Beauty

Summer Mixer Make and Take

August 6, 2020 by Michelle Leave a Comment

Summer is the perfect time to pamper your skin and hair after a swim in the pool or margaritas on the patio. I attended a fun Summer Mixer make & take last summer (oh how I wish this summer was full of friends, fun, and margaritas!) where we made some great DIY items using essential oils.

The first thing we made was Mermaid Mist, a leave-in hair conditioner spray. Who wouldn’t want beachy, mermaid hair?

Mermaid Mist

In an 8 ounce spray bottle, add 2 Tablespoons Aloe Vera gel and 1 Tablespoon vegetable glycerin.
Add 20 drops Ylang Ylang, 20 drops Rosemary, and 10 drops Carrot Seed.
Fill the rest of the way with water.

To use: Spray in clean damp hair, focusing on massaging into roots and lightly coating the length. Style as usual.

The next thing we made a Coffee and Sea Salt Scrub.

Coffee and Sea Salt Scrub

In an 8 ounce tub, add half coffee and half sea salt. Replace lid and shake to mix.
Add liquid coconut oil, a little at a time, and stir until mixture is completely saturated.
Add your choice 10 drops of Cinnamon Bark essential oil or 10 drops Peppermint essential oil and stir to combine.

I tend to use Peppermint for everything, so for this I thought I’d give the Cinnamon Bark EO a try. I thought it would be a nice combo with the coffee. And man, it smells good.

I’ve made many salt scrubs and sugar scrubs before but had never made one with coffee so I was anxious to try it. I tried it the next day and let me tell you, my skin felt awesome. This is definitely something I’ll be keeping on hand year round.

The final thing we made was a great facial serum. I’d seen all kinds of recipes for facial serum but had yet to try my hand at one, so I was excited for this.

Wrinkle Away Serum

In a 10ml roller bottle add:

15 drops Frankincense
10 drops Rosemary oil for oily or acne-prone skin
10 drops Sandalwood for dry skin
10 drops Geranium for combination skin
5 drops Carrot Seed
10 drops Helichrysum (optional)

Add two half droppers of Rose Hip oil and then fill bottle to halfway with Vitamin E oil. Fill remainder of bottle with Coconut oil.

And as an extra gift, we each received a lash serum made with castor oil and one drop each of Lavender and Cedarwood EOs. Apply a thin layer nightly and your lashes will thank you!

Such a fun time getting together with other oily friends and coming home with some great products to try that are easy to make and chemical free.

DIY ALL The Things

June 17, 2018 by Michelle Leave a Comment

What do you do on a random Saturday when you have essential oils and time on your hands? You DIY. One of the things that using essential oils has taught me is that I’m much more aware of what I’m putting on my skin or have in my house. I’m a far cry from being chemical-free completely, but we are slowly but surely replacing things we use everyday with healthier alternatives. Sometimes my experiments go completely awry, but on this particular day they turned out pretty darn good.

So, what did I make? Eric had been asking me for awhile now to make him some drawing salve. He’d even gone so far as to send me several recipes for it on Pinterest. I admit I’d looked at the recipes but somehow had it in my head that it was some sort of charcoal face mask kind of thing. NOPE. When Eric got a splinter in his finger that was impossible to get out with tweezers, I quickly learned why it is such a great idea to have a drawing salve on hand. Drawing salves are good for drawing out splinters, infection, and even venom (seriously though, you might want to go to a doctor for that one). This city girl had never encountered such a thing though.

The recipe I used for the drawing salve came from The Nerdy Farmwife. She has printable labels you can use for your salve that are darling. Her recipe called for:

6 Tablespoons infused olive oil (I just used EVOO)
2 Tablespoons castor oil
2 teaspoons beeswax
3 teaspoons activated charcoal
3 teaspoons clay
Young Living essential oils: 30 drops Lavender, 15 drops Tea Tree (how to order)

Combine olive oil and castor oil in a double boiler. Heat over a medium-low burner until the beeswax is melted. Remove from heat and stir in essential oils, charcoal, and clay. Then immediately pour into a glass container to cool. I used 4oz. jelly jars. I’m glad that we now have this on hand with our first aid supplies and as you can see it was super easy to make too.

