Thursday -- Spa Day

 This sounds like a wonderful way to help your skin while soothing your mind and relaxing your body.  I cannot wait to try this.  Let me know if you try it, too.  I just hope I don't eat it first!

This is from The Green Beagle and there are many other options available there, too.
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Organic Honey, Yogurt, Walnut Mask

July 26, 2010 by The Green Beagle  
Filed under Health and Beauty

You may not always have the time to go to the spa or the money. Why not make your own spa treatments at home? You can invite some friends over and have a spa party or make your own recipes in your spare time. It’s a fun way to learn about the healing and nutritional properties of the foods you love.
Organic Yogurt Walnut Scrub
This treatment works best on normal or combination skin. The nuts exfoliate old dry skin while the yogurt soothes, and the honey promotes calmness.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup organic plain yogurt, chilled
1/4 cup organic walnuts; ground or pulverized
1 tbs Organic Fair Trade Raw Honey
Instructions:
Stir ingredients together. Apply to freshly cleaned face and gently massage to exfoliate. Let the mask sit on your face between 5-10 minutes, then wash off with warm water and pat dry.

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Thursday--Spa Day

Here's a couple of videos I found to show how easy it is to make many of the skin care products we all use.  By making your own, however, you control the ingredients and the outcomes.  Home made skin care products also make lovely gifts, so it is a good thing to know how to make these.

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Thursday--Spa Day

I received an email a day ago from a trusted source (actually a work at home mom source) that talked about a mother who had discovered that she was taking such good care of her baby girl that she was actually poisoning her!  Here is a list of items found in most personal care items that are toxic and are absorbed directly by your skin and what damage they actually do:

Here's a "top-ten" list of the most toxic types of substances in skin care products Dr. Sears' Wellness Research team identified - and the dangers they pose to your health:

 

Chemicals Commonly Found In Commercial Sunscreens	Dangerous Side Effects
1. Parabens	"Endocrine disruptors," these gender-bending chemicals mimic estrogen, upset your hormonal balance, and can cause various reproductive cancers in men and women
2. PABA (may be listed as octyl-dimethyl or padimate-O)	Attacks DNA and causes genetic mutation when exposed to sunlight
3. Mineral oil, paraffin, petrolatum	Coats skin like plastic and clogs pores, trapping toxins in, slows skin cell growth, disrupts normal hormone function, suspected of causing cancer
4. Sodium laurel, lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate (sometimes listed as "from coconut" or "coconut derived"	Combined with other chemicals, it becomes nitrosamine, a powerful cancer-causing agent; penetrates your skin's moisture barrier, allowing other dangerous chemicals to enter your bloodstream
5. Phenol carbolic acid	Circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma, death from respiratory failure
6. Acrylamide	Breast cancer
7. Octyl-methoxycinnamate (OMC)	Kills skin cells
8. Toluene (may be listed as benzoic, benzyl, or butylated hydroxtoluene)	Anemia, low blood cell count, liver and kidney damage, birth defects
9. Propylene glycol	Dermatitis, kidney and liver abnormalities, prevents skin growth, causes irritation
10. PEG, polysorbates, laureth, ethoxylated alcohol	Potent carcinogens containing dioxane

You probably use them on your body every single day of your life. And since your skin is the largest organ of your body, these nasty chemicals go straight into your bloodstream.
Once they get inside of you, they mimic estrogen, disrupt your endocrine system, and throw your hormones out of whack.

So, that said, it makes even more sense to look into the possibility of making some of these products yourself--you have control over the ingredients and the method of manufacture.

Here is a link to a site that has numerous recipes for all types of personal care items.  Check out some of these at The Spa Index.  Another site that has many recipes to make your own personal care items is Craft Bits.  I know I will be looking these recipes over and seeing which product I want to make for myself as a way to "get my toe in the water" so to speak.  If it is as easy as they say, then I may go whole hog and make everything I use--actually I won't have to because my oldest daughter is now making me lip balm and soap.

