Posts Tagged ‘homemade facial’

Dear T&M: I can’t use all-natural hair products.

Posted on August 31st, 2011 by Tonia 7 Comments

Awesome Dirty Harry poster found here.

You are not alone, GreenMom! I had a really hard time finding an all-natural shampoo and conditioner that I was happy with, too. I even blogged about how I cut my hair short because I was sick of how the biodegradable shampoo made my long hair look stringy.

HOWEVER! A few months ago a friend suggested the Desert Essence brand. I tried it and have stuck with it ever since. It lathers great, cleans without totally stripping my hair dry, and the Coconut Conditioner is thick and creamy and smells like a vacation. I love that I can get it at our local organic food co-op, it isn’t crazy expensive, and it’s biodegradable.

There is another option, too. One of our readers, Shana, makes her own shampoo and conditioner and was kind enough to share her recipes {so awesome. Thank you, lady!}

I gave the shampoo and vinegar-conditioner a try today and took pictures so you could see how nicely it lathers and rinses out {I washed outside, because I was filthy dirty from laying seed and raking our green-manure pasture}. Honestly, I l-o-v-e-d them. They were quick and easy to make, too.

From Shana:

Hi Tonia, Here are my basic shampoo and conditioner recipes. I hope these work for you! Don’t feel like you have stick to the recipe – you can experiment!

Shampoo
1 cup boiling water
1 green tea bag
A few sage leaves, torn up
1 cup liquid castille soap (I use unscented Dr. Bronners)
6 tsp. jojoba oil
1/4 tsp. peppermint essential oil
1/4 tsp tea tree essential oil

Steep tea and sage in boiling water for 30 min. Strain.

Add soap, jojoba oil, and essential oils to water. Mix well, and shake before each use. Apply just as you would normal shampoo.

This shampoo works well for my hair, which is dark brown, thick, and fairly normal (not too dry or oily). For the shampoo that I make for my husband, who is blond, I omit the sage and steep the tea for a little less time. Sage is supposed to be good for dark hair, but can discolor lighter hair.

The essential oils can easily be omitted or substituted. They might have some value, but I like them mostly for their refreshing scent.

The most expensive item on the list is jojoba oil, which is kind of expensive. I’ve been thinking of substituting grapeseed oil, but I haven’t tried it yet. It’s constant experimentation!

Conditioner
2 cups boiling water
1 sprig rosemary
2 Tbls. apple cider vinegar

Pour boiling water over rosemary and let steep for 30 min. Strain.

Add apple cider vinegar and mix well. Shake before each use.

Apply to hair after shampoo, trying to cover as much hair as possible. Leave on for two minutes and rinse out, preferably with cool water.

I know. Vinegar on your hair? This seems like a really bad idea, right? I was skeptical too. But it really works! It leaves my hair smooth and shiny, and relatively tangle free!

You do have to dump kind of a lot of the mixture on your hair – I have very long hair, and I use about half a cup of conditioner per application. It is also important to actually leave it in your hair for a full two minutes or longer, so if you are trying to save water you might want to turn off the shower while you’re conditioning.

Your hair may smell slightly of vinegar when you’re done, but the smell will disappear as your hair dries (and it’s never a very strong smell anyway).

The rosemary can easily be omitted. It’s supposed to be good for your hair, but the vinegar is doing most of the work in this concoction.

If you use the vinegar rinse too often, it can dry out your hair. I wash my hair every other day, and every third or forth wash I try to do a “deep conditioner” instead of the vinegar wash. I apply the conditioner before shampooing because I’m worried that I won’t get all the egg out of my hair with just a rinse.


Deep Conditioner
1 egg
1 Tbls. olive oil
3/4 cup lukewarm water

Beat egg until it turns frothy. Add olive oil and beat some more. Slowly add water and beat until well combined.

Apply to damp hair. Leave in for 15 min.

Rinse out with COOL water (hot water can cook the egg, leading to an unfortunate, albeit retrospectively funny, situation)

Shampoo and rinse as normal.

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Winter Skin Therapy

Posted on March 11th, 2011 by Tonia No Comments

It’s March, which means my skin hasn’t seen the sun for about four months…and you can tell. Winter is really rough on our skin- especially a winter full of hockey games {the chin-strap on my hockey helmet is no doubt a happy haven for bacteria which causes pimples…}, followed by really hot showers {very, very relaxing but very, very drying for my skin.} It’s really no surprise that my face has been acting up with a combination of dry skin and pimples.

This is the most difficult combo to deal with because what treats the dry skin usually aggravates the pimples, and what dries out the pimples dries out the rest of my face even more! Needles to say, I am ready for summer, for sunshine, and for my skin to get back to normal!

But here we are in March, and we’re a few months away from summer still. So, I turn to yogurt and honey. Two delicious things to eat, and two wonderful things to put on your face! The yogurt balances your skin, calms and reduces redness, and makes your skin soft. The honey moisturizes.

A big key here is to use quality, organic yogurt and honey. The stuff with added sugar and preservatives should be avoided. I buy the most natural kind of yogurt I can find. Some people make their own yogurt, which I plan on doing sometime soon as well.

