After reading about how to treat a nasty sunburn naturally, I got to thinking: What other fantastic natural beauty tips and DIY treatments do people have? I know some of the basics—vinegar rinse for hair, essential oil facial steams, olive oil cuticle treatment—but what about those vintage green, ancient-Chinese-secret tips?

Tell me: What are your best natural beauty tips?

Come on, Natural Home fans—tell me your favorite natural face mud mask concoction!  Photo By Neeta Lind/Courtesy Flickr

If you've got them, spill them! The best tipsters will receive an organic cotton Natural Home tote bag (rules apply—comment by Friday, July 10, 2009). Leave your tips in the comments section below.

After a week of using Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo, I’ve moved on to testing a new natural shampoo: Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo. 

This natural shampoo has a faint scent and a soft lather. Photo Courtesy Drugstore.com 

Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo has a big challenge with my medium-length, baby fine, oily hair. Shampoos (natural shampoo and conventional shampoo) loaded with heavy conditioning oils and thick proteins weigh my hair down, but without some kind of moisture, my hair gets unruly. 

Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo strikes the perfect balance. Laced with ginkgo biloba for light moisture and Dead Sea mud and mineral natural cleansers, this natural shampoo provides an equal amount of moisture and natural cleansing ingredients to produce a smooth lather and baby-soft locks. Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo is also packed with vitamins from tomatoes (obviously), rooibos tea and watermelons—namely lycopene, vitamin C, vitamin E and carotene. These rich vitamins and antioxidants provide protection from harmful free radicals and pump up your hair’s strength. Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo is a great choice for oily hair that needs volume and strength. 

Besides all the good stuff in Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo, let’s talk about what’s not in this natural shampoo: parabens, SLS, animal byproducts, or phthalates. This natural shampoo line contains only the best natural and organic ingredients and boasts a 99.6 percent natural seal. 

One of the most exciting things about the entire Yes To line (Yes To Carrots, Yes To Tomatoes, Yes To Cucumbers) is that it’s easily accessible to everyone. Buy Yes To Tomatoes Tempting Tomato Volumizing Shampoo for about $9 at Walgreens, Target, Longs Drugs, Ulta, Duane Reade, Safeway, Rite Aid and other national stores. Too often, natural shampoo and other natural beauty products cost upwards of $20 a pop (believe me, I read your comments and price complaints every time I review a pricey new natural beauty product) and isolate conscientious consumers who want to bring healthy personal-care items into their homes, but also need to be conscientious about their budgets. I think this is a win for us all—natural beauty products are becoming more and more affordable without compromising quality.   

Have you tried anything from the Yes To line? What did you think about it? Where did you buy it? Share your natural beauty reviews with me in the comments below! 

Next week: Billy Lowe natural shampoo

I switch up my shampoos every few months. For summer, I’m experimenting with three new natural shampoos. 

This week, I’ve been using Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo. It’s the latest addition to the luxurious Caudalie line. This natural shampoo is 100 percent plant-based (no SLS or SLES in this stuff!) and is suitable for natural or color-treated hair and fine or thick hair. 

A bottle of Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo is 6.7 ounces and costs $18. Photo Courtesy Caudalie.

Evident by the name, Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo is a more sophisticated version of the “2 in 1” shampoo and conditioners that you see on the market today. Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo cleanses with palm oil and protects and moisturizers your hair with sunflower oil. The fatty acids in sunflower oil amp up your hair’s strength and shine.

Also packed into this natural shampoo are wheat proteins (for strength) and grape seed oil for additional moisture and nourishment. Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo even has a bonus ingredient—white vinegar, which we always sing praises for—to add shine to your hair. This natural shampoo has a soft, gentle lather and leaves your hair feeling clean but not moisture-stripped.

The natural shampoo’s light scent is perfect for humid Kansas summer—not too intense, but just fresh enough. I’ll be stashing this bottle of natural shampoo in my beach, pool and overnight bags this summer, because it’s just better for me (and the planet) than those conventional “2 in 1” shampoos. Grab your bottle of Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo when it hits shelves and the web in August.

What natural shampoo is in your shower? Leave a comment and let me know what to try next!

Next week: Yes to Tomatoes natural shampoo.