DIY Organic Jojoba Oil And Sugar Body Scrub *updated with video demo*

Add a tablespoon of jojoba oil to 1/3 cup of raw sugar to make an awesome exfoliating scrub! Super easy but faboo results. It will leave your skin exfoliated and soft as a baby's butt for pennies without all of the chemicals, preservatives and heavy perfumes of commercial body scrubs. Because you're using sugar, you don't have to worry about your tub or pipes getting rusted like with salt scrubs. I used Deluxe Botanicals Jojoba Oil - 100% Pure & Organic.

The best thing about Jojoba Oil is that it is packed with almost all of the vitamins and minerals essentially needed for healthy hair and skin, namely, vitamin E, B-complex, copper, zinc, selenium, iodine, and chromium. It normally does not have any harmful impact and can be used by even those who are having sensitive skin without worrying for any allergic reaction.

WHAT IS JOJOBA OIL?

Jojoba oil is actually not an oil, but a liquid wax. It’s a melted type of vegetable wax and is found in the seeds/nuts of jojoba plant, which is an evergreen woody shrub plant that grows in hot areas, such as desert areas of California, Arizona and Mexico. It’s colourless, odorless and has a number of beauty benefits. It has a very long shelf life, so it can sit on your shower shelf for years!

IS JOJOBA OIL GOOD FOR SKIN, HAIR AND FACE?

The jojoba oil is the only oil that closely resembles human sebum – an oily substance naturally produced by the oil glands below the skin surface, so its uses and benefits to the skin and hair are high. It is a perfect choice for those who want to use natural products for their skin, hair and face care.

USES FOR JOJOBA OIL

Jojoba oil has immense uses for skin, hair and face. It can be used alone or can be combined with other essential oils to make it more effective. This oil is beneficial due to its moisturizing and emollient properties. Its awesome beneficial qualities to manage skin and hair have made it a useful ingredient for hair, beauty and skin care products. Moreover it is anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and non-toxic that again make it useful for hair, face and the whole body.

Homemade Shea Butter Lotion Sticks

Shea Butter Lotion Bar Stick Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons raw organic shea butter
• 1 tablespoon unrefined coconut oil- solid at room temp (can use extra shea butter if allergic to coconut)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil OR castor oil
• 2 teaspoons beeswax
• 20+ drops of essential oil of choice (optional) I used chamomile, geranium and orange

What to Do:

1. Slowly melt all ingredients, except essential oils, down in a double boiler or sturdy glass bowl over a small pan of boiling water. (TIP: I found an old double boiler at a thrift store that I use for skin products only).
2. Remove from heat and add essential oils.
3. Pour into lotion bar tube.
4. Let cool for several hours or overnight. I put mine in the fridge to speed the cooling process.

Note: This recipe makes enough for one 4-ounce lotion bar tube. For a firmer lotion bar stick, use more beeswax. For a smoother lotion bar stick, use less beeswax and more coconut oil or olive oil.

Great Recipe For DIY Homemade Clear Skin Mask

Cleanser and Exfoliating mask for All Skin Types

4 Tablespoons ground oats

\6 large ripe organic strawberries

2 teaspoons light cream

1 drop rose or 2 drops geranium essential oil

3 drops lemon essential oil

Grind up oatmeal in a coffee mill reserved just for your skin care ingredients. Mash strawberries in a glass bowl, and then add oats.
Add enough cream to make a paste.Add essential oils.
Divide mixture in half. Apply to face, and leave 10 minutes.

Rinse off with cool water. Makes two applications.

Support Handmade!

It makes me so sad when I go back to visit a favorite seller and they're gone :-( I realize that's the nature of the game; people move on, pick up new hobbies or sadly just give up. Because of my current invalidism, I decided to stop by The Button Bowl to pick up some more cute barrettes because I am trying to keep my hair out of my face while I wear my neck brace only to find them sadly hasta la vista. I had previously bought the barrette below from them and was hoping for more girly vintageness to keep me looking my best (er, better? Um, not like a hobo, anyway?)




So instead of saying, Oh I want some new hairpins, I'll get these Goody hairclips at Walgreens, why not take a few extra minutes and get something unique and handmade? When there's a handmade option out there, pay the few extra quid knowing that you're keeping the independent spirit alive. Keep America funky, one purchase at a time!

