Aloe vera juice for dry, damaged hair

I got my hair dyed up to my ears purple last week because I finished school and now I can do whatever the hell I want with my hair! So my ends are quite dry and damaged and I've been looking for non-silicon ways of hydrating my hair since my hair doesn't respond well to silicon.

I started using aloe vera juice on my hair a few days ago. I put it in a spray bottle and spray my ends with it whenever they're looking dry. It's especially good if I get my ends quite wet with it and let it dry naturally or if I got to bed with it in. It's made my hair much shinier and more hydrated than it was before and I think with continued use it will repair the damage.

I also like aloe vera juice for my face, its very calming and cooling. It's also good to spray on after mineral foundation to make it look less powdery, melt into the skin and look dewy.

I've also been enjoying using jojoba oil on my hair as it's so moisturising and soaks in easily. I use a few drops, warmed between my hands, and smoothed over the ends and the rest towards the roots.

The downsides of aloe vera juice are that it only seems to come in giant bottles and it only lasts 3 months after you open it. Also, you're supposed to refrigerate it, but I assumed that was for if you were going to consumer it, I think it should be fine on the face and especially the face unrefrigerated.

Creating matte lip colours from non-matte colours

I bought a new It Started With a Kiss from Lush yesterday so that I could have one for home and one for my purse and I discovered something amazing. It Started With a Kiss, like all Lush lip tints, is a glossyish finish, but, just like glossy lipsticks, you can powder over them with translucent powder and turn them into matte lipsticks! So now I have a lovely matte red to play with yay.

So in more detail what I do is apply the lipstick like normal, blot with tissues, powder the lips, reapply lipstick and repowder. It also makes the colour last longer so that's yet another plus.

I'm cured! Also natural sunburn remedy

So remember how I was really sunburnt yesterday? Well thanks to my natural remedies I have cured myself (somewhat) and am not nearly as red as I was yesterday, huzzah!

The remedy:
Aloe Vera plant or bottled gel (plant is better)
Lavender oil
A carrier oil of your choice, I used almond

1. First you want to take the aloe vera leave (choose a big one from the outside of the plant) and cut it down the side, push your thumb between the top part and the gel and separate the green leaf part from the gel until you get to the underside of the leaf like so,
Cut the leaf down the side

Push your finger under the green leaf bit above the gel and separate

Separate until the top of the leave is away from the gel, but the gel is still attached to the bottom piece of leaf. Then cut off sections of the leaf with the gel on it.

Cut a section off of the leaf

Rub it where you are sunburnt. When the gel dries out cut off some of it and use it again.

2. Wait for it to dry

3. Then take your lavender oil and shake the bottle on wherever your burnt and apply probably 6-ish drops and massage it in. Don't put it on your face though because it could cause a reaction as the skin on your face is more sensitive than the skin on your body, so if it's on your face just do the first and last step.

4. Moisturise the affected area with a carrier oil of some sort, if you're going by which carrier oil to choose in this post then it will be different, you need one that is more moisturising than the one you usually use, I would suggest almond oil for all skin types.
So apply this to your legs, just enough that it makes them shiny, but not so much so that you can't sit on anything for fear of oiling it up, you will need to let it sink in for a couple of minutes.

So you're going to want to do this every day until the sun burn has healed completely.

Soft, healthy hair routine

If you want soft and actually healthy hair, not just "healthy looking" then do these things. If you decide to skip one or a few of these things (some of them are a bit hard) then your hair will not be as healthy and soft as it could be, be warned.

The routine will be after the overall things you need to do.

Bolded things are extra important, but non-bold things aren't not important.

1. Stop using all silicones (all chemicals is best, but just silicones will do). Nearly all hair products (including shampoo and conditioner) have silicone in them. Silicone is a plastic, if you look up silicone on Wikipedia you will see that it is used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, breast implants, cookware and insulation, do you really want to be putting this on your hair? Silicone coats the hair shaft making it appear smooth and shiny, when really it is drying and damaging the hair from the inside. Silicones are bad. This step is one of the crucial ones for actually healthy hair. (After you stop using silicones your hair will go a bit crazy, frizzy, etc. because of the lack of smoothing, but it will calm down and go lovely after a week or so.
You can tell if a hair product has silicones in it if it has ingredients that end in 'cone'. The usual silicones that are used in hair products are: dimethicone, phenyltrimethicone, amodimethiconem among others.