Next up, I mixed up a body/shower wash. Eric has been loving the exfoliating facial cleanser I made for him and wanted to give a body wash a try instead of the bar of soap he’d been using that he’s not all that fond of.

This was another recipe found on Pinterest, courtesy of DIY Natural and it calls for:

2/3 cup liquid castile soap
1/4 cup raw honey
2 teaspoons oil – I used jojoba which is great for your skin
1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
50-60 drops Young Living essential oils – I used Frankincense and Cedarwood (how to order). Cedarwood is fantastic to support healthy skin and Frankincense is good for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g (I also didn’t want to go too floral-y since this was primarily for Eric)

Combine all ingredients in a bottle with a squirt top and shake before using. Easy peasy. And you would expect something with honey in it to be kind of sticky, but it’s not. In fact, honey helps your skin retain moisture and elasticity without drying it out. Sign. Me. Up.

And lastly, while I was playing mad scientist in the kitchen I decided I’d make a rollerball recipe I’d seen almost a year ago and had slowly been collecting the oils to make it (how to order).

This roller is for emotional support. And frankly, I needed it. After a friend made one and raved about it I knew I had to make one stat. Especially since I’d finally ordered SARA. Following the recipe in the photo above, I added all to a glass rollerball then filled it the rest of the way with a carrier oil (I used coconut oil).

So, a little bit about the essential oils in this roller and why they are so good:

Joy – a blend of Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Jasmine, Palmarosa, and Rose along with Bergamot, Lemon, and Tangerine essential oils, Joy is just as its name suggests – emotionally balancing and uplifting
Orange – any of the citrus oils are uplifting and orange is great for creating peace, harmony, and creativity
Bergamot – for confidence and calming
SARA – a blend of Geranium, Ylang Ylang, Rose, Blue Tansy, and other oils that is designed as a soothing scent to be used during difficult or emotional times
Release – a blend of Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Sandalwood, Grapefruit, Tangerine, Spearmint, Lemon, Ocotea, Jasmine, Rose, and Blue Tansy it facilitates the ability to let go of anger and frustration

This blend truly smells amazing and it definitely provided me with some much-needed calm and emotional support.

Let me know if you try any of these recipes!

Exfoliating Facial Cleanser and Body Butter

February 12, 2017 by Michelle Leave a Comment

One of the best things about using essential oils is discovering that you can use them to make your own chemical-free beauty products. I’d been wanting to try my hand at homemade body butter and after seeing a recipe for one on Instagram, I decided to give it a go.

Body Butter:
1 cup raw coconut oil
1/2 cup shea butter
1 Tablespoon vitamin E oil
15 drops of your favorite essential oil
*Mix on high until light and fluffy

For mine I decided to use lavender and Joy. Lavender is wonderful for your skin and I thought Joy would give it a nice bonus as a mood booster. Joy is a blend that contains Bergamot, Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Rose, and several other luxurious oils.

My batch made a ton, so I put a little bit in a small jar I could keep on my vanity and then put the remainder in a big canning jar that I could re-fill from.

Eric had also asked if I could make him some sort of facial cleanser because he was about to run out of what he had been using. So, I looked around online and found a super simple recipe to try.

Exfoliating Facial Cleanser:
1/4 cup Castile soap
1 T baking soda
3/4 tsp coconut oil
10 drops lime
10 drops tea tree
*doubled this for 1 jar
*shake before using

I followed the recipe, including using lime and tea tree oil. Because lime is a citrus oil, you must put it in a glass container as it will break down plastics. But I thought lime would be a great invigorating scent to use in the shower. I did get a bit concerned about using a glass container in the shower, especially if your hands get slippery, so next time I make this I’ll use something other than a citrus oil. But if you’re using this at the sink, glass is just fine. And the baking soda in this recipe is a very gentle exfoliator.

Tea tree oil (Melaleuca A.) is also excellent for skin along with other healthy properties.

I hope you give these a try – let me know if you do!