My first attempt at lip balm

Sorry for the delay in posts this month, but this lip balm project has been rather complicated. I spent the first week or so (and the last week of March) of the month searching high and low for small glass containers that weren't going to cost me an arm and a leg. I never did find what I wanted so I decided to use the plastic containers I had bought a couple years ago in a lip balm kit I got at the craft store, that I never got around to making.

I looked though a multitude of recipes but could never find one that seemed just right. Most of them contained too many ingredients, and as I've stated before, I'm lazy. Eventually I settled on a 3 ingredient recipe. But before I get into my experiments, let's talk about why the commercial stuff isn't so good for the delicate skin on your lips.

Many chap sticks and lip balms contain petroleum products. This is not only a potential carcinogen, but may also damage your skin on a deep level and can be toxic to your organs. Lanolin is another ingredient that is common in lip balm and lotions. This can disrupt your immune system function and make it more difficult for your body to fight off infection. Artificial colors and fragrances are in there, and as you know, tend to be one of the more toxic ingredients.

Ironically, when I checked out my day to day lip product, baby lips by Maybelline, many of the ingredients are know irritants to the skin. I have heard that companies do this sort of thing to ensure you will keep using their product. I don't know if that is true, but it wouldn't surprise me. Overall, my product got a 6 out of 10 on the toxic scale. And considering how much lip balm I use, and how many different lip products I have (seriously, I have some sort of problem), I really want the product I use to be good for me.

So on to the chapstick making!
I have been really into the orange colored lip balm as of late, so that was the first color I attempted. I decided to try and reduce carrot juice to a syrup and color the mix. I wasn't sure if the carrot juice would stay orange once heated, but it did. It got a little darker and took on a bit of a red tint as well, but still looked orange.

The recipe I used had just three ingredients, coconut oil, bees wax, and sweet almond oil. The original recipe called for a 1:1 ratio for wax to oil, but I found that was too much and had to add a bit more coconut oil so it would spread. I followed the directions, which were to melt all three ingredients together and then add whatever coloring agent you want, but that wasn't the best idea. You can see in the picture that my reduction stayed all clumped together because the wax cooled instantly around it and completely incased it. I stirred it around and it worked somewhat. The color was very light and the mix was grainy. I used a coffee filter to strain out the clumps and it still had some color to it. Even so, it turns out carrots don't offer too much in the way oil soluble color. I then tried adding beet root powder to see if it did anything more, but had the same clumping issue. In the end it had a pale yellow color to it.

The balm itself is wonderful though. The almond and coconut mix well and it is very healing. Both oils are moisturizing and offer many benefits to the skin (detailed in earlier posts). The bees wax has the benefit of coating the lips and sealing in the moisture. Even though my chapstick doesn't offer much in the way of color, I'm still quite happy with the results.
You can see that it did get some yellow/orange color to it, but it doesn't add much on the lips.

If you want to try and make your own version of this recipe, here's what you'll need:

Ingredients
3 T coconut oil
1 T sweet almond oil
2 T bees wax
about 10 lip balm containers, tubes or pots
color (optional)

 Tools:
measuring spoon
glass cup measure with a spout

Mix oils in glass measuring cup, microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Stir in coloring agent until mixed. Add bees wax and microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Pour into containers and let cool.

It's as easy as that! I have made 2 more batches since this one that I will be posting on soon. The next color I tried to make was red and I used a slightly different recipe. Stay tuned :)

beet root powder win!

I'll be brief since I just wrote a post that contained information about beet root powder. I have been using this stuff instead of blush and I absolutely love it. It provides a nice, natural looking pink glow to my cheeks. I bought a 4 oz bag for $3 of amazon, definitely worth it! It goes on just like blush, and contains iron and other vitamins and minerals that help nourish the skin. It smells a little funny, but it's not noticeable on the face.
It looks quite dark compared to the rosy pink colored blush I normally use, but it goes on a light pink color. If it is too dark for your skin you can always mix it with a bit of corn starch until the desired shade is reached. It can also be used as food coloring, and is a much better choice because many food colors are petroleum products and have been linked to a slew of health problems (they are even banned in Europe). I intend to use it to color lip balm when I get to that part of my project, I forget which month that falls under. I highly recommend you get some!

foundation take two

Foundation is one of the most basic components of everyone's makeup regime, hence the name I'm sure. Being one of the products that covers the most surface are of skin I want to make sure I'm not absorbing anything super bad for me. One of the things that originally got me interested in this project was reading a post about "natural" beauty products that can actually contain some toxic stuff. Mineral makeup was on that list, claiming that it can contain lead and other heavy metals. A reminder that "natural" does not mean "non-toxic." Henna hair dye is another product that people mistake as less toxic than other brands and it turns out it is the opposite. Henna hair dye also contains toxic minerals and you might be better off using the chemical-laden commercial brands, but I digress.

