- You probably eat and enjoy fruits and vegetables for their many nutritional benefits. Filled with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, they also have many benefits for your skin and hair.
- A thick avocado mask, for example, makes for a highly effective moisturizer, while eye gels that contain cucumber help reduce under-eye puffiness.
- These 15 products contain extracts from fruits and vegetables, such as watermelon, pomegranate, and mushroom, to improve the health of your skin and hair.
Fruits and vegetables are more than just delicious foods that give your body the vitamins, minerals, and healthy energy it needs. They also make excellent and powerful ingredients in skincare and hair care and are another way you can enjoy their benefits without having to eat them (though you should still eat them).
The use of nature’s crops to treat our bodies goes back to the days of our ancestors, and while we may have more advanced skincare techniques now, the basics of natural skincare and beauty aren’t any less effective.
15 skincare and hair care products containing fruits and vegetables:
Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Ultra-Fine Mist
Buy it here: Sephora, $28 | Amazon, $32
The fruit or vegetable: Watermelon
What it does: Watermelon contains vitamins A, C, and B, as well as potassium, giving your face a fresh dose of nutrients. It also soothes and hydrates irritated skin.
Briogeo Apple Superfoods Shampoo & Conditioner
Buy it here: Shampoo + Conditioner, Sephora, $28
The fruit or vegetable: Kale, spinach, broccoli, apple, cucumber, lemon, grapefruit, beet, orange, seaberry
What it does: The greens your parents were always pushing you to eat do wonders for your hair, strengthening the roots and hair shaft and supporting a healthy scalp. The health drink-inspired products cleanse, nourish, and hydrate hair without stripping it of moisture.
Fresh Sugar Strawberry Exfoliating Face Wash
Buy it here: Sephora, $33
The fruit or vegetable: Strawberry, black currant
What it does: Real strawberry juice is mixed with sugar crystals to immediately remove your skin's impurities and help your complexion look healthier. The berries also make the face wash smell amazing (like candy or jam), which is a nice wake-up call as you wash your face in the morning.
Drunk Elephant C-Firma Vitamin C Day Serum
Buy it here: Sephora, $80
The fruit or vegetable: Pumpkin, pomegranate
What it does: The pumpkin ferment extract and pomegranate enzyme work together to dissolve dead surface skin cells. This product has a "reservoir effect," meaning it'll be active on your skin for up to 72 hours.
Youth to the People Superfood Antioxidant Cleanser
Buy it here: Amazon, $69 | Sephora, $36* | Nordstrom, $36*
The fruit or vegetable: Kale, spinach
What it does: These leafy greens deliver phytonutrients and vitamins C, E, and K to strengthen, cool, and condition the skin. Combined with the antioxidant-packed green tea, they make a gentle and powerful daily cleanser.
*currently sold out
Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief Micellar Cleanser
Buy it here: Sephora, $36 | Macy's, $36
The fruit or vegetable: Reishi, cordyceps, fermented chaga mushrooms
What it does: The most important ingredient to know here is reishi, a mushroom often used in traditional Chinese medicine to promote longevity. It calms and reduces visible redness on the skin and protects against environmental stressors.
Primera Alpine Berry Water Cream
Buy it here: Amazon, $25 | Sephora, $40
The fruit or vegetable: Blackberry, strawberry leaf
What it does: The cream's Alpine Berry Complex is made up of naturally moisturizing wild strawberry sprouts and hydrating, environmental damage-protecting blackberries.
Herbivore Moon Fruit Superfruit Night Treatment
Buy it here: Dermstore, $46.40
The fruit or vegetable: Prickly pear, goji berry, red raspberry, orange, papaya, lemon
What it does: The first half of the ingredient list above offer antioxidant benefits, while the second half, present in enzyme form, exfoliate and resurfaces the skin. The night cream must be fully massaged into the skin, not just applied on top, for full effects.
Kiehl's Avocado Nourishing Hydration Mask
Buy it here: Sephora, $45 | Kiehl's, $45
The fruit or vegetable: Avocado
What it does: Whether in your salad and toast or your nightly face mask, rich and creamy avocado is an indispensable ingredient. The thick mask moisturizes and softens skin while also preventing water loss.
Estee Lauder Super-Pomegranate Moisture Crème
Buy it here: Sephora, $70 | Macy's, $70
The fruit or vegetable: Pomegranate
What it does: Harvested from the Mediterranean, the pomegranate has been found to have three times the antioxidants as red wine and green tea. It's anti-inflammatory and it helps detoxify your skin.
Glow Recipe Blueberry Bounce Gentle Cleanser
Buy it here: Sephora, $34 | Amazon, $38
The fruit or vegetable: Blueberry
What it does: The blueberries in this bouncy and hydrating cleanser protect against environmental damage and make it smell delicious. You can even see tiny remnants of blueberry floating around inside.
Glamglow Berryglow Probiotic Recovery Face Mask
Buy it here: Sephora, $50 | Bluemercury, $49
The fruit or vegetable: Blueberry, cranberry, goji berry
What it does: This berry blend feels soothing on the skin and is combined with a probiotic that supports a healthy skin microbiome.
Sephora Collection Pineapple Face Mask
Buy it here: Sephora, $5.50
The fruit or vegetable: Pineapple
What it does: The enzymes in pineapple revive and restore radiance to dull skin in this affordable and efficient sheet mask.
Peter Thomas Roth Cucumber De-Tox Hydra-Gel Eye Patches
Buy it here: Sephora, $52
The fruit or vegetable: Cucumber
What it does: Remember the classic spa treatment of putting cucumbers over your eyes? These eye patches containing cucumber extract have the same idea, using cucumber to reduce under-eye puffiness.