Juicing is a great way to consume all those servings of fruits and vegetables, we all know that.   I am a much bigger fan of GREEN juices and / or vegetable  juices than fruits becasue, maybe for obvious reasons, they have less sugar and we Americans, as a collective, tend to not get enough of the latter.

Juicing also is a WONDERFUL method for cleaning out the produce bin, especially if you have produce that is starting to be MEH.

Today my reasons for juicing were neither.

My plan for breaking out the juice beast was to make extractions for some skin care products AND for DYE.

Wait, what ??

Sometimes in life you completely reinvent everything you do, and this happened to me; now I wear my food as makeup and body products.

I also eat it.

I had a middle of the night hair-brained idea to juice a fresh leaf of aloe vera and mix the fresh juices into my mask.  I wanted to add it to some cucumber and make a refreshing, cooling, facial mask and thats exactly what I did!

I actually DO have store purchased aloe vera gel that I use all the time. I also have home grown aloe vera that I love to use when I want a product to be a super star.  

Take a fresh cut leaf off a plant if you have one, wash it, ( I like to slice off the prickly edges) and run it through your juicer.

I then follow up with the cucumber. I did this to basically “wash” out any aloe vera juice bits still remaining in my extraction juicer.  Cucumber is VERY watery and a lot of the time I pick particular veggies in a certain order to give the blade and screen a rinse.

I also juiced (all separately) fresh ginger, fresh turmeric (for dye), fresh celery (to drink and also becasue I needed to use it up) fresh apple/carrot for my little assistant, which he drank. YAY, AND almost one whole head of red cabbage (to drink AND for dye)

So now I have all these colorful jars of fresh raw juice to let my creative “juices” fly.

didyoucatchmyjuicepun?

Freshly juiced cucumber smells DIVINE

Now I have plenty of ingredients to get busy in my lab with!

Lets make a FACE MASK shall we?

DIY Cucumber-Ginger Soothing GEL face mask

• 1/3 c freshly juiced cucumber/aloe vera juice mixed together
• 1-2 heaping tablespoon of freshly juiced ginger
• 1/4 tsp xantham gum

Add your juice combination into a bowl and slowly add in the xantham gum, whisking at high speed (or highest speed you can manage) while slowly adding in the xantham gum to prevent lumping.  It will set pretty fast.

Within minutes your gel will be very viscous and you will know its ready for the jar.

You can store in the refrigerator to add in a stronger COOL effect and to preserve. Mine is currently, like most of my little creations, on my bathroom sink.  I do not expect it to last very long.

I like to make an initial layer and then add in a hearty second and let it be for half hour.  Take a very warm wash cloth and exfoliate your skin to wash off.  Spritz your face and neck with some of your favorite and hopefully tea infused, hydrating facial mist and seal it all in with your favorite facial cream.

My intent here is to use the very FREHSEST ingredients, utilizing the RAW and LIVE ENZYMES.  Cucumber is wonderful for reducing the puffiness and soothing tired eyes.  Aloe very (especially freshly used) is also very soothing and an anti-inflammatory so you have a 2-1 kick for fresh ingredients to reduce the morning puffy eyes.  Aloe can also soothe inflamed skin from acne breakouts or sunburn.

THIS WOULD BE GREAT FOR helping ease the discomfort a sunburn. So someone remind me to make this again in JULY!

I added in fresh GINGER to give your skin a kick of anti-oxidants for vibrant glowing skin!

**NOTE** I have been asked and asked lately to make some you-tube videos on creating some of these DIY recipes, so I am currently figuring out that universe, so stay tuned, the Annie-Cam is being dusted off and charged.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some green-goo to generously slather on my puffy early morning eyes!

I hope you try it and if you have any questions hit me up on the comments !!

~in health and happiness

Annie