A Few Things I'm Into Right Now

Dandy Blend
This is so tasty! I like to have it in the afternoon when I'm craving something creamy but don't want caffeine. I can't really drink coffee anymore (the acidity) and I don't think this is really a replacement taste-wise, but it tastes delicious and scratches the same itch. Plus dandelion is supposed to be good for your liver and digestion and it's a pretty good source of iron and other vitamins and minerals. Those are only nice extras though, not the main reason I drink it.

Rosewater
Specifically this rosewater, which I avoided for a long time because I got it into my head that it only used rose oil & wasn't a hydrosol and therefor not as good. I actually checked it out recently and it does use rose oil, but it also has rose hydrosol and it's way less expensive and easier to find than any other rosewater! It smells nice, I love spraying it on my face after I wash it.

Pinon Incense
The smell of this is like a warm comforting campfire. I got this box at my new favorite store in town Palace.

Lovely Things Lately

Skin Treats: I treated myself to a few new skin things lately. I recently ran out of calendula salve, since I put calendula on every kind of skin irritation, and this one from Bodycentuals caught my eye at the store. It has very minimal organic ingredients, and I believe the company has it's own calendula farm and harvests it's own beeswax (and in the PNW no less), which appeals to me. I also got their Organic Neroli + Aloe Hydrating Facial Mist since I just ran out of my homemade toner and I wanted to try something new. Again this has minimal ingredients, it also smells wonderful and I felt like the price was pretty reasonable.


Rambling Rose Tea. I recently did some branding work for a friend-of-a-friend who makes and sells herbal teas. She grows most of the flowers and herbs she uses on her farm in Oregon and isn't it just beautiful looking tea? She's gifted me several and just looking at her beautiful blends & knowing they were grown and made with such love and care makes me so happy!

My Winter Skin Care

Here are some things I've been using to deal with dry winter skin this year:

Lotion Bars: My hands get especially dry and these are so soothing & moisturizing. Plus they aren't greasy and lock in moisture for a while. I usually buy them from small makers, but I'd like to try making my own soon!

DIY Body Oil: I prefer body oils to lotion because it sinks in right away and it's moisturizing without feeling greasy. I made this mixture with sesame oil, sweet almond oil, and lavender essential oil.

Yogurt & Honey Mask: It's an easy diy, yogurt gently exfoliates and moisturizes & honey moisturizes and cleanses. Sometimes I just put honey on my face, because it's slightly antiseptic I think it also helps with breakouts. My boyfriend makes fun of me for this.

Rosehip Seed Oil: Part of my diy face oil, again non-greasy moisture with added benefits of essential fatty acids, vitamin E & vitamin C.

Coconut Oil. I apply this to my lips & hands before I go running since running in the cold is especially hard on them.

Drinking Plenty of Water: Obviously.

Humidifier: I have one running in my bedroom, I think it's helped my skin. It definitely helped with dry sinuses when I had a cold!

My DIY Face Oil Etc

I finally got around to making my own facial oil. Argon oil, rosehip oil, and frankincense essential oil are all supposed to do wonders for the skin. I'm particularly interested in keeping my skin looking smooth, plump, and healthy for as long as possible, with minimal effort and money. I figured making my own mixture would be the most cost effective, since you can buy all these ingredients at pretty affordable prices and they last a long time.

Rosehip oil: is fast absorbing, extremely high in essential fatty acids, hydrating, and is supposed to be great for fighting aging skin. It's also a dry oil that is quickly absorbed.
Argon oil: Again, high in fatty acids, very hydrating and great to fight signs of aging. Also light and easily absorbed.
Frankincense Essential Oil: promotes healthy skin cell regeneration and is supposed to be the best to treat wrinkles, signs of aging and sun damage.

I wasn't very scientific about the mixture. It's about half and half with the oils and a few drops of the frankincense because it's quite strong. I got the rosehip oil and frankincense at Mountain Rose Herbs, the prices seem to be slightly better than retail and they have an amazing selection of ingredients.


I also thought I'd include my foot soak in with this post

This summer my feet started to totally self destruct. Too many years of wearing bad shoes with no soles and no support finally caught up with me I guess. At one point the outside of my left foot turned purple after walking all day in sandals, I was hobbling around for a few days and had to take a break from running, I'd never had that happen before and it got my attention. Anyway, besides getting some better summer sandals, I've also taken to soaking my feet several times a week in a warm epsom salt bath. Epsom salt is supposed to be anti-inflammatory and great for soothing aches and pains, so I figured it can only be good for my feet. I also add some tea tree EO into the water for it's antibacterial properties, and lavender for it's antibacterial properties and soothing scent.
In some ways a nightly foot bath makes me feel so old, but also, whatever. My feet do so much for me and I've always and taken them pretty much for granted, they deserves a nightly soothing soak in warm water and hopefully they'll serve me well for another 30+ years.

