FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE BATHROOM

 We had a Firday night off! And totally luxury nowadays is not tikidrinks at the dance floor but the joy of having gotten some jobs done, and not having to do anything in particular for one night.
Went out to the countryside and lit all cadres and lights in the early autumn night.

Rolled my hair for next day (you just can't have that many days or nights off in a row...). I have found that these - the Rockin' Rollers - are the best ones for me to use when rolling my hair the night before. They are soft and easy to sleep on.

 Spa'd it up with some candles int he bathroom.


Made a fruit salad. (I had some chocolate too but that was eaten already by the time of this picture).

 And got to try out these bath truffles I got from Estonian natural cosmetics brand Joik. The good thing with oils and cocoa butter in your bath is you don't get dry afterwards at all.
But you kind of wish you could eat these, right? They look so yummy!

nd then finally time for a bath! I'm happy to have a tub but turns out it's the boys and all their toys that are using this more than I am! But tonight I had it all for myself, no Dag and rubber duckies (and toddler piss) in it. Friday night bliss.

SOME MAKE UP AND SKIN CARE FAVOURITES FOR WHEN IT'S COLD

A few of my favs for winter:

Most of the year I wear a powder mineral foundation, but in winter with the cold and dy air and the temperature switches that gets too dry for my skin. I use a BB cream instead, sometimes with some powder on top  (and oil up my face a lot). My absolute favourite fantastic love-it-to-dedath BB cream, which I've bought online (fromNaturisimo) before, is now finally available in Finland too (via Jolie)!

The magic cream is Iroisie's Soin Parfait Ultimate BB cream. The first time I used it I was afraid it was going to be a little too rosy-beige, it came on quite dark, but then suddenly it evens out perfectly. I've been totally amazed with it. So, I do use it other than in winter too, those days I just feel like cream instead of powder foundation. The cream is organic and natural.

For those days I want some more make up on, I brush some powder on top. I have the silk powder from Coleur Caramel which also is a natural make up line. It leaves a very silky sheer glow on the skin. I might ave to get a little puff to keep under the lid as I find it a bit hard to carry a brush around in the bag too, but ten again I don't need to refresh my make up over the day, as it stays on perfectly well very a very long time.

When it comes to skin care I mainly wash my face with coconut oil (sometimes black soap) and wipe it off with a tonic, then put some more coconut oil on over night. Or this, pure shea butter! My face becomes a little ball of grease, but that makes it so soft and smooth in the morning to deal with the freezing winds of outside. I use the shea butter for dry hands and elbows and so on too, and also on Dag's little checks (and butt cheeks too).

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - GLITTER AND SUCH

Started taking out some Christmas decorations - gotta glitz things up. (Yes, the pom-poms are making a comeback to delight our two neighbours and the occasional mailman at the door!) Quite funny, Lulu decided her resting place for tonight was next to the lit up soon-to-be balcony lights.


Managed to go via the post office to pick up a parcel with some skin care products I'd run out of just just in time for our sauna night. I got myself some Black African soap and shea butter from Akoma, all natural, Fair Trade and ecological. Can be used for everything on everyone!

Most old buildings have a shared sauna (in newer flats they usually build them in each apartment, aslo in small ones), and our shift is every Tuesday night. We seldom make it, but it's just  a few coins per months so it's not the end of the world. Tonight however I did. And I just grab my can of coconut oil and the black liquid soap and I'm good to go; that's all I need for far body and hair. Easy.

Eddi is with the boys at the farm with the lambs for the evening so I had a late dinner by myself, a bucket of salad and the newest interior mag (lots of grey and white and veneer in this one too...)


I didn't go out to the farm tonight because I had my nails done. I wanted them Christmas crazy. So they got glitter and Christmas roses and all. Originally I had thought of something a bit different with other kind of glitter and roses and such but I've noticed there is always this small language barrier at the salon. Well, they're fun (even though monsieur thought they look "a bit messy")! And they are very Mistle Tease, and that's what they are for.

