adelyn's christmas program

First of all::

We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas :)

Secondly::
Adelyn had her preschool christmas program at the beginning of this month.

{the little boy next to her is one of her BFFs :) he is the sweetest}

 

It surprised me how hard it hit me that she's old enough to be in a Christmas program and how awesome she was!

I was laughing/crying through the entire thing. It was just so cute.

I may be a little biased...

;)

Just a heads up, I recorded the entire thing, so the video is about 6 minutes long.

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homemade moisturizer

 

Okay, so stick with me here.

For YEARS, I have been using different moisturizers for my face. For YEARS I haven't found ONE that I liked enough to purchase multiple times.

In college, I developed issues with breakouts and I have sebborhic dermatitis that flares up by my nose sometimes. It's annoying.

During nursing school, one of my classes had a discussion about ingredients that are put into moisturizers and cosmetics that can actually speed up aging and dry out your skin (isn't that counterproductive with moisturizers?)....and parabens, which mimic the estrogen hormone and can reek havoc on your body....among other things.

Ick.

I started using Arbonne last year and it reallyhelped my dermatitis, my face wasn't breaking out as much. I liked the lack of "ick" ingredients....

but the stuff is expensive and I felt like I was constantly applying lotion to my face. It was always so dry.

Then I started using Jenuinely Pure based out of Ames, IA....loved it, but the shipping made it ridiculous.

It clicked one day....why couldn't I try to make it myself without all the extra stuff and cost??

I started researching...mostly blogs is what I could find.

I decided to try oils for day and then blend and oil mix with raw shea butter at night.

Love. It.

I know, you would think isn't the oil greasy?

No.

If you're using the right oils, it absorbs into your skin...leaving it soft, not greasy or oily.

There are different oils you can use for different skin types.

People, my skin tone is better. My skin looks brighter. My skin is soft. I put on the oil mix (about dime-sized) after I shower or wash my face....I don't feel like I need lotion the rest of the day. It's awesome.

My mom even commented when she was out here that my skin looked great. :) That was wonderful. thanks, mom :)

I have had hardly any breakouts and I haven't fought the dermatitis battle in a long time :)

yay.

The shea butter at night is okay...I think, when it's gone, I might just do oil at night too because it definitely takes longer for my skin to absorb than just the oil.

SO....for daytime, here's what I've been using (I didn't measure, I just mixed into a little squeeze bottle I had)

 

sweet almond oil for the base

a few drops of Vitamin E

jojoba oil (it's also a carrier oil, so helps my skin absorb the oil mix faster)

2 drops lavender essential oil

 

That's it! No icky fillers or chemicals.

Plus, it takes forever to use up! I've been using the same mix for 2.5 months and am barely halfway through the bottle :)

yay.

 For night time I used the same oil mix, with a little coconut oil and some raw shea butter. I stuck it in the food processor and blend blend blend :)

That's it.

Okay, so my resources::

The best breakdown I could find was this blog post.

She did a great job summing things up....which was great because I was starting to get a little overwhelmed.

Then I found this blog post by Crunchy Betty.

She is one I started following and going back to as another resource.

I found my ingredients mostly on amazon and Mountain Rose Herbs.

Let me know if you wind up trying it...

happy experimenting ;)

 

PS::I do still use Arbonne cleanser because that's what I had left....but I'm looking for a cleanser like it (or Cetaphil) that cleanses without stripping my face.

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