2. Use all natural products. All of the chemicals in hair care products damage your hair while giving the impression of silky, healthy looking hair, but in reality they only provide results while you are using the products, because otherwise your hair would be damaged and unhealthy. Using products that occur naturally or only contain natural ingredients will give you healthy hair that is healthy all the time, not just when coated with chemicals.

3. Do DIY hair masks. If you google "DIY at home hair mask" then it will come up with hundreds of thousands of completely natural hair masks that you can do. They are predominantly natural because things that you can find in your own kitchen are nearly always natural materials. The usual ingredients needed for various masks are: a form of carrier oil, egg whites, milk and honey.

4. Get a hair cut. You can't mend split ends, don't trust anyone that says you can, they're silicone lovers and aren't worth your time, before you can start getting healthy hair you need to cut off the split and irreparably damaged hair. Also getting regular hair cuts is essential as well, split ends feel rough and dry out, feeling rougher, they need to go.

5. Stop using heat tools on your hair, this includes blow drying. Heat tools should only be used occasionally, eg. if you're going out for something special. Natural products and substances will get rid of frizz and a lot of things that heat tools on hair will fix, like if you want your hair straighter, my hair and straightened a lot using natural products. Heating up your hair gives you split ends and dries out your hair, with prolonged use the damage can only be repaired by cutting it off. I don't use any hot tools on my hair and haven't in a very long time, there are a lot of heat-less ways to do what you want with your hair, the easiest being curls and waves, eg. pin curls, bun curls, and headband curls.

6. Don't dye your hair so much. Dying your hair also damages it a lot, but I like to dye my hair too, so just doing it as little as possible is best (I mostly dye is over the long holidays with a semi permanent crazy colour, this year it's purple or maybe red).

7. Wash your hair as little as possible. This one is important, washing your hair strips it of it's oils which naturally make it shiny, soft and healthy, which is what you don't want, and it's also quite harsh on the hair shaft with the stripping and also when your massage it in. I wash my hair once or twice a week and it doesn't get oily in between. This is from a gradual acclimation, I started with going from every second day to every third day and onwards, now I usually go 5-6 days without washing my hair and it's not oily, just lovely and healthy. If you're worried about your hair being gross use a dry shampoo in between washes because that's better than normal shampoo.

8. Use metal free hair bands. Goes without saying, the metal in some hair bands rips out your hair or scrapes along hair that's still attached and damages it.

9. Eat healthily, drink lots of water etcetera. All that stuff that people always say (this isn't exactly a necessity).

10. Don't brush your hair with a hair brush when it's wet, use a wide toothed comb. Hair brushes easily break hairs and can damage the ends.

Routine:
When you're washing your hair (which would be as seldom as possible):
1. Wash your hair with a natural shampoo, my favourites are nearly all of the ones from Lush and the Perfect Potion Chamomile shampoo.

2. Condition your hair with a silicone free conditioner. I like once again all the Lush ones, especially Jungle, and I friggin' love Perfect Potion Rosemary conditioner, if you're either going to go Lush or Perfect Potion, go Perfect Potion. When you condition your hair you need to do some specific things, squeeze all of the water out of your hair, run some conditioner through your hair, focusing on the ends, then comb it with a wide toothed comb to desperse the conditioner evenly, put your hair in a bun with the conditioner in and do other things that you would normally do in the shower, shave whatever, wash yourself, exfoliate, do whatever you usually do for as long as possibly, but no less than 5 minutes and then rinse the conditioner out with cold water.

3. Wrap your hair in a towel removing excess water. DO NOT rub your hair in the towel, only squeeze the hair out, rubbing your hair splits the ends and damages it. Leave your hair in the towel for a few minutes, you can do your face routine while you're waiting.

4. Apply a very small amount of coconut oil to your hair, focusing on the ends. Apply a really, really small amount, like just tap your finger into the top and apply that, you can apply more when it's dry. Then comb your hair with a wide toothed comb again.

5. Let your hair air dry and put in whatever heatless curl/straight techniques you want to or leave it natural. The bun technique also works really well for soft waves/curls on dry hair, just leave it in for an hour or so and you're good.

And you're done! Do you appreciate people that have naturally soft and healthy hair now?

Using honey as a cleanser

Good for all skin types, especially really sensitive and acne prone. Can be used as an everyday cleanser or once a week as a mask.

