DIY: Coffee Body Scrub

Coffee scrubs have been making appearances on several beauty blogs, particularly the "Frank" brand coffee scrubs that come in the adorable, minimalist brown packaging.  I was intrigued after watching Karissa Pukas' Skincare Routine Video, where she uses the Frank coffee scrub as pre-tan exfoliator.  After visiting the website, I realized how friggen' pricey it was for a bag of compost-worthy coffee grounds.  

Funny thing was, after reading the ingredients list I thought to myself: "I have most of these things in my cupboard for peet's sake".  Although I improvised a little with the measurements, I was surprisingly impressed with the results.

I used about 4 tablespoons worth of coffee grounds (the amount needed to make a 2-cup cup of coffee), 1 teaspoon of coconut oil, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.

You can also get creative and add some cocoa and lavender oil, but I decided to keep it simple.  

As far as directions go, it's a body scrub...you scrub your body with it.  However, I do have several tips.  Before you even head to the shower, grab a cloth and some grease-fighting dish soap.  Because of the oils, the floor of your shower or bathtub will get very slippery and the coffee grounds are going to make a huge mess.  After I've scrubbed my body, I like to give the shower a quick wipe down so that the next person who gets in doesn't slip and break their neck.  So unless you've got a personal vendetta against your roommate, clean up after yourself.  I apply this scrub to dry skin but I do so standing in the shower/bath tub.  As I said, this stuff gets messy.

I scrub my whole body but I omit my face, making sure to take my time especially in dry areas such as my elbows and my knees, allowing the oils to sink in and work their moisturizing magic.  I wash my body with a nice soap and a lufa afterward to remove most of the oily residue and I finish up by slathering on a nice, thick moisturizer or body butter.

I would suggest doing this before you shave or apply self-tanner.  I've used this several times now and it leaves my skin incredibly soft; I actually prefer it over the other scrubs in my bathroom.

Let me know if you give this a try and what you think!  

Stay smooth, ladies.

xo, J.

DIY // Homemade Honey Face Mask

Happy Sunday Everyone! 

Today I thought I'd share with you my favorite homemade face mask recipe.  It takes only 4 ingredients and it's extremely beneficial for your skin.

All you'll need is honey, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg.  You really don't need much of any of these ingredients if you're just making a mask for yourself.  In the above photo, I was making enough for both my mom and I as a sort of Mother's Day wind-down.

Start with the honey and add a little nutmeg and a little cinnamon.  Honey has excellent anti-bacterial qualities and anti-microbial qualities, as does cinnamon; when mixed together they make the ultimate acne fighter.  Also, both honey and nutmeg can help reduce the appearance of acne scars over time.

You barely need to add any milk, just a few drops to make the mask more spreadable.  The milk helps soothe and nourish your skin by hydrating and lightly exfoliating.

Caution: If you have sensitive skin, be careful how much cinnamon you add to your mask.  Your skin might sting when you first apply the mask due to the cinnamon.

Once I've mixed my ingredients, I let the mixture sit and thicken slightly for a few minutes while I wash my face with a mild cleanser. 

Because I don't have any exact measurements, my mask always differs slightly in consistency.

Once I've washed my face I like to apply the mask gently.  The cinnamon and the nutmeg will feel like exfoliating beads on your face.  I use this mask to exfoliate as I remove it, not as I apply it.

When applying the mask, leave the area around your eyes clear; the skin around your eyes is very thin and sensitive and the cinnamon might irritate it.

Because this mask has honey in it, I tend to leave it on for longer than my store-bought masks.  I'll leave it on for 20+ minutes and I usually do it on a day where I know I don't have to go anywhere.  The cinnamon leaves my skin a tad red sometimes so I recommend trying 10 minutes for your first time using it.

Now it's time to hang out, read a magazine, light a candle and have some you time.

