Posts Tagged: Easy DIY projects
Wellness Wednesday: DIY Texturizing Sea Salt Spray
What are your top hair care products? For me, it’s dry shampoo and sea salt spray. Ever since I cut my hair, my hair texture once again changed. I’ve gotten used to it … when I was a little girl I had bone straight hair. With puberty, came the curls. My first pregnancy saw waves and with my second, my hair had gone nearly straight again. Then … all of a sudden, a few years after the birth of my second child, BOOM! Wavy hair again. And when I chopped it, those waves, of course, bounced up even more. It’s never gotten to the full-on curl that it used to be and I’m totally cool with that. The ever-evolving state of my hair, however, has resulted in me playing around with different hair products to suit its current state.
It was somewhere, down one rabbit hole or another on the internets, that I discovered many a woman singing the praises of Sea Salt Sprays to produce a texturized, beach wave look to one’s hair. I saw the photos, I saw the comparisons and read the reviews. I tried a few out and was not pleased. I don’t like crunchy, greased up hair, but I do like some definition and frizz taming action. Shine, luster, and bounce are all good in my books too. I quickly discovered one product that stood out, both in it’s hefty price tag and level of performance. The Bumble and Bumble Sea Salt Spray. A bitty bottle runs about 30 bucks and with my thick head of hair … doesn’t last long. So I purchased one bottle to give it a go: fell in love with the ease of simply spraying it into my wet hair, tousling around and letting air dry.
Towards the last dregs of the glorious bottle did I vow to start experimenting with making my own. I’m no stranger to making my own apothecary items, so I examined those Bumble ingredients and while I couldn’t read half of them and had no desire to duplicate – I felt that I could replicate something fairly similar at a fraction of the cost. Several attempts later and I finally produced something that I’m very happy with! Quite a few of my friends and readers expressed wanting the recipe when I finally mastered it so here you go beauties! (The magic to the WIN factor with this? I went above what most other DIY recipes I saw were calling for, and I noted one stand out ingredient in the Bumble and Bumble spray that I could read. Sea Kelp extract. Get on it. You can find at your local health food store or order from Amazon online. You want all of the magnesium-rich sea botanicals you can get when it comes to attaining that thickness, volume, shine and definition you crave.)
This spray refreshes quite nicely and I’ve gone 3 days MAX in-between washes when I use it and yes, that includes when I workout. That’s what dry shampoo is for! Try it and let me know how much you love it and spread this DIY around with those who are lovers of the Sea Salt Spray action.
3 Reasons Why I Made the Switch to the Oil Cleansing Method
For a long-time, right on up into my thirties, (pre-kids), I had relatively good skin with the a little bit of the oily t-zone action happening. Skin that didn’t need much attention, no real regime. I was prone to having a moderately oily t-zone, but that was it.
Enter my mid-thirties, after kids, and well … those wacky, silly hormones went berserk! Oh hormones are JUST SO silly. They make me laugh and laugh. And cry. And scream. And curse. The profanity always helps.
Everything I thought I knew about my body, my hair, my skin, my bones, my shape, my mood, my metabolism … EVERYTHING, basically went out the door. My skin started to develop spots and rough patches (yes, I’ve had it looked into), more oil in that t-zone area than before, and breakouts. I’m a teen again and I’m raging. Well, honestly, I’ve always been a bit ragey — but we’re not here to talk about that right now.
Slowly, I’ve been discovering the many virtues of slapping natural products on my face because I just can’t be bothered with dishing out major coin and time finding products that I’m shilled in stores and online. I’m wary of marketing hype and buzzwords, especially revolving around “natural” products. Which is precisely what some of you might think about this oil cleansing business. Oils are big right now. Huge. Moms especially, are reigning supreme on the MLM opportunities available with certain therapeutic-grade, organic essential oil companies. Clearly I’m not going to hate on that when I’m in the MLM business myself.
What I do know, is that essential oils are the BOMBDIGGITY. That’s me getting all scientific for ya. I did lots of rearch and decicded to try out what everyone was all hyped up over. Could the therapeutic qualities of oil not only soothe my mind by their mere scent alone, but heal me from the inside out too? I don’t know about the medicinal qualities as far as healing people from disease, but I do know that the diffuser that sits next to my bedside table gets used daily with different blends to suit different moods. I swear my sleep has improved and I know my kids’ has with the one in their room. I could go on about the additional healing qualities I use oil for, like when I use it in salves with beeswax and coconut oil as the carrier to rub on the bottoms of little feet and chests when sick (instead of Vicks), or how I use them with vinegar to use as a natural fabric softener. Or with peroxide, Dr. Bronners and vinegar to make my own cleaner.
Oh, so I guess I just did it anyways. How about I get back to spewing why I’ve started using food grade, moisturizing oils on my FACE! Upon first discovery I thought … oil? On my face? Uh, no. That would make it more greasy, I thought. Oils definitely would not clean my face, I thought. So, without further ado, these are my top 3 reasons why I have made the switch and what dispelled some common myths for me about oil cleansing …
Easy DIY: Repurposed Plant Table
It’s taken 2 years, 2 spring, summer and fall seasons; to actually USE our second floor balcony. There are 2 reasons for this. One, being that I was a tad bit over-protective in letting my little ones actually step foot out there.
I read far too many headlines about babies and toddlers falling to death or serious injury. That such a thing could happen in the blink of an eye. In the presence of any of us, not just neglectful parents. Which is how I rationalized my irrational fears about our balcony.
Then I grew up as a parent a little bit. As in I’m slowly becoming a less obnoxious helicopter parent as the years go on. So this year? This year we’re actually enjoying this space. I’m just not letting them out there by themselves…