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…
