Beautiful Secret: Buy Oats But Don’t Eat Them

The following post comes from Nicole Palacios at partner site The Dollar Stretcher.

Oats are a staple in most kitchens. You can use them to whip up a pot of hot oatmeal for breakfast, add them to muffins and pancakes for texture or fiber, or make delicious oatmeal cookies.

But you might have noticed that beauty products often contain oats. The grocery stores are full of oatmeal scrubs, masks, and lotions. What’s so magical about oats?

“Oats have a long history of being valued for skin care,” says the Aveeno website. “The ancient Greeks and Romans documented the use of oats at baths to heal skin ailments.” Even Cleopatra used oats in her beauty regimen – oats were cultivated in ancient Egypt, according to WebMD. Oats can exfoliate, cleanse, moisturize, and act as an anti-inflammatory. And they do all of it naturally.

So if you want to save some money and make your own beauty treatments using oats, here are some quick and easy solutions to try.

Oatmeal mask

You will need…

• 3/4 cup oats
• 1/3 cup warm water
• Optional: honey, lemon, egg, olive oil, banana

Make sure to remove any make-up or grease/grime from your face by washing it first.

Mix the oats and water together to make a nice smooth consistency. Spread the paste gently and equally over your face and neck, leaving your eyes clear. Relax and wait for the mask to dry (you may find your skin a little itchy) before washing it off.

Oatmeal scrub

You will need…

• 2 Tbsp. oatmeal (grind it in a blender or coffee grinder to make flour-like oats)
• 1 grapefruit

Squeeze the juice and pulp out of the grapefruit and mix with the ground oatmeal to form a paste. Scrub over your face and/or body for a few minutes in a massaging motion. Rinse off with warm water first and then splash on cold water.

Oat bath

You will need…

• 1 cup of oatmeal, ground in a blender or coffee grinder
• Bathwater

Sprinkle the oats under the running water, making sure to break up any clumps. Water should be milky-looking. You can add more or less depending on the consistency of the water.

Spend at least 15 minutes in the oat bath to get the most benefit from it. Oat baths are great for such conditions as chicken pox, poison ivy, eczema, sunburn, dry skin, and insect bites.

With a kitchen full of ingredients, it can be simple and cost-efficient to whip up a beauty aid like a facial mask or scrub, thanks to the versatility of oats.

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