As a special summer feature to both save money and ensure you are putting healthy ingredients on your skin (remember your skin is an actual organ of the body it’s the largest one) Body & Soul is featuring a different skin care recipe each week.These recipes have been designed using items that can easily be found locally and at a relatively low cost. Most recipes will use materials you likely already have handy at home or else ones that you can go for a nature walk to obtain.As the August temperatures threaten to roast us here’s a concoction that can help cool the skin.H’aloe cucumberPeel three aloe leaves and put in a blender with half a medium cucumber, unpeeled. Add half a cup of fresh mint leaves if available. Whip to a gel consistency and refrigerate. Apply to any area of the body you want to cool down. Great to use after a day in the sun or on sunburn.If you want to use this as a cooling face mask the mint leaves will be important in mitigating the bitter taste of the aloe.Cucurbitin and fatty oil in cucumber seeds have a soothing effect on the skin while the anthraquinones in aloe vera provide anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral activity in this cooling gel.Aloe vera also contains lignin, a substance that takes the soothing properties of aloe down to damaged skin areas where it strips the toxic materials, increases the blood circulation to the area and flushes the dead tissue away. It also destroys and softens hard skin.Mint provides a cooling sensation to the skin and also has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.