Body Butter

Because it is winter lips chap, skin dries, and you are in need of lotion.  I have had a lot of lotion given to me over the years for birthdays and Christmas, but my favorite has always been Delcon+ Body Butter.  I received them last year for Christmas, all four of them, Vanilla, Mango, Olive, and Coconut plus two lip balms flavored Mango and Vanilla.  Usually I received lotion from bath and body works, and though they do smell good my skin feels dry within an hour of application.  I recommend this type of lotion because it smells amazing, and you can feel a difference when you first put it on.  The only issue i have had is when you first apply it, wait a little bit before putting a blanket over yourself or sitting down because it can rub off a bit (or avoid that just by using a little less lotion). These you can get at Ulta for only thirty dollars with an added strawberry and orange smelling lotion. On Ulta these lotions have a rating of four point seven. This can also just be a gift for someone, or even multiple gifts if you split the lotions up!  The lotion is very creamy but firm in the bottle all of the lotion is white, with a tint of color relating to its smell. For example the olive body butter has a slight green tint to it and the mango an orange tint. For me out of the vanilla, mango, olive, and coconut the coconut smells best, but all together they solve problems of dry skin while keeping you smelling great!

Glitter Jar

I noticed that there has been a lot of tutorials on glitter jars, so looking around I found a small glass jar and decided to do a tutorial too!  Normally you can find a jar around your house, and since it probably contained some food at one point it will have a label on it.  I've always had a hard time trying to get labels off jars, but I found a fairly easy way to completely remove the label!

First fill the jar with the hottest water that you can get, but if your jar is cold because it might have been outside, wait until it warms up a bit before you put steaming hot water into the jar, otherwise it will break. After you have left the water in the jar for about ten minutes, try and peel off the label, while this won't completely remove the label it helps the adhesive turn into a liquid. After this, to get rid of the rest of the label take a paper towel or cotton ball, put some nail polish remover on it and rub off the rest of the label, it should come off pretty fast! If this method still doesn't work, heat your glass jar in a microwave for about thirty seconds, then pull out the jar with a hot pad and wipe the adhesive off with a paper towel, guaranteed to work!
For glue I used a cheap brand called Mod Podge, found at Walmart, and gold sparkles that were also found at Walmart.  In your jar pour in two parts glitter, one part glue, there aren't any specific measurements, just eyeball it and add more if when you turn your jar upside down (a couple steps later) the glue and glitter mix doesn't reach the top of the jar.  Adding more is very easy, just make sure that when you do, you still have the two to one glitter to glue ratio and you still mix it up until the sparkles aren't so sparkly any more that they have been smothered in glue.
After mixing together your glue and glitter, turn your jar upside down allowing the mix to run all over the inside of the jar, make sure you put your bottle over a plastic plate and lift it up every once and a while so it doesn't stick. Wait twenty four to forty eight hours for your jar to dry.
When you are done turn your jar upside down over a trash bin and shake it a little bit, allowing loose bits of sparkles to fall out before you place objects inside your jar. You may have a couple "bald spots" on your jar where the glue did not reach, if that occurs you can dab a little glue inside the jar on the bald spot and put sparkle in the jar once more, shaking them to make sure they reach the glue. After this you will have to wait another twenty for hours insuring that the glue has dried. Now that your jar is finished you can give it to someone as a gift (since Christmas is right around the corner), or use it your self as a pencil holder, or a makeup brush holder.
Happy Holidays!

Crayon Art

For a fun, crafty blog I decided to explore the art of crayons. 
I started out by laying a large, plastic mat on my floor, then taped a regular piece of paper onto the mat.  Make sure to tape under the paper not on top of it, otherwise the crayon will come off with the tape.  I found a large number of crayons, but you really just need one crayon for each color you want to include on your paper, (I used roygbiv).  Using a small blow dryer I took a red crayon, peeled off the paper, and held it over the corner of the paper.  Angle the blow dryer at about forty-five degrees and wait for the crayon to start melting. Make sure you spread the crayon's splatter all across the paper. 
When adding colors hold the new color over the splatter of the last color.  Do this because the crayon won't drip exactly where you place it, so to avoid white spots account for this difference. 
This only takes about twenty minutes, and for my first attempt, it turned out well! There are many ways to experiment with crayon art, every time you do crayon art the results will be different, so keep making art!

