Homemade Facial Lotion

So since I went all natural and homemade with my face wash, the only logical next step for me is an all natural homemade face lotion. So a lot of the green mommas on the forum I'm on swear up and down by Coconut Oil so I had to give it a try. Since I do have acne prone skin and eczema though I'm going to have to make it just 1 step at a time. The good thing about all this though is I'm learning lots about Essential Oils that I didn't know before.

Coconut Oil: The benefits of Coconut Oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti fungal, antibacterial, and soothing. It is also a rich source of Vitamin E (which we all know is great for skin) and it absorbs easily into skin. To use coconut oil in Acne, you need the very best one. Do not go for the unrefined, crude one, since it may be unhygienic and may contain dust particles. Go for the refined instead. The best choice will be Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil for this purpose.

So I started with one week of using just Coconut Oil alone to see how it works with my skin. By the end of the week I must say I LOVE Coconut Oil. It feels kinda heavy when you apply it (which made me worry that it would cause me to break out) but with in a few minutes it's completely absorbed (and I've not had any new break outs since using it). It really has kept my skin moist but in of it's self alone is not enough for treating my eczema. While it's kept my eczema "happy" I still have some patches all though they aren't flaky and dry "looking" I can feel them. So onto the first doctoring of my lotion! :-)

Lavender Essential Oil: The health benefits of lavender essential oil include its ability to remove nervous tension, relieve pain, disinfect scalp and skin, enhance blood circulation and treat respiratory problems. The health benefits of lavender oil for the skin can be attributed to its antiseptic and anti fungal properties. It is used to treat various skin disorders such as acne, wrinkles, psoriasis, and other inflammations. It heals wounds, cuts, burns, and sunburns rapidly as it aids in the formation of scar tissues. Lavender oil is added to chamomile to treat eczema.

So I bought a small metal bowl that has a lid to put my "Facial Lotion" in. I put about 2 TBS of Coconut Oil in the metal bowl and put the bowl in another bowl of warm water (so it would heat up the bowl containing my Facial Lotion). As the Coconut Oil heated it liquefied and I stirred it to help speed up the liquefying process.

heated Coconut Oil

 Once it was all liquid I added 5 drops of Lavender Oil to the Coconut Oil while still stirring. I gave it a good mixing for a few minutes. Then I poured out the warm water and added ice and cold water to the bowl and added the metal bowl back in and continued to stir as the metal bowl cooled the Coconut Oil started solidifying.

cooling coconut oil

Once it started to go from clear to whitish I quit stirring and placed the lid on top to let it cool all the way. So now my Facial Lotion is a mixture of Coconut Oil and Lavender Oil. I will use this for the next week before adding my next essential oil to the mix.

Castor Oil: It is believed that most of Castor oil's benefits are derived from its high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids. Castor oil is a natural emollient that penetrates the skin and helps stimulate the production of collagen and elastin which can soften and hydrate the skin. Therefore, Castor oil is a wonderful natural treatment for wrinkles since it restores and rejuvenates skin's natural youthful appearance by making skin smoother, softer and pliant.


Sandalwood Oil: On the skin, sandalwood oil relieves itching and inflammation of the skin, and is most effective in relieving dehydrated skin - making it great for anti-ageing skincare - and the astringent action has a great toning effect and is also used with great results in oily skin conditions and to prevent the skin from forming ugly scars and for fighting dry eczema. When used in a lotion or cream sandalwood oil can assist with chapped, dry or inflamed skin and has wonderful moisturizing and hydrating properties, which are great for anti-ageing skincare. The toning effect is useful when fighting oily skin.

New formulation:
2 TBS Coconut Oil
1/2 TSP Castor Oil
6 drops Lavender Oil
4 drops Sandalwood Oil

I've been using this mixture now for 1 week and my eczema is so much better now than before I started making my own face lotion 1 1/2 months ago. I think I will add a few more drops of Sandalwood Oil in the next batch though and I have a few other Essential Oils I would like to try in the lotion but I can't because they aren't recommended for use during pregnancy so I'll have to wait to try them out after Javan is born.

finished Facial Lotion
It doesn't look like much or real fancy but it does an awesome job!

Goody Bag fun!!

I lovingly hand painted a goody bag today for Lucas' schools winter party on Friday! I had so much fun doing it!

