Honey removes dirt from pores and dead skin cells from the surface of your body, while yogurt is an incredible moisturizer.  Strawberries have lots of folic acid and vitamin C, which help clean your skin and close pores.  Milk is great for softening the skin, vinegar will make your hair shiny, and using honey as a conditioner will increase your hair’s moisture.

So why should I go out and spend $10 on face lotion, $17 on under eye cream, and $10 more on body lotion when I already have all of those things in my kitchen?

Duh, I shouldn’t, and either should you. Instead, let’s all use everyday food and other products we’ve already got lying around the house to do the same things as all those expensive beauty products. Here are 5 at-home remedies to start with that are fun to make, all-natural and easy on the wallet. I think this is what Charlie Sheen would call ‘Winning.’

1. Eye Makeup Remover

Olive oil is a great eye makeup remover because it moisturizes the skin around your eyes as well as your lashes as it removes the makeup.  Just use it the same way you would use a normal product; dab some on a Q-tip or a cotton ball and wipe away.

2. Body Scrub

For exfoliating, combine brown sugar, a little bit of sea salt (removes dead skin), honey, lemon juice, and olive oil together.  This will create a product with the same kind of grainy texture as an exfoliating product you might buy in a store. Plus, since it’s all natural, it will be way better for your skin!

3. Hand and Foot Exfoliator

Salt+ sugar +olive oil= hand and foot exfoliator. If you are doing an at-home manicure, try massaging this into your skin before you start polishing.   Total cost= virtually nothing.

4. Face Mask

Mix a half cup of oatmeal with half of a peeled cucumber (chopped), an egg white, a teaspoon of olive oil, and a tablespoon of honey.  Blend these together in a bowl. Wash your face and hold it over a bowl of steaming water for about ten minutes to open your pores, then place the mixture on your face and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.  The natural mask will moisturize and nourish your skin, giving you a healthy glow and baby soft skin. If you feel like really indulging, put some cucumbers over your eyes.

5. Deep Conditioner

As strange as it may sound, the protein in eggs is great for damaged hair.  Add a tablespoon of olive oil to mixed eggs, put it on your hair, and wrap it in a warm towel for 20 minutes.  Afterward, you can shampoo and condition like you normally would. Cheaper than one of those deep conditioning treatments at the drug store, this will give your hair a much needed pick-me-up from your normal routine.

In addition to helping you save money, these natural products can often be better for your face and body than chemical-filled products.  It can also be nice to know exactly what is going on your skin, instead of using a pre-made mixture full of ingredients you can’t pronounce. And these few ideas are only the tip of the iceberg; there are LOTS of options for skipping the drugstore and making your own stuff at home. (Here are 50!)

If you have any more tips about great at-home remedies, share the wealth and comment below!

I have a love/hate relationship with Sephora. I love walking through there and playing with all the makeup, but I hate how there is just so much. How am I supposed to know which brand is best? Which one looks best on my skin? Which mascara is worth $45 and why is that better than my $6 mascara at home?

It’s all quite overwhelming.

And that’s why I choose my friends based on how good their makeup looks. Ok, so that’s not (totally) true, but I do depend on my friends to guide me in the direction of quality products for my face. When they tell me they love a product or brand I trust them, and I haven’t been disappointed yet.

Most recently, a friend of mine started going on and on (and on) about Tarte cosmetics. I knew nothing about them, but after spending an hour with this girl (of which, only 5 minutes were not spent talking about Tarte), I decided to take the brand for a test run myself. I ordered some of their most popular products online (it seems that various beauty editors are quite enamored as well) and tried them out.

And let me just say – I am addicted. Like seriously addicted. Not only are the products super high quality, but they are completely natural, healthy and earth friendly as well! I’m a major recycling dork (I even reuse Ziploc bags….) so that is something that is really important to me.

Anyways, I tried out a bunch of things, but here are my all-time favorite Tarte products:

Natural Cheek Stain: It’s a fun little stick that you just sort of sweep on your cheek and blend in. And you can’t mess it up; you get plenty of time to perfect it before the stain dries, meaning no ugly streaks or clown cheeks. I use Flush and it gives me that perfect rosy color that comes after a good, hard laugh. It’s perfect.

fRxtion Natural Sugar Exfoliator & Lip Balm Duo: I tend to breathe through my mouth when I sleep, which means loud snoring really nasty lips in the morning. I used to just load up on the lip balms to smooth my pucker, but then I found this lip balm/natural exfoliator thingy. There is a soothing lip balm on one side and a sugar scrub on the other that gets rid of all that dry lip skin and makes your lips taste sweet like sugar. Oh, and it comes with a mirror attached to the case so you can apply this stuff anywhere. If that’s not genius I don’t know what is.

