Live Silly.
I half-expected this to bubble over in the blender…because I literally just threw strawberries, blueberries, mango skins, a sprinkle of thyme, and a nice rounded tablespoon of raw honey. Not like those are all like, highly reactive ingredients; I’ve just always followed a recipe that someone else experimented with. So this is EXCITING!
Strawberries- chock full of vitamin c to bring the beautiful radiant glow out. Also, it apparently has salicylic acid….you know, the active ingredient in many acne fighting products!
Blueberries- super antioxidants and what not that wipe away damaging free radicals from your skin. Also chock full of vitamin E: ultra moisturizer.
Mango skins- alpha-hydroxy acids as I talked about earlier.
Thyme- some studies have been shown that its herbal properties are the strongest in fighting bacteria and acne. See this WebMD article!
Update on how my face is doing soon :)
I didn’t take a picture of today’s facial because….I couldn’t open my eyes for more than 5 seconds! Hahaha
I have quite a few scars from picking pesky pimples (say that 3x fast!) over the past whatever years and I recently borrowed a book from Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library that had to do with holistic acne treatments.
I came across a scar-reducing mask. I didn’t do further research on the healing powers of onion pulp, but I know that fine sea salt gives oily skin a little drying, while egg whites provide tightening and lemon juice, some lightening. I gave it a try:
1 egg white. Juice of 1/2 lemon. Grated pulp of 1/2 onion. Teaspoon of salt. Whisk that all together and I spread it all over my face, concentrating on my cheeks and chin where there are the most pock marks and scabbies. It didn’t smell ridiculously of onions which was nice.
I laid down and left it on for 10 minutes. Rinsed with warm water and pat dried. My mother commented on how smooth my face was. I plan on repeating this kind of tortuous procedure once a week (too many acid-y masks aren’t good for your skin on a daily basis). In conjunction with my nightly tamanu oil moisturizer, I hope these acne scars will be gone soon!
Turmeric Mask!
I’ve never used turmeric powder before but I’ve read in multiple sources that it is great for acne and brightening skin. You know, for years, Indian brides have scrubbed head to toe with this stuff to prepare for their wedding, too.
I mixed 3 Tbsp milk (I would have preferred yogurt for my pimples but I didn’t have any full-fat kind, only fat-free, so I went with low-fat milk this time) with 1 tsp of turmeric powder, 1 tsp of honey, and 2 Tbsp of white rice flour. Spread a thin layer on and now I’m waiting 20 minutes to gently scrub off. Wooooo!
I’m not worried about it staining my skin, as I’ve only applied a thin amount. If it does stain, well…I’ll stay inside for today :)
These are kiwifruit peels. On my face. Why? Because food on your face is good :)
Nah, so I was chopping up kiwis to make a parfait and needed to peel the kiwis. I didn’t want to just toss them in the trash right away (my composting project failed a couple years ago) so I took the peels and rubbed them all over my face.
Now, kiwifruit is especially good or your face because they are chock full of vitamin C, like more than oranges. And you know those store-bought cleansers, creams, and lotions that advertise “with Vitamin C!” Well, it’s true Vitamin C is great for your skin-acne, anti-aging, etc. But now you can get it straight from the source at a fraction of the cost PLUS a healthy snack! Why wouldn’t you want this?!
Rub the fruit on your clean and make-up-free face, let sit for 10 or 15 minutes, then rinse with WATER. Pat dry. Enjoy!
HERRRRRO! Today was a lovely day! Woke up feeling oddly energized (maybe that’s what happens when you wake up on your own and without an alarm….) BUT for whatever reason decided to get on my laptop instead of running or doing Insanity or something. Whatever.
So my morning routine includes washing my face, right, and guess what I have been using for the past like nine months. GUESS. Nope, I’m using honey. Good ol’ raw, unpasteurized honey from Trader Joe’s. It looks like this:
HONEY!!!!! Honey is especially good because it’s antibacterial and antimicrobial and is just the best thing ever for your face. I like to think of the sticky texture as a kind of glue or putty sucking out the grody business on your face. LOL. Anyways, initially it was inspired by my favorite, Crunchy Betty and her Honey Challenge.
I have had acne and an oily complexion since middle school. I’ve been prescribed several cleansers and topical medications and have used almost every anti-acne product available on the shelves of your local drugstore. One day I had an epiphany and wanted to find natural ways to get rid of my pimples, break outs, and basically-oil spills (a rant for another day!). This has been perfect. I have less break-outs…unless my period is nearing or I’m under serious stress and haven’t slept well for several days—aka finals week.
