Give your face a winter break with a toning/moisturizing mask

yay for simple ingredients!
yay for simple ingredients!

It’s really easy to neglect the face in the winter and rely on make-up to cover-up flaws, dullness and dryness of the skin.  During the winter, all I am in the mood to do is hibernate, even my social life takes a backseat.  Now that I know Valentine’s day is creeping up, and that my boyfriend wants to do something with me, I am forced to start making an effort at proper skin maintenance during these cold dark months of the year.  How does one rejuvenate mind, body and spirit during this time?  A vacation would be great, only my trip to Florida last month was a total disaster in terms of weather.  I got no sun at all during a week of uncommon rain and cold in what is supposed to be “the sunshine state”. So now back in freezing Toronto, I have to work at being fresh faced when I am actually far from.

This is where facials and face masks come into play.  I recently discovered the skin loving ingredient kaolin clay.  Kaolin is a white powder with which you can do many things.  It has a smoothing, absorbing effect when used in cosmetics, similar to talc, but it is all natural.  Make a DIY face powder with it, add it to your dry shampoo…use it to tone your skin in a mask.  For an easy face mask, I decided to use half a banana mashed with yogurt, then add a dash of honey, olive oil, and vitamin e oil.  Thicken with a couple of tablespoons of kaolin.  Better than Lush fresh face masks?  Definitely, it’s more gentle, and much more affordable.

At Home Facials:

Doing facials at home is great.  I find it much more convenient than going to a pricey spa.  It’s pretty easy, but it’s better to do this when no one is around or looking, cuz it looks kind of weird doing it in process.  But your face will thank you.

1. Cleanse your face with a mild face cleanser and exfoliate.  (I use a homemade face scrub with equal parts honey, olive oil, and sugar!)

2. Steam your face gently.  Boil about an inch of water in a pot over the stove.  Remove from heat once it boils.  Add some essential oils, or flower waters to the hot water.  Carefully put the pot on a table and lower your face just above it to receive the steam.  Keep it there for around ten minutes to open your pores and let out impurities and deep down dirt.  Rinse off with warm water/a gentle cleanser again.

3.  Apply your face mask thickly and evenly, avoiding your eyes.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.  Give it more time if needed.

3.  Rinse with warm water.  Pat with a warm, wet face cloth.

4.  Tone your face with a bit of rosewater/toner on a cotton swab.

5.  Moisturize with your favourite face cream.  

It seems like a lot of work, but your skin will thank you.  You will have smaller pores the next day, a more even skin tone, and a better glow to your winter ravaged skin!

 

How I amp up my conditioner for extra shiny hair!

New Year, it means, “new hair”, right?  There is nothing more attractive for hair than shine.  My hair when I was younger, had the most amazing sheen.  It was because I didn’t chemically process it.  However, now a days, everyone does something to their hair, whether it is a perm, or a colour, it affects it’s shine.  So how do I put in a bit of newness and shine to processed hair?  I boost up my everyday conditioner with a few natural ingredients!

A while ago, the dullness really bothered me.  I tried adding leave-in hair products to help increase shine.  The drawback was was that it weighed my hair down, and coated each strand with build up making the problem worse.  Then I tried natural oils like grapeseed oil, as a finishing touch to dry styled hair, but that made my hair too greasy.  That’s when I gave up with after shower shine products and focused on deep conditioning, which I now believe is key.

First of all, start off with a good everyday conditioner.  Then add into the picture: a conditioning hair mask, olive oil, and honey.   Regular conditioner acts as a base.  The conditioning hair mask adds extra softness, the honey attracts moisture and help the hair absorb it, and olive oil gives extra gloss. Mix all four ingredients in a dish, and then get in the shower.  Shampoo well, then spread your hybrid mixture of conditioners into your stressed out strands.  Leave in for 5 minutes.  Rinse well. 

