Have you guys ever tried to make your own beauty products at home? I made yesterday a little DIY spa day at home using products I concocted right in my kitchen with a little help from the The Vitamin Shoppe’s new line of Aromatherapy Oils.
This was a fun experiment for me because I came across a really awesome hair mask using Moroccan argan oil, olive oil and half an avocado, but I was also able to salvage the remaining part of the avocado to make myself a healthy dessert after (if that’s not embodying the spirit of Beauty & the Feast, then I don’t know what does). But first, the hair mask! This is an easy recipe that makes hair super shiny, and smooth. Tried and true.
Avocado Argan Oil Hair Mask
Ingredients:
1/2 of a mashed avocado
1 tbs olive oil
1 pump of argan oil (I used the Vitamin Shoppe’s Moroccan Argan Oil).
Directions: Mix ingredients together thoroughly (make sure there are no clumps of avocado or it will be hard to smooth through hair). Heat in the microwave for ten seconds. Let it cool, then apply to clean, wet hair (make sure to massage it in your scalp!) and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then wash out.
So in the course of waiting, I realized 30 minutes is a long time. I was also starting to semi-freak out about wasting the other half of the avocado. I definitely didn’t want to throw the perfectly good (and ripe!) avocado half but I just made guac the other day (an aside: I pretty much make guac everyday so there’s never a shortage in my kitchen). But then I realized this was a good time to experiment with making an avocado chocolate mousse…and half an avocado looked perfect for one serving.
I say experiment because this is the second time I was trying this – the first time, I used Giada’s recipe here which uses a mix of bittersweet dark chocolate, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, agave and way too many avocados I think (the recipe called for four, but I only used two).
Even so, it ended up tasting too avocado-ey (there’s nothing worse than serving chocolate dessert and realizing it tastes like fruit). The color and texture looked right, but the taste was off so that was a semi-fail (Sorry, Giada, I love you though).
So this second time around, I decided to try another recipe using low-fat cottage cheese. As usual, I adjusted it a little based on what I had at home and because I was only using half an avocado. That said, this tasted SO much better — you wouldn’t be able to tell there’s avocado in it at all (which is mostly the point) and it’s perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Fresh Avocado Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients (again, remember this is for a single serving so considering you’re already doing a thick green hair mask, let’s just hope you’re at home alone anyway):
1/2 a ripe avocado
2 tbs of low-fat cottage cheese
1 tbs of bittersweet dark chocolate
2 tbs of powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbs of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbs of agave
Directions: Mix together in a blender or with a spoon, and leave in fridge to cool before serving. I first blended it using a blender, but since the quantity is so little, it didn’t fully mix so I had to scoop it out and mix it by hand. The color was lighter than the Giada version, but this one was on point with taste.
Here’s the original recipe again (which is slightly different than the one I made up here), but the quantities are adjusted if you’re serving more people.
Let me know if you try either of these and like! I’m going to post an amazing DIY foot and body scrub in a couple days that I hope you love indulging in as much as I did :).
x
Shy
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