Moisturizing Oils

The below recipe is one that I've been using for a few months and I have to say that it managed to actually soften my insane, psoriasis-ridden, wood-sanding elbows. This is a pretty luxurious oil blend that is a bit on the thick side but it actually absorbs pretty quickly and you can almost feel it sinking into all the layers of your skin.

Image by tinpalace

Luxurious Moisturizing Recipe:

• 2 parts (20ml) jojoba oil
• 2 parts (20ml) avocado oil
• 1 part (10ml) sesame oil
• 1 part (10ml) JASON Vitamin E mix or just pure vitamin E oil
• Essential oils for scent... I use about 10 drops of lavender essential

Mix the above in store in a dark glass container and apply right after the shower or whenever you need a quick moisturizing boost. It does leave the skin a bit shiny for a little while so probably not the best thing to use right before running out the door to go to work but perfect after an evening shower.

Moisturizing Recipe 2:

• 1 part jojoba oil
• 1 part avocado oil

This would be a fairly thick but high absorptive mix.. would be great on cracked heels

Recipe 3

• 2 parts sweet almond oil
• 1 part sesame oil

A lighter mixture that really great slick feeling of oil

Recipe 4 - Healing Mixture

• Avocado Oil
• Tamanu Oil
• Calendula Oil

This would probably turn out to be pretty thick... and pretty expensive... but if you combine those oils you'll have a super healing oiling that will probably be perfect for almost any skin situation. I haven't had the ability to make something like this yet.. but I'm hoping to try in the very near future.

The list goes on forever... the beauty about oil mixtures is that you can make anything. You can use 5 ingredients (like my fave oil mix so far), or just one of them. Some oils are said to help with wrinkles and age spots.. some absorb really deep into the skin.. some just feel heavenly. There's no right or wrong mix so it all just boils down to what viscosity, texture, and desired effects that you want. 

All of the above ingredients can be purchased at Mountain Rose Herbs if you want to one-stop-shop. 

Scrubs - Mocha Spice Sugar Scrub

This recipe sounds and smells utterly delicious and divine. 

Recipe:

• 1 cup light brown baking sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground coffee
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Generous pinch nutmeg
• Generous pinch ginger
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup Mineral Oil 

Mix it all up and go! Instead of mineral oil you can use almond oil, light sesame oil, or jojoba.

This smelled wonderful even if it looked a little.. brown. And it did a great job as a scrub. My skin felt smooth as silk but it was still a little too harsh for my very sensitive skin. Basically, as far as scrubs go, I believe I can only use oatmeal.. so if you have sensitive skin like I do use this lightly.

The only thing I did NOT like about this (and the main reason why I won't be making it again) is that the coffee ended up turning my skin brown. Coffee stains.. and it left brown streaks all over the bathtub. I'm not particularly squeamish about that sort of thing, but it actually required more cleanup than I want to deal with. It's a great recipe and smells and feels wonderful.. but having to scrub brown stains out of the shower curtain from it didn't really make me fall in love with it.

Still.. worth a try at least once!  

[Original recipe can be found here]

Scrubs - The Stupid Easy Salt Scrub

You can end up spending a ton of money buying scrubs at the store. The top selling body scrub at Sephora is about $40 and the cheap kinds use all sorts of unnatural ingredients.

Turns out that making a Salt Scrub is so easy.. it's stupid.


Salt Scrub Recipe:

• 1 cup Epsom or Sea Salt
• 1 cup of baby oil

The 1 cup of baby oil is subjective. All depends on how runny/coarse you want the scrub to be. Just start mixing in baby oil into the salt until you get the texture you want. Generally, it's one-to-one.

Personally, I hate the smell of baby oil. So I found out that Target sells pure Mineral Oil for about $2 in my area.  Baby oil is just a bit lighter mineral oil and fragrance, so you can just use pure mineral oil and add some essential oil for fragrance. All depends on what is more readily available to you.

This is a really easy salt scrub to make and my fiancée absolutely loved it. It takes about 5 minutes to make and lasts a while. You can put it in a decorative jar (I'm keeping ours in canning jars sold at Walmart) and it looks pretty as hell. 

The best way to use a scrub is to play music in the bathroom or leave the door open so music comes in from the outside. Sit on the edge of the tub and start at your poor abused feet and rub it in in slow massaging circles and work your way up. Play close attention to your feet, knees, and elbows. Relax and close your eyes and enjoy the sensations of the massaging rub in your body.

Unfortunately, I couldn't use this recipe on myself though. I tried and by the time I worked my way up to my knees, my poor sensitive skin was on FIRE! The salt was just WAAAAY too harsh for my poor skin. So be careful. If you have sensitive skin this might be too harsh for you. Despite the pain.... my skin felt oh so very soft after this. So I found sugar and oatmeal scrub recipes that I'll be posting about later for those with more sensitive skin types. 

The Shampoo Free Life

It has been a solid month now since I've last used commercial shampoo/conditioner. I absolutely love it and my hair is grateful as well.

Commercial shampoo/conditioner is expensive, has a ton of chemicals you don't need on you, actually weighs your hair down with the gunk it leaves behind, and if you've ever had outbreaks of acne on your back and shoulders it could be because you didn't wash off the shampoo/conditioner residue off properly. Given all these things, when I found an alternative, I jumped on it.