Homemade Body wash for only $4.50 compared to $39.95 for comparable

Thanks to Little Seed Farms for this awesome recipe! 

Our Homemade Lavender-Lemongrass Body WashWhat do you put on your body every day? By the time I’ve finished my morning routine I’ve used shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, toner, moisturizer and sunscreen for my face, and lotion for my body. Somehow, it took me close to a year before I started wondering what the heck was actually in those bottles in my shower. Isn't it odd that we’ve become so conscious of what we put inside our bodies, and somehow managed not to give any thought about what we were putting on them? 

All of that changed a few weeks ago when a friend recommended The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database which rates products according to the chemicals they contain and how harmful they are. I searched the items in my bathroom and found that all of them except for what I put on my face (Alba Botanica and Kiss My Face) had a moderate to high hazard score. Scary!

I decided to replace some of the items in our routine with safer, natural products - preferably something homemade (well, yeah!). The first to run out was body wash. We had been using Dove's Go Fresh Bodywash which is a 5 on the 0-10 hazard rating system. I am a huge fan of a nice creamy bodywash and an exfoliating pouf and felt a tinge of dismay thinking about the future of my suds, sure that I would have to give up this little luxury for a bar of something filmy and a washcloth. Little did I know that I was about to make the best bodywash EVER. I’m serious.  

I searched out different recipes and ingredients that would be good for my skin -not so easy when you have been fighting a lifelong battle against hypersensitive skin. I went with an infusion of oats and rosemary to soothe and tone, coconut oil to moisturize because we had it in the house and it’s one of the few oils that doesn’t make me break out, and the essential oils of chamomile, lavender, and lemongrass for their properties and scent.

 It smells amazing, produces a great lather, gets you clean, and actually leaves you moisturized. It’s an amazing shave gel for legs. I should also mention that this batch that made 24oz using all organic (and local where available) ingredients cost only $4.50 to make - half the price of the scary stuff! Here's the breakdown:

Give it a try! Swap out oils and infusion ingredients to make a recipe that’s perfect for your skin. This would be a fun project to try with kids too.  

• 1 Tbs steel cut oats (optional - to infuse)
• 1 sprig of rosemary (optional - to infuse)
• 1 c. distilled water
• 1 Tsp citric acid (to prevent bacterial growth in your bodywash)
• 2 Tbs coconut oil (can swap out with olive, grapeseed, almond, jojoba, apricot kernel or any other oil)
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1-1/2 c. liquid castile soap (I used Dr Bronner’s)
• 1 tsp guar gum (you can find it in most markets that carry natural foods with the Bob’s Red Mill grains)
• 30 drops essential oils (your preference - I used a blend of lavender, chamomile, and lemongrass)

1. Boil water in a kettle and once boiling pour over the oats and rosemary (or whatever you decide to infuse). Cover and let sit for an hour, then strain to remove oats and rosemary bits from your infusion.

2. In a bowl whisk your oil, honey, infusion, and citric acid together.

3. Sprinkle in the guar gum, whisking to combine, and then immediately afterward whisk in the castile soap (if you wait too long the guar gum will thicken and you’ll have clumps) until blended and smooth.

4. Drop in your essential oils and fold in with a spoon or spatula. Store the mixture in a bottle that you have sterilized (opaque is best) out of direct sunlight and shake before each use.

PLEASE NOTE: As this recipe only contains mild natural preservatives (citric acid) and has not been created by a chemist, you may want to store the finished body wash in your refrigerator or make a batch small enough to use within 3-4 days. It is very important that you sterilize (boiling water or the dishwasher will do) all implements that will be used to avoid introducing any bacteria into your bodywash. We personally have not had any issues with bacterial contamination and are still using a bottle from a large batch that was made over 6 months ago that has never been refrigerated.  

Now that's a spicy meatball! Yummy food inspired body products

I absolutely LOVE handmade items, and especially bath and body care. I love knowing that I'm using something on my body that was made with love, thought, care and personal attention to detail. So lucky me, there's some great ones out there. Take the time and buy things like soap handmade and you'll be amazed at the difference.



