Monday, December 15, 2014

DIY Face & Body Exfoliant

Hello lovelies,

Everyone deserves a spa day every once in awhile and being a mom, especially a new mom you don't always have time to go to a salon. An easy way to pamper yourself at home is to give yourself a mini facial!! Below I have created an easy face and body exfoliant that you can make woth ingredients that you already have in your kitchen. Everything I used is all natural and the recipe can easily be altered for your skin type.  Having now made this on my own I will never need to buy an exfoliant again, only ingredients. Every time I use this on my face (2-3times a week) my is so soft and smooth afterwards. I am in love!!

What you will need:
- Ramakin or a masin jar to store your exfoliant
- measuring spoons
- a spoon or a stick to mix everything together
- 1/2 a cup of Olive oil (coconut oil, almond oil or jojoba oil are also great options if you want to use them too)
- 1 tbsp honey (organic or natural honey are the best options for your skin, but regular honey will work too)
- 1 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2-3 tbsp table salt (or sea salt)
- 2-3 tbsp sugar (white or brown sugar. Brown sugar will be less abrasive)
- one vitamin e capsule
- 2-3 drops of essential oil (for smell/aroma if desired)

Start by adding half of your dry ingredients to your jar.
Stir in your oil.
Add lemon juice and honey.
Pierce the vitamin e capsule and squeeze it into your jar.
Add the reamaining of your dry ingredients and mix really well.
Determine if you have the desired texture that you want. Add more oil or salt and sugar if needed.
If you decide to use an essential oil, add this last.

When making my exfoliant I didn't measure anything. I kept on adding more of what I needed until I got my desired texture. I am telling you this, so that you can customize your own mixture to suit your skin type. If you have oily skin you may want to use less oil and if you have dry skin you may want to use more etc. The measurements you use will also be determined by the size of your ramakin or jar.

Keep your exfoliant at room temperature. Every time you use it, you always have to stir the ingredients around, so It is normal for it to clump up. Your exfoliant will also last you quite a long time depending on how much you make. It can last up to a couple of months.

I don't recommend that you use this exfoliant on your face everyday as it can be quite abrasive. Use a very gentle hand when rubbing it on your face or skin.

For oily skin you may want to use this exfoliant only a few times a week, as the base is oil and it may make your skin feel greasy with excessive use.

For dry skin every other day would be perfect. You can get rid of all the dead and dry skin while adding moisture to your skin at the same time.

Normal to combination skin every other day or as needed.

I usually exfoliate my face twice a week,  sometimes three times and sometimes I can also skip a week. I have normal skin with a slightly oily t-zone. I usually start to get a bit oily on my chin and around my nose probably after 4-5 hours of being out with make up on. It is not to the amount where I need blotting sheets though, just a touch up sometimes through out the day.

If you want to make a large amount of the exfoliant it is also great to use in the shower on your body, especially if you use fake tan a lot.
If you want it just for your body you can add more salt and sugar, so it is a bit more rough and chunky and it will get rid of all of your dead skin and leave you feeling extra soft and smooth.

This is also a great DIY gift idea, especially with the holidays coming up. You can ribbon to your jar and a little note for the recipent to make it more personal.

I hope you all enjoyed this post and comment below if you try this or if you have your own recipe!!!

*The original post came from my other blog - http://annpaigefashion.blogspot.ca

Until next time....
Mel
aka Jennine's mommy

Monday, December 1, 2014

Confessions of a First Time Mom #2

Hello lovelies,

This week's topic - Baby Photos


 As a kid I believe as a family we had one maybe two cameras at the most, one being a polaroid and the other a regular point and shoot film camera. We generally only took pictures on special occasions, or if we were going somewhere new (like to  an amusement park etc..). I remember the first time I was given my own camera, I was taking selfies before the "selfie" was ever a "thing". The bad thing about cameras back in the day was that you had to fill up the entire roll of film and then wait forever to finally see your pictures (aside from polaroids). When you finally got your film back you don't even remember taking half of the pictures and you end up trying to figure out what you even took a picture of (that selfie was taken WAY too close).


With technological advances we now have the gift (or lack) of having a camera with us everywhere we go and not having to wait weeks to see our pictures. These days who doesn't have a camera built-in on their phone, which makes photo taking that much more accessible and dangerous.
Being (the camera whore that I am) a first time mom I can't even count the amount of pictures I have on my phone, (and on my computer, on my fiancĂ©s phone, on my camera, on my Ipod, the list goes on ....) of myself, I mean my daughter ha..ha.. Honestly though I take at least 5 pictures of her (not myself, on most days ;) ) a day. I take them mostly to send to my fiancĂ© while he is at work, but then I can't bare to delete them. I must have at least 50 pictures of her giving me the same "mommy hurry up and just take the picture already!" face, but she is just too cute and to me none of them look the same. 

I have filled up my external memory card and my phone now runs like a mule, it is so slow!!!! I seriously need to buy a hundred digital frames to store all of our pictures of her and she is only barely seven months old. You better believe that this girl is going to have a scrapbook for every event in her life (whenever I find the time to start and finish them all, I am still on number one).

How often do you take pictures of your little ones?  Please tell me that there is a support group for mama's like me (where all we really do is just share our thousands of pictures).




 Until next time....
Mel 
aka Jennine's mommy