Henna Hair Dye

Originally had 6 blocks in each but I used 4

             Alright. it's time for another post. Sorry about being soooo delayed but I'm taking 20 credits this semester at college while working at least 25 hours a week at two different jobs, so as you can probably infer, I'm sort of a busy lady :) I've dyed my hair with henna and I DEFIANTLY want to share this experience with you! I started out my journey at Lush at Mall of America. It was about time for me to dye my hair again because my roots were showing and truth be told, I'm addicted. I walked in with my friend Derek and bought two different types of henna for hair dying, one that is for dark black and one for a dark brown with a hint of red. I was told for the color I wanted to mix the two colors.

My set up

          The first step in this process is to grate or crush the henna blocks. My attempt at this was putting the blocks in a bag and hammering them. It was a lot of fun. The next step is to melt the henna and add water to make a paste like typical hair dye. Online I discovered that for deeper color you could add coffee to the mixture and that would help dye your hair to a dark brown color. Since I've tried the coffee hair dye in the past, I was sure it wasn't going to harm my hair at all so instead of water, I made coffee and made my mixture with that instead.






              I brought a small pot of water to boil on my stove and placed a jar with the henna in it. The goal of the paste is for it to be the consistency of pudding, too thick and it can dry out during the process and too thin and it won't stay on very well.

           My hair has faded since the last time I have dyed it (using a drug store box dye) as you can see from this before shot. So once the mixture is ready, its time to get a little messy. Now usually, a box hair dye comes with gloves and lots of warnings about not getting it on your skin or on anything else or else it will dye that as well. So the awesome thing about henna is that it is all natural and it won't hurt your skin. It will dye it obviously if you leave it on long enough but not at all like the chemical version of hair dye.




         You will need a pair of rubber gloves though for the application process. I went into my bathroom and started to apply the henna all over my hair. I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, so I'll leave it up to them for a while.

            Alright, so by this time, I've covered my hair with the stuff. Another thing I want to mention is the smell of henna. IT IS NOT AT ALL LIKE TRADITIONAL HAIR DYE! It smells like grass actually. Out-of-the-box hair dye is terrible smelling and can actually give me a headache (which I rarely ever get) so I was VERY pleased with this new smell.

          One of the last things I did was wrap my hair in plastic wrap. I know that sounds really strange and I looked really strange as well but I was told that if I wanted a blueish tint to my hair, to leave my hair in the open air so that the henna will oxidize, turning it a bluer color whereas if I wrapped it in plastic wrap, it would achieve a more red color. I couldn't decide at first, but after factoring in the time it takes (you must leave the dye on for at least four hours and some people even sleep overnight in it) I decided I would probably want it wrapped so I could do more than just sit in my bathroom for hours. I'm thinking next time I will try not covering it and see how it turns out :)
As I said before, I wanted to do more than sit in my bathroom all night, so I went down the hall to a friends apartment and watched them play video games all night (very productive I know). Also this now qualifies Derek Eicholz as being a VERY close friend of mine because he got to see me looking like a robot!

             And this is the final product! I took a shower to wash all the henna out at the end of the night (about five hours I left it on). Now, it is messy in the shower as well but give it some time and it will work itself out....just remember to wash the walls of your shower off when you're done haha.                             

Any questions?

The past few days...

           Over the past few days I've been working on using up my collection of chemically products and I've been doing some research on products I will need in the future. To keep you all updated, I'm going to try my hardest to post a brown sugar body scrub recipe, conditioner, and shampoo recipe before my classes begin on Tuesday! And possibly you might get a special treat of a henna hair dying experience documented by myself!
            Last night I made a trip to the Mall of America to get to Lush. Since I've been doing all this research, I've found that Lush is the best place for me to get products that are the most natural (without actually making them myself.) I went online and found a henna hair dye there and wanted to see it in person. Who knew I would walk in and buy 50+ dollars of it...? haha I'm excited to get to try it but the employee helping me did tell me several times that I should read the forums on their website about it because it is tricky at first. I'll post more about henna and my experience soon.
           Also I have just gotten in the mail a foaming soap pump! I'm so excited to start using it and I will also post something in my blog about it once it is up and running!
           Most recently, I made a brown sugar body scrub, conditioner and shampoo for my boyfriend and I will post something on each of these very soon!
                                                                  Keep reading!

