Bronzing Chocolate Body Butter

I've been experimenting with homemade self-tanners. The black tea and oil was a failure, as it stained my shower brown.
The most recent experiment is a Bronzing Chocolate Body Butter. I made my normal body butter (see older post for recipe), heavy on the Shea Butter, and added in a heaping tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 scoop of bronze mica, 1/2 scoop of gold mica and 1/2 scoop satin white mica. I added these in at the end, when I added in the arrow root powder. The essential oils I used this time were orange and lemon. So basically I smell like a chocolate orange. Yum. And yes, it does actually taste kind of good, but I wouldn't recommend eating it, unless you like mica in your tummy.
It is a little stickier than normal at first, but if you are wearing shorts it is no biggie. It definitely does give a subtle tan, and you will glow like a movie star. I thought my dog would try to lick it off my arms, but he doesn't seem interested. Good. Don't wear anything white against it, it will rub off a little. I try to only wear it with my darker color skirts, and usually only put it on the parts of my body that will be exposed. Make sure you rub it in well to avoid streaks. I don't bother washing my hands after, I just wipe off my palms with a tissue.
So there you go, give it a try!

Skin Care.....Simplified

So after all this lotion making and what not, I have actually narrowed down my skin care products to about 5 or 6 total. While I like lotion, I have found that I hate being cold after a shower, so I now oil up in the shower before I towel off. I don't have to be cold, and the towel takes care of any oil that didn't soak into my skin. I have always had dry skin, and since I have been doing the oil in the shower routine, I haven't had one single patch of dry, itchy skin.

The new routine!

Facial Cleansers:

• Morning: Oatmeal Sugar Scrub (Finely ground oatmeal, dry milk, white sugar)
• Evening: Oil Cleansing Lotion (See previous post)

Moisturizers:

• Wrinkle-fighting/Uplifting Oil (Sweet Almond,Apricot Kernal, and Grapeseed Oils; Carrot Seed, Geranium, and Clary Sage Essential Oils) Carrot Seed and Geranium have wrinkle fighting properties, Geranium and Clary Sage have anti-depressant properties, Clary Sage also helps with controling acne.

Toners:

• Witch Hazel and Rose Water: 1/2 and 1/2 of each. You can also add a few drops of liquid glycerine for softness.

Body Care:

• Liquid Castile Soap: I like the Hemp Almond scent, and I sometimes dilute this since it is a little strong. I use this for my body cleansing, and sometimes for my face.
• Body Oil: Same oil mixture as for face, but I used Orange and Cinnamon Essential Oils for a yummy scent. Orange and Cinnamon can be irritating to very sensitive skin, so be careful.

Ok, so thats it! As you see, it could really be two less, since you could use the Oil Cleansing Lotion for your whole body, or Castile on your face, and you could use the same formula for your face and body oil. You could simplify it even more by using only one type of base oil, say Almond or Apricot. I only use all three so I can have the benifits of the different fats, and to use up the oil I have sitting around. Oil can go rancid, so you do want to use it up.

All of these products were made by me with supplies from Zenith Supplies Inc in the Ravenna area of Seattle. www.zenithsupplies.com. Making your own skin care products is a great way to make sure that your products are personally customized to your skin care needs, and you will save a ton of money.

Newest skin care tricks

So you know how I love to use oatmeal and dry milk to wash my face with. Well, I recently added sugar to the mix. It adds additional exfoliation and as it dissolves gives the paste a nice texture that feels a little more like soap.

Here are two recipes I just tried from Natural Beauty at Home by Janice Cox:

OLIVE OIL CLEANSING LOTION

1 tsp castille soap (I used 1 tbsp)
2 tbsp water (I used rosewater)
2 tbsp glycerin or honey
1/2 cup olive oil (I used almond oil)
Mix all ingredients together in a blender or by hand until smooth and creamy.
To use: put a small amount into your hand and massage into your skin. Rinse well with warm water.

ARROWROOT CLEANSING JELLY

2 tbsp arrowroot powder
2 tbsp glycerin or honey
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients, heat in a double boiler until thick and clear DO NOT BOIL. It will have the consistency of pudding. Let cool completely and put in a jar. If it is too thick thin with a little water.

ALMOND OIL LOTION

1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup almond oil (I used a mix of grape seed, apricot and almond)
1 tbsp beeswax
2 tsp lecithin (optional)
scent

Heat oil and wax (and lecithin) in a glass bowl set over a pan of water until the wax is melted. Stir frequently with a whisk. When wax is melted turn off heat but continue to whisk until lecithin is mostly melted. Place bowl in an ice water bath. Heat water and baking soda in the microwave for 45 seconds and mix to dissolve. Slowly add to oil while mixing. Continue beating as it cools. When it has cooled down quite a bit, add the essential oil scent. You can also add a tsp or so of arrowroot powder at this point to help cut the greasiness. Let it cool completely before you package it. It will thicken as it cools.