Hand Lotion: L'Occitane; Candle: Joe Malone Blackberry and Bay

When removing the mask, work it gently in circles on your chin and areas you normally exfoliate.  You might need to use a soft, wet washcloth to get it all off but be warned, the cinnamon will stain the washcloth if you just leave it so be sure to thoroughly rinse the cloth after you use it.

Afterward I like to apply toner, moisturizer and a little coconut oil to my dry patches and lips for extra hydration.

If you've made too much mask, stick it in the fridge and use it as a spot treatment.  I'll often use a dab of honey and cinnamon as a spot treatment and leave it on overnight.  My favorite time to use this mask is right before that pesky time of the month and it either halts my breakouts completely or makes them much less noticeable.

This is a great way to pamper yourself at home and on a budget!

Let me know if you try it out and happy sunday!

xo

January Haul

Hi everyone!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've collected quite a few new additions during the month of January.  I haven't had any of them long enough to make a 'January Favorites' post but I figured I'd throw them together into a small haul.
Some of these were things that I'd been lusting after for quite some time and others were nice surprises. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do face-of-the-day posts with some of them because so far I've been absolutely loving everything!  Go get a cup of tea though, this is gonna be a long one.

Despite the fact that I have a beauty product problem, I have never owned a foundation that wasn't from the drugstore.  Actually, I hadn't even used foundation up until about a year and a half ago.  I didn't mind the foundations from the drugstore but I'm so freakin' pale that they never quite seemed to match my skin tone.  They were usually too pinkish and most of the time, even the lightest shades available were too dark.  After watching my favorite beauty gurus it dawned on me that many of them also sport a banshee-esque pallor.  I decided to bite the bullet and splurge on the Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in the color (you guessed it) Siberia.  

Now I don't need too much coverage but my one concern was that it would enhance my pink undertones rather than conceal them.  After the girl matched it to my skin, I took one look in the mirror and thought "Wow, my pale skin actually looks kinda...pretty", which is something I never thought I'd be O.K. with.  The slight yellow-hue cancels out my redness completely and gives me an all-over glow as the name would suggest.

This foundation is best applied using your fingers to warm-up the product and spread it easily onto the skin.  The Verdict?  I don't know if I'll ever go back to drugstore.  Well O.K., I might go back to drugstore, but I'd feel knots in my stomach cheating on this bad boy.

I never thought I'd purchase makeup from the Body Shop, but after killing time in their small cosmetics section over the holidays I realized that some of their products are pretty great.
I picked up their All-In-One Cheek Colour in the color Bubblegum, which swatches beautifully and can be built up or applied more sheer (bonus for all you other pale girls).  It's a gorgeous, babydoll pink, perfect for spring.
I also checked out their eyeshadows which are so finely-milled that they feel like butter and blend better than some I've sampled from the high-end brands.  I picked up the shade Oh, Honey which has just the right amount of shimmer in it for that eye-brightening, no-makeup look.  I'd wear this as a brow highlight or on it's own as a all-over lid colour.
P.S. They've got a 'buy one get one 50% off'/'buy two get one free' deal going on, I suggest you move your butt and get on that.

I'm not usually one to ask for take-home samples, I either like something or I don't.  When it comes to the GlamGlow Supermud Mask however, I'm ashamed to say that I returned several times before special occasions to grab a sample with enough to cover my problem areas.  This mask is crazy pricey but I'm siding with the majority of people who have tried this when I say that it is worth the hype.
I've got dry skin with clogged pores and most masks that suck all the crap out are way too harsh for my skin.  This one however, uses the magic of "insert long-ass ingredient list here" to vacuum out all the evil skin trolls that clog up your pores.  Even better, the mask dries to a light grey but the "skin baddies" remain dark grey...so you get to see them.  When the awful day comes I will be scraping this pot dry.

If I do a haul there's a 99% chance I went to Victoria's Secret.  Long story short, their makeup bags were 75% off.  Need I say more?

