Using a ReadyMade tutorial we’ve had bookmarked for months, Danielle and I recently made a batch of homemade body moisturizer.  It required only the ingredients pictured above (minus the essential oil, since we decided to make ours unscented), and it works like a dream. Now I know you guys are entirely capable of reading the tutorial yourselves, but we learned a few things along the way that the tutorial didn’t exactly explain, so I’ll give you a rundown of the supplies we used, preparations we made, and things we learned.

Supplies:

• Olive Oil-I’ve had a full bottle of organic olive oil lying around for a while now, so we chose to use that as our oil (over coconut, avocado, and almond).
• Filtered Water- I wanted so badly to use orange blossom water or cold brewed tea instead, but I couldn’t find the former and was too impatient to wait for the preparation of the latter. Maybe next time.
• Beeswax- Fortunately, Danielle had several blocks of filtered beeswax that she purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs for just such occasions.
• Eucalyptus Essential Oil- I love the scent of eucalyptus, and my initial plan was to add a few drops to the moisturizer. Danielle preferred having the unscented version, so I left out the oil to simplify the process.
• Glass Containers (to hold the moisturizer)-Danielle and I doubled the proportions, so we used 2 glass jars instead of the recommended 1. We picked ours up at Hobby Lobby for a little over $2 each.

Preparation:

As I’ve already mentioned, this moisturizer is fairly easy to make…so it doesn’t require much preparation. However, if you’re using block of beeswax like we did, you’ll need to either grate it (as the tutorial suggests) or chop it into tiny, easy to melt pieces (what we did).  We decided to chop ours instead of grating it because a knife seemed like a much easier item to clean than a cheese grater. Fyi, melted beeswax is pretty hard to get rid of once it dries on an item. Since we used a knife, we simply dipped the knife in boiling water to remove the beeswax.

Lessons Learned:

• Picking up a hot jar full of olive oil and melted beeswax with a pair of tongs isn’t necessarily a smart move. Use potholders to avoid splashing hot liquid on yourself or a loved one.
• If at all possible, clean beeswax off of the dish/tool is has covered before it dries. This will make life easier for you.
• I expected this moisturizer to be slightly runny like a lotion, but it’s much firmer like a body butter. I was actually pleased with the outcome, but if your heart’s set on lotion then this moisturizer might not be for you.
• Applying the body butter just after a shower, waiting 5 minutes or so for it to dry, and then patting your skin with a towel yields best results (i.e. the softest skin imaginable).

Here are couple of pictures of the finished product. It might look like mashed potatoes, but the similarities stop there. I promise.

We’ll likely cover the lids with pretty fabric, since we’ll be using these jars to house our future homemade moisturizers as well.

Have you entered the Made From Earth giveaway yet? You should!

I came across the tastiest looking recipe for roasted strawberries on Design Sponge last week, and I just so happened to have all the necessary ingredients (pictured above) except for one. After determining that I could substitute the port wine with marsala, I went to work making my own batch of roasted strawberries. The whole process was an absolute breeze!

First, I quartered the strawberries.

Next, before baking them, I tossed them in a mixture of maple syrup, olive oil, and sea salt.

As soon as they came out of the oven, I stirred in the marsala  and balsamic vinegar. That’s it, seriously!

These strawberries were the perfect addition to my almond, goat cheese, and baby spinach salad. Kirby spread a few on some toast and seemed equally pleased.

My strawberries turned out a lot juicier and not quite as pretty as the ones pictured on Design Sponge, but they were so delicious that I didn’t care.

Also, here’s a foody Care2 article about celery, complete with health benefits, storing tips, and interesting recipes. I can’t wait to try this article’s upgraded versions of ants on a log!

Monday night, I made the dreamiest body scrub using a modified version of Adrianna’s recipe over at A Cozy Kitchen. It smells delicious (actually, it smells a lot like my current deodorant + some coconut), and it’s just what my dry, itchy skin needed. My knees, elbows, and feet have never felt better! I knew this scrub and I were meant to be the moment I saw the word grapefruit. My sweet neighbors across the street have given us permission to take advantage of their grapefruit tree, so we usually have a steady supply of those guys that is both free and delicious.

My recipe differs from Adrianna’s slightly in that used Olive Oil instead of Grape Seed Oil. Sadly, the latter was nowhere to be found in Lake Charles. I also halved the amount of grapefruit zest because two large grapefruits seemed like plenty (and my arm was tired after zesting the first two). Check out the full tutorial here, and please share your thoughts/suggestions if you make your own batch!

This Care2 article about the Oil Cleansing Method left me wanting more information, so I checked out this page that explained it even further. Now that I’m somewhat informed, I kind of want to try it!

For those of you who have never heard of it, the Oil Cleansing Method is based around the idea that the more oil you strip from your face (with soap), the more oil your face will produce. This excess oil your face produces will result in the blemishes you’re trying to avoid. Cleansing your skin with a mixture of castor oil (the cleansing oil) and the nourishing vegetable oil of your choice (such as grape seed, jojoba, olive, or sunflower) is the best way to avoid blemishes because you’re working with your skin’s natural oil production rather than against it. Some people, like the writer of the Care2 article, also add a little essential oil to their oil mixture. This is optional.

The idea of the OCM wasn’t entirely foreign to me prior to reading these articles; Danielle experimented with cleansing her face with oil a while back. I was just closing a chapter in my life (or skincare routine) which included washing my face three times a day with bar soap and rarely moisturizing. I thought she was absolutely crazy. Now that I’m using a soap-free cleanser, moisturizing twice a day, and my skin has never looked better, the OCM seems like the logical next step. Maybe I’ll slowly incorporate it into my routine and love it, or maybe I’ll try it a few times and hate it. Regardless, I’ll definitely let you guys know how it goes!