I don't wear much makeup. My only everyday product is blush, it just makes your whole face look good with hardly any product. Next most used product is my day to day loose powder. I'm reasonably young and have decent skin so I don't find cream foundations necessary. I bought a jar of physician's formula organic wear powder a while back because it was at my local ross. I've been pretty happy with it. Decent coverage, light feel, it met my need pretty well. Skindeep gives it a 4 on the hazardous scale. It has a low to moderate overall risk, and a moderate cancer risk. Oddly enough, the most toxic product in there is grapefruit extract because of its "multiple, additive exposures." Other toxic ingredients include titanium dioxide and mica. Now that I've made my own powder I threw my old stuff in the trash.

For my recipe you will only need 4-6 ingredients, depending on your skin needs.

The base for this foundation is bentonite clay. Bentonite clay is aged volcanic ash, the name comes from the largest known deposit is in Fort Benton, Wyoming. The brand I bought is Aztec healing clay. I picked up a large jar of it at my local health food store for around $7. Bentonite has a lot of benefits for your body inside and out. For the skin, bentonite can help heal and prevent acne. It reduces irritation from cuts, burns, and bug bites, and can be quite calming for itchiness due to eczema, psoriasis, and chicken pox. It can be mixed with water to make a detoxifying mask, or used in place of baby powder to dry and sooth irritated skin. I did claim this foundation is food-grade, so yes, bentonite clay may be taken internally. It contains many trace minerals that are important for your teeth, and is great at alkalizing the body. It can help relieve acid reflux, nausea and vomiting, constipation, among other things. Bentonite is unique in that it has a strong negative charge, so it acts as a magnet of sorts for the positively charged toxins. Bentonite also helps get oxygen to cells as it pulls excess hydrogen and allows the cells to replace it with oxygen instead. Over all, pretty great stuff. For the full scoop, you can read more here: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4702462561673774586#editor/target=post;postID=4437586705578043095

http://blogs.naturalnews.com/bentonite-clay-an-excellent-internal-and-external-detox-agent/

The next ingredient you will need is cocoa powder. This is to help tint it to the right color for your skin, so the darker your skin the more you will need to add. Cocoa has some good skin benefits too. It is full of antioxidant so when eaten or put on the skin it can help reverse cell damage. This may lead to anti aging properties. It can absorb UV light, protecting your skin from from sun damage. It can also help hydrate the skin, and contrary to popular belief, improves complexion by increasing blood flow to the skin. Chocolate is amazing. <3

Turmeric is another ingredient used for coloring. The yellow pigment will help you achieve a natural skin tone. This is another ingredient that has great benefits for you inside and out. Turmeric has antiseptic properties and has been used in traditional medicine to heal wounds. On the skin it can help heal acne and blemishes and prevent them from reoccurring. If you have oil prone skin, turmeric can help regulate the production of sebum (the skin's natural oil). It can reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, and other signs of aging. It's an effective treatment for hair loss and dandruff. On the inside it can help kill harmful bacteria, like h. pylori. It has been linked to breast cancer prevention. It can help control diabetes by moderating insulin levels, and prevent cardio vascular disease. Again, another amazing food that we should all be eating and rubbing all over our skin. For more on the amazing benefits check these links out:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78

http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/turmeric-history-how-to-use-benefits/
[note: turmeric can be replaced with ginger for color, not sure what the skin benefits are though. You obviously have a computer, look it up.]

The final ingredient you need is beet root powder. You can make it yourself with dried beets and a food processor, or you can do it the lazy way like me and order it off amazon. I picked up a 4-oz back from denver spice for $3, $6 after shipping and handling.(http://www.amazon.com/Beet-Root-Powder-4oz-Natural-Coloring/dp/B009UGG388/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1395463489&sr=8-6&keywords=beet+root+powder) This stuff is a must to get the natural pink tones in your foundation. Beet powder or juice can also be used as an all natural food dye. On the skin or in the body, beets give you iron, B vitamins, and vitamin C. Beets are really good for you. They help prevent the cancer mutation in cells, slow tumor growth, and contain Boron which is essential to the production of human sex hormones. I'm starting to feel lazy so you can read the full scoop on how amazing beets are here: http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/blog/category/beet-root-powder/

Optional ingredients for this recipe include corn starch and green clay. Corn starch can be used if you have extra oily skin and need a little or absorbency, or if you made your mix too dark and need to lighten it up a bit. Green clay can be added if you have a lot of blemishes or redness that needs neutralizing (green is the opposite of red).