DIY Beauty

I mentioned in my last post about getting more into DIY products. I've definitely gone though DIY beauty phases in the past, this latest round of DIY excitement has to do with the general life simplification I've been attempting lately. It also has to do with the desire to be more self reliant which may sound weird but let me explain. Maybe I spend too much time online, but lately I've been more and more annoyed at constantly being sold things, so I get a sort of perverse pleasure in not buying. I like the idea of just getting an $8 jar of coconut oil and using it for everything, it's a honestly freeing feeling! Writing it down like this it makes me sound like kind of a crank, but I know other people are feeling this way too so if you are hopefully you get what I'm trying to say! That said I am far from only using coconut oil for everything, I'm minimal but not that minimal and I'm far too excited to make all these DIY recipes! Also, I want to say that this is just my personal thing, you do you, and if that means you love buying skin care products that's great!

Anyway, this is kind a silly preamble to more posts to come because as of right now I haven't been making much of anything! I'm trying to use up what I have & not be wasteful. I have a list going of what I want to make though, here is what I'm most excited about:

• Whipped boy butter (like this one)
• rosewater toner (like this)
• Mixing a new face oil with argon oil, rosehip oil and frankincense EO.
• An oil cleanser with olive oil, safflower oil and sweet almond oil.
• a rose lip balm
• scented bath salt scrub with lavender EO and a TBD carrier oil
• Lavender pillow spray

I also want to try making some soy candles. So many ideas!

"Skin Cleanse" and Minimizing My Skin Care

This book just happened to come on my radar right about the same time I as I was starting to think about cutting back on my skin care products and trying to live more minimally anyway, so of course the premise intrigued me.

Overall Skin Cleanse an easy fun read that advocates a more holistic approach to skin care, taking into account the effect food, lifestyle, and too-many products can have on your skin.
A big chunk is given over to nutrition information, which isn’t anything new, basically don’t eat junk & eat more leafy greens. I do think she does a good job of saying everyone’s skin is different and you should find out what works for you, though keeping a food journal and so on. She also includes some info on basic skin function, skincare, and some recipes.

For me this was mostly a motivational read and I cut back drastically on the things I was putting on my skin while reading, which I’d been planning to do already. I’ve noticed that my skin has had way more problems as I’ve started using more products over the last couple of years. I realized my skin was way happier back in the days when I used to just splash my face with some water in the morning and call it good.

While I’ve overhauled my skin regime I’m not exactly going product free, just simplifying. Simplifying appeals to me anyway, both ascetically and financially! I like the idea of not being obliged products and I’m getting more and more interested in making my own, so expect more of my DIY adventures here in future!

Currently my skin care looks like this:
AM: cleanse with water. Sprits my face with rosewater OR apple cider vinegar (I am slightly obsessed with ACV right now!). Apply argon oil. Apply SPF if leaving the house that day. Get on with life
PM: Cleanse with oil (still using Origins, but will switch to something cleaner/more simple when that runs out. Probably safflower?). Sprits face with rosewater or ACV. Apply argon oil and REN eye cream. THE END.

So far this is working out! All over little bumps have gone away completely (also a major help with this has been finding an spf face cream that my skin likes). I still get some hormonal outbreaks around my jaw, but they are manageable and it's way less stressful since I know why they are there and what is causing them.

New Beauty Bits

I bought a few new beauty bits recently

• Herbivore Botanicals pink clay exfoliating mask: My mom was in town this past week and we decided to buy this mask when we saw it at a shop in town so we could give ourselves facials. It smells like dried rose petals, which is nice, and the texture is fairly gritty so you can get a nice scrub when you're taking it off. Personally my skin has some dry patches so it needs that. I noticed the next day a few problem spots came to a head and disappeared, so very positive marks for that!

• Acure 100% Argan Oil: Since I've been using argan almost exclusively as my main moisturizer I bought this to use as a back up when my current one runs out. I've never used this brand but it's very affordable and I've heard it's good quality.
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• Portland Bee Balm: Made locally, which I love. It has a great texture and simple ingredients too, it's just a good all around lip balm

March Favorites

Beauty: This month my skin really had a freak out so I’ve been pairing back on everything and just using argan oil day and night for moisturizing. Currently I use Josie Maran.

