In which I make a fool of myself...

via allposters.com

In case you all haven't noticed, I'm a little bit of a do-it-yourselfer. Especially when it comes to my beauty routine. While I do own a LOT of toiletries (see the proof here) I still love to dabble in making my own. Usually this turns out great, or at least okay, but every now and then I do something really stupid that leaves me wondering "why did I think this was a good idea?" Well, yesterday was one of those times.

Let me preface this by saying that I have super dry and rough feet. My feet are like two little (okay, not so little) lotion-eaters. I put lotion on them, and they're dry an hour later. I put heavy duty foot cream on them, and they're dry two hours later. It's pretty ridiculous just how dry my feet are. Now that it's sandal season, I figured I really need to try and do something about it, which is when I remembered back to February when I tried out the honey facial mask. The mask itself is super simple- smear honey all over your face and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before rinsing it off. Honey is supposed to soften, calm, and moisturize tortured skin, which in my experience it does pretty well. And since I had a bear bottle of honey lying around anyway, I thought "why not try it on my feet?"

So after my shower (and lots of foot-scrubbing action) I plopped down on my couch with my bear bottle and squeezed honey all over my feet. Feeling pretty genius, I popped open one of my magazines to pass the time. It wasn't until 20 minutes later when I decided it was about time to wash the mask off that it occurred to me...

The bathroom was all the way down the hall and I had HONEY on my FEET.

Oops. I ended up weighing my options for a few minutes: get sticky honey all over my carpet (and no doubt pick up some cat hair on the way) or look ridiculous and scootch/crawl to the bathroom while trying to keep my feet away from the floor. I chose the latter. Thank goodness I don't have roommates (other than Tigger, who is always giving me funny looks anyway).

The good news is that the honey mask did make my feet feel a lot better. They're still dry, but they're a lot smoother and not threatening to freak out and crack anymore. So I might try this whole honey foot mask thing again, but next time I'll be keeping something to wash my feet off next to me on the couch.

Happy weekend everyone!

PS: If someone has a great foot cream recommendation, definitely share. Because my feet are eating mine like it's breakfast.

Feeling Crafty: DIY Pillows

via Bliss

For awhile I've been toying with the idea of getting my own fabric to make simple square pillows for my couch. This is partially due to the fact that actually buying pillows is entirely to expensive, and partially because of super cute fabrics that I keep finding on Etsy. One of my current faves is this pusswillow fabric from cicadastudio's shop. Wouldn't it look great on a light green couch (like, ahem, mine).

Anybody actually made their own pillows before? Where do you get your fabric?

Kitchen Beauty: Super Simple DIY Scrubs

Honey poster from Paul Blundell via allposters

Remember back in February when I admitted being on a total DIY kick? Well, I'm still obsessed.

I blame the spending hiatus.

At any rate, over the weekend I tried two super simple scrub recipes that I got off of this article.

The honey lip scrub is just 1 tsp each of olive oil and honey, 2 tsp of granulated sugar, and a dash of lemon juice. I got my lemon juice from a lemon I had lying around, but I'm sure bottled juice would work fine (as long as it has citric acid). I mixed everything together in a teeny bowl and rubbed over my lips with a finger. My lips came away flake free and SO soft, and I didn't even feel like I needed to put balm on them, which is a miracle in the winter. Plus, the scrub is actually kind of yummy if you get some in your mouth, unlike some store bought kinds I've tried, and it's very gentle. If you have sensitive skin, maybe omit the lemon juice at first, though.

The hand and foot sugar scrub is something my mom told me about ages ago, except that I (of course) never listened to her. It's the simplest thing in the world: equal parts granulated sugar and olive oil. That's it! The website above says a tablespoon of each to scrub hands and feet with. I actually mixed up a quarter cup of each, threw in a little extra sugar for more scrubbing power, and took it into the shower with me (in an empty container I had lying around). The scrub was wonderful not only for my hands and feet, but my parched and flaky legs and lower back. The sugar gets rid of flakes, and the olive oil moisturizes. Unlike some of the store-bought scrubs I have tried, this didn't sting my skin or disappear on contact. It was super gentle but effective, and the sugar dissolved right away in water when I was done. It did smell a bit like a french fry, but you could throw in some essential oils for scent if that bothers you. The smell did not linger after the shower, though the softness did.