Homemade Beauty Workshop

I will be giving a workshop on how to make your own beauty products on September 2 at 7 pm. The cost will be between $10 and $15 to cover ingredients, and you will go home with lotion, lip balm, a face moisturizer, a face wash, and perhaps some mineral makeup. If you are interested please email me at sheatheviking@gmail.com and I will send you a skin care questionnaire to fill out.

Beer, it's not just for breakfast anymore!

Besides making ugly people attractive, beer is also excellent for your hair! I'd heard this many times, and recently decided to give it a try. I poured about 1/2 a can of cheap beer into a bowl and let it get warm. Then, in the shower, I bent over, put all my hair in the bowl, and up-ended it on my head. I did not rinse. While I did smell pleasantly yeasty till it dried, there was zero smell when dry. It made my hair beautifully shiny, and since I didn't rinse out it gave my hair great frizz control and hold, and was definitely more curly.

Try these hair cocktails next time you wash!

2 oz flat beer
2 oz warm (not hot!) water
1 oz apple cider vinegar
3 drops rosemary extract

Mix together in a bowl, and in the shower bend over, put all your hair in the bowl, swish it around, then up end on your head. Massage into your scalp, leave on for about 2 minutes, rinse with luke warm water.

Or
4 oz flat beer (try putting it in the microwave for 30 seconds)
1tsp honey

Same as above.

To use as a styling aid:
Either just rinse with straight beer or beer and water then leave in, or pour some beer in a spray bottle. Mist on hair and style. Don't worry, the smell goes away when your hair is dry. Keep in fridge.

Hair Care

I have been cursed/blessed with curly hair. I recently read a book called Curly Girl by a lady who specializes in curly hair at her New York salon. She suggested that the no shampoo (No-Poo) method of hair care is the best for curly hair. Shampoo strips hair of natural sebum, so you have to load on the conditioner which weights it down. Not to mention most shampoos and conditioners are full of nasty chemicals. This stripping and artificial moisturizing either makes your scalp produce too much or too little oil. It also wreaks havoc on curly hair. She suggests a routine scalp scrubbing with conditioner. So I decided to give it a try.

I have not used shampoo in two months. The first two weeks were a little weird while my scalp adjusted, but now my scalp and hair feel, look, and smell clean, my hair is super soft and healthy, and my curl has doubled.

Here's the routine:

No more shampoo! Let your boyfriend use it. Wet your hair thoroughly, then take a little conditioner on your fingertips and massage into your temples, the hair around your face, your part, your crown, basically give your whole scalp a good massage with your fingertips and conditioner. Next put a little more conditioner on your palms and smooth it over the mantel of your hair (the hair that is most exposed) Use your fingers to comb it through. Leave on for a minute or two, then rinse.

Rinse with diluted apple cider vinegar once a week to restore ph and make your hair really soft and shiny.

Make sure you choose a natural conditioner that is free of parabens, sodium laurel sulfate, and other nasty things.

My skin care routine

So, here's what has been working great for me. I have mostly dry skin with clogged nose and chin pores and redness around my nose and chin. But from what I have been reading, even those with oily skin or acne will see great benefits from using an oil cleanser as part of a double cleansing routine. The whole point is to not strip your skin of it's natural oils, so it doesn't feel the need to overproduce oil. See previous post and my next post titled Recipes to learn how to make the products I use.

Morning:

I wash my face with ground oatmeal and warm water, massaging it into my skin until it is creamy then rinsing off. Followed by a splash of witch hazel & rosewater toner, and then I moisturize with an oil combination (see Geranium oil cleanser/moisturizer in previous post).

Evening:

I massage the Geranium Oil Cleanser onto my face, then cleanse with the All Purpose Castile Soap Cleanser. Then I use an organic cotton ball with a squirt of witch hazel & rosewater toner to clean off any residue. Moisturize with the Nighttime Coconut Oil Moisturizer or Geranium oil.

Body:

Before every shower I skin brush. Since I have been skin brushing my skin is silky soft and smooth, and as an added bonus my cellulite is going away! It is pretty amazing! I use the All Purpose Castile soap cleanser for my body, face, and hands, and even use it to shave my legs. After my shower I use a little bit of the Yummy Cake Lotion (see next post) or an almond/olive oil combo. It is pretty oily so you only need a little.

And that's it! Pretty simple, and my skin has never looked or felt better. This is all with products that I made myself for very little money.