by Lisa Koski

Created on: October 10, 2007   Last Updated: September 18, 2010

Grandma was right. Simple is best. With what you have in your kitchen and pantry you can have a blemish free face, shiny hair, and soft moisturized skin.

Oily hair: Once or twice a week put a generous amount of vinegar or beer on a wash cloth and saturate your scalp. This will not only dry up the extra oil it will help dry up the extra skin and oil build-up on your scalp that builds up and makes your hair feel "yucky" so quickly. Now; so you don't smell like a pickle or a brewery, shampoo as usual. Leave your shampoo on your scalp for a few minutes after sudsing it up so it can finish getting all of that scalp stuff that holds back your sexy glam blowout from staying glamorous all day and all night.

Dry hair: Only condition the hair shaft not the root or the scalp. Olive oil can be a great once a week dry hair treatment. Apply oil, wrap with plastic wrap, wrap with small towel, heat with blow dryer on low. After you feel your plastic wrap is warm wrap another small towel around your huge monster head (to trap the heat) and wait at least three magazine articles. Two if you're reading Vanity Fair. Shampoo per your bottles instructions.

Any Face that you have Facials: we have stuff to reduce pores, ex-foliate and remove gunk, stuff to lighten skin and brighten skin and just to feel better after a crummy day skin:

Tomatoes, grapes, orange juice, lemon juice, plain yogurt, milk, cucumbers, egg whites, oatmeal, baking soda, sugar, milled rice (rice that you have ground in a coffee grinder to a fine powder)...okay not all at once. The fruits are great anti-oxidants for your outside too; just a little goes a long way. Pick a fruit or two and an emulsifier (the mixer-upper), milk for normal to dry, egg whites for combo to oily. Then your scrubber-upper. Sugar is great as it is a natural skin plumper-upper.

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup total is more than enough to cover your face quite well. Place your combination in a blender or food processor and gently mix together. If you have a grinder you will want to fine grind your rice and/or oatmeal first to help it ex-foliate better and treat your skin a little more gently. If you have very oily skin adding a small amount of baking soda helps ex-foliate and cleanse gently.For extra help with a problem spot (blemish) honey has natural disinfecting properties. You can mix these as mask and leave them on for 10 to 15 minutes then gently scrub them off.

For the bath: Steep yourself...no fancy bath stuff. Okay we can go back to Grandma's pantry. She has some herbal tea and some powdered milk. Powdered milk? You say, "NO!" But I say yes. Many a goddess has bathed in a milk bath and powdered milk (two or three cups for a large bath) is an economical and easy way to achieve this without eunuchs or handmaidens. If you still want handmaidens that is another article.

Now tea..pick: peppermint, chamomile, orange, the choices are only limited by your pantry. This technique works best when you steep the tea first in a small amount of boiling water and then add to your bath as you get in. The milk will leave your skin very soft (I would take a brief rinse off shower). Moisturizing your skin while still wet will keep your skin softer longer and make you feel snuggly fresh.

I say props to Grandma.

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