Bobby Pin Pearls

Instead of using regular bobby pins for an up-do it can be a lot more interesting and unique if you use pearls! It can be very easy to attach a pearl (fake of course) to a bobby pin. 
All you need are bobby pins, (which you can find at any drugstore), beads meant to resemble pearls, and wire (both of which can be found at Micheal's for a reasonable price). It is very important that you get the right kind of wire for this. It can't be too flexible or it won't stay, and you also don't want too thick of a wire. I use The Bead Smith, Craft Wire tarnish resistant, but you can use multiple types of wire, just remember, not too thin, but just enough to hold a shape on its own.
First cut about two inches of wire, and string it through the pearl.  Make the pearl stay in the middle of the wire and place the pearl on top of the bobby pin's end, then going underneath the top bobby pin wire, put each wire under the bobby pin until the wire runs out.  A little confusing, but if you try to wrap the wire around the end curve of the bobby pin the pearl will stay in the same place.
 If you are using a lot of bobby pins, using different sizes of pearls on your bobby pins looks a lot more interesting in your up-do. If you are having trouble with looping the wire through the bobby pin continuously you can buy jewelry pliers which make it a lot easier! This will add some interest to your hair, and once you get the hang of it, they are pretty easy to make!
Good Luck!

Easy French Manicure

An extremely popular nail style, the french manicure, is hard to create yourself, and expensive to buy.  I have used various methods trying to create a clean french manicure, and most have either taken too long or have turned out sloppy and unpolished. Finally I have a successful method.  For a small price, and about forty minutes of your time you too can create an easy, clean french manicure.
I found these circular stickers at Walmart for about two dollars. I cut three of them in half, one for each nail, so I left the extra half on the sticker sheet. I then placed the half circle in the middle of my nail, making sure they were all completely flat. The sticker on my thumb wasn't wide enough to cover the whole nail, but I will talk about how that can be fixed later.
Now with all circles firmly on your nails, choose whatever color, (usually white is used), and paint the top half of your nail.  Apply at least two coats, make sure they are even, not too thick/heavy.
Wait at least fifteen minutes before you peel off the half circles so that you don't accidentally take some nail polish off too.

To clean up your nail use acetone. Pour a little bit of acetone into a small container, (I use a shot glass, it works perfectly), and use a small nail brush. I purchased the MAC nail brush kit which has every kind of brush I need! Dip the brush into the acetone and run it under the white nail polish to make the manicure more clean, I do this for my thumb nail since the sticker doesn't cover the whole nail, I have to shape the edges of the manicure.
To finish off the manicure I used Orly's "Won't Chip" top coat nail polish, your nails will last longer and look a lot better with a bit of shine!

Christmas Bracelet

Starting with a “Lobster clasp” from Michael’s, attach it to a medium curb, Beadalon silver chain, also found at Michaels’s.  Measure the chain by wrapping it around your wrist, leaving a little extra to make a looser bracelet (for me that’s about seven and a half inches).

You may also attach the single hoop at the end of the bracelet, or simply use one of the chains for the clasp instead.

Next take two strings of three different colors, (I used green, red, and white because it’s Christmas).  I didn’t know how much string I would need so I measured thirty inches just in case. Tie each string to the first link in the chain with a simple half knot, twice.  To make sure that the string didn’t slip use Aleene’s Jewelry and Metal glue and apply a small amount to the ends of each string tied onto the first link.  The glue takes a couple of minutes to dry and be very careful to not get any glue on your skin!

Taking the six strands of string, braid a regular braid away from the chain. Stop every couple twists make sure that the bottom of the strings remain untangled, otherwise you will end up with a huge knot, (speaking from personal experience).

Continue the braid until you reach the end of at least one of the strings, at that point; cut the ends of all the strings so they are all the same length.  Glue all of these ends together carefully.  Now taking the chain and your string braid, wrap them around each other until you reach the end of the chain, once you have done this go back up the chain with the braid, covering large spots of silver chaine that you may have missed going down the silver chain with the string braid.

Now that you have wrapped the braid around the chain down and up use the glue to secure the string braid on the silver chain. When you finally attach the string to the chain use more glue then before, if it becomes unraveled it ruins the whole bracelet.

Looking at the finished product, I would still recommend a thirty inch string length in order to go down and up the chain, though if you want more of the silver chain to show, just use fifteen inches.

Happy Holidays!

Red and Gold Christmas Nails

Since Christmas is only a few weeks away, I decided to do a blog on Christmas themed nails.  I will do a variety of patterns using an OPI red color, and another OPI nail polish, a sparkly gold with a pink hue in it.  I also used NYC nail polish for a top coat of clear sparkles.

I started with the red OPI color on my thumb, the first coat dried in two minutes so I applied a second coat. When that coat dried I used the NYC clear sparkles top coat.

I used the red OPI nail polish again for my next nail.  Applying two coats and letting them dry before making a polka dot pattern. Taking a pin and a regular pencil with some of the eraser left on the top I stuck the pin through the eraser to make a dotting tool. This creates little dots and allows me to reach farther into the nail polish bottle.  I arranged the dots in a diagonal pattern on the nail rather than in a random order.

