Green Beauty Tips

Natural homemade beauty recipes

Nature is the newest trend in skin and hair care. For years, we’ve been putting toxic chemicals into our bodies that build up and make us feel tired and sick, regardless of whether we eat them or if they seep though our pores. And people are finally catching on that natural is better.

Most stores now have a line of “natural” beauty products. Unfortunately, they often come with a big price tag attached too. Often times many of these products are not actually “natural” so it does pay to do your homework to ensure you are getting what you pay for.

Fortunately actually making beauty products yourself isn’t too difficult. So if you want beauty products that you know are natural and are also inexpensive, just make them yourself. Here are 5 quick and easy recipes you can make at yourself.

Face Mask
Eating good food helps give you the right nutrients you need to look good. You can get more of these vitamins and minerals by putting the good stuff right on the skin.

Combining a mashed carrot, mashed avocado, and a beaten egg with a half cup a few tablespoons of honey creates a great face mask that provides vitamins, and improves the tone and texture of your skin. Just stir well, apply, let sit for about 15 minutes, and then wash off with cool water.

After you’re washed and nourished your skin, you can use grated cucumber or diluted lemon juice as a toner to help tighten your skin and close up your pores to close your pores and keep your skin looking great.

Hair Conditioner
Many people pay a lot of money for a conditioner that actually makes your hair look and feel good. Here’s a great natural recipe to save you money and help your hair.

Just mix an egg yolk with a tablespoon of castor oil and apply to hair. Let sit for about ten minutes and rinse out. You can use this every so often as a conditioning treatment for healthy shiny hair. If you like being experimental, you can try mixing other kitchen items, herbs, and natural items with eggs for healthy, shiny hair.

Hand and Foot Cream
A quick face mask will help make you look great in not a lot of time, but hands and feet require extra care.

Use ½ cup of olive oil mixed with natural sea salt and massage into your hands and feet. Leave a few minutes to soak and then rinse off with warm water.

When it comes to natural beauty products, these recipes are just the start. You can find hundreds of different combinations in natural beauty books, magazines, and on the internet. Or you can go to your kitchen cabinet and make your own special creations.

Natural Beauty - Makeup PLR Bundle

Make Soap! Easy soap making with your kids...

How to Make Homemade Soap

We all use soap. In the old days, most people made their own. Today, we are much more likely to buy it from the store. There are lots of brands to choose from, and each brand has various formulations and scents.

But making your own soap has some definite advantages. One of the most significant is the price. We can make soap much cheaper than we can buy it. Making it ourselves also gives us complete control over the ingredients, so we can create a soap that's perfect for our skin type in a scent of our choosing.

Making soap is much easier than you might think. It is, however, important to take certain safety precautions. Here's a basic recipe:

Ingredients

* 12 cups lye crystals
* 5 cups softened water
* 6 pounds lard

Instructions

1. Put water in a glass or plastic bowl. Carefully pour lye into water, stirring constantly with a plastic or wooden spoon. This should be done outdoors or in a well-ventilated area, because it produces caustic fumes.
2. Mixing lye and water produces heat. When the lye is completely dissolved, set the mixture aside to cool.
3. Place lard in a stainless steel or enamel pan. Melt over low heat.
4. Allow both the lye solution and the lard to cool to room temperature.
5. Slowly pour the lye solution into the lard, stirring slowly and constantly with the plastic or wooden spoon.
6. Continue stirring after all of the lye solution has been added. Drizzle a small amount of the mixture into the pot periodically. When the soap keeps its shape for a moment before sinking into the mixture, you can add scent, color and herbs.
7. Pour the soap into a mold greased with Crisco. Wrap in a towel, and let set for about 18 hours or until completely cooled. Uncover and let set for 12 more hours.
8. The soap may now be unmolded and cut into bars. Let the bars cure for 3 to 4 weeks before using.

Customizing Your Soap

There are lots of different ways you can customize your soap. To make the best soap for your skin type, you may want to use different oils. Some that are commonly used include olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter. The correct amount varies depending on which oil you use, so look for recipes online or in books until you get the hang of it.

Essential oils have therapeutic properties and add fragrance. Oatmeal, cornmeal and other grains can be added as exfoliants. And skin-safe colorants may be used to produce the desired color. These ingredients should be mixed together and added to a cup of the soap mixture, then stirred into the rest of the soap mixture immediately before pouring into the mold.

