Make Your Own Eye Cream

I am really excited about this eye cream. I've been using it for a while now before bed and it's really good. It keeps my skin really supple and non-wrinkly, and because it is kinda waxy, it keeps my skin moisturized even after I've washed it off the next morning. If you have really oily skin, I think this would still work for you because natural ingredients tend not to mess with your ph balance. Try it and see!

There is really only one step to this process if you followed my last two blogs (especially the one on making lip balm). All three processes took me 20 minutes total to do. To bring you up to speed, I suggest going here.

How to Make Your Own Eye Cream:

After following the directions on my last blog, all you have to do is add a table spoon of honey. I suggest using local honey as it helps your tolerance to pollen allergies. Honey is what changes the consistency of our lip balm into a cream, and honey is really good for you and your skin. If you are allergic to honey then use olive oil:

This step is optional, but you can add another fragrance if you like. I added lavender because it smells good with mint, and also it's good for your skin:

Stir it up and pour into a small cosmetic jar:

Put it in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Spread it on your eyes with your fingers in small massaging circles.

Things to remember:

1. The reason I did green tea and coffee bean butters is mostly because I knew I'd make this eye cream last and both of those butters have anti-aging properties.

2. Coconut oil and honey are anti-bacterial. Probably the others are too, but I know those two are for sure.

The End!

Make Your Own SPF Lip Balm

This is continued from Make Your Own Stretch Mark Eraser, if you want to make that. To make the eraser, lip balm, and eye cream, it took me about 20 minutes. That's why I'm writing these three blogs in a sequence. Otherwise, to bring you up to speed, you need these ingredients:

Namely:

1. Cocoa Butter 

2. Coconut Oil

3. Coffee Bean Butter

4. Green Tea Butter

5. Beeswax

6. At least 4 lip balm containers (You used 2 of your 6 for the stretch mark eraser)

All these ingredients can be found raw and for sale on eBay and Amazon. You don't really need the Green Tea or the Coffee Bean butters, but I added them because they are really good for protecting against sun damage. However, coconut oil has some sun blocking capabilities on its own. If you want major sun blocking power, add some zinc oxide powder (cosmetic grade) before the last step.

How to Make Lip Balm:

If you've already made the eraser, skip to the third picture down. Otherwise, get a hot pot and put water in it and wait for it to boil (or else put a pot of water on the stove):

While the water is boiling, grate about a tablespoon and a half of beeswax. (It's really annoyingly sticky and doesn't wash off your grater very easily, but grating it helps the beeswax melt more evenly later. It's actually an important step not to skip.):

Now add your beeswax to a Pyrex measuring cup and submerge it into the boiling water. (Don't use a plastic cup.):

Wait for it to melt then add one tablespoon of coconut oil and one table spoon of cocoa butter. Mix it all with a chopstick or butter knife. (Notice the towel under my hot pot now in this picture...):

Then add about 1/2 a tablespoon of green tea butter and coffee bean butter:

Then add some fragrance or flavoring. I added peppermint extract to make it all "Burt's Bees"-y. Also, I knew peppermint wouldn't conflict with the eye cream I was going to make after this:

Pour your liquid into four lip balm containers. Put your containers in the fridge in your Pyrex cup. (The starred containers below are my "erasers" from the blog prior to this one.) I got the idea to stand them up with paper towel from another blog:

The finished product:

Things to remember:

1. About 1/2 a tablespoon of butter will fill a lip balm container, so for 4 containers, you need 2 tablespoons total of product. If you do the math on the directions I just gave, you will come to 4 1/2 tablespoons of product (1 1/2T beeswax + 1T coconut oil + 1T cocoa butter + 1/2T green tea butter + 1/2T coffee bean butter = 4 1/2T). I used the remaining 2 1/2T to make my eye cream in the next blog.

2. Any seed/bean butter will work in place of these, I just used these ones for their sun damage fighting properties.

3. My husband loves this lip balm. He claims it lasts longer than his other lip balms. . .and he's right!

Now to make eye cream...


For a complete list of makeup DIY, go here.

Make Your Own Stretch Mark Eraser

The next three posts are a triptych of sorts. You can make all three in about 20 minutes, which is what I had one day between engagements. The first thing I made was a "Stretch Mark Eraser," then lip balm (Am I allowed to call it chapstick? Isn't that a brandname?), and finally eye cream.

These are the ingredients you will need:

Cocoa Butter - Helps skin elasticity and fights stretch marks.

Coconut Oil - Antibacterial and skin softening.

Coffee Bean Butter - Fights sun damage and wrinkles.

Green Tea - Fights sun damage and wrinkles.

Beeswax - Thickening agent and good for skin.

At least 6 lip balm containers.

(I've way over simplified what each ingredient does, 

but at least you get some idea of why I got each of them.)

You can find these ingredients and containers on Amazon and eBay. If you've been reading my posts, you will know that I already had the coconut oil from this post. I'm not posting the prices, because the prices are kinda random. I just searched for the cheapest ones that are the purest and from sellers with decent feedback. Usually, raw butters like these are cheaper the more you buy, but you don't need a whole ton of them. Obviously, the green tea and coffee bean butters are the most expensive, which is why my containers of such are smaller. My rule of thumb is not to go over $10 per ingredient.  I also knew I'd be using all these ingredients again for other products I want to make, so I bought the amounts accordingly.