Update on Wool Dryer Balls

I'm still using them and still can't tell if they are really helping with dry time. But I started having an issue with static since it's cold out now and the air is more dry so here are a few of the things that all worked to combat this issue.
1. A squirt bottle full of water! This was probably the most time consuming option but worked fine. Once everything was dry I put it on a hanger and misted it with some water. Once the items dried they were no longer static cling issues.
2. Changed settings on my dryer! On our dry you can set the dryer sensor to shut off at more dry, normal or less dry. I normally have it set to normal so I switched it to less dry and this kept all the shirts from drying completely so I didn't have to stand there misting them all :-) the only problem with this is that if I had jeans in the load I'd have to throw them back in and let them dry completely because I fold up all the kids jeans and they go in drawers and when hung up to finish drying they're stiff. So then I had to start sorting all the shirts from pants while not a big deal this added another step to my never ending washing.
3. White distilled vinegar as a fabric softener! I started using vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser in the washer and everything comes out of the dryer soft, fluffy and no static.

So while I'm still using the dryer balls I have now added white vinegar to our laundry routine because unlike commercial fabric softeners it doesn't coat the machine so I don't have to worry about residue that may or may not get on our cloth diapers.

i must have been in total denial

so today I got on the scale and weighed myself just like I do every few days just to see how much I weigh (because I have this morbid obsession to make my self depressed lol) and today it reads 169.8 lbs so I'm thinking that's good so far I've only gained 10 lbs (followed by a mental high-five) even though 3 days ago it was 170.6 I'm happy it momentarily dropped below again lol So I get in the shower and am scrubbing away all happy as a clam when it hits me. Before I got pregnant I weighed 155 lbs and from all the morning sickness I dropped down to 149 lbs! Now I'm freaking out! OMG!! How the heck did this happen?? How did I put on 20 lbs and not even register it in my baby fogged up brain (this kid better be super smart with all my brain juices it's sucking away lol) because I'm sure if in my fuddled brain I had realized I jumped up 13ish lbs in 2 weeks I would have been more worried earlier. I was seriously trying to only gain 20 lbs this pregnancy and I still have 13 weeks left :-O I repeat how in the heck did this happen?? and where was I during all this (probably to busy stuffing my face to notice lol)?

A trip to the ER

We spent 3 hrs in the ER today trying to get my heart rate back down to it's normal 100 beats per min. I've always been told I have an irregular heart beat by every new dr I see none have ever said I needed to see a cardiologist until today. I have had episodes before where I can just be sitting on the sofa and my heart rate just goes through the roof to something like 180 beats/min. but as soon as I lay flat it's like someone flips and switch and it goes back to beating normal. I've spoken to drs before about it had to wear a heart monitor halter thing for 24 hrs before and never anything further. Well I got up this morning and while sitting on the toilet bam my heart starts going like crazy so I finished my business and went and layed back down thinking it'd right it's self in no more than a min. Well 10 min later no luck so i went up stairs and got my DH's blood pressure cuff thing to check my bp since I wanted to know if maybe this was causing the issue since on a normal day I have borderline low bp. It said I was 117/78 with a heart rate of 188. So I informed DH and just took it easy laying on the sofa then back on my bed because when I was up right I had serious problems breathing. I hadn't felt the baby move all morning so I checked him with my fetal doppler and he was doing great, but after an hour of this I decided it was time to call my OB the on call guy said to get to the ER. So off we went! Once we got into the ER they hooked me up to the EKG machine and then put in a huge IV line oh my lord I hate IVs and this one was the biggest one I've ever gotten! While hooked up to the EKG machine we could watch my heart rate and the kids had fun cheering and being disappointed every time it'd go back up. At one point it was up to 220!! So they started off with Vagal Maneuvers. These are non-pharmaceutical techniques used to try and slow the heart rate. First the nurse had me hold my breath and strain like I'm pooing (she felt the need to thrown in just don't poo on my bed....yeah I'll try not to) this didn't work at all. So we tried coughing and that did nothing. So on to the really fun stuff. She brought in a bucket full of ice and water and had me stick my face down in it until I needed to breath it did nothing but freeze my face. Then she dumped all that ice and water in a big back and pulled my gown down off my chest, covered the rest of me with some blankets and stuck the bag on my chest. While Gary and the nurse said it was working (but only worked while the bag was on my chest as soon as she removed it my heart rate when right back up) I started crying because it hurt and I couldn't breath. Little did I know the next step would hurt worse. The nurse said the next option was medicine. So she left and came back with some stuff and turned to Gary and said maybe you want to take the kids down to our kitchen and get them some drinks or snacks. This is the moment I started to freak out a bit cuz I knew she only said that so the kids wouldn't be there in the room. So he and the kids left and 7 different ER Drs and nurses came into the room to "watch" while they gave me this medicine. The medicine was like someone crushed the life out of me slowly going from my neck down to my pelvic area and it lasted the first time about 6 seconds. The first dose had very little effect so they gave me another dose and I swear the second dose lasted more like 20 seconds. I cried after the first dose and bawled like a little baby after the second and I swear I had contractions too. I prayed that my baby didn't feel that like I did because that would have been horrible. The second dose got my heart rate down to 120 so enough with that drug and they gave me some kinda blood pressure medicine that was supposed to help bring my heart rate back down the rest of the way. Which by the time we were leaving it was back down to 105.
The dr came in to discharge me and said I have Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia (PSVT) and I need to follow up with a cardiologist this week. He wanted to start me off on a low dose Beta blocker but once he said it would lower my BP I had to tell him I normally have low BP so that's not good because I'd be passing out left and right. So we left with the directions that if it happens again and if it doesn't right it's self to come back to the ER! Yay :-( I hope after seeing a cardiologist we have some what of a better game plan. I'd love to stick around this place for at least 50 more yrs :-)