Brieabella's Penguin Love makes some absolutely mind blowing soaps. I've been meaning to do a full individual review on this store alone, but the Hubband promised to do a video with me and I'm holding him to that! See, Hubband was complaining one day that I have all these fabulous handmade soaps and that he loved the way they made his skin feel when he was out of his store bought stuff and had to borrow mine, but mine tend to be scented in not the most masculine of ways. Well Brieabella's to the rescue! I told Stephani (the adorable soap mistress part of the team) about this and voila! TONS of manly soaps for The Hubband! Well, before he even got to use one, a friend of ours who's a mechanic came over to work on Hubband's car. After 2 days of laboring on the beast, he was ready to clean up and be presentable again. He saw the soaps sitting by the sofa and started tearing through them like a kid in a candy store, sniffing each bar and proclaiming over how great they smelled. I figured after many hundreds of dollars worth of free car repair, least I could do was give him a fabulous bar of soap to use, and he was BLOWN AWAY. How often do you hear a guy who just worked on your car gushing about how soft a soap made his skin while stroking his arm like a kitten?

So I went ahead and let Matt pick out his first one to use, despite wanting to save them for a video. Good choice, Babe! He decided to start with the Creole style- Red Beans and Rice. WOW. I could not stop sniffing him! And ya know what? I couldn't help myself, I had to use it too. I'm a sucker for spicy, woody and earthy smells and this fit the bill. I restrained myself so he could feel like it was special all his, but I snuck in a few uses ;-) Whod'a thunk it? The beans and rice made a wonderful exfoliator and after a weekend on the river left me covered in mosquito bites, this stuff was SOOOOOOOO amazingly soothing. Purrrrrrr. Turned me into a kitten too!



Formerly Om Shanti Handcrafts, they are now The Vagabond Tabby, but the awesome products remain the same.

From The Etsy Page:
I’m a wicked girl saving myself, an outlaw flying alone in the Black, a pirate and a good man. An herbalist, a shewolf, a catmommy and a friend to dogs. At the root of it all I’m Kate.

I started Om Shanti Handcrafts for small, personal reasons — dry skin from the dry air of Colorado, trying to get out of a hellish Walmart job — but I stick with it out of sheer love for what I’m doing.

I love making my products. I love experimenting with new scents, new blends, new ingredients. I love taking baths and calling it market research (though alas, I can’t claim my hot water bills with the IRS).

I even love the business end of things (though marketing still annoys the crap out of me). And speaking of crap…

Crap Free. Guaranteed.

I use only natural ingredients. Most fragrance oils make me sneeze, and most of the ones that don’t make me sneeze just don’t smell good to me. So it’s essential oils, herbs, a few natural flavourings, and some extracts. Nothing artificial.

Nothing I can’t pronounce, either, and nothing I know can be harmful, even if it’s technically ‘natural’. And I test everything on myself before it even gets put into a jar.

Not Just the Ingredients…

My containers are mostly glass, and all of them are recyclable. I use recycled packing material to ship, and I reuse boxes to ship when I have the right size available. I’m doing what I can for the Earth; it’s still the only place we have to live.

Well I've used a number of the products, but today I've got a theme, so those will just have to come at another time!

 

Kate's spicy scents make my eyes roll back in my head. Pure essential oils make for a heady, heavenly bath or shower. With cocoa butter, mango butter and jojoba oil, these feel as luxurious as they smell. She'll even do custom orders! Hubband wound up appropriating one of these for himself that I had in the shower, but luckily I had a second bar hidden away ;-) I like to keep the sampler sized ones in my bathroom for guests as well- they always get a compliment.

Crows Nest Primitive Shoppe makes a DIVINE Brown Sugar Scrub. 
You can even get a trial size for $1.75 if you just want to check it out, but trust me, it's fabulous. Made with fractionated coconut oil (which has a much longer shelf life than other oils, on top of being a miracle product for the skin) brown sugar and essential oils of amber and vanilla. It leaves your skin feeling like silk, and you don't need a lotion afterwards- your skin is in Valhalla. PLUS- you smell like, I dunno, Heaven or something.

And while these aren't body products, they are food inspired, so I want to recommend Crow's Nest tarts. I love the Black Cherry and the Cran Orange melting tarts. Smells just like the real thing. YUM!!!!

So be nice to your skin and happy bathing!