7 unexpected beauty uses for apple cider vinegar
From flawless skin to shinier hair
By Natasha Bird June 13th, 2017
If you think yourself informed about natural remedies, you’ll know already that apple cider vinegar is a cupboard essential. A spoonful a day keeps the acid reflux away. There are however a whole host of other amazing uses for the bottle of cloudy fluid that’s potentially gathering dust in your pantry.
Apple cider vinegar, it would seem, is the key to a whole new and improved beauty routine.
From soothing acne, to cleaning make-up brushes, here are seven great uses you might not have known about:
Unexpected benefits of using apple cider vinegar
The acid in apple cider vinegar makes it quite good at neutralising bad odours. It's also quite helpful when it comes to dealing with warts and fungus too, so this is great news for gym bunnies who've come up against the odd case of athlete's foot.
Make your own vinegar soak from 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, diluted in a small tub of warm water.
Acne is tough to deal with as a teenager and just as angst-ridden when you suddenly find yourself a sufferer as an adult. Apple cider vinegar has been known to kill bacteria and help balance out the skin's pH levels, while also absorbing some of the excess oils from the skin's surface.
Mix one part vinegar to 3-4 parts water, apply solution directly to skin with a cotton wool pad and leave for ten minutes, then rinse. Popular advice suggests trying to do this three times a day if you can.
Some shine treatments use worrying ingredients like formaldehyde and others are just plain expensive. But also, most of them will just add a layer of product onto your already quite product-laden hair. If you've used a few too many serums in the past month and you're looking for a cost-effective way of stripping them back out of heavy, dank locks, look no further than ACV. The acetic acid in ACV will balance your hair's pH levels, stimulate your scalp and strip off some of the product build-up and residue.
Dilute 1/3 cup ACV with four cups of water and massage into your hair post-shampoo. Leave for 10 minutes, with a shower cap on and then rinse out with cold water for extra shine.
Putting an acid-rich substance on your poor lobster-red burns might sound counter productive, but we assure you, it can help.
But amino acids like arginine and glutamine are actually pretty good at wound-healing. Some of them can neutralise the harmful free radicals that can appear after UVA radiation and others promote collagen production, setting your skin on the path to quick regeneration.
As well as using apple cider vinegar to remove coffee and wine stains from fabric, you can also use it to help lessen stains that have formed on your teeth too. It's not going to give you the kind of glowing, pearly whites that Ross Gellar from Friends would be proud of, but it will inch you closer to a shinier, stain-free goal.
For maximum results, mix in a little baking soda to make a paste — then brush and rinse!
Drinking some apple cider vinegar every day isn't pleasant, but it will be very beneficial to your health so you might want to just grin and bear it.
Skin health is one of the first things that could improve, from brightening your looks to easing the pain of your psoriasis.
Mix a tablespoon with water and knock it back in one.
The anti-bacterial properties of the acid found in ACV aren't just good as a topical ointment for your face, they can also help cleanse the implements that come in contact with your face.
Combine a tablespoon of ACV with warm water, plus squeeze half a lemon in for a fresher scent and swirl your make-up brushes around in it to your heart's content.
From: Elle Australia