Be Good To Your Mother Earth 24/7 Natural Lip Sheers: This is my all-time favorite beauty product ever. Three tinted lip sheers (all different, all fab) and an adorable reusable tote for lugging home those groceries or toting those books to class. The lip sheers are perfect for girls like me who want a little color on their smoocher but aren’t into bright/bold lip sticks. Plus, they are SPF 15, which means your lips are protected all day long. I use these every single day and I can’t even tell you how many compliments (read: boys trying to kiss me) I’ve received.

I love Tarte…and it seems that Tarte loves us, because they are giving all CollegeCandy readers 25% off their entire purchase at TarteCosmetics.com for the entire month of September. Just type in “COLLEGECANDY” at checkout and you can take home these or any of their ridiculously awesome products for cheap.

Natural, eco-friendly, fabulous and cheap? Be still my (Tarte) heart.

About 60,000 people each year are diagnosed with some form of skin cancer, and we want to help you learn how to treat your red and itchy skin to avoid this! Well, that and show you some really easy ways to look cute despite being a different color than most members of the human race:

Keep skin hydrated: If your first shower after the beach left you with tears in your eyes because the water stung so bad, you need to keep your skin hydrated with lotion. The most soothing gels and lotions have aloe vera in them, and this will help soothe your skin and prevent itchiness (and therefore scratching and scarring). You can also use hydrocortisone if your burns are really bad.

Drink liquids with vitamins: Water helps to keep your skin hydrated, but is also really important to keep you hydrated after a long day in the sun. To get the most bang for your buck, be sure to drink things with vitamins C and E in them, as they are crucial in repairing damaged skin cells and ensuring that your body is healthy once your sunburn clears up.

Exfoliate: GENTLY buff away the dead skin. Don’t do this too roughly, as it will irritate your body, but just enough to make sure that the skin cells underneath are not trapped. And you’re not flaking off on your couch/bed/friends for the next two weeks.

See a doctor: This is only if you experience blisters, fever, faintness, dizziness, difficulty breathing, or nausea. This could be indicative of sun poisoning. Also, be sure to see a dermatologist regularly to get scanned for potentially harmful freckles and moles. The more often you do this (yearly?) the better your chances of catching anything serious early on.

Ugly tan lines: The next time you’re out in the sun, wear a wife beater over your top. You will not burn this way, and it still allows your arms to get some color while the lines on your shoulders even out. If you’re going out at night and want to disguise that burn line, think halter tops; they cover the same lines that will have burned in most bikini tops, and, let’s face it, they’re sexy as hell.

Make-up: Rub some foundation into your normal moisturizer (my choice is CoverGirl TruBlend). When you mix the two and apply moisturizer as you normally would, it hides any uneven skin tones and makes you look tan despite your UV mishaps. Spread it down your neck and across the tops of your shoulders so that you won’t look uneven, and carry a compact with you to pat down your skin if your make-up starts to run during the night.

WEAR SUNSCREEN EVERY DAY: This is the one that everyone complains about, but it’s the easiest thing to do. Pick up some moisturizer with SPF in it (I love Oil of Olay SPF 15 – It’s about $8.00 at any drugstore and works better than most of the high-end stuff). You can get burned even on a cloudy day, so make sure to apply this every morning so that you don’t have to think about your sun protection for the rest of the day. Furthermore, keep a sunscreen face stick (SPF 30 or 45) in your bag so that if you have to make an impromptu beach or pool run, you have something with you. These things weigh less than a cell phone and you can throw it in a pocket easily.

Remember, ladies: even wearing your sunglasses at night won’t cover up a bright red and peely face. So SPF it up, wear cover-ups, carry around shades, and remember that you can always get sunburned, so always be prepared!

When you’re trying to get in and out of the shower as quickly as you can to head on to bigger and better things, (a.k.a the beach), it can be easy to bypass seemingly unimportant tasks.  You probably wash your face, your body and your hair, but do you take the time for proper exfoliation?  I’m guilty of this myself, especially in the summertime when my skin doesn’t seem so dry and flakey.  But that all changed yesterday.

While walking in Trader Joe’s, I found myself in the beauty aisle (because it’s right by the wine) and fell in love with a sea salt exfoliating grapefruit scrub. It smelled delicious, so I threw it in my basket (along with TJ’s cookies, some cereal and the best dark chocolate covered pretzels on this planet). When I got home I ate a few pretzels, tore off my clothes and took my new salt scrub to the shower. And what a lovely shower it was. It took only one go with my new salt scrub to remember why exfoliating is so important.

The Sparknotes version:

1. Exfoliating makes your skin softer, which is especially great in the summer because your skin – especially those tootsies in the flip flops – is exposed and  braving the elements.

