You know those teeny tiny little safety pins that are sometimes used to attach a sales tag to you clothes? Here’s a great way to reuse them: Pin a safety pin in the seam of a clingy dress or skirt and it will keep away static cling!
A quick and easy home remedy for silky, shiny, naturally gorgeous hair? Raw eggs, of course. Try this deep conditioning mask (suitable for all hair types in need of deep conditioning!)
Mix two whole eggs with four tablespoons of olive oil. Smooth through freshly washed but towel dried hair. Wrap head with plastic wrap or throw on a shower cap. Let sit for 10 minutes and then rinse well.
You can do this once a month for an intense conditioning treatment or more often on dry, damaged hair.
And look! This video proves I’m not crazy for telling you to put raw eggs in your hair and honey on your face…at the very least, it proves I’m not alone in my insanity!!
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Olive oil for your cuticles, honey for your zits, and now apple cider vinegar for your hair? I know I’m making it hard to tell your medicine cabinet from your pantry, but this stuff works just as well if not better than expensive facial products, for a fraction of the price.
Apple cider vinegar makes a natural great hair rinse for a variety of reasons. It gets rid of residue build up from all your hair styling products, balances the scalps pH, controls dandruff, and stimulates hair follicles to encourage hair growth. All this in one easy step: mix one half cup of apple cider vinegar (I prefer Braggs brand as it is unfiltered and full of enzymes) with one cup of warm water. Use this on wet hair before you shampoo, and massage it into your scalp for a couple of minutes. Then shampoo and condition as usual and you won’t have any lingering scent of apple cider vinegar on your hair thoughout the day. I do this every 6 weeks or so, just to get rid of residue build up (it makes my hair super soft and shiny) but you can do it several times a week if you have issues with dandruff or dry, itchy scalp.
Coming soon: the many uses of sea salt in your beauty routine. With that, the honey, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar, you can look fantastic and whip up a lovely little vinegrette while you’re primping…anyone have any beauty secrets involving fresh cracked pepper or romaine?
a few bonus uses for apple cider vinegar:
*since it’s naturally rich in alpha-hydroxy acids, it’s great as a gentle exfoliator…just soak a cotton ball and swipe it over your clean face before bed…enjoy silky, smooth skin in the morning!
*Sunburned? Add a couple of cups of apple cider vinegar to your bath water and soak for at least 15 minutes. (For more intense sunburn, apply undiluted apple cider vinegar directly to skin with a cotton ball). This reduces discomfort, peeling and itching…though you do smell a bit like a pickle….
Finding a way to exfoliate super sensitive or irritated skin can be tricky since exfoliation itself can sometimes be irritating to the skin. Try this simple fix: grind up 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats in a coffee grinder or in a blender. Mix with one tablespoon of almond oil and gently massage onto face and neck for 1-2 minutes. Then leave the mixture on the face as a mask for at least 3-5 minutes (longer if you choose) and rinse with warm water.
The oats will slough off dead skin, while also calming any irritation or sensitivity. The almond oil is naturally cleansing and soothing. For extremely irritated or sensitive skin, open a tea bag of chamomile tea and add the tea leaves to the oat and almond oil mixture before applying to skin for added anti-inflammatory properties. If you don’t have almond oil or have oily skin, mix the oats with a small amount of water (to keep the mixture a thick paste consistancy) instead.
Want to shine up all your bling without all the harsh chemicals? Try this super easy trick. Line a glass casserole dish with aluminum foil and place your tarnished jewelry on the foil, leaving a little room between each piece. Sprinkle it all with baking soda and cover with boiling water. Let soak for 10 magical minutes and abracadabra, everything is shiny again! Okay, it’s not actually magic (the tarnish gets pulled to the aluminum foil) but the bottom line is it works. Ta da.
My friend Shelly shared with me her green home recipe for an all purpose green cleaner. I tried it and it is one of the best green cleaning solutions I have used. She and her husband even used it on their grill and it easily took all the gook off with no harsh chemicals! If you’ve ever had to clean a grill, you know THAT is a powerful cleaner!
Start with a 32 ounce spray bottle :
2 cups H2O
1/2 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
1 tsp of unscented castile soap (also comes in several scents like citrus, lavender, peppermint,and rose)
20 drops of tea tree oil (antiseptic)
20 drops essential oil of choice (grapefruit compliments the citrus soap{I use it with the unscented soap because I love the grapefruit scent alone}, vanilla compliments citrus and peppermint)
You can create different scents for different parts of the house: Shelly uses citrus for the kitchen/bath and lavender for the rest of the house. I use the grapefruit everywhere because I’m crazy about it. This green solution can be used to clean anything: floors, counter tops, refrigerator, stove, tub, toilet, sinks, you name it. Safe around kids, pets, the environment and YOU! Shake before using.
Thanks to Shelly for sharing her recipe!
Inspired by a trip to my local farmer’s market this morning (where I saw the most luscious looking strawberries), here is a great treatment mask for exfoliating/smoothing the skin:
1 fresh strawberry
2 teaspoons plain whole milk yogurt
mash the strawberry in with the yogurt. If you have oily skin, acneic skin, or clogged pores you can add half of a teaspoon of cosmetic clay (inexpensive and available at most drugstores in dry powdered form) to the mix, which will help soak up excess oil and draw impurities out of the skin. If your skin is super sensitive or irritated, add a drop of lavender essential oil, which will help to calm it down. Yogurt is soothing and contains skin smoothing lactic acid, while the natural hydroxy-acids in strawberries are an added gentle exfoliant. Leave on for 20 minutes and then gently remove with warm water and a washcloth.
