Slice, chop, & dice. Stick 'em in your salad and put it on your face?

It's true. Some of the yummiest foods pull double duty as easy DIY beauty products. From face to all-over body care, we scoured the net for the best beauty food tips we could find:

Avocado
Eat it:
A summer staple in super-easy guacamole, California-style salads (we love this recipe), or slipped into a roasted chicken sandwich - the avocado is loaded with fiber, Vitamins C and K, folate, and omega fatty acids but low in cholesterol and sodium.

Wear it:
Moisturizer - Lightly massage the inner side of a peeled avocado skin against your skin. For overnight moisturizing, leave the oil in place. For daytime use, splash a few handfuls of cool water on your face and dab lightly with a hand towel, careful not to wipe all the precious oil off. Apply your makeup as usual.

Honey
Eat it:
Honey is so much more than a topping for toast. Create simple Bar-B-Que sauces, glazes and marinades or use as a sugar substitute in baking. Try this Honey-Lime marinade for scallops!

Wear it:
Mask - Pure honey fights acne, deep cleans, and moisturizes the skin. Open your pores with a few splashes of warm water, then smooth the honey over your face, allow to rest for a few minutes, and rinse off with warm water. It works just as well with liquid or creamed honey and is gentle enough to be used as often as you like.

Sugar
Eat it:
One of my favorite ways to dress up a fruit salad is with a light sprinkling of cinnamon or vanilla sugar. To make cinnamon sugar, mix 1 cup white sugar with 1-2 Tbsp of cinnamon. For vanilla sugar, place several vanilla beans (crack them open) in a container of sugar and leave them in to combine the flavors. By taste, and as you replenish the sugar, simply add more beans. You can substitute vanilla sugar in almost any recipe for a delicious twist!

Wear it:
Exfoliant - Mix a small amount of white sugar with enough olive oil for your purpose, and gently exfoliate any area of your skin. Those with sensitive skin or allergies should do a patch test first to check for a reaction, and take care if using this in the shower as it can get slippery.

Dip your toothbrush in a small amount of sugar and use to exfoliate your lips. Liplicious!

Oatmeal
Eat it:
Oats are a healthy breakfast item, but you can also beef up your cookies or other baking by grinding simple rolled oats in a clean coffee grinder or blender and swapping half of your white flour from the recipe. Oats are high in soluble fiber, phosphorus, selenium and manganese.

Wear it:
Bath Soak - As a foot or all-body soak, the calming properties of oatmeal relieve itchiness and soften skin. Scoop a half-cup of oats into a cheesecloth, along with a few Tbsp of powdered milk and honey, close tightly and attach to your tub's faucet so the running water can disperse the ingredients into the bath. Those with sensitive skin or allergies should do a patch test or start with the foot soak before trying the full body treatment.

Not every beauty food is alike. Strawberries stain, egg white can be smelly, and some concoctions require rare ingredients - it's the fastest way to ensure you won't keep up with your new regimen. Sticking with simple pantry staples is easy and economical.

Talk about multitasking.

by Claire Rahn