Lemon Witch Hazel Toner and I try Ombre-ing my hair with lemon juice

The Toner

I am in love with lemons right now.  I made a lemon toner using lemon, witch hazel, and water.  Here is the recipe from Bella Online:

Lemon Toner
½ cup lemon juice
1 cup distilled water
2/3 cup witch hazel

For lemon toner, combine all ingredients. Pour into a clean bottle or container. Shake well before using. Apply with a clean cotton ball.

A different recipe also said that if your face is prone to being oily, then you can add a few tablespoons of rubbing alcohol, depending on the severity.

Instead of adding alcohol, I used Dickinson’s Oil Controlling Astringent with Witch Hazel Flower Extract.  It’s still 100% natural, and my local Walgreens had a mail in rebate, which means I got it for free!  (And also, if you get a chance, check out The Krazy Coupon Lady for awesome coupon deals like this one!).

So basically I love my toner.  It feels sort of tingly, and my face seems to be brightening anyway.  Plus it’s all natural, and seems how that’s the smart thing to do nowadays, why not go for it?  Plus, usually when I wash my face, I have a lot (I mean, a crazy amount) of dead skin that comes off of my face, but since I started using the toner, I have had not as much.  I could compare the amount to a sand castle vs the entire beach.  So it’s actually better than it was, even if there’s not a huge visible difference yet.

What I am trying to do is get my face to a normal balance.  When I use face lotion, my face breaks out in pimples.  Well, if I look at my face the wrong way, it breaks out in pimples, so I guess it’s not saying much. But my ultimate goal is to actually look like a 26 year old woman instead of a 13 year old girl with wrinkles and puberty.  Long story short, instead of using lotion, I am now trying Target’s topical Vitamin E oil (which, after I purchased, I read the ingredients, and it has soybean oil, Vitamin E oil, and sunflower oil, so I don’t have a lot of confidence in it).  I applied a teeny tiny bit last night, and I am still sort of oily this morning (even after washing and applying toner), but my face is so soft.  I’ll probably only use the Vitamin E oil once a week (maybe after my baking soda treatment) but at least I’ll have a little hope of being less wrinkled in the future.

The Ombre

I love the Ombre look, but I am allergic to hair dye.  Being that I used to dye my hair every 6 months or so, the transition was a little hard for me.  I recently found an article for naturally dying your hair with coffee and tea, etc. and I remembered that we used to lighten our hair with lemon juice.  So sweet, just another thing I can do with my favorite citrus (well, my favorite citrus right now… grapefruit will always have my heart).

So my bright idea was to apply lemon juice using a spray bottle every morning after my shower, then let it dry and start lightening my hair gradually.  That way, if I didn’t like it, it would be very subtle.  I found out after 4 days of applying lemon juice, I don’t get enough sun during the week to actually do anything.  My hair is the same color as it was before I started.  And I discovered it is, 1.  Totally damaging to do that to your ends every freaking day, and 2. Your hair will tangle worse than a 3 year old Repunzel’s will.  But I refuse to give up!  I basically have 1 day a week in the sun, so this weekend I am going to make it count.  My plan is to spend as much time outdoors as possible, and if there is still no visible difference, I’m going to try Sun-In.  Hopefully I can achieve results before getting frustrated and pouring bottles of peroxide on my head…

Baking Soda Microdermabrasion

So my cousin pinned this recipe for baking soda microdermabrasion scrub that I tried last night. The original is from Confessions of a Wisconsin Housewife (http://wihousewifeconfessions.wordpress.com), and the recipe is as follows:

“3 TBSP baking soda
1 TBSP water

mix together well.
apply to face in circular motion.
let sit for five minutes.
rinse off with warm water.

say hello to healthy, glowing skin!”

I was crazy interested in trying this, so last night I did. I have a microdermabrasion machine thing-y (what is that called?) but I didn’t have the sponge attachment for it because it’s been quite a while since I used it last. So I applied the scrub with cotton rounds from Target. The only problem I had was the cotton round sort of deteriorated while I was scrubbing. I looked in the sink and there were tiny little cotton turds that fell off my face. Oh well.

As far as my face, it was amazingly soft afterward. I guess it’s still soft today, but I have an issue with oily skin, so at the end of the day anyway, my face is soft/ slippery. Haha.

Tonight I’m making a toner from Witch Hazel, lemon, and water to put on my face after I wash it. I’m only going to do the microdermabrasion once a week so I don’t peel my face off, and maybe I’ll pick up one of those applicator sponges.

PS.
I also made the brown sugar scrub from the Wisconsin Housewife, with grape seed oil instead of olive oil. Here’s the recipe:

1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp grape seed oil

Also, here are the links to confessions of a wisconsin housewife’ scrub posts:

http://wihousewifeconfessions.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/beauty-diy-exfoiliating-scrub-sunless-tanner-review/

http://wihousewifeconfessions.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/beauty-diy-microdermabrasion/

BBC’s Sherlock has won my heart

I am SHERlocked. Rarely does a show come around with the same caliber of wit and subtle humor as this program. A modern day Sherlock that not only pays homage to the original Arthur Conan Doyle series, but successfully integrates both Holmes and Watson into a 21st century environment.