Try some of these out and then let me know your results, won't you?  I would love to hear what worked and what flopped and what you think went well.  Talk to me, please!

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Thursday--Spa Day

I love when I find a recipe for a skin care product I use frequently, but find very expensive.  One of these things is the Biore pour strips -- very expensive but necessary!  Imagine my excitement when I found this recipe and tried it, only to discover that this works just as good if not better and only costs pennies!  That to me is a miracle in the making.  So, here is the recipe.  Try it, you'll like it!

Homemade Biore Pore Strips

Make your own homemade pore strips, similar to Biore

After a week of wearing makeup,  washing your face, moisturizing your face, and slathering all sorts of things all of it, a homemade pore cleanser can be the perfect remedy for big, clogged pores and lackluster skin.  The homemade pore strip is a quick homemade beauty remedy that is easy to make and will yield wonderful results.

• 1 Tbsp Knox Unflavored Gelatin
• 11/2 T Milk
• Makeup brush (preferably large eye shadow bristle brush)
• Water
• Witch Hazel or Toner

1. Mix milk and gelatin in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 10 seconds.
2. Using a clean make-up brush, apply thin layer of water and Gelatin mask to problematic areas, staying clear of the eye area. 
3. Let mask dry for 10-15 minutes.
4. Gently tear off film once it's hardened.
5. Rinse off skin areas, making sure to remove any excess film.
6. Follow by applying a toner or witch hazel

Here is the link to the original article for this recipe. There are many more homemade and Budget Beauty Articles posted there for your enjoyment, too.

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Another face started

Here's the next face in my new picture--my practice picture.  This time I tried to get lighter skin and I wanted her to resemble a flapper from the 1920's.  I have only done the first layer of her face.  She is far from finished just like her sister.  I decided that I would get all five faces started before I would start on any finishing layers.  That way I can try to give them all cohesion and unify them with my choice of napkins to add.

Here's a great idea for an evening spent with your daughters.  Help them to enjoy natural beauty and natural goodness. Cleansing the face is something we all do regularly.  Why not teach our daughters how to do this simple thing in a fun way and spend quality time while doing it?

Try this out during the holiday rush--take some time just for yourselves--to pamper and relax your mind and body!

Apple Face Mask, excerpt from The Natural Beauty Book
By Anne Akers Johnson

Mask are intensive treatments and should be limited to your once-a-week routine. Choose one that is well suited to your skin.
Facial Mask Basics
1. Before applying a mask, find a place where you can lie back without being disturbed. Spread a towel out where you will rest your head in case your mask drips.
2. Choose and prepare a recipe.
3. Pull your hair back off your face. Pull long hair back into a ponytail.
4. Wash your face so it's nice and clean.
5. Run a washcloth under warm water, squeeze it out and hold it over your face for a few seconds to dampen your face. If you've just had a steam, skip this step.
6. Apply the mask all over your face and neck (if you like), avoiding your eye area. Lie back and let the mask work for 10-15 minutes. If it starts to feel itchy or uncomfortable, less time is OK.
7. If your mask is particularly chunky (like oatmeal) use your washcloth to gently wipe it off your face, shaking the bits of mask into the trash (this is the trick to avoiding clogged drains). Once it's mostly off, rinse your face in warm water.

Apple Face Mask

Ingredients

1/2 Apple, grated into a bowl
2 t Honey
1 T Uncooked, regular oatmeal

Directions

Step 1: Grind the oatmeal into a flour in a clean coffee grinder or food processor if you have one. Unground oatmeal is OK too, it just makes the mask a little messier.
Step 2: Combine all the ingredients.
Step 3: Lie back and gently press small handfulls of the mask onto your face. Rub it along the sides of your face, then let it sit for 10-15 minutes before removing and rinsing.


For more homemade beauty projects like these, check out The Natural Beauty Book: Create Your Own Natural Spa Experience by Anne Akers Johnson.

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