And oh did I say Mistle Tease? Well why yes, and go get your tickets in time because they are -wohoo- selling rather well!

3 x BOTTLED SKINCARE

Some natural skincare products I've been relying on lately.

Micellar water.
For some reason I think good cleansing toners are hard to find, either they feel too strong or then it feels like they do nothing at all. But I've been happy with Melvita's Bio Escellence micellar toner. Basically you can do your whole cleansing routine with just micellar water -no water needed either - but most of the time, especially if I have had heavier eye make up or so, I wash my face with coconut oil first and then let the toner do the rest.


Castor oil.
I had lash extensions for a long time, and at some point they were poorly glued on, which resulted in my own lashes taking a pretty bad hit. I had them a couple of time later on shorter terms and as much as I love how good it looks and how easy it makes (certain parts of-) life I'm just going try and resist ever putting such on again, as I hate how thin and frumpy my own lashes became. (I think a big part of damage was also the fact that I for shows still needed to put false lashes on, and the glue got stuck to the extensions ripping them off, and then not coming off itself...). I've used castor oil as a natural serum for my lashes for a few months now and, probably partly due to that combined with other factors too, my lashes have grown into their former long self again. I use castor oil on my nails too. It's a quite thick oil without a any smell. Castor oil can be found in many lip sticks and balms too, and is recommended to use for make u removal but for me I feel the oil is too thick and "dry" for that.  I have only ever tried this one brand out, which is from Estonia; Green Nature.


Rose hip serum.
When the weather gets colder I find serums help me a lot to avoid dry skin. Or well, in summer I use them too to feed my skin after the days in the sun. I love rose hip serums. Now I'm using a bottle by Balm Balm, last year I had a similar serum by A'kin which was also very recommendable.


I use the serum under my night cream - depending on what my skin needs that can be aloe vera gel, oil or a lotion. In winter when it gets really cold I put shea butter "on top". It makes the face feel very buttered up during the night but in the morning the skin is all soft prepared for wind and other cold nastiness.

As most of you may remember I use natural products only in hair- and skincare, and mainly when it comes to make up and hair styling too. Works for me!

FROM KITCHEN TO BATHROOM ; COFFEE SUGAR BODY SCRUB

When it comes to cosmetics I, which most of you know, use mainly all-natural, organic products. I'm not absolute with it, I have some lipsticks and polishes that are chemical i.e. conventional products. But when it comes to skincare I am more strict and try to keep it as simple and natural as possible. Once you go natural it's hard to go back... The skin is our biggest organ so it's worth thinking about what we rub and scrub into it, right? So, most of what you can put into your mouth and have your body digest you can also feed your skin!

Many of the simplest and best - and also, in the end, most affordable- skin care products one can use are the ones that are easily made from what you have in your kitchen. I've always tried out different home remedies, also before I was paying any thought to what my cosmetics are made of, but now it jsut makes more sense than before.

Body scrubs are very easy to make youself, you basically just need oil and sugar. You can use any oil you like; I use olive oil, but coconut or sunflower oil for example works just as well (or, a mixture of those). I make mine with coffee grounds as the caffeine sets the blood circulation going and is said to thus tighten the skin.

Mix about 50/50 of the oil and sugar with a few spoons of coffee and then add sugar until the consistence feels nice. Mix with a spoon or spatula and that's it!

You won't need to use a moisturizer after this treatment as the oil will leave your skin smooth (and well oiled in..) .

You can store your scrub with a lid on, preferably in the fridge.

For variation you can use raw cocoa powder instead of the coffee. Or, a few drops of essential oil.
You can also switch about half of your sugar for sea salt. Put in a few drops of peppermint or lavender and you get a nice foot scrub.

For my face I use milder scrubs with smaller, softer grains than sugar. But we can look into that some other time.

HONEY-COCOA BALM

I have some pure cocoa butter that I use for Dag's bathing water; it gives great moisture for the skin. I love how the cocoa butter feels on my fingertips when it's about to dissolve into the water, so I started thinking about making some sort of a lip balm out of it.