And the results are perfect.  My hair is adequately hydrated, and without build up, the natural oils in my hair can evenly coat each strand to boost shine.  So here is my simple recipe that I mix in a small bowl, each time before showering, so that it is ready to use as soon as I am done my shampooing:

1 part hair conditioner

1 part hair conditioning mask

1/2 part olive oil

1/2 part honey

Mix and blend every ingredient together until uniform in colour and texture.  This stuff will smell amazing as most conditioners already smell great but add in the honey and olive oil and you almost want to eat it!  It is now ready to use.

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Doesn’t look the greatest, but it works!
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Mix well, and you too, can have this one phase result!
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Shiny, and babelicious, no?

After showering, I towel dry hair, and then allow my hair to air dry half way, then finish with low blow dryer heat for 5 mins.  My results when I do this is weightless clean shine, with no need for extra leave-in products!  My hair is super soft, and it has a natural shiny halo to it on the crown of the head or anywhere else it catches the light.  For me it’s like having virgin hair again, while not having virgin styled hair!

I’m 20 again and I’m also a mermaid!

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Beautiful mermaid artwork from Charles Santore, for The Little Mermaid

Every girl wants wavy mermaid hair!  Or I would assume.  One way I hear to get it is with sea salt spray.  I am late coming onto this trend, but I wanted to investigate it for myself.  Is all this hype about “texturizing” your hair with the spray true? Or is it the cosmetic industry’s newest gimmick, making millions off of  this hair product when hairspray, gel, or mousse and a curling iron can do the same?  So I started reading about it.  What does it do to hair when you spritz it in?  Does it automatically give you waves worthy of  the beach?  Does it make you feel like you just came back from one?  How does beach hair look like anyways?  So after reading many internet articles about it, I found out two really important things about the “beach wave” look, and how it is achieved with sea salt sprays, aka surf sprays.

1) “Beach hair” is another way of saying loose, bohemian  waves, with the gritty, messy texture one might get from dunking your head in the sea and letting it air dry.  Basically a dirtier, messier surfer chick wave!  Photos of people that used it had hair just like that which I described.  Some may like it some may not, but you can decide.  But don’t let the trends pressure you into thinking you love it it you don’t!  Respect your own opinion on style.  But if you do, read on!

2) Now the second thing I learned was that sea salt sprays were exactly that.  Water mixed with salt.  Why was the make-up industry charging so much for bottled salt water?  I had no clue.  Sure, they put a nice fragrance in it, but so could I with little to no effort.  So what was the deal?  I even read countless articles on how homemade sprays yielded same if not better beach hair results.  So I decided that if I wanted to try these sprays, I was gonna make my own.  After  experimenting a bit, as well as having a botched attempt, I feel I’ve settled on a great recipe and I’ll share it with you all.  I added rosewater, which makes it smell more like anEnglish Garden, in contrast to the athletic, tropical image of a surfer babe, but I think it makes it more moisturizing and it smells so fresh and healthy.

Roses in the Sea Beach Spray Recipe

2/3 cup warm water (for the salt to disolve)

1 teaspoon salt (more than that doesn’t seem necessary to be visible in hair, but if using dead sea salt, double the amount!)

1/3 cup of rosewater (find it at your local grocery store, or make it if you know how!)

2 teaspoons of grape seed oil (gives your hair more moisture, can also use coconut oil, or something else)

1 teaspoon of alcohol (for preservation)

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my basic, easy to find everyday ingredients, minus the water of course!

Add all the above ingredients into a clean bottle with a spray nozzle.  Shake it up, and then spritz all over your hair!  The more you put in, the more hold you can get.  I like more waves, since my hair doesn’t seem to be that wavy unless I help it out. So I twirl them in them into four little buns and let it air dry for a few hours.  Then I release it while it’s still a bit damp.  The curls are too severe, so I soften them by blowing them out with a hair dryer until they are dry and set.  I get loose waves with texture, while not looking too done up.  It’s seems effortlessly pretty, which is trendy these days!  Surprisingly my hair feels really soft.  I think it’s the rose water.  Give it a try and let me know if you love it too.

My results.  It was nice and soft, even the day after! yay.
My results. It was nice and soft, even the day after! yay.