For the next nail I did a diagonal stripe pattern using strips of scotch tape. I cut three small strips of tape, (trying to all of them the same size), and placed them diagonally across my nail. I then used the OPI red nail polish and painted the entire nail. I waited ten minutes to make sure the polish was completely dry before carefully taking off the tape. Using the pin on top of the pencil I filled in the strips with the gold nail polish, carefully dotting and trying to fill in the strips as best as possible without running onto the red.

For my ring finger I used the OPI gold sparkles, applying two coats to the whole nail, let it dry, then used the red nail polish and the dotter to make one line at the top of the nail of small dots.

For my last nail I did half and half.  I used the scotch tape to cover half the nail diagonally, and then painted the red nail polish on the bottom half of the nail. I didn’t use the dotter, only the nail polish brush to paint on the gold polish on the top half of the nail.

This only took me about forty minutes, though this is just for one hand so the process of painting all my nails would probably take over an hour. If I did it over again I would forget about using the NYC sparkles on my thumb nail, but it doesn’t look so bad.

Merry Christmas!

Euca-what? Euca-lyptus!

Farmers markets are places to find unique items.  You expect to buy vegetables or homemade items there but sometimes find other options such as bath salts. At one of the farmers markets I went to I found a small array of bath salts called Jeanne's Bath Salts. I'd never tried them before so I decided to buy a bottle.  I ended up buying Eucalyptus bath salts.  In the bottle they are particularly strong smelling, but I thought the smell would be less once they dissolved in water.  Bath salts are supposed to relax and smooth muscles through their scent.  
I filled a tub with hot water and took only a pinch of the Eucalyptus bath salts dropping them into the water.  The salts did give off a strong smell, but wasn't as strong as the smell of them in the bottle.  I stayed in the bath for about half an hour and had to get out because it was too strong of a smell and gave me a bit of a headache. It might have been the wrong kind of bath salts, homemade might have a more pungent smell than some of the manufactured salts, but that kind wasn't very relaxing.  I believe that some salts may work, but I'd be sure that you like the smell of the salts before you buy it.

Exploding Nail Effect

Start by using nail polish remover on your nails. Even if you don’t have nail polish on, still wipe on the remover to take off some of the natural oils that reside on your fingernails in order to let the polish apply in a more even way and allow the polish to stay on longer.

Since you want all your nails to be the same length, trim your nails to get rid of uneven edges.  Next take a nail file, (I like to use glass ones), to smooth or shape your nail.  You can file your nail to make a rounded or square finish. File your nail from the outside to the center, never using a sawing motion, but only filing in one direction, the sawing motion can break and/or weaken the nail.

Next I took a small, shallow bowl of warm water and added some dove soap to it.  Taking one hand and placing it in the bowl, I made sure to immerse all of fingertips. I left that hand soaking for about 5 minutes.  Doing this softens the nail bed which you then push back with a cuticle stick back to the edge of the nail.  This process is repeated with the other hand.

Once the nail beds are pushed back and the nails are completely dry, take a clear base coat such as Orly Base Coat and place a thin layer over all nails. This provides a better a smooth surface for the polish to stick to, helping the color last longer and protects nails from becoming stained by the colored polish.  Don’t paint any more until the clear coat has fully dried. 

The color I used is Essie’s Chubby Cheeks, a dark peach colored polish.  The best way I’ve found to apply polish is to first place a drop of paint at the bottom of the nail, just above the cuticle, directly in the center.  The drop of paint must be enough to cover your whole nail, let the drop pool slightly.  Next you use the three stripe rule.  Dip the brush in the drop of paint and brush upwards in a straight line through the center of the nail, all the way to the tip. For the second stroke return the brush to the paint at the bottom of the nail and follow the curve along the bottom of the nail to the left, all the way to the tip.  Do this stripe again to the right side of the nail. This should establish a thin coat of paint.  If you need to do another layer wait until the nail polish is fully dried. 

For the stripes on the nail I used Essie’s Haute As Hello and a brush from Mash nail brushes packet.  Carefully dip the thin brush into the nail polish, careful not to get too much on forming a droplet.  With just a little of the polish start at the right corner of the nail and drag the brush towards the left corner of the nail.  Repeat this process carefully, stopping to clean the brushes every two or three strokes in acetone, which can be found at practically any grocery store. When you continue the strokes drag them in all directions on the nail, still starting from the right bottom corner. This creates an effect I like to think of as an “explosion”. 

After the strokes fully dry use a top base coat to seal the nail polish in, and prevent chipping.  One option is to use Orly’s Polished three in one topcoat.

