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!

Pineapple for the skin!

Avoid over the counter astringents with alcohol content–they’re drying. Some of the best skin care methods are homemade and natural. And, it makes sense! It’s really quite logical to assume that items available in nature, when carefully selected, will yield the most natural results.

Two of the simplest and most effective methods of cleaning and toning the skin involve strawberries and pineapples!

Strawberries

Mash 3 fresh or 3 thawed frozen strawberries in a bowl, and apply to clean face, rubbing in a gentle circular motion. Leave the mask on for approximately 10-15 minutes, and then rinse.

Pineapples

Pineapples contain an enzyme (bromelain) that breaks down dead skin cells. Simply use a chunk of fresh or canned pineapple and lightly rub over your clean face. Leave on for about 10 minutes. You’ll feel your skin tightening and tingling as the pineapple juice works. After this mask treatment, skin is temporarily a little pink. Skin glows–it looks and feels refreshed. The pineapple juice also acts to tighten pores.

For people with dry skin, follow the treatment with a small amount of olive oil applied directly to the skin.

We see it all the time–pictures of celebrities that virtually glow. “Photoshopping” pictures has become a buzz phrase these days, and if you want to get in on the action, PSDTuts.com offers a fabulous tutorial on how to “photoshop” pictures like a pro. Besides the more obvious beauty-enhancing photo techniques, such as whitening teeth and getting rid of red eye, this tutorial offers details such as fuller eyelashes, shining hair, and wrinkle removal. See the tutorials here.

Hemmy.net has a nice selection of “before and after Photoshop” pictures of celebrities here.

Every now and then, it’s good for your hair to get rid of excess build-up of residue. While there are many anti-residue shampoos available, they’re often expensive.

Baking Soda Magic

There’s something in your kitchen that you can use to restore shine and rid your hair and scalp of excess residue: baking soda.

Blending a couple teaspoons of baking soda into your shampoo does the trick–and many will find it does the trick better than expensive specialty shampoos. Shampoo as usual, and enjoy the shine!

Brewed Coffee

Another home remedy for dull hair also comes from your kitchen. After brewing your morning coffee, scoop out about one-quarter cup coffee grounds into a bowl. Add either an egg white or a teaspoon of olive oil (depending on whether your hair is naturally dry or oily) and mix. The egg white or olive oil help adhere the coffee grounds. Over the tub or sink, massage the coffee ground mixture into your scalp and then through your hair. You can use a shower cap to keep the mixture in place for about 15 minutes. Rinse well.

Coffee grounds can be messy, however. There is another coffee recipe for your hair that may not rid your scalp of residue, but certainly will add shine to your locks. Simply pour lukewarm brewed coffee over dry, clean hair, leave in for half an hour, and rinse. The results are also fabulous!

At least 90% of women have cellulite in their lives, and it can be a stubborn and persistent problem. Is there a cure?

Is there a cure for cellulite?

Cellulite is generally the result of poor circulation, excess weight in the affected area, and water retention that weakens the connective tissues beneath the outer layer of the skin, producing a dimpling or “orange peel” effect.

There is no set cure for the condition, and although cellulite is certainly connected with excess weight, thin people also deal with the problem. Why do more women appear to have cellulite than men? Only because a woman’s skin is thinner, so the problem is more visible.

From our research, and intuition as well, cellulite should be treated in two ways–directly on the affected skin, and internally. While topical creams and various methods of massaging affected areas can help, the best results, albeit long-term ones, come from combining topical treatments with making simple dietary changes and taking certain vitamins.

The simplest and first step that should be taken is increasing your consumption of water. Recent studies have even shown that drinking a liter of water a day burns calories.

Cut down on caffeine and try to quit smoking if necessary.

Before using a cellulite cream or other treatment, get your hands on a body brush and use it. Massage your skin with the body brush gently and in motions towards your heart.

Common ingredients in anti-cellulite creams are green tea extract, emu oil, seaweed extract, grapefruit oils, and caffeine. With the exception of caffeine, many of these ingredients also work internally as well. Drinking green tea, eating seaweed, and getting plenty of vitamin C from citrus fruits all contribute to reducing cellulite over time.

Coffee is one of the most effective ingredients for temporary firming, as it acts as a diuretic. Visible results can be seen by using a coffee ground wrap a couple times a week. Yes, it needs to be done two or more times a week simply because the effects of all cellulite treatments are temporary. In other words, there is no known permanent cure.

Coffee grounds anti-cellulite wrap instructions:

Combine about 1/4 to 1/2 cup freshly brewed, still warm coffee grounds with a small amount of olive oil, emu oil, or an egg white (this will keep the grounds together) in a bowl. In the bathroom (the process is messy), or even standing in the shower), apply the coffee grounds mixture on the affected areas, and then wrap the area with plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap or similar). Keep this wrap on for at least 5-10 minutes, but preferably longer. Then, wash off. Coffee grounds not only help firm skin, they are also an excellent skin exfoliator, so as you are showering the coffee off your body, gently rub the skin.

For an informative selection of skin care recipes, Naturally Skinsational ~ Rejuvenating Skin Care Recipes