1) A pouch made to hold soiled, reusable menstrual pads: both useful and adorable. Am I the only one who hates using public restrooms when I’m on my period? This little guy could only help matters.

2) This body wash has a pretty impressive list of ingredients, and I can get behind almost anything that smells like geranium.

3) I love the way my Lotus Garden Soy Candle makes my bedroom smell and feel. Being surrounded by such a lovely scent all day long would be mega dreamy.

4) I’m almost out of my Indian Healing Clay, and Skin has yet to disappoint me with their ingredients and performance.

5) This should come as no surprise, but I’m a sucker for natural sleep aids.  And look at that precious heart infuser spoon!

Sources: Wet Bag, Shower Gel , Solid Perfume, Clay, Sleepy Time Special.

What about you guys? Have any wish lists you’d like to share?

I had a lot of fun online window-shopping for this post. As a result, Five Finds is going to become a regular occurrence on Turby and John. Expect a health and beauty themed Five Finds post at least once every other week! I’m also toying with the idea of devoting Friday’s posts to healthy food-related articles and/or healthy recipes.  It would be appropriately named Foody Friday. We’ll see!

Remember my post about The Daily Green a while back? Well, I finally got around to making a modified version of the clay and eggs mask that I mentioned. Instead of using white clay (also known as Kaolin), I used two tablespoons of my nearly empty jar of Indian Healing Clay*. Since I didn’t have it and wasn’t sure where to buy it, corn flour was not used in the making of this mask either. As suggested, I did add one egg white to the mixture. And as a final modification, I substituted the recommended chamomile oil (which I also didn’t have) with two tablespoons of freshly brewed chamomile tea (which is already suggested in the event that the mixture is too thick).

This mask seemed to calm my skin and even the tone a good bit, and that’s definitely a good thing since I’m currently dealing with a mild pre-period breakout. If I were going to make this mask again (and I probably will), then I’d add less chamomile tea and egg white or find and purchase corn flour, since the mask ended up being slightly watery and slimy. I guess that’s what I get for trying to fix something that isn’t broken (or modifying a recipe that was probably fine in the first place).

*Side Note- After checking out Bentonite (which is the clay, and the only ingredient, in Indian Healing Clay) on the Cosmetic Safety Database, I will likely be purchasing something that isn’t linked to cancer when I run out. Perhaps I’ll invest in a bigger jar of French Rose Clay, or maybe buy something that I’ve yet to try. Who knows?

One of my first discoveries on The Daily Green was a list of 5 Homemade Skin Care Recipes from The Green Beauty Guide (which is a book that I clearly need to own).

Thoughts:

• Number one on the list is an oatmeal and onion puree face mask. I’ve never even considered using onion in a face mask! I wonder if the benefits would outweigh the smelliness of an onion?
• I’m anxious to try the lemon and yogurt face mask, which is supposed to help minimize those pesky little discolorations that tell the whole world that you’ve just gotten rid of a pimple.
• I’m absolutely going to use my Indian Healing Clay for the clay and eggs mask.
• Add some green tea, and number five is my current toner!

Another list worth checking out on The Daily Green is The 8 Commandments of Natural Beauty. It’s full of nuggets of wisdom like, “Face lotion is rubbed into the skin, and remains on the skin for the longest, giving chemicals maximum time and opportunity to be absorbed into the skin.” and ,”One of the tell-tale signs that a beauty company’s ‘green’ claims lack validity is a quick examination of a product’s packaging.” Also, I had no idea that the USDA only had jurisdiction over farm-raised ingredients like honey and not over things like essential oils (even though that makes a lot of sense, I guess). I learn something new every day!

I’m sure that I’ll be trying and posting about some of those wonderful-looking masks soon, so stay tuned!

Indian Healing Clay is far superior to any other mask I've ever used.

Sometimes I take shots of this. It is unpleasant.

I am almost certain that I have found the perfect face mask. The instructions on the back of the healing clay suggest mixing equal parts clay and water or equal parts clay and apple cider vinegar.  Initially, I mixed the healing clay pictured above with water. It was hard to mix properly, and it always ended up clumpy and did not form a paste like the instructions led me to believe it would. After a few failed attempts, I started mixing the clay with regular old Great Value apple cider vinegar. It made a paste and was very easy to apply, but I still felt like I was missing something. Today, I upgraded to Bragg- Raw Unfiltered Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. I can see a substantial difference in the results. My skin is glowing! This makes those 99 cent face masks from Walmart/Walgreens seem like a sad, cheap joke.