Homemade Skincare Pt 4: Epsom Salt Bath!

How many of you have trouble sleeping at night? I do and it annoys me so much!! I have to listen to at least an hour of my iPod before I can dose off! Who knew something as simple as taking an Epsom salt bath before bed could be the cure! Like many people, I don't take many baths, no I'm not a stinky little kid like Linus from Charlie Brown, but I prefer showers! With baths, I feel like I'll end up sitting in dirty water, but if it means I'll sleep like a baby I'm all for it! Draw a nice warm bath, add 1 or 2 cups of Epsom salts, and you can even add a few drops of an essential oil of your choice. Light up some candles! Soak for up to 30 minutes and by this time you should feel extremely relaxed, calm and ready for some shut eye! I was truly amazed by not only how fast I fell asleep but how great I felt the next morning! Priceless!

Homemade Skincare Pt. 3: Lemon Refresher Astringent!

This homemade astringent is great for balancing oily skin and it's also very calming to the skin so there's no irritation. Mix the juice from half of a lemon and a 1/4 cup of witch hazel for this simple, yet awakening formula! A good friend of mine used this recipe and HE loved it! It's great for guys too! He said that it helped with the size of his pores, making them less visible!

*witch hazel can be purchased at your local drug store for around $5-$9!

Homemade Skincare Pt. 2: Basic Clay Mask!

The second homemade skincare recipe was a mask. I'll admit I was NOT too thrilled about this one! I typically don't like the tight feeling mask has once it starts to dry!

Basic Clay Mask:

3 tablespoons green clay

water

I applied the mask on while I was in the shower so there was less of a mess and it actually felt good on my skin. I left it on long enough for it to dry, and I could really feel my skin getting tighter and firmer. I made the mistake and smiled while the mask was almost dry and it started to crack!! It had been ages since I've used a clay mask, but I have no memories of them being easy to wash off! This simple mask was so easy for me to wash off of my face. My skin was bright and smooth, added a little moisturizer (Clinique Moisture Surge) and I was feeling beautiful and ready for bed!

An 8oz jar of green clay will run you around $5-$9 at your local drug store.

Homemade Skincare Pt. 1: Oatmeal Facial Scrub!

At FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising), the students majoring in beauty have the pleasure of having some pretty amazing professors! One of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Habermeyer, assigned a six part homemade skincare recipe group project for us all to do. They were really fun to experiment with and very inexpensive! My two group members and I had a great time with this 'homework' assignment!

The first one that I did was a Gentle Facial Exfoliator Scrub:

1/2 cup ground oatmeal

1/4 cup powdered milk

1 teaspoon cornmeal

water

I normally like my facial scrubs to really scratch my face so that I can tell my face is really getting clean. Well, the truth of the matter is, scrubs that have too harsh of scrubbing beads or particles actually hurt your skin. They strip and can cause damage to your skin. The oatmeal scrub is so gentle and soothing to the skin! It left my skin feeling so smooth and soft! When enough water is added, the substance glides on like a paste and not as if it's regular oatmeal!

All ingredients for this recipe can be bought at your local grocery store!

*this recipe can be a bit messy, I would suggest applying while getting in the shower that way it will be less mess!

YouTube Tutorials!

I love watching those makeup tutorial videos on YouTube! They are so fun and you can learn a lot from the girls (or guys) who make them. I recently stumbled across a new member that I had never seen before and I fell in love! Her YouTube username is MakeupGeekTv and she's absolutely fabulous! While she was giving tips, I was grooving right along with her!! She gave me some new tricks! YES!
These are two of my favorite videos:

2010's 'IT' Color: Turquoise!

Color authority Pantone has proclaimed that Turquoise will be the 'IT' color for 2010! Fabulous, because I just bought Makeup Forever's Turquoise Matte 72 eyeshadow! I guess I'm right on track for 2010! Celebs such as Zoe Saldana, Blake Lively, Megan Fox, Eva Mendes and more have been gracing the red carpets in stunning shades of this soothing, aquatic color!

Happy New Year!! 2010 Is Here!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Can you believe it's twothousandandten?? Where does the time go?! How did you guys ring in the new year? I had every intention on staying in the house, mainly because I'm not a clubbing person. A friend of mine, at the last minute, was like "let's go out!" So I did...and I drank...and I'm not a drinker. To make a long story short, I did NOT ring in the new year on the good foot. I had a GREAT time until those drinks set in, oh man! May be no big deal to everyone else, but when I let myself down I feel like I let people around me down too. But at least I have 364 more days to get 2010 to make up for my first mishap of the year! *As you can see in the picture, I was 'feeling it'...*

What are some of your new year resolutions? I want to hear them! Here are a few of mine!

1. To become even closer with God!
2. To become even closer with MYSELF, and putting 100% more efforts into my making my dreams come true!!
3. Be more giving, doing more charity and volunteer work!
4. Overall being a better person!

Yes I have four resolutions, but I think they are fairly easy to keep if I truly focus on them!! May 2010 bring nothing but things for you all!

I'll leave you guys with my motto for 2010. A friend of mine posted this quote to her facebook and I immediately fell in love with it!

"In 2009 I was walking INTO my purpose, in 2010 I will be walking IN my purpose according to HIS will!"

Find your purpose and and run with it! :)