Mint Julep Face Mask

Sometimes face masks can be fairly expensive and not very effective. One of my favorites is Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque. Its the type of mask that dries on your face, and smells good, a lot like mint.  I got mine from the Sally Hansen store, it is twelve ounces and cost only about four dollars.  It has a thick consistency, when I first tried it I found the masque very cooling as soon as I spread it around.  Since I have little desire to appear like a teal smurf in front of my peers, I will demonstrate how I apply the masque, and the effects of the masque by using my ten year old brother, Alex as an example (it actually wasn't that hard to convince him).  To prevent Alex's bangs from sticking in the masque I put a headband on him and clipped the rest of his hairs away from his face.

Next I took a small amount of the masque and with two fingers spread the masque first on Alex's forehead, then cheeks, chin, and nose. I tried to make sure that all skin was covered, excluding eyebrows and general area around the eyes.
After 8 minutes the masque started to dry and crack around the edges of the mask, around the nose, edges of the eyes and forehead. As the masque starts to dry it becomes uncomfortable to smile, (as Alex noticed while we watched The Big Bang Theory and Despicable Me together).
It's important not to touch the masque when it is still wet, and you will be able to tell if the masque is wet if it has a smooth, darker teal color than the parts of the mask that are dry.  The thicker the layer of masque the longer it will take to dry, for Alex's sake I put a fairly thin layer on.


When the masque has all dried wash it off with warm water, it will be a bit harder to wash off.  I used our kitchen sink to wash off Alex's face, and some water got into his hair so that takes care of his weekly shower. Alex said that his face was "a little smoother, but still has bumps on it," so if you're a ten year old boy with bumps on your face, this might not be the product for you, unless of course, you want a smooth face.

half-up side braids

  French braids can be used in multiple ways. traditionally they pull all the hair together in the back, but today I am going to demonstrate how a side french braid can be extremely easy and something better than just pulling back your hair in a ponytail.

I started with the section of my hair that has part. taking the top layer of about half the hair I started a normal braid, then started adding small sections of hair back into the braid (normal french braid) this time i only used the hair from the section I started with, not pulling in hair from anywhere else so i got a continuous french braid down the left side of my face.  After I finished the section of the french braid I continued to braid normally until i had about 2 inches left of hair.  Before tying my hair off I made sure to include a little extra, allowing me to pull the braid a little loose. To do this I took the sides of the normal braid and pulled a little strand out, making the braid a little bigger, and the sides wider in diameter. Doing this just adds some more detail to a regular braid, making it more interesting.
After pulling out pieces from the regular braid I took both of my finger and thumbs and separated the stands in the french braid also, again just making a looser braid.
Once I have this braid done (which only took about 3 minutes to complete) I moved on to the other side of my hair, repeating my process on the first french braid. Again I pulled out strands from each side of the braid and french braid. Now with these two braids I pulled them to the back of my head and secured them with an elastic band, found in drugstores/grocery stores.
 To finish it off I used a 1 inch con air curling iron, and loosely wrapped strands around its barrel for about 10 sec each just creating small, loose waves. Since my hair is thick this took about half an hour to curl all my hair and make sure they stay.  After I finished curling I took Herbal essences tousling styling cream and only using a dime-sized amount, spread it over my hands and ran them through my hair, holding handfuls of hair at a time, then flipping it over and starting from the roots, scrunched my hair down to the ends.
All together this probably took about forty minutes (not including the time to stop and take pictures for the blog). One alternative to curling hair is using the tousling styling cream right after you shower and lightly towel dry your hair, you can take some of the cream and scrunch your hair, creating a wavy hair style in the morning that makes it a lot less time-consuming when you skip curling. Another use for the styling cream is for fixing stray hairs, especially the ones that tend to occur right around the front of the part.

Organix Moroccan Argan oil

While waiting for the pure Argan oil to arrive, I bought an inexpensive product that contained Argan oil.  I found a 3.3 fluid ounce bottle at Walmart for $5.99. I have used it for over a week and have to say I really like it!  Your hair smells like the Moroccan oil, (which is a smell I love), and makes it noticeable easier to untangle.  I use the oil every other day, so that my oil  won't look greasy from overuse of the oil.  Right after I shower I towel dry my hair thoroughly, then take a dime-sized amount of the Moroccan Argan Oil and rub all over the palms of my hands.  I then run my hands through my hair, scrunching my hair and moving towards the ends.  Next I flip my hair over and do the same as I did the first time, but I simply start from the back of my neck and move towards the ends.  To dry my hair off some more and take out some excess oil I take a warm towel and twist my hair in it for about a thirty minutes until i unravel my hair and go to bed.  I have thick hair, and even the small amount of Moroccan oil does a lot for me.  If you have thin hair, I wouldn't use as much, start with a little, then if you feel like you didn't get it all over your hair, add just a little more until you do. Don't overuse the Moroccan Argan oil, there's a reason that the bottle is small, a lot goes a long way.  I am very happy with the Organix Moroccan Argan Oil, for such a small price it makes your hair smell great, and smoothes it a lot!