Overnight Relaxing Face Mask
November 24, 2009
I see people sleep with cucumbers or teabags on their eyes, and overnight face masks. I have never tried any overnight treatment, until I came up with this one. First of all this is very light and we are going to use the rule, that a little goes a long long way. It’s probably not good to leave anything on your skin on that long anyway, plus you don’t want anything too sticky because let’s face it, it’s uncomfortable. We are going to go for a convenient one this time around, minimal, not messy but meaningful to the skin and mild enough to be a nightly ritual.
First you will need an eye mask. We will skip out on tea bags and cucumbers. Ulta has a couple of types of eye masks for only $6. One is just a plain cooling eye mask with the liquid inside that you can chill before using it, and the other type is a lavender eye mask with removable lavender packets that you can warm or chill before using it. Either one is good, but I like the diversity of the lavender packets, plus if you are going to use this with your nightly regimen, might as well take advantage of the calming effects of lavender to help you wind down.
I don’t recommend heavy, thick creams or oils overnight because it could just do more harm by clogging your pores. I wouldn’t recommend using ingredients that have an astringent effect like honey, lemon, or citrus this can cause drying of the skin that can lead to blemishes as well. Essential oils shouldn’t be directly applied to the skin better yet left over night, so what do we have left? Water, nutrient infused water for our skin. We will make a simple light mister, and you can leave this on your bedside and apply as desired.
You will need one 8 ounce spray bottle, 4 ounces distilled water (or mineral water), 1 vitamin E capsule (for its contents), 4-6 organic rose petals, ½ teaspoon green tea (or chamomile or red tea), 1 tbsp Japanese sake (or red wine). In the spray bottle add the water, vitamin E, sake, rose petals, tea, and shake well before each spray. Simple as that! So when you go to bed tonight put on your eye mask and sprits your face with this natural face overnight rejuvenator. Use it as often as you desire or can remember, even a couple of times throughout the night. Remember to be cautious of food allergies or medical conditions. Discard any leftovers after 2 weeks.
DIY Face Moisturizer
November 23, 2009
Easy Face Moisturizer – Do It Yourself for combination skin and the rest!
This is a concoction I came up with for myself, since I have very sensitive skin and I also easily break out. I made this up also to find a median in DIY facial moisturizers; my goal was to come up with one that most people can use no matter what type of skin they have, provided they don’t have certain allergies or other medical conditions that would prevent them from using the following ingredients.
I do not understand why some creams that promise to repair overnight or make the skin younger looking, or is claimed to be able to work under make-up are so thick and heavy. I’d rather reapply a wonderful product throughout the day rather that have goop on my face that will sit on my skin and be a magnet for dust and dirt.
You will need rose water. You can make your own by gathering 1 cup of rose petals, 1 cup of distilled water; and boiling the rose petals for about an hour in the distilled water. Set this aside to cool. Be careful of the roses you use as some may contain pesticides or other harmful chemicals. Ask the florist or buy organic from you local farmers market. You can also buy readymade rosewater over the internet. Just make sure you always get the purest for your skin. You do not need a lot as homemade beauty products will not have a long shelf life. Every time you create homemade skin care products, you will always create a batch for you to last before it expires. It’s better this way because you know you are always getting fresh product.
You will need ¼ cup lemon, 2 capsules of vitamin E, 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (food grade) and ¼ cup rice water. The rice water is made by washing ½ a cup of uncooked white rice, on the second rinse, pour 1 cup of water and take the water the rice was rinsed in, that will be your rice water.
Mix all your ingredients together in a blender. Store in an empty bottle, or in a couple of those travel size cosmetic bottles that can be bought at Wal-Mart or other supermarket stores. This product is enough to use about twice a day for a couple of weeks. Discard any leftovers after the second week, but you should have finished it by then.
Be careful of allergies or other medical conditions that might do you harm when using any of these mentioned products.
Winter make up and skincare 101
November 22, 2009
When the season gets cold, dry skin becomes a problem, due to the weather and due to us turning on that hot shower and making it harder on our skin. During winter the best thing to remember to do that will do your skin a favor is moisturize moisturize moisturize. These times I keep body lotion everywhere, in the car, in my purse, in my desk, in the bathroom, in the kitchen beside the hand soap and by my bedside. All you need is to buy the minis or travel size to last through the season. Or you could always make your own from scratch.
For cracked heels, apply Vaseline to your feel and wear socks overnight, do this as a ritual if you are prone to cracked heels like me during the winter. It’s the safest, least damaging and expensive effective prevention and cure.
During the cold season, is the time I put less make up on. Hoping this could work for you, I do this because piling on product just makes the skin drier. Not having any make up on just moisturizer, the cold make my cheeks flush naturally and I get a natural healthy glow. So, it would be ideal and practical to use a tinted moisturizer with spf rather than regular make up. Carry Chap Stick for touch ups in between lipstick. During the day use silver eye shadow on the corner of your eyes, black eyeliner, lipstick in a berry hue that will match your skin tone. For makeup transformation to night, reapply moisturizer, add dark blue or purple eye shadow, retouch your eyeliner and retouch your lipstick. If your eyes are smoky lay the lipstick color on light, if you decide to use light eye shadow or stick to silver, then for your lips add drama by lining the outer parts with lip liner that is darker than the color of your lipstick.
Basic Winter Wardrobe 101
November 21, 2009
When picking out clothes I keep everything basic so if I have a statement piece, I know my wardrobe can support it no matter what the color or style is. But before taking fashion risks, since winter is here, and the economy is slow, there are a few items that you must have for a stylish winter this season, and you might already have some of these pieces.