Word of warning: olive oil will make the bottom of your shower VERY slippery, so be careful not to wipe out like I almost did. It will also be slippery the next day too if you don't wipe it up. You have been warned.

So there you have it- two more easy homemade beauty products to try out, and you probably already have the ingredients in your cupboard.

Anybody else tried a kitchen beauty recipe? Did it work? Spill your secrets!

Design Idea: Framed Magazine Clippings

I loved this idea from Apartment Therapy: clip out magazine photos that inspire you and frame them for inexpensive art. I already have a huge collection of magazine ads and pictures that I just fell in love with and I wanted to make an inspiration board with them, but I balked at the idea because I felt it would make my place look too cluttered (a huge problem in my tiny apartment). But with this, I could arrange a collection of pictures in different frames and it's like an inspiration board/art display. It's such a simple idea, I can't believe I didn't think of it before.

Has anybody else made an inspiration board before? Or am I the only one out there who collects magazine photos I like?

Honey Facial Mask Review

via allposters.com

This post is super late today because I had a ridiculously hectic day. Nevertheless, I promised you all a review on my honey facial mask yesterday and here it is.

The concept of the mask was simple: smear honey all over your face, let it dry, wash it off. According to the folks on MUA it would make my skin soft, radiant, even pimple-free. Yes, please! My skin was threatening to freak out on Sunday night after I neglected to wash my makeup off the night before, stayed up late, and downed a bunch of sugar and caffeine because it was Valentines Day, eeps. I decided a calming honey mask might just be what my skin needed.

I started out by washing my face with a mild cleanser. I use Clinique's liquid facial soap in mild but anything gentle should work. I didn't dry my face all the way after washing, since honey on dry skin didn't seem like it would work very well. I was a bit skeptical about how I would like having honey on my face because I thought it would feel really heavy, but it just felt a bit "tight" like most facial masks do. It really helped to apply it with your fingertips in a circular pattern to sort of "massage" it on (think of how they would do it at a spa). I definitely had to pull my hair back for this part, there is no way you want to get your hair in honey, and I would also suggest avoiding the eyebrows unless you want a sticky mess.

After applying I kicked back for 15 minutes until I felt the mask was a little bit "dry" though it was definitely still sticky. You could probably leave it on your face longer, but I was impatient. I hopped in the shower and steamed it up a bit before splashing water on my face and the honey came right off! No huge sticky honey removal mess, which is what I had been really afraid of. I rinsed all the honey off with water, then patted my face dry and dabbed a bit of sensitive-skin moisturizer on my cheeks.

The results when I got out of the shower were really nice, though not earth-shattering. No, my pimples did not suddenly disappear. No, there was not a halo of light emitting from my face. But my skin definitely felt softer and looked more even. I'm not sure about radiant, but it looked less ashey and beat-up. And the best part was that the breakout I was SURE would come never did. Could it be the honey that helped? I think so. It really made my skin look and feel a lot more calm, and sooo soft!

So, in summary:

• Honey is (naturally) a sticky mess, but applying on a damp face will help a lot.
• Wait 15-20 minutes before rinsing, then use lots of water to get it off. I found a shower worked better than hovering over the sink with honey on my face.
• There is little risk of irritation it seems. My skin is somewhat sensitive and it was perfectly fine with the honey, both while it was on and after I washed it off. Some of the ladies on MUA did report reactions though, so definitely wash it off if you feel burning/itching or start to look irritated. Or do a skin patch test first. At any rate, I had no problems and the honey felt like it actually decreased the irritation in my cheeks.
  
• The results probably won't rock your world- but you skin will look a wee bit nicer. And with repeated use? Who knows? It's totally worth the cost of a $3 bear jar.

via mejier.com

PS: I know there was some talk on the internet about whether it was alright to use regular processed honey for this, or if you needed to go organic. My honey literally came from a bear jar like the one above, and was Target brand. Perhaps there are more benefits to organic honey, but I didn't have easy access to any so I didn't bother. The store brand seemed to work perfectly fine. If anyone has tried organic honey and noticed a difference though, definitely share. :)