In order to convey how excellent this series is, I believe my mom said it best:

“Have you seen the first episode of Sherlock yet? Do it. Do it now. Do it at work, do it on your phone, just do it! It’s on Netflix. Season 2 started on pbs.org, you can pick it up there, too.”

Ombre Nail Art

So the wonderful world that is Pinterest introduced me to different types of nail art.  The first was matte polish (which I’ll more than likely do another post about eventually…) And the other is ombre design nail art.  It is super easy to do, and there are so many techniques to get the look, but the result is pretty awesome with very little effort.

Basically what you want is a gradient of light to dark of any nail color.  I used a slightly translucent nail color so the gradient effect would be easier to achieve, but I am going to experiment with my matte colors next time.

I started out with a Sally Hansen clear coat, and let that dry for a while.  Then I used Beauty Credit Wellbeing Green as my ombre.  To apply the ombre effect I used a torn piece of makeup sponge and dabbed. 

So I started with the pinky on my left hand because 1) habit, and 2) I had no idea how easy it was going to be so I needed practice on my good hand first.  Usually I paint my right hand, then left hand, then thumbs, but it doesn’t really matter how you do it.

So I started with my left pinky by painting the nail polish onto the sponge.  Very lightly I started dabbing the sponge onto my nail from the tip to the base, but I only went about 1/3 of the way down, and only one layer.  Then I did the rest of my fingers, same technique.  Then on my second coat, I went maybe 1/4 of the way to the base, then the third layer I just did the tips.  With the translucent polish it gave me the gradient that I was looking for.

Things to note:
The sponge is so forgiving.  I mean, its supposed to look sort of messy, so if you dab a little too far, don’t worry your pretty little head about it.
Also, don’t touch anything until you’re dry.  It doesn’t take that long to dry, and you may cry if you mess up your beautiful nail design.
Other techniques I found:
The Beauty Department

I can’t find the original ombre post that the technique I used came from, but when I do, I’ll post it.

Pinterest is my new friend…

Okay, so I’m sure everyone has heard about this by now, but if not, let me formally introduce you to a website called Pinterest.com. Basically, it’s a collection of images that you essentially wanted to “stick a pin in” to save it for later.  You create pinboard collections as a form of filing system, and you can make a bunch of pinboards for all of your different interests.

My pinboards are “Kittens and Cute”, “Baby Love”, “Freaking Sweet Celebration” (because I’m an uber party planner, even if I am not a party thrower…), “Geekery”, “Images I love”, and “Crochet and Crafts”.

Then here’s the best part…You share everything with your friends.  Say someone you know is having a baby, and you just happen to be looking at a ton of baby stuff online, if you’ve installed the “Pin It” bookmark in your browser, you just click the button, and it compiles all of the images on the page you are currently viewing.  You select the photo you love, decide which board to pin it to, then you write a tiny blurb about what it is and why you love it, then you post.  Suddenly, your image is available to all of your followers to see!  Then it catches the eye of the future baby mama, and she loves it so much she buys it!  Actually, maybe she just re-pins it or hearts your item, but still.  It’s an awesome image sharer.

So if you’re interested, you can request an invite from Pinterest.com, or you can let me know and I can invite you personally.  And then follow me on the link below.  Pretty freakin’ sweet dude.

Spicy Gumbo recipe that tastes fantastic

Hi everyone,

I found this recipe looking for Norm’s Restaurant Spicy Gumbo Recipe because that’s about the only thing I miss from the restaurant business.  This is pretty close on the flavor, but I think it could be spicier, so maybe add a little more Tabasco and cayenne pepper if you really like the kick.  And by the way, the recipe is FANTASTIC!

PS. Kirsten: I’m sure you could make this vegetarian with some Tofu sausage or something.  There is so much flavor that I’m sure you could skip the meat if you wanted to… and maybe some super flavorful veggie stock instead of chicken stock.

Spicy Gumbo

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup vegetable oil (corn oil is best)

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped celery

3 large garlic cloves finely diced

3 bay leaves

2-10 ounce cans Ro*Tel tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

5 boneless chicken breast halves cut into bite size pieces 

3 cups andouille chopped (any lean smoked sausage will work)

1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s original creole seasoning (or 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper)

1 teaspoon Tabasco

3 tablespoons chopped parsley 

3 Quarts chicken stock 

1/4 cup chopped green onion

 

Spicy Gumbo recipe that tastes fantastic.

Daily Deals to Save you Money!!!

Family Daily Deal, 1 Sale A Day.

Okay, so all in all, this website is pretty awesome.  You can get massive discounts, just as long as you check it everyday!  And also, you have to know what you’re looking at.  I just paid $3.00 for a USB octopus- free shipping.  And the best part is this was on my list to buy this weekend, so…wicked awesome deal!

Edit:

So after some research this company doesn’t have very good reviews…I’ve had a good experience with them, so I can’t say that I’ve had any problems, but apparently their customer service isn’t so good, and some people didn’t get what they bought and were waiting on their refunds.  So, if the deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.  What I do know is when they sell certain electronic products, they have been refurbished, so keep that in mind.