One pair of black leather knee high boots. A pair of dark denim skinny jeans. A solid colored cashmere sweater. A leather motorcycle jacket in black or dark brown. Remember when it’s cold layer it! You can build a weeks’ worth of wardrobe around knee high boots and skinny jeans by wearing it with a mini skirt on top, or a short dress, and a cardigan on top. For a casual night out build your wardrobe around your leather motorcycle jacket by wearing black leggings, some ankle high converse shoes or black Mary janes topped with a dress or knee length skirt, you can even accessorize and put on a skull cap and matching scarf. You can build a wardrobe around your cashmere sweater by wearing some dress pants and oxford shoes, a scarf. If your cardigan is long wear a short jacket on top, for a bold and sexy look. Or go contemporary with dress pants, loafers, cowl neck sweater.
Depending on how cold it gets where you live, you may need to pile up on thermal undergarments. If you live in tropical climate where winter is just like spring and a break from the scorching sun, then play with autumn and winter colors like navy blue, red, burnt orange, maroon, olive green, plum purple, cream on black and grey. Or don’t change your wardrobe but just change you accessories by swapping out open toed sandals to closed toed black pumps, swap out the mesh or canvas tote for a dark leather, suede, wool or velvet purse. Ditch the white belt for a solid black or red belt. And add the practical accessories made for winter like scarves, hats and gloves; these are always fun to play around with.
Personalized Spa Gift Basket – The Gift That Just Keeps Giving
November 19, 2009
Christmas time is around the corner and it’s the time of making that gift list and our budget work. It’s easy to buy everyone gift cards or just purchasing an item for them. When buying our loved ones gifts, we tend to overpay for designer brands and fancy packaging to make it special. In doing so we neglect the true essence of gift giving, is that it has to come from the heart. Personalized items, handmade items have more value than the latest trend in fashion, or the newest commercial cosmetic out there.
Gifting a personalized spa basket is not only fun to put together, but it is trendy in a sense that you will be using your creativity to put together the basket and select its’ scent, theme, and components to go in the basket. You can go about doing just a variation where the basket contents are random or uniformly distributed. The contents for this is selected by looking for the best bargains on towels, skin care products, hair care products, this type can be bought in advanced throughout the year, just make sure you are not gifting expired items as certain body and skin care products have expiration dates. Keep a look out for samples, minis, one time use and travel size items.
There are many selections of baskets available at Michael’s. You may also find a better deal at other retail stores in the arts and crafts department; not only baskets but also the ribbons and cellophane to wrap them up in.
Use purple as a theme for relaxing products such as lavender. Or make a tropical theme by using yellow, using coconut and pineapple products. You can even do a movie theme such as the sought after Twilight movie by using black and red, and putting together products with apple, freesia, and strawberry flavors.
And the best thing about this is a spa gift basket will contain products that are good and healthy for a person. It is needed to stay healthy and feel good about you. The benefits the products will give will nourish or groom not just for a day but for as long as they still have product. At the same time you could be the bridge to their discovery of an essential primping product that they never knew exist but they needed.
Low Fat Thanksgiving Dinner
November 18, 2009
Guilt Free Thanksgiving Dinner
Thanksgiving dinner can be very sinful. We make excuses and even associate our new year’s resolution with our Thanksgiving dinner by telling ourselves we will make it up by dieting and exercising. From the traditional turkey to its’ stuffing, from rich buttery biscuits to pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream, just to name the basics are the kind of food that makes you soo full, it tranquillizes you to sleep.
Here are some ideas to think about to create a healthier dinner menu, by substituting certain ingredients or overall entrees. These ideas are adjustable to suit your taste and are easy to make that it can also be done any day, not just during a holiday. Here are some ideas for soup, salad, and beverage.
It’s healthier to fill up on fruits and vegetables rather on bread, rice, or starchy and foods that are high in carbohydrates. Consider substituting bread or dinner rolls for more fresh salad, or high fiber multigrain or whole wheat bread.
Instead of drinking artificially flavored juiced that are high in sugar, try making your own fresh juice, spa water or green tea. Avoid soda, instead, for a light crisp drink, use plain carbonated water and add in the flavors by mixing in pineapple juice, ginger, honey, lemon, or lime. Instead of ice cream serve sherbet, yogurt or cottage cheese. Make fruit salad out of fresh fruit instead of canned fruit that’s full of unhealthy sugars; skip out on high fructose ready made fruit cocktail. Make some cranberry soda out of fresh pureed cranberries and carbonated water. Make pumpkin, apple, strawberry, pineapple, cherry pie using fresh fruits instead of the canned version; you can even play around with the fruit by combining or layering them.
Aside from this, also remember that substituting diet Coke for regular Coke does not cancel out the unhealthy and fatty foods. Although, it is a funny analogy; no, diet soda pop does not wash away the fat and calories. Just try to eliminate soda all together.
For soup create a low sodium soup by making it yourself. Purchase 2 pounds of beef shank, 2 tomatoes sliced in big pieces, and let it simmer in a big pot in about 6-8 cups of water overnight. Season it with 1 tsp freshly ground pepper, 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon, and add it to your beef broth. Add water and adjust the ingredients to suit your taste. Instead of beef you can also substitute it for clams, chicken, turkey, fish heads, or combine. For an extra kick add thin slices of ginger or chopped garlic. Or you can even add herbs such as oregano, thyme, rosemary or sage.
For salad steam 2 tomatoes, a bundle of asparagus. Lay the asparagus on a plate put the boiled tomatoes on top. Squeeze some lemon over it as the dressing, garnish with cilantro. Or in a salad bowl mix some romaine lettuce, baby spinach, 1 cup shredded carrots, 1 cup chopped bell pepper, 1 cup olives, 1 cup chopped celery. For the dressing add ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp squeezed lemon juice.
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