You can easily — and inexpensively — maintain clear skin and healthy hair with a few simple homemade beauty tricks you can steal from your kitchen.

Working From Within

The simplest and most effective beauty trick for clear skin and strong, shiny hair is to nourish them from within. Biotin, also known as vitamin H, is a key nutrient for beautiful skin and hair. Nut butters are one great biotin source, but commercial ones can be loaded with sugar, salt and preservatives. Making your own ensures you control the ingredients. Vitamins A and C and folate also help support healthy hair and skin. Start your day with a Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie, a refreshing Citrus Smoothie or a Green Smoothie made with spinach or kale to help give your skin and hair a powerful beauty boost.

Keeping Skin Clean

Many facial cleansers contain harsh chemicals and unnecessary perfumes, which can irritate sensitive skin. Making your own cleansers is a simple and inexpensive way to keep skin glowing. For a gentle exfoliating scrub, grind whole, uncooked oat flakes in your Vitamix blender until you have a coarse powder. Tie this in a clean muslin cloth and use in your shower or when you wash your face to gently remove dead skin cells. You can also use the leftover pulp from homemade Almond Milk to make a gentle face scrub. Spread the mixture on your skin and gently massage it in with your fingertips. Rinse it off with lukewarm water and pat your face dry. Proportions for homemade cleansers don't have to be exact, so don't be afraid to experiment.

Maintaining Healthy Hair

Sun, wind, blow-drying and harsh chemicals in hair coloring and styling products can wreak havoc on your hair. Each hair is made up of tiny scales. When hair becomes too dry, these scales open up, making it look frizzy and coarse. A soothing hair mask hydrates the inner shaft and smooths scales, helping trap the moisture within. Use your Vitamix blender to whip up a hair mask made with coconut and banana or avocado and honey. Add a few drops of almond oil for a sweet scent. Smooth the mask into wet hair and then cover your head with a shower cap or a few layers of cling wrap. Let the mask sit for at least 60 minutes before washing it out and air-drying for a silky mane.

Soothing Troubled Skin

No matter how well you care for your skin, it can occasionally become itchy, dry and irritated. Avoid chemicals in over-the-counter itch creams by making your own oatmeal skin soothers. Oatmeal contains complex sugars called polysaccharides, which moisturize skin, and substances called avenanthramides, which block the histamines that cause itchiness. Make oat flour in your Vitamix machine and sprinkle it in bathwater to calm itchy skin. Or blend whole oat flakes with organic honey and use the mixture as a healing facial mask by applying it to clean skin and letting it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.