy your glowing, soft, dead-skin-cell-free skin at half the cost, half the ingredients, and minimal environmental impact.

And, there you have it – you’ve used the ingredients in your kitchen to become even more beautiful.  You’re beauti-food! Not a bad deal at all, right?