Newspaper Nails

This is a cool way to do your nails to get a new effect.

You will need newspaper, rubbing alcohol, a nude nail color and a top coat (or clear) polish.

Paint your nails with the nude nail color and wait for them to dry.

Cut out 10 small pieces of newspaper that will roughly fit over a single nail.

Pour a couple of drops of the alcohol on your nail until it's well covered. Put the newspaper over the nail and leave the paper on it for about 10 seconds.

Peel off the newspaper and apply a top coat on so that the ink doesn't wear off and will stay on the nail longer.

Ingredients:
newspaper
nude nail polish (any cheap bottle of polish will work)
rubbing alcohol
top coat or clear nail polish

A great smelling body scrub that makes your skin glow

Body scrubs can help get rid of dead skins cells and give your skin a healthy glow.

I use a body scrub made of cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, coconut oil and oatmeal. It makes a very nice combination - both for your skin and because it smells nice.

The cinnamon and nutmeg help keep body acne under control and helps increase blood circulation (cinnamon is a bit of a skin irritant so it gets blood moving). The sugar and oatmeal helps to get rid of all the dead skin cells on your body. You can use any kind of sugar or a coarse sea salt if you want to exfoliate more. I use the brown sugar because it is gentle on the skin and is great for people who have sensitive skin rather than using the larger crystals of plain sugar. Sea salt coarseness may cause some temporary redness but it all depends on your skin. I would experiment which one you like best and use it.

As the seasons change you can use different sugars or sea salt depending on what's going on with your skin with temperature and humidity changes.

The coconut oil is a great moisturizer and I love using it in my body scrubs. I find it absorbs well into my skin and I love the smell. Though, it's not a strong coconut smell when mixed with the cinnamon and nutmeg. I also added in the oatmeal to help exfoliate my skin but it can help reduce redness (especially if you use the coarse sea salt). Oatmeal is gentle on all skin types.

Mix in a tablespoon of each ingredient except for the sugar, which I use about a cup. I use the coffee grinder to grind up the oatmeal so it is a fine mixture and won't clog up the bathtub. I got my coffee grinder at Goodwill for under $5.

Put the mixture in a container with a lid to use whenever you want. It stores well for up to a month.

Ingredients:
cinnamon - any grocery store
nutmeg - any grocery store
brown sugar - any grocery store
oatmeal - any grocery store
coconut oil - Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have best smelling oil, and it's cheaper than grocery store
coffee grinder - I got my used from Goodwill

Tinting your nails with eye shadow

I thought using eye shadow would be a fun way to play up my nails a bit. I came across the idea and decided to try it.

I painted my sister's nails with a solid nail polish. Then I put the eye shadow on the nails once the nail polish was dry. I then applied a top coat to seal in the eye shadow.

This experiment did not give me the results I hoped it would. The nail color consistency was weird and I just really didn't like the way it looked.

But it is still a cool way to do my nails. I think there were different factors that could have made a difference in making this work better.

The next time I try this I will use a more pigmented (less shimmering) eye shadow (like I should have used the purple in the first picture, not the blue I ended up using). I think a better pigmented eye shadow would have given the nails a more even coat of color and I probably would have got a bit of the tone I was looking for.

Overall this was just an interesting experiment that I came across and figured I would try. Not every experiment works as planned but it's still a good experiment just to see what happens.

Ingredients:
Nail polish - any drug store
Eye shadow - any drug store
Nail polish top coat - any drug store

                         

A turmeric paste can help with bags under your eyes

This is an all-natural way to help reduce bags.

The main ingredient in this simple paste is Turmeric. I mix this spice with a bit of honey and apply it directly to my skin.

Turmeric is used a lot by Indian women for its skin benefits. It can help reduce acne scars as well as help to fight wrinkles. It lightens skin and works as an anti-inflammatory. There are a lot of other benefits (just Google it).

I like to use this paste under my eyes because I find it does help reduce the swelling and it gives my skin a tanner glow when I wash it off. One of the things this does if used all over your face is that it will give you a bit of an orange glow. Not that bad fake-orange-tan-glow but it will definitely tinge your skin a bit.

I have a brownish-tan skin and I find it works well on my skin tone. It brings my tan out a little better. But if you have pale skin I would suggest you test it out first on a day you don't have to be anywhere because you will notice a difference when you wash it off. It might tinge your skin for a day or two. But it makes your skin feels so soft and will give you  a glow.

I mostly just mix the turmeric with honey and put it under my eyes. I also like to use milk too but I find the honey stays better under my eyes. The milk makes the paste too watery. Add more honey than milk though if you want to add the two together because you want the paste to be on the thinker side so it stays under your eyes for a bit.

I used my sister as my model for my experiments so you can see how it looks when applied.

Ingredient list and where to get it:
Turmeric - any grocery store
Honey - any grocery store
Milk - any grocery store

Castor oil helps your eyelashes grow

Castor oil has been know to help eyelashes grow because of its vitamins as well as its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Not only can it help your eyelashes grow but it helps your hair grow too.

I put a drop on my finger and apply it directly on the eyelashes.

It will take a couple of weeks to notice a difference. I like to apply it at night so it will soak into my lashes (and so I can wear makeup during the day). This oil can also be used for taking off makeup. It does the job well. 

Castor oil isn't easy to find but it is fairly inexpensive online. I bought a 16oz bottle on Amazon for $8.99 about 6 months ago and still have more than half a bottle.

Ingredient:

Castor Oil - Amazon.com

Salt water hairspray helps define curls

This Salt water hair spray is an all natural way of getting those beach waves. I have curly hair and I have found this stuff helps define my curls.

To make it you need:
1 cup water
1 teaspoon of coconut oil (in it's liquid state so you might have to melt it when it's cold)
1 tablespoon sea salt and a spray bottle*

     

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and pour it in to a measuring cup. The lip on the measure cup makes pouring mixture into the spray bottle easier. 

I love using this stuff all year round and I found that some days I don't bother using my mousse. Though be warned that sea salt is know for drying out your hair and using it on a daily bascis might cause your hair to dry out a bit so to help prevent this, once a week do a hair mask using a simple oil. This helps a lot and even if rubbing only the tiniest of amounts of a oil of your preference into your hair to offset the salt. I use coconut oil to rub between my hands and then rub into the ends of my hair. Even if you use conditioner, which I do, I still put oil in just to help with the dryness when using this spray.

The balance works well to get my girls more defined and looking nice.

* I got my spray bottle at Lows for $1.99. The hardware store has a more heavy duty type of sprayer that I have found lasts longer than buying one at the pharmacy or discount stores.

A simple lip plumper

For girls who want to make their lips a little bigger but want an all-natural, cheaper and safer way to do it, this recipe is for you!

The only ingredients you will need are cinnamon, nutmeg and honey.

The cinnamon is what makes your lips swell up because it increases the blood circulation. It will only last for a day or two. The nutmeg helps exfoliate all the dead skin off your lips and the honey add moisture to them.

The thing about this recipe is that your lips will definitely tingle. If it becomes too much for you just wipe it off.  In the beginning it will tingle a lot but then the tingle sensation will wear off after using it a couple of times.

Mix equal parts of cinnamon, nutmeg and honey together. A teaspoon of each is about enough.

And just apply it to the lips and leave it on for about 10 minutes. Then wipe it off (or lick because it's tasty).

Ingredients:

Cinnamon - any grocery store

Nutmeg - any grocery store

Honey - any grocery store