For my long (down to the middle of my back) hair I use the below recipe:

• Wash:
• 2 Tbs baking soda (Walmart brand in my area is $0.50 for a small box) in 1 cup hot water
• Rinse:
• 1 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar (about $5 in Safeway for a gallon) in 1 cup cold water
• 5 drops lavender essential oil

My Regime: I mix up my ingredients before getting in the shower and carry on as usual. To wash my hair, I just pour the wash over the top of my head and let it trickle down to the tips. I massage my scalp and the tips of my hair until the BS wash has penetrated all the hair and then wash off right away. In the ACV and essential oil rinse, the EOs float to the top so I flip my hair over and dip the ends of the hair in a cup of the rinse so that it soaks in the ACV and essential oil.  The very last bit of it I pour over my head. I turn the water to very cold and wash everything out of my hair and I'm done!

What's great is that my hair feels softer immediately as it starts to naturally dry. Before, if I let my hair dry naturally it looks like the dry ends of a broom.. i was ready for Halloween. Now, when my hair air-dries it falls more naturally into its wavy form. I'd leave it like this, but I like my hair straight with curly ends.. so I just let it mostly air dry and then just blow dry the very tips into curls. I finish with a dab of Fructis Anti-Frizz Serum on JUST the very tips because it helps keep the curl and form it into individual chunky curls on the ends.

While this hasn't been a "miracle-cure-all" for my hair like it has been for some people, I have definitely seen a major difference. My hair has a bit more body, the ends don't get dry, it just looks healthier, has more shine and luster, and it's definitely softer. I still get greasy hair and have to wash about once a week (I was hoping to go longer than a week between washings) and I still get split ends. But considering how much money I'm saving, how much healthier my hair, and how much more pleasant the experience is, I definitely will continue doing this. Oh and by the way, I can't smell ANY traces of vinegar about 5 min after my shower, and I have a sensitive nose.

Adjustments to the recipe:

• For shorter hair, you can use just 1Tbs baking soda in 1 cup water. If your hair is very short (ear-length) you can use even less and just mix it into a thickish paste that you can just rub in.
• If the above recipe leaves you with dry/brittle hair... use less baking soda and/or more ACV
• If the above recipe leaves you with greasy hair... use less ACV
• If you get dandruff.. before washing use a solution of 1/2 cup White Vinegar and 1/2 cup water
• Play around with the rinse by adding your own blend of essential oils/herbs. Make tinctures (make a "tea") out of different herbs and add to the rinse for different effects:

•  Burdock: root helps prevent dandruff
    Catmint: leaves encourage hair growth and soothes scalp irritations
    Chamomile: flowers soften and lighten hair
    Flannel Mullein: lightens hair
    Goosegrass: tonic and cleansing, helps prevent dandruff
    Henna: red hair dye and conditioner
    Horsetail: non-fertile stems and branches strengthens the hair
    Lavender: antiseptic, antibiotic, stimulates hair growth, and degreases
    Lime: flowers clean and softens
    Marigold: lightens hair color
    Nasturtium: for hair growth
    Parsley: enriches hair color and gives a nice luster
    Rosemary: tonic and conditioner, one of the best herbs to use, gives luster and body, also slightly darkens the hair. (This is good to use if you notice your hair lightening due to baking soda use.)
    Rhubarb: the root makes a yellow hair dye
    Sage: tonic and conditioning, darkens the hair
    Southernwood: encourages hair growth and helps prevent dandruff
    Stinging Nettle: tonic and conditioning and helps prevent dandruff
    Witch Hazel: leaves and bark are astringent and cleanses oily hair
    (Source: "Info: Shampoo-Free")

There are also a couple other recipes that I found on (what I call) the "Official Shampoo-Free" resource and I am listing them below. Check out that site too. The gal wrote an amazing article that covers just about everything on the "Shampoo Free Life" and I can easily say that all I know I learned from her. The below recipes sound absolutely intriguing but I have not tested them out so I can't comment on how well they work. If you give any of these a try, let me know how it works!

Hairspray: 

• Chop 2 lemons, add 2 cups water, and simmer in a pan over low heat until lemons are quite soft. Cool, then strain through cheesecloth. Pour into a spray bottle, add 1 Tbsp. vodka, and shake. Dilute with water if too sticky. The vodka ensures it lasts a long time.

• Chop one lemon (or an orange for dry hair). Place in a pot with 2 cups water. Boil until half of the initial amount remains. Cool, strain, and place in a spray bottle. Store in the refrigerator. If it is too sticky, add more water. Add one ounce rubbing alcohol as a preservative and then the spray can be stored for up to two weeks unrefrigerated.

Hair Gel (#1 is not vegan, #2 is)
#1

• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup warm water
• Dissolve gelatin in 1 cup warm water. Keep refrigerated and use as you would a purchased gel. 

#2

• One cup water
• 2 tablespoons flax seed
• 1-2 drops of essential oil of your choice.
• Combine the water and seeds in a small saucepan, bring them to a boil and then remove from heat. Set aside for a half hour. Strain through a colander. When completely cooled, add the oil and mix through. Transfer to a wide-mouthed jar with a tight lid (mason jars work well!), and use as you would any other gel product.

Hair Mousse (Not vegan):

• 1/4 cup of plain gelatin     
• 1 cup warm water  
• Dissolve 1/4 teaspoon plain gelatin in 1 cup boiling water. Let sit at room temperature until slightly set. Rub into dry or wet hair, and blow dry.