Super simple, just about half a teaspoon of honey (manuka is best, it has more antibacterial/inflammatory/oxidant qualities than normal honey) and some water is needed.

1. If you wear makeup, you will need to take that off first, I'd recommend a carrier oil (see here for which oil is best for your skin and how to use it) or if you don't like the idea of oils, then any sort of makeup remover that you like.

2. Wet your face, quite wet, don't dry it off.

3. Apply splotches of honey to sections of your face and rub it in with the water.

4. Leave it on for a little bit (longer for a mask) and wash it off.

5. Moisturise if you need it.

It will leave your skin feeling clean, way more moisturised than chemical cleansers and will help immensely with acne and pimples.

The Many Uses of Carrier Oils

Yo guys, I am going to talk about carrier oils today because they are damn awesome and I don't feel like people know enough about them or use them. So here are some ways that carrier oil can be used and types of carriers oils that suit each skin type.

Super dry skin
Rosehip - Has a lot of healing properties and is good for various skin conditions including eczema and psoriasis, also very moisturising
Avocado - Also good for eczema, the most moisturising of the bunch
Argan - Really good for redness, has a nice smooth consistency, once again it is moisturising
Sweet Almond - Good for redness also, probably second on the moisturising scale after avocado

People with skin that needs more moisture (eg. mature skin, but also younger folk as well), or skin that is flaky and dehydrated should use these oils as they are quite thick and very moisturising.

Normal/dry skin
Jojoba - the thinnest, but still very moisturising (I use jojoba and I have fairly dry skin). Jojoba is the closest to the skin's natural sebum of all the carrier oils, making it really easily absorbed and regulates sebum production, also good for eczema and skin conditions similar to this
Sweet almond - the more moisturising of the bunch
Apricot kernel - best for sensitive skin, though I jojoba is good too, this one is just known for being gentle and non-irritating, easily absorbed

These ones would suit most skin types as they are fairly thin and you can use more or less as you need it.

Oily/combo skin
Jojoba - (read above)
Grapeseed - slightly anstingent, so it would be good for acne prone skin

Uses:

1. As a moisturiser
I use jojoba every second night (in combination with a cream moisturiser), there is a specific way that you have to use carrier oils as moisturiser, you have to first wet your face and palms, put a few drops of the oil in your hand and rub your palms together, then massage into the face. Make sure your hands are wet, it helps the oils to absorb and when I don't do this and just apply the oil straight onto my face I get break outs. Start with only a small amount and then add more if your skin is still a bit dry, you don't need much, I use 2 or 3 drops for my face.

2. Body and hand moisturiser
What's great about carrier oils is that you can buy one that suits your skin type and use that in many ways, not having to buy more than that one (though you can if you want to). So I also use jojoba as a body and hand moisturiser, it's really good as a hand moisturiser because it sinks in quickly and leaves my hands soft and smooth.

3. Makeup remover
This is my favourite makeup remover of all time, mostly because it's the only one that doesn't irritate my skin, but also because if you get it in your eyes it doesn't sting! I think that's pretty fantastic.
So how I use it is as follows: wet a cotton pad, put a few drops of the oil along the centre, wipe it across your eye several times and then take a clean, damp cotton pad and wipe off the oil.

4. Cleanser
A lot of people use oils straight as a cleanser, they use it similarly to how I moisturiser, but take it off with a toner and massage it more thoroughly, but I'm not really sure how that works as it is how I use it as a moisturiser...So I like Lush Ultrabland, it's mainly oils, but it's in more of a cream form

5. Healer
Carrier oils possess some qualities similar to essential oils (both from plants, etc.), so a lot of carrier oils have healing and mild antiseptic properties. Also they are very moisturising, so they would be good for burns.

6. Intensive moisturising mask
I use oils in my masks as well, it's not the main ingredient, but it adds to the moisturising-ness of the mask.
So my current favourite is:
1-2 tsp green clay
1 tsp manuka honey
5-ish drops of jojoba oil

7. Leave in treatment in hair
Probably my most used idea for carrier oils, just under moisturiser. Here are the results I find with jojoba oil (I like jojoba in my hair because it isn't as heavy as some of the others and is similar to the natural sebum).
- Shinier hair, but healthy looking ie. not being dried out on the inside by silicone, but looking nice on the outside
- Really, really soft hair
- If used as a deep treatment before washing, my scalp is nicely moisturised and not irritated
- Smooth hair, the oil smooths flyaways really well
- Healthy hair
- Smooth, moisturised ends - less likelihood of getting split ends