Gelatin Pore Strips

Ingredients

                 Alright everyone, here is something I think is quite awesome. Two ingredient homemade pore strips. One teaspoon milk, one teaspoon plain old gelatin mix (please do NOT use jello haha.)

The mixture (pre-microwave)

            The first step to this is mixing the two ingredients together in a small microwavable bowl. Now pop that baby in the microwave for 10 seconds. You can either use your finger or a small makeup/paint brush to paint the mixture right on your nose.

That's me paintin' my nose :)

           I let it sit for about ten minutes. While I was waiting, I could feel it tighten up and open my pores. Then when it was time to take it off, I peeled of my strip and I was done!

The pore strip

            I really enjoyed this one because it was so easy! I never use pore strips because I'm too cheap to buy them but this felt awesome. In my opinion, the end result of it is a little gross but really cool! I also got my boyfriend to try it with me, it was hilarious watching his reaction, I wish I would have gotten a picture of him! Go try it for yourself!

Spiked Lotion

The empty pump (bought from target)

              Since I've been trying REALLY hard to use up all of my extra/random products that contain chemicals, I've been thinking...how can this be good for my skin? My skin is very dry and I even have a prescription lotion (that I hope to get rid of by finding a better lotion recipe soon but that's a different story.) There is obviously a reason that I haven't used those random bottles of lotion left in my cabinet; THEY DON'T WORK!
              Here was my idea: mix all the extra "randoms" I had together in the pump I  had just bought for my new lotion recipe, and that's as far as I got for a while. My main issue still arose, that those lotions just didn't work very well. This has been an issue for my entire life, but because I don't like to waste money....I've kept a spare few lotions around even though they don't do me any good.

Final product!

               Finally the answer hit me as I was rummaging around my bathroom cabinet. BABY OIL. I've got a huge bottle of it just waiting to be used up along with all my other products with chemicals. I bought this with the intent of cleaning my ears with it (as apposed to using q-tips. I saw this method on the Dr. Oz show) I bet I can find a better oil (more natural) to do the same thing though so I had no issues using that baby oil to spike my lotion concoction.
              I took all my bottles of random lotions and dumped them right into my new handy reusable pump and added enough baby oil to make it the right consistency for me (which ended up being about half lotion, half oil.) Its been working really well so far! Now I am on my way to making a fresh start with no chemicals in my lotion!

Homemade Deodorant

             Since starting this journey to rid myself of the chemicals I have become dependent on, I have found out some really interesting and gross things. In deodorant, the main ingredient is aluminum. Now that is just down right wrong. It's really starting to freak me out if something like that is listed right on the bottle and people don't care or even notice. What does that mean for all the rest of the weird ingredients we can't even pronounce?!

              So I've almost run out of my store bought deodorant and I'm definitely needing something more moisturizing living in Minneapolis. I had no idea how simple it would be to make this originally. I gathered up the ingredients and mixed them all up. This is the recipe I used:

Coconut Oil 3 tablespoons

Baking Soda 1/3 cup

Corn Starch 1/3 cup

 

Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil 10 drops

Lavender Essential Oil 10 drops

Vitamin E Oil 2 tablespoons

              I mixed all the ingredients together in a bowl. I found this was really difficult because the coconut oil was more of a soild... I resorted to using my hand to mix it (it warmed the oil up enough to melt it.) I then poured it into an 8 ounce travel bottle from target (like my honey face wash) and I was done! Well sort of...It ended up only filling half my bottle so I made another recipe to fill the entire thing so that once my classes start this spring, I won't have to worry about making some deodorant instead of writing a paper or something haha!
             I'll let you know the results of using this when I have begun. Also the recipe that I found usually was put into an old deodorant stick for use but apparently that hasn't worked out too well for the people who have tried this already. I got the coconut oil and vitamin E oil from The Vitamin Shoppe