Going "Poo Free"!!

So the ever curious person I am who's willing to try just about anything once (with in my limits because yes even I have limits) thought I'd give this a try to see if I liked it. By now your probably still wondering "what is she going on about? How do you go poo free?" Well most likely your thinking the wrong kinda poo! lol I'm talking about sham"poo" not "poo"poo!!
That's right and no I'm just not washing my hair that's yucky and I'd have dreads and I'm pretty sure my dear hubby would kick me out of our bed. Basically you use baking soda (BS) as your shampoo and apple cider vinegar (ACV) as your conditioner.
Baking soda helps remove natural oil build up with out stripping and removes the residue that styling products leave behind so your hair is cleaner and more manageable. Apple Cider Vinegar benefits as a conditioner are its acidity is close to that of natural hair and it's also an effective germ killer. From what people say there is a hair detox period of kinda manky oily hair for a few weeks. So in trying to avoid that phase as much as possible I have not been using any products in my hair for the past 3 weeks (to be honest this isn't hard for me I don't normally use products besides shampoo and conditioner) and have been washing my hair only 1 or 2 times a weeks. I was pleasantly surprised that my once a week washing hair routine didn't already cause me to have an oil slick for a head since I normally wash it every single day! The only thing I'm really slightly worried about at this point is 1. my hair color. yes pink is not my natural color or any other color that's on top of my hair at any given time but I'm not super worried about the color because I can always fix it :-) and 2. having a greasy head!! I touch my head probably over 100 times a day.  It's just my thing I like rubbing my scalp and when my hair and scalp feel manky I can't stand it!! So time to get started!!
On 11/11 I mixed up 2 different cups for my shower! In 1 I mixed 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 cup warm water and the other 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 1 cup warm water. I dumped the BS mixture on my head rubbed it in for a full minute then rinsed. My hair did not feel clean at all lol. It felt oily but I went ahead and finished up. I dumped the ACV mixture in rubs it in and let it set for a min. My hair still did not feel clean but what do I know maybe my idea of "clean" is wrong. So I got out the shower and blow dried my hair. My hair does not look oily but it feels oilyish to me.
11/12 my hair still feels the same and looks the same to me as yesterday. I'll probably wash it with the BS and ACV tomorrow and maybe make the BS mixture a little stronger but not sure I'll have to think about it over night I guess. So far I'm not really impressed or unimpressed with it but I will give it more time. Supposedly once your scalp gets used to the BS and ACV wash you only need to do it once a week and have amazing hair. That would be awesome!
11/13 so I added a little more BS and my hair still feels "funny" to me lol but hubby says it doesn't look oily or feel funny to him so I guess i'm going to keep trucking along with this.
11/14 no washing it today it feels so nasty to me and kinda is slicked down to my head but still doesn't look oily. ugh I'm really finding it hard to not wash it with shampoo lol
11/15 bought a natural bristle brush today it kinda helped it not feel so yucky just got my hair wet in the shower nothing else to it today
11/16 my hair still feels the same...yucky...but no time to do anything to it today didn't even get it wet in the shower (today was one of those mornings where I just wanted to scream but settled for crying) but tomorrow is a new day and if I get around to it I'm bleaching my hair. I'm think this will most likely get my hair to not feel yucky anymore because it will probably strip all the oil back out but eh I got to color my hair!! I'm just a bit worried about the combo of using BS after coloring and maybe not all color being washed out. It makes me a bit nervous but I will just rinse really really well before dumping the BS mixture on (hopefully my entry tomorrow wont read scalp burns or hair loss :-O)
11/17 well the coloring went great no explosions and I stayed poo free
11/18 no washing today
11/19 I washed with BS with 2 drops of Tea Tree Oil (TTO) and  rinsed with ACV I love the smell of TTO and it's great for my itchy scalp/eczema
11/20 no washing today and am going to try and go 2 more days with out washing it but will rinse it with water in the shower
11/21 didn't take a shower at all today since all we were going to do was clean and reorganize the garage and work in the back yard lol but I will be taking a shower first thing in the morning just not going to wash my hair.
11/22 just rinse and go
11/23 I did a deep condition with Coconut oil infused with some Lavender Essential Oil followed by washing with BS w/TTO and rinse with ACV then i put some more coconut oil in my hair before drying it to help with my less than stellar ends and let me tell you a little goes a long ways my hair looked like a cow snotted all over my head but it didn't feel like that it actually felt pretty nice and light not heavy and thick like it looked (none the less I was happy I had no where to go with my hair looking like that)
11/24 washed it again today to get rid of the cow snot look :-) this time I waited till my hair was dry and used a little coconut oil on my ends and it looks much better today

