17 Affordable & Easy DIY Spa & Beauty Recipes

Make Beauty Recipes at Home

When you can’t make it to the spa, head to your pantry to see what you have in stock — you’ll likely find some ingredients that will do just as much for your skin as they will for your stomach. Here are 17 spa and beauty recipes to concoct and enjoy at home — make more and package them as gifts for friends!

The Lodge at Woodloch: Simple Rosemary Citrus Body Polish

Who doesn’t love the soothing scent of rosemary? In case you didn’t know, while it’s delicious to cook with, rosemary is also a powerful aromatherapy scent with purifying and cleansing effects on the nervous system and brain. It can help clear the mind, prevent mental fatigue and relieve headaches, and it can also be beneficial for asthma, swelling and skin circulation.

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Corbu Spa at The Charles Hotel, Boston: Cranberry and Brown Sugar Seasonal Body Scrub

Cranberry harvest season is in full swing — why not pick up a few extra to make this delightful seasonal body scrub? From wrinkles to acne, cranberries are full of benefits for the skin.

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DIY Firming Avocado & Cucumber Masque

Easy as 1-2-3, these ingredients will not only help firm and moisturize, thanks to the healthy fats and phytonutrients in avocados and the high water content of cucumbers, but it will also help to deep-clean pores.

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DIY Pumpkin Facial & DIY Chocolate Milk Bath

This Halloween, save those pumpkin scraps and set aside a little chocolate for some DIY product-making! Pumpkin offers over 100 beneficial ingredients for the skin, including retinol (Vitamin A), ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), beta-carotene, a natural form of salicylic acid, and more. And chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is also high in antioxidants, like pumpkin, and works as a deep moisturizer for dry skin.

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Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain: Brown Sugar Scrub

We found this super-simple recipe for a brown sugar scrub from the Ritz-Carlton Spa, Dove Mountain, which will help with the dry skin that the colder weather brings. Easy to make at home, and extremely affordable, sugar scrubs are generally gentler than salt scrubs and can increase circulation, as well as slough off any unwanted dead skin.

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Photo courtesy of Ritz-Carlton Spa, Dove Mountain

Rancho La Puerta: DIY Beauty Masks for Every Skin Type

We love Rancho La Puerta’s recipes for oily, combination and dry skin! With a few simple recipes for each type of skin to address specific concerns, you’re sure to find a recipe for you. All 11 masks, created by the spa’s skincare guru, Jan Greaves, are made with food ingredients that you most likely have stocked in your kitchen already.

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Cranberry Anti-Aging Face Mask

The benefits of this mask comes from the fruit acid, which acts as a gentle exfoliant; the grapefruit juice acts as a toner; and the cranberries are a rich antioxidant harboring a one-two punch of vitamins A and C to help with collagen production.

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