Here's what's in my medicine cabinet  1:derma e lightening cream  2:Reviva labs 10% glycolic acid cream  3: Andalou Naturals Pumpkin Glycolic Brightening Mask  4: Andalou Naturals Super Polypeptide Lift and Firm Cream 5: My DIY Tea Tree and Jojoba oil Acne spot treatment  6: Shea MoistureProblem Skin Facial Wash and Scrub  7: Shea Moisturizer African Black Soap Problem Skin Moisturizer  8:  Shea Moisturizer African Black Soap Problem Skin Mask  9: derma e Purifing Daily Detox Scrub  10: derma e Purifing 2 in 1 Charcoal Mask  11: derma e Microdermabrasion Scrub  12: Thayers Cucumber With Hazel alcohol free toner

Last winter I started to dream or tan skin with sun-kissed highlights in my brown hair, and bronze toned makeup, hidden behind sunglasses of course.  Well the time is finally here when I can get those sun kissed locks.  I knew that Sun in and lemon juice works (I've tried it straight with nothing else just hung out in the sun and it worked great), from some hair experimentations I did as a teen, but what else works?  I did a bunch of research, created what I thought would be the most simplest and hopefully least damaging lightening spray that would really work, but not work so well that us brunettes will be horrified after emerging from our leisure in the sun.

I've never been really great with cleaning my brushes, in fact I'd be embarrassed to tell you how little I do.  In place of washing my brushes frequently and to disinfect them regularly I came up with an ideal I thought would be really clever. I put rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and spray it on my brushes then lightly swiped my brushes across tissue and let it air dry.  After finally washing my brushes after going a few months (gasp!  I know) of just spaying my brushes with alcohol after every use, I realized my brushes had tiny bits of makeup that had dried from my spraying into little dots stuck to the brushes.  Or in other words the alcohol had turned the powder to a liquid which dried in droplets on the hairs.  Well let's just say that was a pain in the but to clean and my brushes lost it's shape after not having been washed for so long. 

My finished bronze powder

Growing up I loved playing with make-up.  I had a rather extensive selection and was made up nearly every day in a creative new way that coordinated with my outfit.  Years ago I stopped making myself up so much and settled on one or two looks I usually wore.  Then a few years ago I started learning about all the bad chemicals around us especially in our personal products (deodorant, lotion, shampoo, make-up, etc).  And I threw out nearly all my make-up and personal products and replaced them with natural products.  While I did this I found that I surprisingly only used a fraction of the products I had in our cabinets.

Photo by luxora via Mother Earth Living

Well it's suppose to be -24 for a low Sunday (tomorrow) in Minneapolis, the coldest it's been in 20 years here.  So we are far from beach weather, but that doesn't mean you can't look like you spent a day at the beach.  I've been writing a series for my other blog Oh You Crafty Gal  Big Sexy Sixties Hair.  In thinking of ways to create body and volume in your hair I learned that you can easily make sea salt spray like Bumble to Bumble Surf Spray only without any chemicals and for a whole lot less!  Surf spray will give your hair texture and waves similar to what you would get from swimming in the ocean. Who doesn't love there hair after a day at the beach?

image source

I'm so excited to share with you my acne spot treatment I made that I've been using lately.  It seems to have helped me, and is way less irritating then the Burt Bee's version I used before and so easy to make anybody can do it.  But first I want to share with you my acne story and the science behind this spot treatment.

I stopped wearing lipstick a few years ago when I learned most lipstick has lead in it.  That's right lead!  And no I'm not joking.  Ever since then I've been obsessed with wearing products that are like a cross between lip gloss and lip balm, moisturizing with a tint of color.  This is my version.  It's seriously easy, uses easy to find products at store nearby you, and makes a great gift! 
I  developed this recipe from my tea tree honey lip balm recipe.  I wanted to try and see if I could color it so I decided to try mixing Kool-aid because it's easy to find and although I'm not a fan of food coloring I'd rather use food grade dyes than cosmetic dyes.  Guess what?  It worked!  In order to make my moisturizing berry tinted lip gloss first follow my lip balm recipe below then follow the dye instructions below.

