Beauty meets food: Gonna boil myself a tea bag

Since I have Chinese roots, I was bound to drink tea each and every day when I was little. I have to admit that growing up, my tea liking had diminished, but that doesn't take away how healthy and yummy tea is. 

Next to that, you can also use a tea bag for beauty purposes. Keep on reading if you're wondering what a tea bag can do for you :)

• Face
• Skin: I like to use different face cleansing methods: scrub, foam cleanser, Clarisonic, ... To make sure my face doesn't get used to a certain way of cleansing, I like to have an occasional face steam. I like to boil some water in a large bowl and add some tea bags. I like to use mint tea (for the fragrance) or green tea (for its antioxidant properties). Put a towel over your head and bend over the bowl. The towel should act as a wall so the steam can't escape. The steam will open your pores and hydrate the skin. As soon as the steam is gone, take a handkerchief and dip it in the tea and rub it over your face. Your skin will feel silky smooth and clean.
• Eyes: Cool tea bags can be used to de-puff your swollen eyes. Press the teabag slightly on the eye for about 15 minutes. The tea's acid will de-puff the eyes and reduce the puffiness in the eye area.
• Body: In case you forgot to wear SPF when you were out in the sun and you got yourself a sunburn, a tea bag (green tea especially) can sooth the burn which takes the ache away.

As I already mentioned, a tea bag is used to drink tea. (Well d'uh?) Drinking tea is very healthy for the body. It's commonly known that tea contains antioxidants which is a great source for antioxidant nutrition.
To sum up just a few advantages from drinking tea are:

• it can reduce the risk of heart attack
• it might protect against a lot of cancers
• it might provide UV protection
• it can improve bone mineral density and strength
• it hydrates the body

Next to these 5, it has a lot more positive effects to the body than you think. The only thing I can say is that tea is VERY good for you. Just make sure you have actual tea such as green or black tea. Herbal tea is not a real tea!

This was my last blog post on the series beauty meets food. I hope you liked this serie and I surely hope you've learned something from it and tried it. See y'all soon!

Beauty meets food: I don't eat no ham 'n eggs

 
To egg or not to egg?
By eating eggs, you'll get some vitamin B, proteins and a whole lot of nutrients in your body. The feeling of being full will withhold you from gravitating towards snacks. Let's see what other things an egg can do for your body.

• Brain: Egg yolk contains vitamin B and choline. Choline is important for neurotransmitter function, cell membranes, liver function and lipid metabolism. Pregnant women, this one's for you: choline's supposedly to be good for you too because it stimulates the development of the baby's brain.
  If that wasn't enough good news, egg yolk helps to produce the happy hormones such as serotonin and dopamine. 
• Face:For those with hyper pigmentation here's a face mask you can easily make. Take some lemon juice and egg white, mix it up and apply to your face. The lemon juice will whiten the areas where you need it and the egg white will tighten those pores. Wash it off with cold water after letting it sit for about 15 minutes, et voilà, hello fresh face!
• Body: Haven't you noticed that a lot of sport athletes prefer eating eggs after a work out? That's because they need to take in their proteins. Egg whites can be absorbed entirely by the body.  
• Hair: Since you have some egg yolk left over from your face mask, use this to condition your hair. Egg yolk contains proteins to fight against hair loss, moisturizes and strengthens the hair.

How do you like your eggs? In your mouth or for beauty purposes? :)

Beauty meets food: Oh honey, honey, sugar sugar

Honey, just a delicious sweetener, or is that much more?


Let's go over some of the home remedies you can make with some honey:

• Hair: Have you been out a lot during the summer? Is your damaged from the UV rays, chlorine and the humidity? Well, let's pop out a honey mask to bring some shine and to take care of those split ends you have. Mix 1 cup of water with 2 table spoons of apple vinegar, 5 drops of rosemary oil and 1 tea spoon of that delicious honey. Leave it in for about 10 minutes, rinse it off and welcome back shiny hair!
• Face:
• Lips: Who doesn't dislike dry, chapped lips? Take some olive oil, brown sugar and a bit of honey, mix it up and scrub away! Your lips will be ready to be kissed like it has never been kissed before :)
• Scrub: Personally I like scrubs with bigger beeds in them, it makes me feel like my skin is actually being cleaned. But some of you prefer scrubs with the tiniest beeds. Instead of going out to the store and buying one, why not make one yourself? At least you're sure of what you're putting on your skin, right? Take your lip scrub, add some lemon juice and apply it to your face. This will get rid of the dead skin cells and it will leave your skin as smooth as a baby's bottom.
• Breakouts: Honey is antibacterial which will take on the impurities in your skin. Redness will reduce when honey is applied to sooth the inflammation.
• Body: 
• Throat: If you mix some pure honey with water (and maybe a tad of lemon juice), this can soothe a sore throat.
• Bath: Did you know that legend has it that Cleopatra loved taking milk&honey baths? Milk contains AHA (Alpha Hydroxy Acid) which can make the skin more firm and smooth. Honey contains enzymes will make the skin softer. Who needs fancy bath bombs if you can take a bath in Cleopatra style?
• Wax: Sometimes you just don't have the time to go to the beauty salon and get something waxed. You can make your own wax by mixing water, honey and brown sugar (lemon juice can be added if desired). Cook the sugar and water until it's caramelized, add the honey (and lemon juice) until it has reached it's boiling point. Set it aside and let it cool off before using it on your body.
• Scarves: Scarves, you're stuck with them for the rest of your life once they have appeared. Put on some raw honey, cover it with a bandage. Remove it the day afterwards and clean the skin.
• Sunburn: Although you should always wear sunblock before going out the door, a sunburn can always occur. Apply some honey to the sunburns to alleviate the pain.
• Moisturize: Add honey to some shea butter and you have just created your own moisturizer.

As to my first question... It's so much more than just a sweetener :)

Beauty meets food: Oh my hair smells like chocolate

tyyu!è § ,wsftyké:àç!èyktkazeee v cpmoi

Oh, I'm sorry, I was just wiping the rest of the chocolate away that fell on my keyboard.
For real, who doesn't likes to eat chocolate from time to time. Ladies? Don't you hide now, I need you to back me up on this one.

But hey, for all you chocolate lovers out there, did you know that eating chocolate is actually healthy! YAY! I'm not saying that you can finally justify eating tons of chocolate, but it has got some benefits that I think you should know. Let's jump right into it, shall we?

• Hair
• Dull: Let's start off with a dark chocolate hair mask? Sounds good? All you need is honey, yoghurt and dark, unsweetened chocolate. Wrap it up with a plastic foil so the mix can do its job. Rinse it off with cold water after letting it sit in for about an hour and hello shiny hair!
• Length: Dark chocolate contains iron, calcium and 10 kinds of vitamins and minerals. By eating a tiny amount of dark chocolate on a daily basis (yes, every day!), you'll get much healthier and stronger hair!
• Skin
• UV-protection: Have you ever heard of flavonoids? They're like antioxidants that can protect your skin from sunburns, redness and other signs of damage caused by UV. Did you know that you can actually recover and moisturize your skin with dark chocolate after it has been exposed to the sun?
• Anti-ageing: Cocoa in chocolate can reduce the stress hormones, which means that collagen won't go anywhere, and that means less wrinkles.
• Dry skin: Remember that dark chocolate contains iron, calcium and 10 kinds of vitamins and minerals? Well, these make sure that your skin is being nurtured as well which will give it that dewy look you always try to create with your foundation and highlighter.
• Body
  
  • Heart: Guess what helps to protect blood vessels from rupture, enhance the activity of vitamin C, prevent inflammation of the body? Yes! Flavonoids! These can actually lower your blood pressure and reduce your cholesterol by up to 10%. 
  • Mind: Did you know that dark chocolate can actually serve as a feel good treat? It can give you that mental boost whenever you're in need of it. It stimulates the production of endorphins, which are chemicals in the pleasure section of the brain. Next to endorphins, we also have serotonin which acts as an anti-depressant. No wonder we gravitate towards chocolate when we're feeling a bit down...

Whenever it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Well, in this case, it's actually false. Chocolate is good for you, especially dark chocolate. Can I get a whoot whoot!! *cricket noise*

Anyway... Do you know any other chocolate secret that you use in your beauty regimen?Go ahead and share with me, because I'll be more than excited to try it out!

Beauty meets food: She wore lemon

Lemons.
Pro, they can be refreshing in your beverage.

