You probably already know that reasonable amounts of olive oil in your diet can be very beneficial to your health.  Olive oil is an excellent source of mono-unsaturated (“good”) fat, as well as a delicious ingredient in many of your favorite recipes.  What you may not know is that olive oil is also an incredibly affordable and unbelievably effective cosmetic treatment alternative to aid with all sorts of ailments, from dry skin to limp hair to brittle nails.

Olive oil laden beauty products are already widely available from commercial cosmetics retailers, both on-line and at your neighborhood drugstore.  But before you run off to spend your hard earned money on them, you should be aware that these companies charge exorbitant amounts of money for products that you can easily prepare at home yourself for next to nothing.

Read on to discover how you can use an $8 bottle of olive oil, available at any local supermarket, to solve your most common beauty catastrophes for months at a time.  Not only will you save hundreds of dollars that you would otherwise spend on overpriced cosmetics, but you’ll also get results you’ve only dreamed of before.

Common Beauty Problem #1 – “My hair is dry, frizzy, dull and unmanageable!”
Dry hair has many root causes.  Maybe you’re guilty of subjecting your hair to repeated chemical processing like bleaching, straightening or perming.  Maybe you were just cursed with naturally dry hair that seems to defy every conditioning product known to man.  Either way, olive oil can rescue you!

Forget the overpriced packaged hot oil treatments or fancy salon conditioners, which can cost you as much as $30-40 for one treatment.  For less than a dollar’s worth of olive oil, you can the have beautiful, shiny, silky, manageable hair you’ve always wanted.

Pour ¼ to ½ cup of olive oil into a microwave-safe dish.  The thicker and longer your hair, the more olive oil you’ll need.  Heat it in the microwave for about 45-60 seconds, or as long as it takes to heat the olive oil until it is comfortably warm and has a liquid consistency.  Massage warm oil onto dry hair until hair is completely saturated, paying special attention to problem areas.  You may need to re-heat  the oil if you have a lot of hair.  Once hair is completely saturated, leave the olive oil in your hair for 20-60 minutes.  The length of the treatment depends on how dry your hair is.  If you are looking for a little extra shine boost, a 20 minute treatment is sufficient.  If your hair is seriously stripped of moisture because of chemical processing, the treatment will be more effective the longer you leave it on.

Once you’ve completed the treatment time, it is important to rinse thoroughly with warm water.  Once you’ve rinsed, wash your hair twice with a gentle shampoo, then use your regular conditioner.  Air-dry and enjoy your silky, luxurious hair!  If your hair is extremely dry, it may take more than one treatment before you achieve your desired results.

For ongoing maintenance, pour 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil into regular daily conditioner and shake well to mix.

Common Beauty Problem #2 – “My skin is dry, flaky, sallow or scaly!”
Use olive oil in a variety of ways to improve your skin’s tone and texture.  For soft, glowing skin all over, add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil to your bath.  You may find the olive oil’s odor cramps your style, but this is easily remedied with a scoop or two of your favorite bath salts or a drop of essential oil.  Using olive oil in your bathwater will give you comparable results to commercial bath oils for mere pennies a use.

To alleviate thick, scaly skin on the bottoms of your feet, add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil to warm water and soak your feet for 15-30 minutes.  After drying your feet, massage pure olive oil generously into the bottoms of your feet and then place plastic bags (old grocery bags work well) over your feet for 20-30 minutes.  After removing the bags, rinse your feet thoroughly and pat dry gently.  If you have excessively dry skin on your feet, it may require several treatments before you achieve your desired results.

Considering the many products on the market designed to help you avoid oily skin, it seems illogical that intentionally rubbing oil on your face could improve your complexion, but that’s exactly what a little dab of olive oil can do!  Try adding half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of olive oil to your regular daily moisturizer and shaking well to mix.  It won’t take long before you notice your skin has a beautiful natural glow with added softness, elasticity and a more even tone for that “peaches and cream” look – and you can forget spending $40 on moisturizer from a department store cosmetics counter.

You can also try dabbing a tiny amount of olive oil into the palm of your hand and smoothing it directly over your face after cleansing at night.  When you wake up in the morning, your cheeks will feel dewy, fresh and soft as a baby’s bottom.

Common Beauty Problem #3 – “My nails and cuticles are dry, cracked and brittle!”
You could spend a ton of money on fancy nail hardeners, cuticle creams and hand moisturizers, or you could massage half a teaspoon of olive oil into your fingernails and the skin around your nails every other day to achieve much faster and more satisfying results.  The natural compounds in olive oil will help to heal cracked, dry and irritated cuticles.  It will also moisturize your nails to make them stronger, give them more luster, prevent breakage and help them grow long and beautiful.  You can also try adding a teaspoon of olive oil to your favorite regular hand lotion to reap the benefits of olive oil every time you moisturize your hands.

Whatever your beauty woe, the natural beauty potential in olive oil can help you remedy it.  It is cheap, readily available and one bottle will last you for months, maybe years.  Discover what the women of Italy and Greece have known for centuries – nature’s best kept beauty secret!

The Joy of Seeds

Resisting the urge to snack – or at least on something unhealthy – is one of the difficulties many dieters face. Finding alternative, healthy snacks is usually high on the list of priorities. One option that certainly fits the bill, and are becoming increasingly popular, are small and unassuming seeds.

They’re packed with plenty of essential vitamins and minerals, are low in fat and a recommended low GI food. In fact, the GI diet suggests that seeds slowly release energy, which in turn helps to reduce hung pangs. Amongst the many seeds on offer, popular nibbles include sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, linseed and hemp.

All seeds are packed with fibre and low in sugar, but hemp has even more and linseed can have a laxative effect. The tiny sesame seeds, which are easier to eat if mixed in with another seed, have a high calcium content, and tasty green pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds contain valuable vitamin C, iron and zinc.

What I’ve found works well is to have a jar of mixed seeds handy, prominently placed in the kitchen or wherever you’d usually find yourself reaching for a biscuit. You can buy mixed packs of seeds from health food stores, or buy them individually and mix them yourself. Sometimes I throw in a few sultanas or dried fruit, such as papaya or pineapple, or even a few nuts.

Do be aware of some of the seeds available to buy, which have been roasted or fried, making them less-healthier than their unadulterated counterparts.

As well as nibbling on seeds when you feel an urge to snack, you can also use them in cooking. For example, try sprinkling a handful of seeds onto salads, into low-fat yogurt, on your cereal in the morning or even chuck a few into a stir-fry. They may be tiny in size, but seeds really are healthy and very versatile!

By Rachel Newcombe