Lemon Honey Tea Tree Lip Balm
 (makes 1 oz)
Equipment

• 1 oz measuring glass  
• A fork 
• lip gloss containers

Ingredients

• 1/2 oz shredded beeswax or beeswax beads (can be found at most co-ops and health food stores in the bulk aisle)
• 1/2 oz olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 capsules of vitamin E (found in stores supplement aisles this helps preserve and add moisturizing effects)
• 1/8 tsp honey (make sure it's real honey!  this helps draw moisture to your lips)
• 4 drops of tree tea EO (essential oil, this acts as your natural preservative and can be found in co-ops and health food stores in their beauty aisle or you can buy at Amazon here)
• 2-3 drops of lemon EO (optional: this can be found in co-ops and health food stores in their beauty aisles)

Directions
Melt all of the ingredients, except for Essential oils (EO), slowly by using a double boiler or use soften mode for short periods like 30 secs in the microwave, then add your EOils.  Poor quickly into your lip balm containers (they can often be found at health food stores with beauty products, purchased online, sometimes in stores with travel containers, or you can keep containers from your old lip products), be careful to not have it overflow.

How to Use Beets to Dye Your Lip Balm
If your not fond of using Kool-aid you can try to use beets instead.  Or you can try to find food dye made of beets at your local health food store like One Good Thing by Jillee did.  I haven't tried this myself yet, but she said beet food dye also works just as good as Benetint (a cheek/lip stain).  I'm also addicted to cheep/lip stains so guess what I'll be trying soon.   I made mine instead with a beet from our garden.  Below is how I made mine. 

• Chop a few beets into tiny pieces (and use the rest for cooking), and place it into your prepared lip balm and place it into the microwave on a very low power just enough to melt  (I use my warm setting first and if that doesn't work my melt setting) for 1 min.  
• Then stir with a sterilized clean fork.  Once the color is evenly distributed remove the beets with your fork and discard.  
• Place in the fridge (and set your fork aside to stir latter) to set up for about 15-30 min.  The color will most likely separate as pictured below, don't panic!  Just stir and put into your clean sterilized containers. If it seems to stiff once it's set into it's container, don't worry just keep stirring it until it has a whipped consistency.

Update: Originally I used koolaid in this recipe, but have omitted it since I realized that using koolaid causes your lips to dry out.  Not excatlly what you are going for when you use lip balm!  

Step 1: stir in desired amount and color of Kool-aid with lip balm still in a liquid state with a sterilized fork.  There should be dots of color suspended in your lip balm.  Don't panic!  This is how it is suppose to look because it hasn't yet dissolved.

Step 2: stir some more!  This is what it should look like after stirring, notice it's still darker on the bottom because it's not all dissolved equally in the mixture yet.

Step 3: Stir some more!  Here's what it looks like from top.  Notice it's not yet as dark as the finished product, because it's still not equally incorporated in the lip balm. Now place in your fridge until set (15-30 min).

After your lip gloss is set it will most likely separate into a darker dye on the bottom and lighter on top as pictured above.  How do we fix this?  You guessed it stir some more!

This is what it looks like after stirring

Keep stirring until all color is evenly distributed.  Notice how the top and bottom are finally the same shade!  Your now ready to pour into your containers!  If you have extra you can store in a small covered air tight container (I stored mine in the same measuring glass I used with plastic wrap over it sealed by a rubber band)  for up to 6 months (I've stored mine for at least 6 months before I would imagine it would be fine for even longer).  Since there is no water and it has natural preservatives in it it's pretty safe to keep for a long time.  If your lip balm sets in it's container in a solid like state making it hard to apply just stir it up until it's a whipped like consistency. 

©Minneapolis Homestead www.theurbanhomestaed.blogspot.com All rights reserved. Photos and content cannot be reproduced

 

image via Cut out and Keep

I haven't made bath and body products in awhile, but decided to make some for Christmas.  And boy am I glad I did.  Believe it or not I have never made a sugar scrub before.  I'm amazed I never have it's so easy and affordable that I don't feel guilty using it as often as I want.