I am sure google could have provided me with some ready made recipes and how-to's, but I decided to just get on with it right away with what I thought would work.


For the balm I used a few pieces of cocoa butter, some cold pressed coconut oil and some honey. I sometimes use honey as a face mask, but I can tell you right away to skip it in this form when it comes to the balm. It did not blend out properly and went all weird.



Once I was at it I also added some of the other skin care oils I had around; almond-, argan- and jojoba oil as well as some rose water and propolis extract. Propolis is some sort of bee goo and is the honey in a t least a honey chap stick I have at home, now as I afterwards checked the ingredient lists.



I melted the cocoa butter and coconut oil in a jug put in hot water and then added the rest of the ingredients, just a couple of tiny drops per oil. I stirred with a toothpick and pour the mixture in a little jar to cool.



The result turned out very nice and smooth, although the next time I attempt this I will have to use less coconut oil; my balm turned out a little softer and oilier than I had wished for.

(I also attempted to make a chap stick of the blend. Which didn't really go all that well - I put one of my old sticks that had just run out in boiling water to clean the applicator and then later poured my mixture in it to cool. But before it did it slowly leaked out of the applicator on the table. So I'll just stick to small jars instead.)

A FACIAL FAVORITE

Some time ago I mentioned some beauty favorites of mine, among which was the Melvita rose serum. I got the cleanser from the same floral series and it's great! All-natural and wonderfully smooth.
I bought mine from Jolie.

On another note, this week's giveaway for my Facebook likers is for an organic facial treatment kit. As usual, running until Sunday night. Go and (try to) grab it from my contest tab here!

A FEW FAVORITES

I've often been asked to write about what make up or beauty products I use. A post promised but that seems to take me forever to get done. Maybe because I for a long time really was not enthusiastic about beauty products, just went for the same ones that I found alright year after year; mostly pharmacy products, some natural oils and some of the basic brand's stuff when it came to skin care, and quite the basic make up ones too. But during the past year I have been updating the contents of my bathroom and make up bag to mainly all-natural and all- eco (for many reasons) and have been really interested and enthusiastic in finding and trying out new ranges (can you read: shopping sprees, yes, in plural, here? Oh yes!).
Here are some favorites of mine, both old and new:

From the left-right:
Dr.Bronners 18-in-1 hemp oil pure castile soap - I totally love love love this multi use soap! My favorite is the peppermint one, which I keep in the city apartment, but the one with almond oil (pictured) also smells so good! I also have this on in lemon and lavender for my kitchens, heh, talk about addiction :)
I took a small bottle of the peppermint soap with me to the hospital when I went to give birth as it works for as well the face, hair and body. You can also dilute it with water for cleaning.

Cocovi cold pressed virgin coconut oil - we'll I've already mentioned how great coconut oil is before. I use a lot of natural oils, but coconut is my favorite. It's firm when the temperature is under +25c, and now in summer it's in between melting, so the texture is heavenly. Dag's skin is sensitive like mine, and he got a severe rash in his face. I tried different baby oils and regular brand baby lotions and finally tried soothing the rash with coconut oil and it worked wonders!

Balm Balm's baby balm - I really love this one too. It consists mostly of shea butter, has a gret texture  and as well as the coconut oil  it has been good for Dag's skin. But also on mine; I put it on my lips at night for example.

Melvita extraordinary rose water - a serum to put on after cleaning and before moisturizing. It's a creamy fresh-and softeness boost. Serums or special lotions are of such kind that I seldom think of buying them myself, but every now and then it's nice with some minor extra everyday luxury.

Vapour Organic Beauty blush stain - I blot this on my lips and cheeks with my fingertips and sometimes a little in the outer corner of my eyes too. It's a perfect red that gives "snowhite lips"" (as in lips that look like they were a perfect super red by nature) when I blot it on without a liner, and works as lipstick applied from the stick or with a brush when I have lined my lips. This one is seriously addictive! Vapour has a lot of other sticks and creams I've tried out in sample size that I'm eager to get too!