How to Make a Stretch Mark Eraser:


I've read that other bloggers attempting this sort of project either had a double boiler or did a make-shift one on the stove. I decided since I didn't have a whole lot of time that I would use my trusty hot pot. While the water was boiling, I grated about a tablepoon and a half of beeswax. (The beeswax is actually for the lip balm and eye cream, but you might as well use your time wisely):

When the water started to boil, I added about a tablespoon of cocoa butter to
a small Pyrex measuring cup:

I put the measuring cup into the boiling water and waited for it to melt:

It only took a few minutes:

Then I poured it into two lip balm containers:

This is what the finished product looks like:

The last step is to put it into the freezer or refrigerator for an hour or so until it's hard.

Things to remember:

1. One heaping tablespoon of butter will fill two lip balm containers.

2. You could probably melt a tablespoon of cocoa butter in the microwave instead of a double boiler if you're really pressed for time.

3. Beeswax is super waxy and a pain to grate, so only make this for yourself 

and people you really love.

4. Instead of rubbing the "stretch mark eraser" directly onto your stretch marks (which can stretch them even further), consider rubbing the cocoa butter into your palm and pressing what comes off onto your delicate skin.

5. You could just scoop the cocoa butter right out of the jar and press into your skin, but if you want to keep your cocoa butter sterile, I suggest making these little "erasers."

6. I've had little stretch marks since I've been losing weight and mine are getting smaller after a few days of using this stuff.

Now to making lip balm....

Make Your Own Leave-In Conditioner

Why this is a good idea:

1. Easy - This is a very easy item to make. In fact, all you need to do is buy a jar of Coconut Oil. (You can actually stop reading here if you just wanted to know how to make it.)

2. Versatile - Coconut oil is kind of a splurge (Mine was $7.50 for 14oz at Food Lion), but a little goes a looooooong way, and this same jar also can be used for cooking. (Word to the wise: Coconut oil is one of the only plant-based oils that is super high in saturated [i.e. bad] fat. It is slightly better for your bad cholesterol levels than cooking with butter, but if you are looking to lose weight, cook with an oil that is liquid at room temperature [i.e. canola or olive].) Also, if you stay tuned, you will learn other interesting and fun money-saver/natural things you can make with coconut oil--so make the splurge!

3. Better - I have tried every hair product on the market and nothing ever works. What I notice about coconut oil is that, used sparingly, my hair is more manageable, softer (emphasis on the soft!), and way less "fly-away" than it's ever been. Plus, coconut oil is natural, so you know it's better! You too can have the hair of an island princess!

4. Frugal - Even though a jar is $7.49, you will use far less of it than any other leave-in treatment you can buy. Also, you will save water because coconut oil is antibacterial, so you won't have to wash your hair as much. Furthermore, you will be saving yourself the application of sulfates and alcohol (which promote hair loss) and other nasty filler chemicals that "the man" adds to your current hair products.

Something I like about coconut oil is that I didn't have to special order it or go to some health food store to get it. There is a certain comfort in knowing I can always go to the grocery store if I run out. (Any Mitch Hedberg fans out there?. . ."Oh yeah! . . . Kinkos!")

I suggest getting the stuff out with a knife or some such utensil 

to keep it as clean and versatile as possible. (Also, store it in a cool, dark place.)

Just get a little bit out at a time. Too much is going to make your head look greasy. My hair is long, curly, and course (like a classy Brillo pad) so I used a whole tip of a knife. If your hair is fine, start waaaaay smaller. Play around to find your perfect amount.

As soon as you put it on your hand, it starts melting. That shows you that it's not the worst of the saturated fats. . .but still.

Press your hands together until it completely melts.

Apply it to your hair. Start at the ends and work your way up. 

For Fine Hair: A larger amount can be applied to wet hair for an hour or so and washed out. (This is an especially good option for people with people with dry shafts of hair but greasy follicles who wouldn't be able to apply coconut oil to dry hair without weighing it down.)

For Curly Hair: Simply towel dry your hair. Apply a small amount of coconut oil and a small amount of hair gel (all-natural hair gel recipe coming soon). If your ends dry faster than your roots, apply a bit more oil to the ends. Scrunch your hair and shake it out a little. The coconut oil will naturally guide your strands into nice "piece-y" curls as your hair air dries. (Usually, I have to twist each lock into a curl and apply mounds of product.) Time saved: 15 minutes. The end.

Quick Fix: If you accidentally overdo it, get out your baking soda from when you made your own Laundry Soap and/or Dish Washer Soap and sprinkle it over whatever part of your head looks a little greasy. Brush it out until you don't see any more powder. Voila! (I have to do this on my bangs every once in awhile. Why do bangs get shiny when the rest of your head doesn't?? No idea. . .)

I washed and straightened my hair on Friday evening and applied it then. I only had to reapply a tiny bit on Monday morning (this skippidge of two mornings of reapplying product is unheard of in "Jessica'sHeadLand"). This picture is from Monday evening.

I know I just started doing this, but I was so impressed, I just had to blog about it. I am not sure, but if i had to hazard a guess, I think over time I am going to see fewer split ends and thicker hair. I'll have to report back in a few weeks.

UPDATE: Since that picture was taken, I actually did not have to wash my hair for an entire week and it didn't look oily or gross--even with FIVE hour-long cardio workouts that week! I washed my hair the following Friday, but didn't use shampoo, only conditioner--hoping that I could go "sulfate free" for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, by Tuesday night, my hair was feeling not so great, so I washed it with shampoo on Wednesday morning. 

My words of wisdom are: Until we can figure out a natural, thoroughly clean version of shampoo (I realize you can buy sulfate-free shampoo from the grocery store, and this may be your only option), I would advise washing your hair twice with shampoo before going without washing it for a week.