Beauty care products aren’t restricted to just the cosmetic section anymore, but can be found among the fruits and vegetables.

There are many natural beauty enhancers that can be purchased at a grocery store, but they’re not all generic skin care products. As a beauty product, bananas are an excellent ingredient for making an exfoliating body or facial scrub.

Bananas, which help the human body maintain its water balance, are rich in potassium and combat hypertension when consumed as part of a balanced diet. They have also been shown to help fight acne by hydrating skin and preventing skin from losing moisture.

Many high quality beauty products, such as body scrubs and masks, can cost upwards of $20 or more at Sephora while a single banana at Target costs 24 cents. If it’s beneficial enough to put vitamins in your body, it should be good enough to put on your face and skin.

Banana body and face exfoliating scrub mix adapted from www.care2.com.

Ingredients

1 banana

1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

1 teaspoon of honey

Use your hands to mash the banana as much as possible without breaking the peel. When it’s soft, remove the peel.

Once peeled, place the banana in a bowl and add the granulated sugar and honey to mash and mix with a fork or spoon. To maintain the scrub’s desired chunky consistency, mash the ingredients together by stirring and mixing against the sides of the bowl.

After the sugar and honey are thoroughly mixed with the mashed banana, the scrub can be taken to the shower to use for exfoliating your skin. If you would like to use the scrub on your face as a banana facial, simply omit the granulated sugar.

Another simple way to enhance your beauty is eating food rich in powerful nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids or antioxidants.

Those who enjoy fish can indulge in salmon to attain omega-3 fatty acids which help lock moisture into skin cells and aid in keeping skin looking youthful.

Not only can salmon improve skin cells, but eating berries can do the same as well. Blackberries and blueberries are packed with antioxidants that encourage cell growth and are helpful in preventing wrinkles. Strawberries are astringent and contain vitamin C and fluoride, which can help keep your smile glistening by removing stains and whitening your teeth.

There are plenty of useful beauty products available at stores, but using homemade products, such as the banana mask, is an affordable and relatively easy to prepare alternative.

For those wanting to try something new, or simply keep a basic beauty routine, homemade beauty products may be worth giving a go. With pleasant scents and the absence of possible skin irritants like aloe or dye, the answer to improving one’s appearance may be a lot more simple than anyone would ever guessed.

Hope Roberts can be reached at [email protected]