Con, they make you make funny faces.
Pro, it can take the fishy smell out of a fish.
Con, they are just way too sour.
Pro, it can be your bbf (yes, bbf), your best beauty friend.

Let me tell you about the benefits a lemon can have for your beauty regimen. And let's face it, who doesn't have a lemon laying around in their kitchen? If you're really one of those exceptions, I'm sure the supermarket isn't too far away from you.

Lemons have calcium, vitamin C, magnesium, kalium and minerals, which are healthy for your hair, skin, teeth and nails. If you're thinking "wow, good stuff those lemons", you're wrong. Bare in mind that lemon juice cannot, again canNOT, have too long skin contact. Please do pay attention to the warnings in the explanations.

This being said, let's get this sour party started!

• Hair
• Dull: Nowadays there are plenty of people who like to color their hair. If they go lighter, the hairdressers use chemical bleach on your hair. Instead of using something chemical why not use lemon juicy? If you add a bit of lemon juice to your conditioner, brush it out, go sit in the sun for a few hours and wash it out afterwards. Warning: Sitting in the sun for too long won't do good to your hair. If you want to have your hair lighter, repeat this process until satisfied. It may take longer and you may not be putting anything chemical on your hair, lemon juice can dry out your hair.
• Dandruff: Do you have a dry scalp? Do people keep asking you whether it's snowing outside? Do you happen to have coco oil, honey and lemon juice near you? Well, then let's start making your own hair mask! Mix the 3 ingredients, let it work into your scalp for about 10 minutes and rinse off with a lot of water.
• Teeth: Who doesn't want whiter teeth? You can easily make your own teeth whitening home remedy by adding baking soda to lemon juice. This will bubble when mixed and can be applied to your teeth with a cotton swab. Warning: Let it sit for about a minute, depending on how sensitive your teeth are. Afterwards make sure to brush your teeth because otherwise the lemon juice will erode your teeth.
• Skin
• Breakouts: Lemons are antibacterial, period. This can be used as a natural method to fight against those breakouts. Just rub some lemon juice over your face, let it work in for about 5 to 10 minutes and wash it all off with water. Warning: Do I need to say to be careful to not get the lemon juice into your eyes? If so, rinse it off with plenty of water.
• Hyperpigmentation: Unless your skin is perfect and don't have dark spots or scarves from former breakouts, you can skip this part. The sour of a lemon juice can lighten the dark spots on the face.
• Oily skin types: Those with oily skin types, I got your back folks! Lemon juice can be used to soak up the oils on your face. Warning: Don't overdo this because if your skin thinks it's too dry it will produce some more oils, and we do not want more oils on our slippery faces!
• Body
• Armpits: Did you know you can lighten your dark armpits with some lemon juice? You can cut the lemon so that you still have something comfortable to hold, put some sugar on top of it and rub it into your armpits. The sugar will exfoliate to remove the dead skin cells and the lemon juice will make the darkened armpits lighter. Warning: don't do this after you've shaved. your skin's already quite sensitive and eventual razor cuts and lemon juice don't really go together.
• Nails: If you didn't know, yes I'm a nail junkie. If my NOTW's aren't good enough of a proof, I'm a nail polish hoarder who likes to try out all colors of all brands. This had made my nails quite brittle and yellow. To strengthen them and get their original color back, just apply a mix of some olive oil and lemon juice.

Do you have any home remedies you'd like to share using lemon juice? Or let me know whether you have tried out one of these remedies. Don't be shy and keep me posted in the comment bar below.

Announcement beauty meets food series

Hi everyone,

This blog post will be rather short.

I would like to announce that I'll be posting a short series of articles this week about home remedies with ingredients you can easily find at home. These posts should help you in how to improve your beauty regimen.

I was inspired by reading recipes in magazines and thought of how some of the key ingredients cannot only be used to feed the body but also to take care of the body from the outside.

People have published a lot of articles on these ingredients before, but these has been given the true Mistletea-stamp to it (aka: these might work better on some of you than others. There are remedies I've mentioned that I haven't tried, but I've heard or read a lot of experiments and information from friends, magazines, beauty salons, etc. I did try the majority of the remedies and they did work on me)

Should you be interested, keep those eyes peeled for some beauty-meets-food information :)


P.S.: Should you recognize any of the songs in the upcoming post titles, go ahead and tell me in the blog post's comment bar below!