Coffee Hair Dye

           Last night for the first time, I tried something….daring. I used coffee to dye my hair. My hair is naturally light brown but it hasn’t been that color in years. Most recently I dyed it dark brown…so dark that it sometimes looked black. But now that it has started to fade lighter again I thought it would be the perfect time to experiment.
           I brewed up two 12 cup batches of the darkest coffee EVER. I decided the best way to go about this whole process was to plug the sink in my bathroom and soak my hair in it for about five minutes. I rinsed it out as I took a shower and then used conditioner like usual.
          I don’t think my hair looks any different so I avoided the picture taking. BUT next time I’m going to try this again for a longer period time for sure, and I was also thinking of somehow concentrating the coffee… so it isn’t so liquidy… or maybe I’ll come up with a coffee paste that’s more like the traditional hair dye.

                                                                        STAY TUNED!

Bar Soap into Liquid Soap

The other day I ran across a way to make my bar soap into liquid soap, which is certainly what I prefer to use as a body wash and for hand soap as well. This is almost too easy. I had about three bars of soap that I’ve accumulated and rarely use because I just don’t like them so I was determined to use them for something and save money in the process!

The finished product

This is what I did:

1. Grate/chop the bars of soap
2. Bring small pan of water to medium heat on stove top
3. Put equal parts soap and tap water into a glass jar and place in pan of water
4. Stir frequently till soap has melted completely
5. Let the mixture cool

I put my soap into my disposable liquid soap pump and put the rest into bottles to use later for hand soap or body wash! (One bar had sparkles in it and it makes me so happy when I wash my hands!)

Honey Face Mask/Wash

That awesome honey :)

          My first attempt at an all natural skin and body care regimen began when I found a daily way to wash my face gently and effectively. I came across this several times as I was researching on the internet and its super easy. All you do is use honey to wash your face! I started my process by finding some organic honey that was as local as possible to me. (I ended up finding a closer farm that does this after I ordered some so live and learn!)

The empty bottle I used (8 ounces)

          The honey I bought had already crystallized since I started all this a little after honey season but my providers ensured me I could heat it up on the stove and use it just the same (because honey doesn't go bad!) I followed their advice and put that jar in a pot of water on the stove and turned it up to medium heat; turned it back into a liquid for easy use. I poured the contents of the jar into an easy squeeze bottle that I bought at target in the travel section.

The final product!

           I try and use this every night before I go to bed to wash all the stuff off my face that accumulates during the day (dirt, sweat, makeup…you know) First I pull my hair back so that I’m not left with a sticky mess, and I slather on about a quarter size amount of the delicious honey. I continue with other things I do before bed like brushing my teeth so that the honey can sit for a few minutes. Then I take a clean wash cloth and run it under warm water and use that to wipe my face clean of the honey and I’m finished! I do like to put on a light layer of lotion afterwards just because my skin is extra dry, especially in the winter time… but this isn’t necessary.


The honey tastes a lot better than that stuff that you get in a bear at the grocery store and I find myself licking my lips sometimes when I’m letting the mask sit My boyfriend actually ate some right out of my bottle the other day! Using this honey makes my skin feel soo much softer! I ordered my honey and beeswax (in future posts) at Ames Farms

Hello World!

I’m a college student living on a budget! My naturally dry skin and straight hair require LOTS of beauty products to keep them looking and feeling great. Recently I’ve had some free time to explore more natural/chemical-free types of beauty products that can be made at home! I am starting my new adventure of switching my highly stocked bathroom cabinet to homemade chemical free beauty products, so join me!