What you'll need:

Bentonite clay
Cocoa powder
Turmeric (or ginger)
Beet root powder
Cornstarch (optional)
Green clay (optional)
essential oil (optional if you want to make it compact)
a non-metal bowl
a non-metal storage container
a fine mesh sieve
a plastic spoon or rubber spatula

I don't have exact proportions for this recipe. Everyone's skin is different so you'll have to just add everything in small increments until it looks good. Start with a couple heaping spoonfuls of your clay. Push it through the sieve to remove any large chunks or particles. Next add cocoa powder until it is about as dark as your skin (might be hard to judge when the tone doesn't match so don't over do it, you can add more if you need it). Add the turmeric and beet powder until it matches your skin tone. Test if frequently on your hand or arm to ensure a good match. If you are adding corn starch or green clay, replace some of the bentonite clay until desired effect is reached. Voila, you have a non-toxic, food-grade foundation. If you want to make a compact you can add essential oil until the desired texture is reached and press it into a container. Otherwise. pour it in your non-metal container and use like any other face powder.

Results: I think I got my powder to match my skin pretty well. I experimented with turning it into a liquid foundation by mixing it with coconut oil. It didn't work so well. I also tried mixing it with jojoba oil, also not so great. On it's own it made my skin look a bit ashy or powdery and had moderate coverage. The best results I got were by putting a layer of my coconut oil/zinc moisturizer and putting the powder on top. The whiteness of it gave me a good base and neutralized some of my red blemishes. The powder stuck to my skin better and didn't leave a powdery finish. For concealer I just melted some coconut oil between my fingers and dipped it in the powder and applied under my eyes and over my blemishes. I think it worked pretty well. Not as great of coverage as from my commercial products but decent coverage and non toxic, I'll take it.

Foundation in progress

I've been slacking off this month. It's been getting down to finals and I've been busy. I tried making some foundation with not a lot of success. I bought bentonite clay (Aztec Healing Clay) to try and make a nontoxic mineral powder. I mixed it with cornstarch, for oil absorbency, and cocoa powder and ginger for color. I wasn't thrilled with the results. I looked quite gray and very powdery on my face, and offered very little coverage. I found a good tutorial online that uses a combination of bentonite clay, cocoa powder, turmeric, and beetroot powder that has a much more skin-looking color to it. I ordered some beet powder online and will post the results with the new combo. In the mean time I looked up some all natural makeups for sale.

So far the best stuff I can find is by Rejuva Minerals. It's an all natural makeup containing ingredients I can actually pronounce and am familiar with, like rice powder and pomegranate. The catch is that it is quite expensive. A 3 gm "trial size" jar will run you $10.95, the regular 18 gm container is $39.95, and you can't test it out on your skin ahead of time to make sure the color matches, nor can you return or exchange your product. If your skin to is darker and fairly forgiving it probably won't be as much of a problem. For those with fairer skin it's a gamble. It really does seem like great stuff and if I had lots of money and were accustomed to spending $40 on a foundation it would be totally worth it. However, I am a poor grad student who has a hard time paying $12 for foundation so I'm going to keep plugging away at making my own powder.

The added bonus of buying beetroot powder is that it can also be used for a natural blush and to add color to lip balms, when I get to it.

For those of you who are interested you can check out the Rejuva Minerals products here: http://www.rejuvaminerals.com/store/

Home made essential oil fail

I promised that I had an essential oil experiment in the works, and I did. That all came to a crash today. Let me start from the beginning.

I found a link on Pinterest on how to make your own lavender essential oil. It appeared to be very simple. You take some lavender flowers, crush them up a bit, and then let them soak in vodka for a week or so. Then you remove the flowers and allow the vodka to evaporate and what you are left with is essential oil. Since I already have a vile of lavender oil I decided to try my hand at eucalyptus oil since I've been wanting some and there is a eucalyptus tree around the corner from my house. I did a little good research and found the method was the same. So I went out and gathered a decent amount of new leaves (they seemed to be way oilier) and set out to give it a try.

I cut up the leave in to small is pieces and let them soak in the cheapest vodka I could find, >6 bucks for a fifth. I let them soak for about 9 days, mostly because I forgot what day I started. I removed the leaves and left the jar open to the air to allow the vodka to evaporate. After about 3 days of very little evaporation I got impatient and had an idea. I decided it was a good idea to heat the eucalyptus vodka over the stove to speed up the evaporation process. This worked somewhat.