Ingredients
1 oz shredded beeswax
1 1/2 oz olive oil or coconut oil
3 capsules of vitamin E
1/2 tsp honey
4-6 drops of tree tea EO
2-3 drops of lemon EO

Directions
Melt all of the ingredients, except for Essential oils, slowly by using a double boiler or use soften mode for short periods like 30 secs in the microwave, then add your EOils.  Poor quickly into your lip balm containers, be careful to not have it overflow

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©Minneapolis Homestead www.theurbanhomestaed.blogspot.com All rights reserved. Photos and content cannot be reproduced

This  is a heavy cream, so I like to use it in the winter usually.  This recipe is preservative free and therefore can only last up to 5 days (You can’t rely on your vision to check whether your lotion is OK because bacteria and spores are microscopic and can’t be seen by the human eye.)  Store in your fridge!

image via rebel society

 So you want to start making your own bath and body products?  Where do you start?  Where can you find supplies?  What do you need? I have spent countless hours researching online, books, and looking high and low at local stores (literally some products I found in odd places in food aisles at great prices) comparing prices to find the cheapest and most versatile products needed in general bath and body products.

Here is what I've found and where I found it (all products not specified for a specific use generally can be used in all bath and beauty products):

• Olive Oil (the cheapest oil I've found)  I get mine at Trader Joe's for $6/32oz
• Coconut oil (is solid at room temp and smells good in lotions, helps create suds in soaps) I get organic unrefined virgin at Whole Foods $5.69/ 16 oz
• Palm oil (for soap making) I found an organic vegetable shortening grown in a environmentally sustaining manner made of 100% palm oil at Whole Foods in the Baking Aisle $7/24 oz (can be used as shortening for cooking too!)
• Cocoa Butter, (almost as expensive as shea butter!  usually $1 or more an oz and sold out every store I go to)  I subsituted with coconut butter I got at Whole Foods by the peanut butter, almond butters, etc... for $11/16 oz Raw and it's Organic, cheaper then you could probably find online after shipping.  
• Lye otherwise known as Sodium Hydroxide or Caustic Soda (needed for soap making, if it doesn't use lye it isn't soap)  Be careful when handling lye it is a bit scary sounding but is necessary because lye+water =salt, soap, and lye does not stay in the soap when finished curing.  I found some after a lot of research at my local Ace Hardware as drain cleaner labeled 100% Lye on the front $4.69/16 oz.  Do not use any drain cleaner unless it is 100% lye.
• Vitamin E (used as a moisturizer and as a preserve) find soft gel tablets in any vitamin aisle, just prick with a pin and squeeze the liquid out, usually 1 tablet will do
• Pure Aloe Vera most 100% pure aloe vera gels still have unnatural perservatives, so just go to the source and get it straight from the leaves.  Either get an Aloe Vera plant (beware if you have a cat though it's poisonous to them) or go to your local superrmarkets produce section most will have it.
• Beeswax (used in lotion making, lip balms, etc) This is essential in making lotion because lotion is basically oil and water together.  Oil and water naturally repeal each other, an emulsifer is needed to keep them together.  While harder to find I lucked out and found some at a great price at my local farmer's market, so check out your local farmer's market.  Otherwise you can get some online through the same place I get mine at Ames farms.com for $7.50 a lb
• Almond Oil (used in lotions and lip balms mostly)  I got mine at Whole Foods $4/8 oz.in the food oil aisle
• Liquid Letchin (used in lotions as an thickener and to emulsify) Found mine in the supplements and vitamins aisle at Whole Foods for $7/16 oz
• Castor Oil   The most expensive oil I use, so just use sparingly, I got mine at Whole Foods in the Bath and Beauty aisle, also saw the same thing at my local co-ops $9/16 oz.
• Essential oils can be found at your local co-op, Whole Foods, and many local shops
• Containers For Your Products wide mouth pint and 1/2 pint canning jars found at grocery stores, Target, Menards, etc. are great for lotion and bath salts and are a great value.  For small quantities of other products try your local dollar store and travel containers at Target, Kmart, and grocery stores.  Also check your local co-op near the essential oil displays.  For large quantities try online resources, keep in mind shipping costs.