Girls, you know you want naturally glowing skin. We all want to look gorgeous at all times right? So here are some pretty unusual ideas on how to get glowing skin in just a week using natural products you probably already have in your kitchen.

Lemon

Getting a clear skin has never been easier thanks to lemons which contain citric acid. This can exfoliate and remove those dull dead cells from your skin in no time. Your skin will also manage to increase its self-renewal process thanks to the Vitamin C in abundance in every lemon. This process can also reduce the appearance of dark spots on your skin too. It’s weird to think that when we call something a ‘bit of a lemon’ it has negative meaning – when they are actually an amazing fruit for improving the complexion of your skin!

Turmeric and Honey

Turmeric can help you minimize many types of scar on your skin, and it is also an outstanding antiseptic. If you have an infectious, inflammatory, or allergic skin disorder, turmeric can help a lot. Honey will also allow you to keep your beautiful skin treated, moisturized and can also help you ward off infection. These two mixed together make quite a power pack for your face.

Aloe Vera and Baking Soda

Aloe vera can help your skin to fight acne because it has many antibacterial properties. If you have irritated skin, this can also help because it has many anti-inflammatory properties too. Any scarring (acne or otherwise) can also be helped thanks to aloe veras astringent properties.

If you have problems with spots, pimples and acne then baking soda can help there too thanks to its anti-inflammatory and anti-septic properties. Baking soda is also an excellent substance to keep your skin free from dead skin cells, impurities and dirt, as it is also an exfoliating agent.

Blending the two together creates a really refreshing treatment for your skin. But if you want to take the appearance of your skin to a whole new level, add some cucumber to the mix too.

Papaya and Walnut

Improving the texture of your skin is easy when you use papaya. If you have scars, papaya could be your salvation because it has a lot of skin lightening properties that help to reduce the appearance of scars and dark marks. Papaya can also remove those dead skin cells from your face, and it has a lot of wound healing and antibacterial properties.

Walnut will allow you to keep your skin looking great too. Since walnuts have antioxidants, they will help your skin gain and keep a refreshing healthy appearance.

Making a blend of papaya and walnut also creates a delicious power packed duo – it smells great and is good enough to eat. In fact, you can eat it!

Treating Your Skin

It’s really easy to make skin treatments using these ingredients. Just make sure you grind them finely (in the case of walnuts!) and mix them well.  Also, be gentle when you apply them. Your face has delicate skin and you are looking for a healthy natural glow within a week – not red raw and sore!

Just give one of these treatments a try – 2 or 3 times over a period of 7 days – and start to see the difference in that natural healthy skin glow.

Do you want bouncy, luscious curls in your hair? Are you plagued with straight, thin hair? If this is the case, do not assume that you can not have a head full of the bounciest curls. There are many simple and effective ways to curl your hair; try out these different techniques to see which one suits you best.

The Trust Curling Iron

Using a curling iron is one of the most common ways to achieve curly hair. Curling irons come in many different sizes, so you can choose anything from tiny ringlet curls to large, loose curls. It is important to remember to protect your hair when using a curling iron. Follow the directions that come with your curling iron, and protect your hair using an anti heat product. These serums, sprays and gels can be found at most drugstores.

To get a natural look using a curling iron, you may want to use a few different curling irons with different barrel sizes. Naturally curly hair varies and is not quite uniform, so try switching it up with different sized barrels. Barrels come in sizes as small as a quarter of an inch, and go up to two or three inches in size.

Curlers – Seriously

Another popular, timeless choice for achieving curly hair is using curlers overnight. It’s not particularly attractive to any bed partner you might want to impress, so choose your timing carefully on this one (more beauty tips here gals)! And using curlers is initially a bit time consuming, as it may take a few attempts to get the hang of it. But darn it, this does work really well. Curlers are typically used on damp hair and left in overnight. Some people choose to use electric curlers or rolls, and these are left in for a much shorter period of time.

Just Product To Enhance

If you have wavy hair, you may be able to enhance your waves solely by using products for curly hair. There are many different hair styling products that are specifically designed to boost curls. Many popular hair care brands sell gels, sprays, creams and serums that enhance curly hair. These products are typically applied to wet, clean hair to get the best results.