Food: I stumbled across some honey coconut Greek yogurt at my local healthy supermarket, and it's pretty much the best thing ever. To me it tastes just like cheesecake! But no sugar! It won’t fill all my yogurt needs (like putting it on savory things) but I’ve been happily eating it straight from the container all month.

Reading: I’ve really been enjoying the No More Dirty Looks blog to read up on green beauty tips. I especially like the posts where real people go though their daily beauty routines, so much helpful info!

Music: This playlist on 8tracks. If you want to feel like you're in a cabin in the middle of a pine forest this is pretty much the perfect playlist.

Etc: I ran in my first race in March, an 8K. I was so nervous & totally overthinking it beforehand, but it turned out to be a ton of fun, not scary at all! I'm even pretty happy with my time! Now I want to do more, all the time!

February Favorites

Beauty: It's still a relatively new part of my routine so it took some getting used to but I've really come to love spritzing my face with the Andalou Rose Floral Toner.

Food: Salmon. All month A. and I having been going for a run on Saturdays and then going to the conveyer belt sushi place a few blocks away just to sit at the bar and eat plate after plate of salmon nigiri.

Reading: Really enjoyed The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg (more soon in my monthly reading list post).

Music: Cannot stop listing to ODESZA, especially this song, and this one. Also really loving this song by SZA.

Watching: I've still been trying to read in the evenings rather than putting on a show, but I still like to watch something while I eat dinner so I try to put on something short. I've been in the mood for either Bob's Burgers or Bee and Puppycat this month, both are so good and weird and make me laugh.
Youtube-wise been loving the videos from the beauty Youtuber l'amour et la musique this month. I've also really enjoyed discovering Chef Julie Yoon. Much like beauty videos I find watching cooking videos to be really soothing, and I love her happy energy!

Etc: My other favorite thing this month has been enjoying all the wonderful flowers and sunshine! Spring is about a moth earlier than it usually is, god knows what the rest of spring will be like if everything has already bloomed in February, but it sure is lovely out there right now.

Morning Skin Care

I wanted to share the products I've been using in my simple morning skincare routine. I've been using most of them since about October (I've been using a few of them longer) and my skin has been pretty happy.

• The Body Shop camomile cleansing butter: This balm is sold as a makeup remover, but I prefer to use it in the morning as a gentle cleanser and to aid in my daily facial massage. It smells lovely and feels very refreshing.

• Andalou 1000 Roses Floral Toner: I give my face a good spritz with this after massaging and cleansing. Rosewater is supposed to be great at balancing skins PH, and this also claims to "renew skin at the cellular level" with rose stem cells. It does feel great, and smells like roses, so I love it.

• Nourish Organics Argan Face Serum: I've been using this serum for almost a year now and I love it. My skin feels so healthy and hydrated after applying. Both argan and rosehip oils are full of essential fatty acids, vitamins, & antioxidants and are supposed to be good at reducing fine lines and improving elasticity and tone, so the fact that they're both in this one serum makes my life way easier! Also, this is one of those face oils that immediately sinks in, so skin feels hydrated and not greasy at all.
I've been hearing about the benefits of using Frankincense Essential Oil for it's anti-aging benefits so I'm thinking about getting some and starting to add a few drops to my serum for a really powerful trifecta!

• REN Firm and Lift Eye Cream: Eye creams: do they do anything? I guess you don't know until you've been using them for years. I'm kind of ambivalent about them because they are always so expensive and I never notice any difference after using them. However, I err on the safe side and usually incorporate them. This one is fine and I like REN as a company because their products are without synthetic fragrance, sulfates and parabens etc. When this is used up I have my eye on the avocado and argan one from Nourish.

Since I work from home I don't feel the need to put an SPF on unless I'm leaving the house, but I do always wear SPF when I go outside.

Lip Products I Own and Love

I put on my jacket the other day and no joke pulled three lip products out of the pockets! This is on top of the several that I also carry in my purse by the way. I am a lip tint kind of girl, no fuss but some color is what I like. These are the ones that I like and use the most (and you can see a few a very well used).

• Pacifica Lip Quench lip tint in Coconut Pearls (no longer available, sad!)

• Tarte Lipsurgence lip tint in Hope

• Hourglass extreme sheen lip gloss in Child

• NYX Butter Gloss lipgloss in Tiramisu

• Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Daiquiri

• Fresh Sugar lip treatment in Passion, Rose, & Honey

• Josie Maran argan high gloss lip shine in Pink Honey (sadly also no longer available)

• Dior Creme do Rose lip balm.