This week at the office we are celebrating Green Week. My coworker and I gave a presentation today on how to make green beauty products from ingredients you generally have in your pantry at home. I had never created my own beauty products before, but I learned there were so many benefits from going green!

Not only are these products extremely safe to use and inexpensive, but they also work with every skin type without causing any side effects! We decided to make a Banana Face Mask today to help with oily or acne-prone skin, as well as a Citrus Salt Body Scrub to help exfoliate and moisturize your skin! I recommend trying some of these recipes at home – the salt scrub is a new favorite of mine!

Apart from making beauty products, we also included a drawing to win this great gift we picked up from Lush. If you’ve never been to Lush, you are definitely in for a treat. Before they opened their US store in 2003, we had to stock up on products every year in their Banff, Canada store on our annual family ski trip. To say we are big fans is a bit of an understatement.  Not only are all of their ingredients and materials “green”, but they believe in a naked packaging philosophy where all of the products are sold without wrapping…  Talk about a delicious smelling store! Their bath bombs blow every competitor’s out of the water. Take my word, you have to try them.

In case making your own beauty products from home isn’t your thing, be sure to try some of these other green cosmetic brands:

Aveda / Bare Minerals / The Body Shop / Burt’s Bees / Eco Tools / Korres / Josie Maran / Origins / Physician’s Formula / Tarte