TIPS: Get Beautiful Skin Naturally With Just 5 Minutes A Day

Or Go Permanent..?

If you want your hair to have permanent curls, you may want to consider getting a perm. A perm, which is short for “permanent” (so many people don’t realise that!), is a chemical process done at a salon. This process requires some upkeep, but it will give you long lasting curls. Please do go to a hair stylist who is experienced with perms though. Home kits are cheap, but so are the results.

If you’re feeling brave, send me a photo of your new curls – or add a link to a snapshot in the comments below.

You can argue till the cows come home about what a natural skin tone should look like, especially when you throw in to it a whole bunch of ethnic skin types.

But what it really comes down to is 1) are you happy with the overall tone of your skin color, and 2) are there any blemishes or other irregular areas or marks that you don’t like.

Simple as that really.

Which is why I don’t see a problem with anyone reaching for the skin whitening products, be it home remedy type approaches or commerical products.

Because sometimes it’s hard to be happy within your skin, when you’re not happy with your skin! Am I right?

Personally, I’ve tried some of the simple home remedy type approaches using lemon juice, strawberries and various other things from the store cupboard. And they do work at lightening skin tone a bit. It’s just they can be a bit messy, and you have to be willing to take the time to mix them up and clean up afterwards. Also not so useful when you’re travelling.

But if you want a more effective product that delivers a big bucket of convenience, then there are commercial products that do work.

As with many things though, there is super expensive and super cheap. I’ve found super cheap isn’t very good. I’ve also found that super expensive is no better than mid-price or even lowish price products. It’s the ingredients that count, not the name on the bottle.

One of my personal favorites is called Meladerm (check this review). Even the smallest bottle goes a very long way, making the price pretty cheap overall. Especially if you are only looking to lighten smaller areas such as your face, or if you want an underarm whitening cream – it can last well over a month.

There is a bigger bottle too – which I recommend getting once you know you like the product. Because it works out cheaper to buy big.

The main reason this product works well is because it simply has all the ingredients (and then some!) that have been shown to be effective in whitening skin tone, and evening out blemishes and dark areas. It also has some ingredients that do good things to your general skin health and condition too. And I think pretty much every ingredient in there is natural – there are no nasty chemicals, or harsh bleaching agents or anything crazy like that.

So I know this is not for everyone, and some people do have a problem with the idea of skin whitening, but for those of us with skin issues who are just looking for a little lightening on certain areas or blemishes – it can do a world of good for your self esteem. So I say, why not.

Long flights can wreak havoc on your skin. So here’s some great tips from Michelle on surviving those long plane journeys:-

Now you can walk off the plane ready for the paparazzi, instead of wearing a paper bag on your head till you can get to the nearest beauty salon 🙂

I know we should all be happy with our beautiful perfectly natural teeth.

But we aren’t of course – so we spend many hours every week brushing, flossing, buffing, tweaking and generally whitening our pearly whites.

Then of course, we go and drink tea, coffee and red wine to add a few stains because we love the process of cleaning them all over again 🙂

I have recently however been looking at some very different ways to beautify and generally clean your teeth whilst also avoiding that troubling bad breath. We are all so used to using tubes of paste that we’ve actually forgotten that toothpaste has only been popular in the last 50 years of so – before that we all used powders!

I digress however. Because the products I’ve been looking at are liquid, totally natural plant extracts and only require a drop or two on your toothbrush. And get this – they act as both a teeth cleaner, breath freshener and a mouthwash all in one. The one I’ve tried so far is called Dental Pro7. It takes a little getting used too but I quite like it so far (you can read a review of that Dental Pro7 here). The best thing about it is how incredibly fresh it leaves my mouth. At first it’s too fresh – I mean, seriously fresh! That’s what really takes some getting used to. But it only takes a few days to adjust.

There’s another very similar type of product called Oram Plus, which is probably worth looking at too. Again, it’s made of natural extracts which are designed to kill off bacteria and keep your minty fresh and all that.

For more help on caring for your teeth, check out the ADA’s Mouth Healthy site. They’ve even got a tooth fairy to help answer your kids questions about their teeth.