Studio 5 Contributor Andrea Graf shares three homemade pumpkin beauty treatments you are going to want to carve some time out for.
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October is a time that our thoughts turn to many things: autumn leaves, costumes, scary stories, candy and pumpkin in all forms. Pumpkin does not get a lot of press for their health benefits–let’s face it: most of us eat pumpkin in the form of pie, where any health benefit is completely overshadowed by all the fat and sugar. However, in their pure form, pumpkin is really very good for us. Pumpkins are a great source of vitamin C and other antioxidants; their seeds are great sources of both omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which are good for your veins, brains and skin—to top off the list, they’re delicious. While you cook some up for your insides, here are a few recipes for your outside.
Exfoliating Pumpkin Mask
1 small papaya
1 small can of pumpkin
2 T pumpkin seed oil
Puree the papaya and then mix in other ingredients, put on face for 10 minutes and then rinse off with cool water (the oil will not make your skin oily or clog your pores).
Exfoliating Pumpkin Spice Lip Balm
3 Tablespoons grated beeswax
5 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, sweet almond, etc. but not pumpkin seed or mineral oil.)
1 Tablespoon honey
Pumpkin pie spice
Melt wax into oil, add honey and then sprinkle in plenty of pumpkin pie spice. Pour into lip balm tubes or jars and let cool. For best results reserve a little bit of the balm filling the tubes or jars about ¼ inch from the top and then when the balm has cooled completely reheat the reserved balm and top off your containers, this will give them a nice flat surface instead of sunken in the middle. It may not have any actual pumpkin in it but it’s still yummy. This recipe makes 1-½ ounces.
Creamy Pumpkin Pie Sugar Scrub
¼ cup grated beeswax
½ cup oil
¼ cup pumpkin seed oil
3/4 -1 cup brown sugar
Melt beeswax into the ½ cup of oil and let cool down until it’s just warm not hot. Mix in brown sugar and pumpkin seed oil and let cool completely. Adding the pumpkin seed oil before the wax and oil mixture have cooled a bit will make it so the balm doesn’t solidify right and you will lose a lot of the beneficial qualities of the pumpkin seed oil if it’s heated very much.
Hopefully, these recipes inspire you to use pumpkins for more than just pies and decoration. Adding this delicious fruit to your diet and skin care routine will make you glow from the inside out.
Check out my blog at www.mommamaven.com and let me know what you thought.
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