Making your own soap is easy, and it can be lots of fun. Coming up with the perfect concoction for your skin is rewarding, and sweetly scented homemade soaps make wonderful gifts for any occasion.

Inspiration Avenue Blog Contest for Pure

This week I had the great fortune to be invited as a member of Inspiration Avenue, a fantastic group of Etsy sellers who have a united purpose to serve others, help one another, and share their inspirations and creativity!  I was so thrilled for this opportunity, I wanted to jump right in.

A routine contest is posted on Inspiration Avenue's blog, and this contest is open to everyone, not just Etsy sellers.  This week, the theme is pure, so here is my entry:



Creamy Caramel All Natural Lip Balms

No petroleum - no harsh chemicals - no worries what is going on your lips... All natural organic apricot kernel oil, organic white beeswax pellets, a smidge of vitamin E, and yummy creamy caramel flavoring is all there is to it! Each one is only 1.25, long lasting, smooth on and keep you moist for hours! No tugging across your lips, as they practically melt a barrier! Use over lipstick for that added shine without the gunk and junk!



You can find these lip balms on sale at my Etsy shop http://www.MommyTyme.etsy.com  or by clicking here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39477291
You can find out more about these wonderful contests on Inspiration Avenue at the link below:
http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/

Setting Up a New Shop with the Latest Items....

Over the Holiday weekend, I decided to plunge, feet first, into the new zibbet Marketplace.  If you have not tried it, it is worth a minute of your time to explore.  The listing is very easy, and it's free!  You can list up to 25 items, free.  There is also the upgrade for 7.00 or the lifetime membership for about 150.00!  Anyway you go, it seems like a great deal.  But, is the traffic there?  That was my concern before I splurge on a lifetime account.  This is a lifelong project for me because I love what I am doing, but I am not at a point where I can leave the 9-5 world just yet (boy, I wish I was...).  So, every minute online has to count.  Every marketing effort has to be substantial- (if you have not checked it out, you should visit my blog:  Mishaps of Mommy- for marketing shortcuts, tips, free services and more at http://mishapsofmommy.blogspot.com)

So, I opened shop, created some NEW items for the event, and now we wait?  No, now we get busy and promote the heck out of zibbet to see where it is going to go!  Etsy did not occur one day, many people worked tirelessly at it, each individual store promoted and shouted their URL to the world... The same has to be true of Zibbet!  I like the idea of getting in on the ground floor of a marketplace, so I can learn and explore as each new application and service is added, plus the competition is not quite so tough!  The idea of being part of something new excites me!

So, today I listed some of my latest (and possibly greatest) new items:

First is the Sweet Pea Bath Set with a giant 5 ounce bath butter bar in sweet pea with essential oils for skin care, an all natural sweet pea solid fragrance pot, and 1.7 ounce natural sweet pea sugar scrub with essential oils like jojoba, avocado, and aloe, Mango butter (organic), mineral salts, etc.... All for a discounted price of 5.50!  And with the new flat rate shipping, you can get it all for 4.95 (and maybe add another bath bar, fragrance, or shampoo)

You can also opt for the larger version with a 6.5 ounce sugar scrub for only 7.50 for the set!

Another new item I listed today is the Orange Blossom Mango shampoo in 4ounces, or 6.5 ounce flip top container.  This great shampoo has a super rich and thick lather, is created with essential oils like Rosemary (known to assist in scalp care), jojoba oil, avocado oil, aloe oil, and sugar (to name a few of the ingredients!).  Long lasting orange and mango fragrance lets you feel like you are on vacation everyday.  No heavy or oily residue!  Great for every hair type and on sale now!

So, stop by the new Zibbet shop at http://www.zibbet.com/MommyTyme and see what you think!

Help with my shop! Sale at Mommy Tyme bath and gifts...

I wanted to let my readers in on my sale at Mommy Tyme... I am closing out on select spring fragrances until next year, so lotions are drastically discounted, spring spritz's, certain handmade soaps, and in the spirit of the holiday season... I have cut prices on my scarves and accessories! I hope you take a minute to explore my shop and let me know what you think, what you would like to see more of, etc. I know that customers are the foundation of any good business, so what am I missing? Are there colors that you would be more interested in? fragrances? collections? baskets? gift sets?

I could sure use the advice of avid shoppers, so check out my shop, or just look at my widget below and let me know what you think....

Etsy Buy Handmade MommyTyme