Everyday Coconut

So what can I say, I've had a lot of thoughts lately, so excuse me if I have a writing binge and blog everyday for a while. And don't mind me if I just happen to introduce you to this amazing brand.

This is Everyday Coconut. Coconut oil is the new craze in skin care and this beautiful, natural line of skin care products has all organic, fair trade coconut oil as the main ingredient in all of it's products. Everyday Coconut is apart of Alaffia which is a women's empowerment organization, working to improve the lives of women in West Africa through helping improve maternal care, building schools and providing educational materials, and providing bikes for transportation. In addition, they are working to provide vision to visually impaired, eradicate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and have reforestration projects.

Not only is a great product, doing good, it's also really generously priced. I bought a 32 oz bottle of the Purely Coconut Body Lotion for $10 at The Wedge Coop in Minneapolis. I use it everyday and we are on year 3 together. A couple weeks go I bought the Purely Coconut Conditioner for $10 and I really couldn't be more pleased. It's given me all the advantages of a coconut oil hair mask with only an apply and rinse conditioner. Don't worry though, this isn't merely a hipster co-op brand.They also have a small collection of it at Target and a larger collection at Whole Foods.  Next in line I'm planning on trying their coconut face scrub, so look out for a review of that. Oh, and they also have a baby line. You better believe I snagged some Coconut-Strawberry Scented baby wash for Vale. Oh, and it has a baby giraffe on the bottle, so it's super cute as well.   All in all, if you're wanting to do your body, your wallet, and the world some good, you'd be crazy not to check out this brand.

No-Poo Problems

I have been working on a no-poo solution for my hair for the past couple of weeks. Warning: none of these methods have worked. However, I thought I'd share my journey so far and ask for any suggestions.

I have so far tried out a couple methods. My problem is, since I switched to using coconut oil as a conditioner, I can't seem to find a recipe that will get the oil out of my hair. I'll scrub in the solution, let it sit 20-30 minutes, rinse out, blow-dry my hair, and what do you know? Still greasy, so I'm left to rinse it out with REAL shampoo.

Here's recipe #1:
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup aloe vera gel.

Recipe #2:
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup aloe vera gel
1 egg yolk

The benefits:

Honey: Antioxidants and nutrients
Aloe Vera: Moisture and nutrients
Egg: Vitamin E and A and Grease cutting

Results for both, again, greasy hair. I'm looking forward to trying the aloe vera honey without the coconut oil. Maybe I will try doing this in the next week or so. However, with the coconut oil I'm struggling to find a solution. Many Pinterest girls said the egg yolk got the oil out of their hair just fine, because egg yolk breaks down grease. That's not what I found. My hair was a crunchy, greasy mess. When you blow dry your hair for 10 minutes and it still looks as wet as when you stepped out of the shower and you can get enough oil to use as lotion from it, that's a problem.

So I'm opening it up to my readers. What are your suggestions? Does anyone know of a no-poo solution to get coconut oil out of hair?
 

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DIY Eyeliner and mascara

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So I have some good news and some bad news. 

Good news first: 

DIY eyeliner is the best thing I have ever done. It's so easy and left some serious definition to my eyes. 

Bad news: DIY Mascara is probably the worst idea I've ever had. 

So first I'm going to tell you all about the eyeliner and then going to talk about my mascara mishap and why I'll never try to DIY this product again. 

Eyeliner

Ingredients: 

-activated charcoal capsules

-water

Break 4-6 activated charcoal capsules into a small container (this is super makeshift, but I put the empty metal cup from an old tea light into an old altoids tin and used this as my container. We'll call it recycling). Then add drops of water and stir with toothpick until desired texture. 

Result: 

I used an eyeliner brush to apply

Mascara

Now off to the disaster. Sorry there aren't any pictures for this part, but this was seriously the messy thing I had ever done. The recipes I found said: 

1tsp coconut oil

1tsp Shea butter

11/2 tsp bees wax

4 tsp aloe Vera gel

1-2 capsules activated charcoal. 

Melt the first 4 ingredients either on the stove or in a microwave safe bowl for 1-2 minutes in the microwave. Stir in the activated charcoal. Transfer to a cleaned and sterilized mascara container. (May put into a plastic bag and squeeze into container). 

First thing that made this a struggle: have you ever tried to clean out a mascara container? This seriously took an hour. I moved all the dishes out of the sink and then spent an hour trying to scrub out the mascara residue from my old container. Note my previous mascar was done for. I could 't get a drop out of it. But it still had dried out or mascara stuck to the sides that was impossible to get. So after and hour of scrubbing, soaping, slushing, it came clean and I sterilized it in my dishwasher. 

Then I used the microwave version, because remember, a part of this is the recipe needs to be quick and simple. I'm a busy girl and I don't have eight hours a week to make a tube of mascara. So I melted the first 4 ingredients together and the stir in the charcoal with a toothpick. Then I poured it into the mascara container. But guess what! As soon as I put it into the container, it turned solid again. Then it clumped around the brush! I thought it just must have been a fluke. It would probably work. So I finished cleaning up, which was all sort of another adventure. Because the main ingredients were wax and oil, it stuck to my dish and because it was black with charcoal it was stuck and black. This took another hour. I had to use vinegar, baking soda, coffee grounds, my Norwex spiri sponge ( which is now ruined). Then I put it in the dishwasher. So now between all those things it is mostly clean. So then I had to wash my hands. I looked and felt like a grease monkey and it took forever to get the stuff out of my fingernails. I had to shower to get clean again. 