I kept the solution over the lowest heat setting; there were no bubbles what so ever. It worked very well for a while. The vodka slowly evaporated and the mixture was reducing. Unfortunately, the eucalyptus seemed to react to the heat and the jar of liquid that was a dark amber color turned a darker and darker brown. After about an hour there was about a teaspoon left of black looking liquid that I poured back in it's original mason jar. It smelled pretty good, not like what I was expecting though. I was going to take a picture to post, and try adding it to a bath or something, since I went through all the trouble, but while I was out somebody mistook the jar as dirty and threw it in the sink and filled it with water. Well....so much for that. I'm tempted to try it again but buying eucalyptus oil seems much easier and not to mention quicker.

If any of you are interested in trying your own experiment with making and essential oil, here's the link to the original post I saw about lavender oil http://www.condoblues.com/2011/07/how-to-make-lavender-essential-oil.html

Also I found a great website that has tons of uses for various essential oils, which I think is pretty awesome. http://thecoconutmama.com/2013/10/50-uses-for-essential-oils/

Essential oils are the perfect alternative to the ever vague and extremely toxic "fragrance," or "parfum" ingredients found in cosmetics. If you start looking up the toxicology of your regular products you'll find that one of the most toxic ingredients in most things is "fragrance."

I also found another great site that has a list of chemicals you'll find in different cosmetics and why they are bad. http://www.purezing.com/living/toxins/living_toxins_dangerousingredients.html. It's pretty shocking the kinds of things that we put on our bodies, and in turn release back into the environment.

No Shampoo Update

I guess I haven't been very faithful about writing this month. My apologies to both my readers. But I have had a break through with the no shampoo method. Finally after two weeks my hair finally looked clean! It had shine, body, and volume, instead of the usually flat, greasy mess.

It was pointed out to me that my tablespoon measure that I had been using was actually a teaspoon measure. So I had been washing my hair with 1/3 baking soda I should have. I upped the amount of baking soda and it helped my hair quite a bit. I read that if your hair is really oily you can use up to 2 tablespoons.

My hair smells good for the most part. I still gait faint hints of vinegar when I'm exercising, and on the ends of my hair from time to time. To keep my hair smelling nice, which is important to me, I decided to dilute some lavender oil in water and keep it in a small spray bottle. I spray down my hair in the morning, or after I wash may hair. I use a 2 ounce glass bottle from the vitamin store and I added 5 drops of oil, but it could stand to have a few more drops in my opinion.

Overall, I'm feeling happier and less frustrated with the no shampoo method.

Despite my infrequent blogging I have been keeping busy with my beauty experiments. Posts to come: better dry shampoo recipe, natural hair spray, and how to make an essential oil. Stay tuned!

Dry Shampoo

Well here we are, 10 days into February and about 2 weeks since shampoo has touched my hair. I knew getting into this that I was not going to see a good hair day for a while. The first week or so, my oil and unmanageable hair was a novelty. "Oh, my hair is so flat and greasy, hehehe! At least I'm not covered in chemicals! Maybe I'll do this more than a month." Yeah, that crazy idea didn't last. My hair is frizzy and greasy at the same time, heavy and dull, and I'm getting fed up with it.

After I washed my hair yesterday, it seemed to have more volume, and I thought, "Hey! Maybe it's starting to work like everyone promised me it would!" Wrong. My hair looked worse than ever after I blow dried it. It had that stuck-together-by-grease look to it, but didn't feel especially greasy. It was at this point I decided to reach for the dry shampoo. For those of you who are unfamiliar, dry shampoo is a powder or spray you put into your hair at the root to absorb extra oil between washes.

For a while I used the Suave brand of dry shampoo spray, but I've been out for a while, and with my new non-toxic endeavor, I decided to make some. After poking around the internet, I found one basic recipe for brown hair. The basic recipe is corn starch and cocoa powder. Other recipes included rice flour and arrowroot powder in addition to the first two ingredients. I opted for just cocoa powder and corn starch, as they were the only ingredients I had readily available.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp corn starch
• A few drops lavender essential oil (optional)

Mix together and put in a container. I put mine in a salt shaker I got from the dollar store. I've seen other people put it in a small jar and use a makeup brush to apply to the roots.

This recipe works pretty well; it does absorb a good amount of oil. The downside is you smell like cocoa. Maybe you won't mind; I really don't care for it. Also, dry shampoo does not make your hair look like it has been washed, unfortunately. It does take care of some of the oil, but your hair will still look a little greasy and potentially dirty. I'm on the hunt for a better recipe, and I'll keep you posted...no pun intended.