This honey was made by a close family friend who raises bees. We usually enjoy it on toast and in tea, but it works great for this purpose too.

It only takes a small amount of both ingredients to make enough for a couple people to enjoy this facial mask. You can store the mixture in the refrigerator for a few days if you cover it with something.

Keep mixing until the honey is incorporated into the yogurt. If your honey came right out of the refigerator, this step could take several minutes.

It can be slightly drippy, so do this over your sink. Just keep applying it until there is a good coating all over your face. It feels so cool and soothing on your skin. Leave the mask on for 10 minutes or so, and then splash it off with cool or warm water.

You might not even need a moisturizer afterward, but in my case I did apply a light lotion to lock in the moisture from the honey. If you have oilier skin, you can add a squeeze of lemon juice into the mask mixture. Lemon juice lightens dark spots and absorbs oil. I dab it directly on dark spots left by old pimples, and it works really well to fade them.

So easy!! And you will see and feel the difference immediately after washing the mask off. Tighter, smoother, calmer, happier skin. I hope this little pick-me-up facial helps get you through until summer!

Natural Beauty II: DIY Facial

Posted on February 24th, 2010 by Tonia 4 Comments

I always get the itch to do a little self-pampering in the early spring.  I especially love facials.  After a long winter of dry-skin, I can’t wait to get my healthy summer-glow back.  But most facial products are chocked-full of nasty ingredients (see Natural Beauty: Avoiding Toxic Make-Up).  Knowing that I’m putting toxins on my face and then washing them down the drain takes all the enjoyment out of the facial for me.  So, I started to explore all-natural options.

…Actually, I have yet to find an all-natural moisturizer that I am completely satisfied with.  Do you have a favorite moisturizer, cleanser, and toner?  Please let me know in the comments section!

Since I don’t have a favorite store-bought moisturizer, I usually use aloe, jojoba-oil, and other homemade options.  I feel that homemade is the best option when it comes to skincare.  It’s the only way to have full control over what exactly is going on your skin.  There are tons of recipes to be found online for homemade face scrubs, masks, toners, and cleansers.

If you have never done this before, you might be surprised by some of the ingredients {or you might want to eat them.}  Turns out that foods like honey, yogurt, bananas, and oatmeal aren’t only good for us on the inside of our bodies…they also do wonders when topically applied.

naturalbeauty1Take some time this week to give yourself a homemade facial.  I found the following recipes on the Epic Beauty Guide, which is one of my favorite blogs.  You will be happy with how your skin looks after you try these:

Sugar Scrub

Removes dead skin cells so mois­ture can pen­e­trate, heals scars and acne, anti-aging.

{INGREDIENTS}

2 Tbsp. organic, cold-pressed olive oil
1 Tbsp. organic, raw honey
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
1 small, dark glass con­tainer {dark glass pre­vents the oil from oxi­diz­ing and will not leach into your scrub}

{STEPS}

1.  Pour your olive oil into your glass con­tainer. Then pour in your honey. Mix well.

2.  Add the sugar slowly and mix as you go. You may use less or more than 1/4 cup. You should end up with a thick scrub. Add a lit­tle more oil if you feel it’s too thick.

3.  Apply to your freshly washed face, neck, and chest.  Mas­sage the scrub gen­tly.  If you have very sen­si­tive skin, rub the scrub in your hands for a few sec­onds to soften up the gran­ules, then apply.

4.  Rinse off with luke­warm water. Skip the toner (you want to keep the remain­ing olive oil on your skin).

5.  Store the leftovers in a cool, dark place like your med­i­cine cabinet.

Milk & Honey Mask

Mois­tur­iz­ing, anti-aging, evens out skin tone and tex­ture, heals dam­age, soothes inflammation.

{INGREDIENTS}

1 Tbsp. organic milk ~ see if you can get local, raw goat’s milk or cow’s milk; you can also use plain, organic yogurt
1 Tbsp. organic, raw, unfil­tered honey
(Optional) 1 tsp. aloe vera gel ~ see if you can get an aloe plant, then you just break off a “leaf” and squeeze the fresh gel out!

{STEPS}

1.  Mix ingre­di­ents together in a small bowl.

2.  After cleans­ing, apply the mask to your face.

3.  Leave on for 10 min­utes.

4.  Wash off with luke­warm water, and a splash of cool water.

Champagne Toner

Cleans out and closes the pores, evens skin-tone, evaporates oil.

{INGREDIENTS}

A shal­low dish, a mea­sur­ing spoon, a cotton ball, and a bot­tle of champagne.

{STEPS}

1. Pour about 2 Tbsp. of cham­pagne into your dish and drop your cot­ton pad into the cham­pagne. Let the pad soak it up.

2. Wipe the champagne-soaked cot­ton pad all over your face, neck, and chest. It is fine to use around the eyes, just don’t get it in there!

3. Don’t rinse off. Follow-up with a light, nat­ural mois­tur­izer — jojoba or sweet almond oil are great.