2.  Softer skin leads to better shaving, less nicks, cuts, and ingrown hairs.

3. When you clear away dead skin your great beach tan (or bottled glow) will last longer.

Now that we are all reminded why it’s worth the extra minute a couple times a week, here are some products you should try out.

Like I said, I’m in love with my new Trader Joe’s Purify Grapefruit Chamomile Sea Salt Scrub.  It was $6 for a really big jar and smells delicious! The citrus scent will totally wake you up in the morning. The only bummer is you have to get it in the store, and I know not all of us are lucky enough to live near a TJ’s (sad-face).

Clinique Sparkle Skin Body Exfoliator:  I’ve also used this product, and while it doesn’t smell as yummy, it will leave your skin looking clean and feeling soft.

Bath and Body Works: There’s The Rub: This is a nice cooling sea salt scrub, but it may be a little rough.  If you like it rough (you dawg), it’s a great product to use twice a week.

Or, if you’re feeling crafty and/or cheap, making your own sea salt scrub is really easy.

Don’t underestimate the power of soft skin this summer. Take the extra 5 minutes to pamper yourself and you’ll see (and feel!) immediate results!

In this weekly series, actress / model and fabulous CC blogger, Jen, will be using her make-up know how to teach us all how to look flawless in class, out at a party, or grabbing coffee with that cutie from Psych 101.]

This week Jen gives us the lowdown on skincare: keeping it clean, beautiful and not-so-obvious that you were up until 4am playing Quarters with the roommates writing a paper. Grab a pen and paper – you will want to take notes.

If you have a specific make-up question, leave a message in the CC Facebook group, or email Lauren@collegecandy.com with the title “CC Make-Up Question,” and she’ll make sure Jen hears your woes and addresses them.

I am fully aware that skin cancer is scary business and not worth the fake-baking/laying out for hours on end. I also have a pretty healthy fear of getting wrinkley in the future, so, to protect myself, I wear my sunscreen. But I recently realized that maybe sunscreen wasn’t enough, and getting my glow a different way may be a better option.

I started investigating.

My former roommate loved sprays, but I personally don’t trust myself with them. I am mildly OCD and need a lotion to ensure I’m not missing anything. I went on a quest to find the perfect lotion and came across a new product: Jergens Natural Glow Express. It looked just like the rest, except that it claimedto show results in 3 days. Conveniently, I was heading on vacation in 3 days, so I grabbed it.

Please bear in mind that I consider myself an idiot with any sort of gradual tanning product, so if I can find success with this stuff, anyone can. It is virtuly idiot-proof!

The bottle is 4 ounces, and at my local retailer it only cost me $5.99. Depending on where you go, it may be as much as $7.99, but it’s a lot cheaper than spending $30-$40 for a spray-tan at a salon. I did as suggested: exfoliated, shaved, rubbed in the lotion in a circular motion.

After day 1, I must say, I was a little bronzer than before, without a hint of orange. I clearly wasn’t careful enough around my ankles (as made evident by the minor streak-age), but my goal for day two was to amend my mistakes by exfoliating a little extra in those areas. Voila! After being a little more particular on day 2, there were no more streaks.

By day 3 I definitely looked darker and not orange, which I proved by asking about 7 different people, 100 different times. (They were slightly annoyed, but what can I say? I was proud of my sunless glow.) I didn’t use this product on my face, as I use my own bronzing powder and what-not, but Jergens has an express version of the face tan as well.

This stuff is awesome; hit your local drugstore to try it yourself.

(Photo courtesy of futurederm.com)

I have a standard routine: scrub feet every other day in the shower with a pumice bar and rub Burt’s Bees Coconut Foot Cream on my feet and then put (clean) cotton socks on before going to bed. Do these simple steps and you too can have gorgeous toes by the time you break out your first pair of flip flops.

I was happy to learn that coffee can help in so many more ways. Meet Purity Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream. It’s 100% natural AND it actually works! This eye cream is rich in caffeine, green tea and coffee (obviously) which helps to increase circulation to get rid of dark circles, and decrease puffiness.

After staying up late studying, or after a night out of drinking we’ve all had those eyes that make us look 60 years old. Throw some of this stuff on and— I kid you not— it starts working in about 15 minutes so your peepers don’t scare the local raccoons.

The Purity line has tons of other natural products to choose from as well—there’s Chocolate Mocha Body Cream that repairs and protects skin, Strawberry Butter Body Scrub to help exfoliate, Honey Raspberry Facial Polish… the list goes on and on.

Everything in the Purity line is extremely affordable which makes these delicious, natural, skin healing products even sweeter.