Finally I was able to apply it and it was so chinky it wouldn't even go on my eye. I even tried adding some saline solution to break it up. Nope! Worst adventure ever. 

I know when I'm defeated, so I ran to The Wedge and bought a tube of 

Zulu Mascara. It's mineral based, natural, organic, and not tested on animals. It was recommended by the staff over other brands. And it was only $14. So far I love it! i will need go back and will definitely not try makin mascara again. Even if I found another recipe, the clean up was too messy to make it worth it. Guess I'll be leaving this one to the professionals. 

DIY Lotion Bar

This is by far my favorite day. I ran out of body lotion about a week ago and have been getting dry and crusty ever since. Then I scrolled through Pinterest to get some lotion ideas. The most common ones I found had coconut or olive oil, plus a Shea or cocoa butter and maybe some other oils thrown in along with some essential oils. So with that knowledge I got to work.

I walked down to The Wedge and bought myself about a cup of Cocoa Butter disks. I took it home. Melted in some coconut oil with orange and lavandar essential oils (so I smell like chocolate lavandar Orange, or candy) and then let it cool. When I started letting it cool I realized it wasn't hardening up like I thought it should. I mean, I didn't want it to be a rock, just like lotion. However it remained liquid. So I threw it in the fridge for 20 minutes. When I came back it was lotion texture, so I pulled it back out and set it on my dresser. Te next day it was rock hard and I couldn't even scoop it out of the jar.

Plan B: I melted it down, poured it into molds, and set them in the fridge.

Result: Cocoa orange lavandar body perfection. Just roll it on your body and feel the benefits. Initially it comes on a little greasy, but once I rubbed it in, it was just like any other lotion.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy:

1 cup cocoa butter
1cup coconut oil
10 drops orange essential oil
10 drops lavandar essential oil

1. Place cocoa butter in a Pyrex bowl and soften in microwave for about 2 minutes.
2. Add coconut oil and melt for another 2 minutes or until all is liquid.
3. Add essential oils and stir.
4. Pour into molds (I used cupcake liners in muffin tins, plus the. The liner acts like a wrapper for the lotion.
5. Cool in refrigerator until hard. Does not need to be refrigerated afterwards.

Use every morning, every night, wheneve you're crust, or whenever you need a pick me up and want to smell like candy :)

Don't forget:  May Day Challenge starts tomorrow! 

Recycled Toothbrush

Today the dental adventures continue. I'm not so brave as to make a new DIY toothpaste. However, I did get a new toothbrush. They were on sale 2 for $4 at The Wedge and they're made completely out of recycled yogurt cups.

Preserve Toothbrushes:
When I first brought this up to my boyfriend, he was a little hesitant, saying "a recycled toothbrush?" Raised his eyebrows. However, I assured him they're just made out of products that used to be something else, and that way they save the earth. I'm a huge fan of that. Now, in review, the handle was stiffer than what I am used to. I'm used to a handle with a bendable end. This one is simply curved, so it still gets all the hard to reach places, just in a different way. Also, I'm used to seeing special stuff on my toothbrush, like "tongue brusher" and "plaque buster." None of that here. I have to rely on the bristles to brush my tongue and the cirular motion to get all the plaque off, (which is usually needed with or without special features. Have to say, I think it was my money's worth. Now I just with they had a replaceable head instead of having to replace the whole toothbrush, making it more Eco-friendly. 

Witch Hazel Astringent

 Finally guys, that project I told your had been testing all week is finished. I just couldn't feel right about making something and giving it my stamp of approval without actually testing, especially after the Toothpaste Fiasco. 

So here it is! With a stamp of approval, Witch Hazel-Grapefruit. 

Witch Hazel found at your local Target for $1.99)- it's a natural astringent. Aka as a blackhead, zit killing, pore-shrinking machine. 

Grapefruit essential oil- I found out this is an antibacterial(so cleans your face) a stimulate, so it wakes you up (since I use this in the morning I found this to be a benefit) and an anti-depressant, plus so many more things.

Witch Hazel Astringent

1 bottle witch hazel

10-20 drops grapefruit essential oil. 

1. Open witch hazel

2. Add essential oil

3. Put cap back on and shake (shake well before each use) 

4. Use a cotton ball or face pad to apply every morning. 

5. Follow up with moisturizer and additional beauty routine. 

And the results: I had a couple small pimples and the beginning, and in a day they were gone. Also, visibly reduced the noticeability of pores. 

Good Morning!

*Note: after I wrote the article, a friend clued me in that citrus oils are photosyngetic, making your skin more suceptible to the sun. So instead of citrus, maybe use peppermint for that wakening. Also One site said that you can dilute the oil and that should weaken it enough for facial use. Again, shake before each use to ensure you don't get an overly strong concentration of oil.