over all I'm very happy so far with going poo free and will continue on this journey of going a bit greener with my personal care :-)

*UPDATE*
12/1/10 ok so I'm giving up on going poo free because my hair I think is just too fried. It's breaking off so I'm going back to normal stuff to try and revive my hair. Maybe when my hair is a bit healthier I will try this again because it was awesome until I stripped the color out of my hair. So I'm not giving up just going to try it at a different time :-)

The Oil Cleansing Facewash Method

So I read about how this was an awesome alternative to buying commercial face washes and it's a much healthier alternative for your skin. I am using Castor Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil and Tea Tree Oil. Castor Oil has potent anti-inflammatory properties, but is also healing and cleansing. Sunflower Seed Oil sinks into the skin better, aiding the Castor oil in transportation deep into the pores and allowing it to draw the dirt and grime to the surface of your skin where it can be wiped away. The essential fatty acids, though they are not naturally occurring in the body, are a necessity for the health of our cell membranes. These acids help restore the skins natural moisture balance and help prevent unnecessary dryness. Tea Tree Oil has beneficial medical properties when applied topically, including antiseptic, antibacterial, anti fungal,and antiviral action.

I mixed:
1 oz Castor Oil
2 oz Sunflower Seed Oil
0.1 ml of Tea Tree Oil

I used about a quarter size amount. I poured it into my hand and rubbed it together to heat it up. I massaged it in for a good i don't know 5 minutes. While doing this I let my sink fill up with hot water and stuck a wash cloth in it. After the 5 minute mini massage was done I wrung out the wash cloth and set it on my face to let the steam open my pores. I did this twice. Then I wiped my face down probably 3 times with the water and patted dry with a towel. My face didn't feel oily at all which I had expected since I was washing with oils. Instead it felt soft and velvety definitely not what I'm used to feeling after I wash my face. It normally feels dry and taut. I followed up with like the smallest of micro bits of Coconut Oil as my face lotion. So far I'm loving how my skin looks and feels just after this one go! :-) I'll add an update after using for 2 weeks.

*UPDATE* 12/30/10 my skin is doing great! I will never wash my face with anything else ever again! I haven't had really any break outs (like maybe 4 zits since i started using this and that like how many I used to get in 2 days) my pores are smaller and i have less black heads. They aren't all 100% gone but it's a vast improvement!

I even went out and got a fancy looking bottle for my new face wash!

(looks high dollar now doesn't it lol)

In this bottle now is:

3 oz Castor Oil

6 oz Sunflower Oil

15 drops Eucalyptus Oil

20 drops Tea Tree Oil

and unless my skin changes for some reason this is all that will ever be in this bottle. I love the smell of it too :-)