8. Carrier for essential oils
Carrier oils can also be used if you use an oil burner for aromatherapy, rather than putting the oils in water, which evaporates quickly, you can put it in a carrier oil and it will burn slower (you do need a small amount of water though, or else it might burn)

Another way that oils can be used to carry is when applying essential oils to the skin, for example, if you have bad acne and oily skin, you can use tea tree oil (I wouldn't use it often though) on the spots as tea tree oil is a very good antiseptic, antibacterial, all of that good stuff, but it can be too harsh straight on the skin and give you a rash or burns, so then you would mix it with a carrier oil before applying it to the skin. For tea tree oil, I would say about one drop of tea tree to 3 or 4 drops of carrier. Though some essential oils do not need to be diluted, like lavender, in most people, can be applied neat.

9. Lip moisturiser
If you run out of lip balm (it's not very realistic to use it on the go) then slap a few drops of a carrier oil on your lips, it works really well, but it is a liquid and thus hard to use any where other than home.

Everything is rainbows

Oh my Gooooood, you guys. Happy rainbow ponies once again.

I've recently gotten really into Japanese furoshiki knot wrapping, which is making...stuff...using one square piece of fabric. Bags, dresses and...stuff. Mostly varying designs of bags.

I am loving it so much. It all started with Lush, those crazy, brilliant bitches. I love Lush so friggin' much, you guys, my God. They've started doing this thing (mostly in the UK) where you can get a gift wrapped in a scarf because it's good for the environment in that it can be re-used to wrap other gifts, scarves, head bands, etc. They're also really cute and adorable, but you know...good for the environment...mur murr mur mr.

So I ordered the beach ball wrap (that and other knot-wraps here) from Lush UK and when it came I was very excited, but the Lush ones aren't as soft and lovely as the ones I'm about to talk about that I got from Bobo Wrap.

They're so pretty.

Good Lordy are they lovely.

I got two of the jumbo scarves, Willow and Splendor designs

This is Splendor, I'm too lazy to get up and take a photo of Willow, so you can imagine or go and find it on the Bobo website.

I love the idea of having a whole extra bag folded up and compact inside your bag just by tying some knots in it. Freakin' awesome.

Plus this wrap (the second one in the video) expands as you put more things in it, so it also makes a pretty big bag, good for farmers markets (which I happen to be a huge fan of).

Also I painted these recently, if you're interested

P.s. Oh my God, Andy from True Blood is on Fringe, sweet Lordy.

DIY: Honey face mask

The first of a somewhat series, DIY. It's somewhat because there will be posts on it...sometimes, not scheduled, you shouldn't expect another one for a while...sorry.

Well! To start off the DIY series(ish), I bring you the honey mask! Dun da na naaaa!

This face mask is good for dry skin (though really it's good for all skin types, just dry skin specifically) and also any impurities (blackheads, pimples, redness).

I can guarantee that you will not look this glamorous

First off, ingredients:
- Honey, manuka is best as it has more healing qualities than regular honey (very moisturising, reduces redness, deeply cleansing, antibacterial)

- (optional) milk (moisturising, reduces redness)
- (also optional) some form of exfoliant, some that I like are rice flour (only a little exfoliating, easy on sensitive skin), powdered charcoal (more exfoliating, good for oily skin, though I use it for dry as well, deeply cleaning. You should be able to buy it at a health food store), salt (sea salt, not table salt. Very exfoliating, be careful if you have sensitive skin as it can be quite abrasive)

And look, I even made you some adorable doodles. I am just that nice.

1. Cleanse your face
2. Mix honey (enough to coat your face (probably 0.5mm thick, if you wish to know specifically)) with other ingredients you may be using or just take that amount out of the container (you can hold it in your hand if you want).
Milk - just a splash, you don't want it to be too runny and fall off your face
Exfoliant - half to one teaspoon mixed in with the honey, depending on how exfoliating you want the mask to be, more for more exfoliation, less for less, etc.

Here is a diagram to help with my mixing

3. Apply to face.

If it is honey or milk and honey mask, leave for 10-30 mins
If exfoliating, apply to face and rub in circular motions, you can then leave it for 10 minutes or just wash it off

I enjoy reading my book whilst waiting

4. Wash off face with a washcloth
5. Moisturise as needed

And there you have it.