Have you ever heard of the Oil Cleansing Method? Better yet, has anyone tried it?  I’m curious to hear your thoughts and experiences.

With my approaching period, I’ve been feeling not quite myself lately. I’ve been eating everything in sight without a second thought. My skin and my hair haven’t been behaving themselves (My clay and eggs mask had positive but fleeting results), and after walking Clem and Winston every day this week, my feet are sore and actually pretty smelly (It happens to the best of us).  One night this week, in an attempt to make myself look and feel less haggard, I made time for a hair mask, face mask, foot moisturizing/scraping (I did try to think of a less disgusting word), and a long bath (which was made complete by a couple of drops of sweet orange and lavender essential oils).

The hair mask did make my hair shiny, and my feet feel a million times better, but the bath and face mask were definitely the highlights of my night. Since I slightly altered the face mask that I linked to, here are the exact proportions I used:

• 1 tbsp of whole organic milk
• 1 tbsp of honey
• all of the aloe vera gel that I could squeeze out of that chunk in the picture
• 1 drop of lavender essential oil
• a pinch of whole grain old fashioned oats

This was my first time using essential oil to make a face mask, and it couldn’t have been a lovelier experience. I love the scent of lavender, and it had a calming effect on both me and my skin. I got a little on my lips and, after licking it off, discovered that this mask is also oddly delicious. I’m not entirely sure that ingesting lavender oil is safe, but I can’t imagine that just a drop would be dangerous. I did a little research, quickly became overwhelmed, and then gave up.

As for bathtime, sweet orange oil will definitely be a common future addition. I actually felt cheerful afterwards.

Here’s my skin post mask. Yes, that is a floral towel turban on my head.

P.S. In the first picture, the tiny brown bottle with the dropper (which used to be home to my argan oil) contains a mixture of tea tree oil and olive oil.  I applied it to my feet in addition to the peppermint lotion.

If you haven’t had a date with a couple of masks and a hot bath lately, then I’d suggest treating yourself. I feel great!

Thoughts:

• The article suggests removing makeup with olive oil, but I prefer taking off my eye makeup with coconut oil, because it comes off with much less effort (and everyone knows that the less you scrub the sensitive skin under your eyes, the less likely you are to get wrinkles).
• I can’t wait to try that Greek Yogurt and Papaya Enzyme Conditioning Mask. It’s at least tenth on a long list of masks that I need to try, and I mean it when I say need.
• I had no idea what Kefir was before reading this article.
• I’m definitely going to put honey on my heels the next time I clip my toenails and exfoliate my feet.
• Egg yolk might prevent hair loss? I have some balding friends that could definitely benefit from that information.
• Since dark chocolate makes skin less prone to dryness, I’m off to eat some of the dark chocolate-covered strawberries that Kirby made for me. It has very little to do with them being absolutely delicious. Not!

The ingredients:

about 3 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

around 4 tables spoons of lemon juice

contents of one bag of chamomile tea

roughly 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil

nearly 4 tablespoons of my current favorite conditioner

I wet my hair, applied the concoction, and allowed it to sit for 25 minutes. When the time was up, I blow-dried my hair for good measure before rinsing. I’m not sure why; it just felt right. After rinsing, I blow-dried  my hair again (yaaaay heat-styling).

The downside: My hair is exactly the same color.

The upside: None of it fell out, it’s super soft, and it smells like a minty, spicy dessert. Usually olive oil makes my hair look super greasy, but not this time! I guess the trick is to just use a little.

Lesson learned: This mixture will not lighten your hair with just one use (since my impulsive behavior, I’ve read several sources that suggest leaving cinnamon in hair overnight to lighten it), but it will make hair soft and hunger-inducing.  I’ll definitely be replacing the lemon juice with apple cider vinegar and trying this again as a deep conditioner.

Dessert hair is something to get excited about, right?

First, I rounded up the ingredients: Local Honey, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Olive Oil, Organic Yogurt, and Cranberries.

Then, I combined the the ingredients in the top half of a double broiler.

The next step is to heat the ingredients in a water bath until the mixture begins to boil and then let it sit for five minutes.

Warning: the final step is very, very messy if you don’t have a sieve. I didn’t photograph it because my hands were disgusting, and I couldn’t safely operate a camera. Since I didn’t have a sieve, I squeezed the mixture through a knee high stocking into a small glass container. I know it sounds pretty gross, but the stocking was clean so don’t judge me.

Ta-da!

Making this first batch of lip gloss was definitely a learning experience. It’s a little oilier than I’d like for it to be, and it doesn’t stain my lips like I had hoped. Also, I’m keeping it in the fridge because that appears to be necessary to keep it solid. On the bright side, my lips are soft, and they taste tart and delicious. Next time I’ll probably use less olive oil and more cranberries.

I plan to stick with this exact kind of coconut oil. It smells great, and it makes my under eye area soft, soft, soft.

Until a few days ago, I was taking off my eye makeup (which is usually the only makeup I wear) with olive oil.  While on our family beach vacation, Danielle suggested that I use coconut oil.  She had done the same and had an entirely positive experience.  She is always steering me in the right direction.  My eye makeup literally melted away. I will never go back to olive oil (unless I run out of coconut oil and am in a pinch).

To be fair, my hair has oily tendencies already. I probably didn’t need this treatment, but my ends were looking pretty damaged so I went for it anyway.  Someone with very porous hair that is more on the dry side (like my sister, Danielle) would probably have a much better experience with this treatment. I guess the point that I am trying to make is that greasy-haired girls should stay away from olive oil.

I used this very kind of olive oil, only it was organic.