All you have to do is get RAW honey, get your hair out of the way (sticky hair is GROSS), spread about a 1/2 tsp. of honey all over your beautiful face (CLEAN face, btw, like in the morning when you wake up. Won’t work if you’ve got make-up on! But CB’s got a good way to take your make-up off while still using honey!), let it sit while you brush your teeth, eat breakfast, whatever. Then, splash water and it rinses off so easily, leaving your face all smooth and refreshed. For the most part, I don’t even need a moisturizer. But when I do, I use jojoba oil because it’s the oil that’s closest to the kind your skin already makes. So it isn’t irritating and doesn’t cause your skin to freak out and make too much oil.
So try this everyday for two weeks and let me know how it works for you!! :)
Day 1 of NO SHAMPOO. I realized that I’m running out of time for my “transition phase.” I mean, temporarily greasy hair at school….not cool. So I let go of my daily sweet smelling Head & Shoulders wash and I hope I can stick with this. I mixed 2 Tbsp baking soda with 2 cups of water. Scrubbed that in super well (after turning the water off), rinsed with cool water, then dipped my ends in 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar diluted in 2 cups of water. I expect to: 1) play around with these ratios until it’s just right, 2) be overwhelmed if it starts getting overly greasy, 3) trust that a hot water rinse will get the sweat out of my hair after working out, 4) spend a bajillion more hours researching no ‘poo on the internet. Wish me luck. This is true crunchy business.
These two bumpy masks are my facial scrub that includes ground rolled oats, ground sunflower seeds, almond meal, white rice flour, fine sea salt, a few drops of tea tree oil and then combined with a bit of witch hazel at the last minute. The awesome face one is from March (ignore the Skyy posters in the back, I just really love the ads, seriously! hahaha) and the normal-er one is from last week! WOO. I made a new batch of the scrub as soon as I got home from Seattle. :)
I’ll post my specific recipes sooooon!
Alright, so I started this crunchy business at the start of last school year (Sept. 2011), but it was difficult to get myself completely committed and organized with school and work piling up.
The green mask is made up of bentonite clay with apple cider vinegar, lavender essential oil, and I believe a bit of honey. This was taken in like February.
The brown one is a CHOCOLATE mask. Honestly, it tasted good. HAHAH. What’s in it? Cocoa powder, honey, whole milk yogurt, and fresh coffee grounds (emptied out hot and straight from the coffee filter!).
Why do I even want to start a blog? Do I think I can share such interesting posts that people will pause to read on their dashboard? Heck, I don’t even know.
But I thought about this: Facebook is kind of like a blog. At least, status updates. I mean, I take pictures of funny things, type up a semi-clever caption and post them to Facebook. And if I don’t get any likes or comments on them, it’s not like I’m butthurt. So perhaps I should treat Tumblr the same way.
Also, I have two very clear goals in mind when thinking about this blog: weight loss (I think I prefer getting fit) and “crunchiness.” So maybe I’ll just share the thoughts, experiences, and whatever else comes to mind that may pertain to my progress and not worry too much about who is, or is not, reading. I mean, I take pictures of my food anyways and love mixing up different recipes for face washes and masks, so why not put in a little extra time and write up blurbs to go along with them?
I like the idea of blogs because looking back on how much one has changed or recalling small details that may have been tucked away or just seeing the changes that are possible is AWESOME. Yeah, I’ve always wanted to bury a time capsule. :D
In fact, I had three different ones. One for each of main big goals:
1) Write regularly in a blog or journal. I chose blog because I know at the end of the day, the last thing I’ll want to do is recall all the little happenings of the day and write it out (especially because my handwriting is starting to look ugly). -I’ve already found this task hard.
2) Lose weight. Get healthier. Be fit. It’s a health goal…a lifestyle change goal. Basically I’ve come to terms with my disgustingly bad eating habits adopted over this past school year. NEED CHANGE. Plus, I’d like to fit into those jeans I bought two years ago that were meant to serve as a pick-me-up present (they’re still in a box in my closet with the tags attached).
3) Going crunchy a.k.a. finding natural alternatives for my beauty and hygiene routine. This means avoiding unnecessary chemicals and toxins entering my body. I haven’t perfected this by all means, nor have I actually committed to it wholeheartedly. I just can’t manage to let go of my shampoo…
So I had three different blogs and like I mentioned before, I found that the last thing I wanted to do was document every single update. I’ve returned to Tumblr to try to combine all of them into one. I follow more Tumblr accounts anyways. :D
I guess the only thing left to do is….transfer my posts. Or start over. Jeez, I don’t even know now.