As much as I tried to convince myself that I didn't want to spend this much on soap, I smelled them again and spent a lot of money on soap.

It makes for sexy-scentsy shower time.

One thing I love about the Victoria's Secret PINK line is that they make clothes that are crazy comfy yet acceptable to wear outside the confines of your cave.  This crewneck is perfect to wear with the "every day tights and boots" uniform.

I wore this for several days straight before someone brought it up.

The last item is a sneak peek at something that I received for my birthday.  I thought it a little much to dedicate a post to a birthday present but this is special.  Rather than giving it all away up front, I figured I'd slip it into an outfit post, so stay tuned for that!

My fingers are out of breath.  After this it has now occurred to me that this could have been broken up into several posts.  

Maybe I'll do a makeup look with the some of the products I purchased?  Would anyone be interested?

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading!!

I'll be posting again shortly!

xo, J :)

winter saviours

Everyone who lives somewhere that gets cold in the winter knows that it does horrible things to your skin and hair.  It gets so bad that whenever I have to go somewhere and look nice, I do the math to avoid walking outside as much as possible.  I'll do my hair and makeup and by the time I show up where I need to be, I'm red, frizzy, you name it.  People probably take one look and think to themselves "Oh she's havin' a night..."
Anywho, here are a few products that can help with the dryness from head to toe.

I get dry patches of skin around my nose in the winter and I find that applying the Clinique Moisture Surge really helps smooth them out.  I like to work it in to my night time skin routine and apply a decent amount just around my nose after I've applied my moisturizer and I even run it over my lips before I put my Nuxe lip balm on.  I purchased the Fresh Rose Face Mask about a year ago and it's perfect for the winter.  It's a brown gel mask (careful, it feels super cold on your skin!) and during the colder months I like to apply it once a week.  It's got cucumber, aloe, green tea and rose petals in it and I like the smell, it's quite therapeutic.  For great results, I like to exfoliate beforehand.

For my body I usually go drugstore with the Vaseline Cocoa Butter Deep Conditioning Body Lotion.   This stuff is perfect to apply straight out of the shower and with it, I never have dry skin.  However, if I'm going out and want something a little more scented, I opt for the Victoria's Secret Ultra Moisturizing Hand and Body Cream in the scent Sugared Lilac.  It's so thick and luxurious and adds a bit of a boost to your perfume.  

When it comes to winter hair frizz, I swear by two products.  The first is the Living Proof Styling Cream for Medium to Thick Hair.  It's labelled as curl-defining but I find that when I run it through my damp hair, I can let my waves air dry and they come out frizz free.  This is a great one for all you curly girls out there who don't have hours to spare.  I wish someone had told me about the Bumble and Bumble Straight Blow Dry Styling Cream back in highschool, because straightening my hair was a total nightmare.  This stuff is the only thing that keeps my hair remotely straight and I've gone through a few bottles of it.  I apply it to damp hair then I wrap my head in a towel and let it towel dry about 80%. Minimized blow-dry time = minimized frizz!  After that it takes me about 5-10 minutes to dry my hair with a round brush to add volume and straightening only takes about 15 minutes.  Yes this sounds like a process, but everyone with frizzy, wavy, misbehavin' hair out there feels me.

Lastly, for some extra on-the-go help, I turn to my Bumble and Bumble Spray de Mode Hairspray to fix any leftover flyaways, and the miniature size is perfect for purses.  I never leave the house without my L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, it smells amazing and is ultra-moisturizing, definitely a staple.  Last, this may seem like an odd product but I get super dry eyes if I'm somewhere where the heating is cranked all the way like busses and classrooms, etc.  I always keep a little Refresh Fake Tears with me, otherwise I'm walking blinking like an idiot.

I hope this helps you all with your winter woes, now go outside and enjoy the festive season!  Drink some water while you're at it.  I'm a huge hypocrite for saying this because I hate drinking water, but it's probably the number one advice to anyone with dryness problems!

xo