*Guest Post* Six Household Locations To Find Inexpensive Beauty And Spa Ingredients

Everyone knows that using highly rated beauty products comes at a price. It's easy to break your budget when beauty and skin care are a top priority, but you need not spend excessively to obtain radiantly healthy and enviously beautiful skin and hair. All you need is the right recipe, the required ingredients, and a little time to prepare home beauty formulas. Not only will your pocketbook benefit, but so will your body and soul as you discover a lavishly natural beauty routine, hand-made from items you already have at home.

Facial cleansers, body scrubs, shampoos, conditioners, eye serums and moisturizers can all be created from common household items. Where are the best places around your home to find these ingredients? Here are six suggestions of where to look for beauty basics in your home and some ideas to use the premium ingredients you may find there!

1) Your Garden

The best place to find ingredients to create homemade beauty and spa products is, naturally, your garden. Vegetables, flowers and herbs can all be used as ingredients for beauty preparations, or individually for healthy, beauty enhancing procedures. Herbs can be used for aromatherapy, in the spa, or as a household freshener to please the senses.

Melons and cucumbers can be used to cool puffy eyes and diminish dark circles. Herbs and fruits make wonderfully scented products, such as masques and cleansers. Many items from the garden have special qualities like toning, astringent and moisturizing. The best thing about using your garden as a beauty pallette, is that all the ingredients are natural and fresh.

2) Your Refrigerator and Pantry

Of course, not all food items can be grown in your garden. This is especially true of deeply moisturizing items. Avocado, mayonnaise and eggs are just a few examples of common moisturizing ingredients that you can find in your refrigerator. Yogurt is another food ingredient that is used mostly in facial masques, and known for its softening and astringent properties. Items that have first been cooled in the fridge are often more refreshing for beauty purposes.

Apple cider vinegar is a natural astringent and analgesic, while honey is often an ingredient that adds cohesion to facial preparations. Honey and other sugars are good for clarifying the complexion and hair removal. Grains like oatmeal have moisturizing properties and are ideal for scrubs to exfoliate the skin. Citrus juices make wonderful natural toners and bleaches for fading scars or other skin flaws.

3) Your Vitamin and Supplement Stash

As we all know, beauty manifests from the inside out. This refers to attitude, as well as superficial characteristics. Both can be enhanced by items found in your vitamin and supplement collection. Many dietary supplements can be used topically, as well as taken orally to enhance beauty. These include Vitamin E and brewer's yeast. Concentrated forms of herbs, extracts, vitamins and minerals can make your beauty formulations stronger and more effective.

4) Your Coffee and Tea Stash

Many tea varieties contain large amounts of herbs, which can be substituted for fresh herbs, although dried plant materials must be used in larger quantities to achieve desired effects. Both tea and coffee have revitalizing, scenting, exfoliating and astringent properties.

5) Your Utility Room or Cleaning Closet

Mild soaps, like Castile, can be used for the base of many cleansing beauty products. Cheesecloth is good for brewing herbal tonics or straining products for greater concentration or separation.

6) Your Medicine Cabinet

Witch hazel, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, mineral oil and boric acid are examples of commonly kept medicine cabinet items that may be used alone, or in conjunction with other household ingredients in beauty products. Pre-made moisturizers or tonics can also benefit from natural enhancement with readily available household ingredients.