Opinions, Outlet, Observations.

Review on Shampoo/I am crazy. :)

2012-07-30T18:17:00.000-05:00

This is more jumbled then the last two. Sorry.
     A review on the shampoo is a bit more difficult, because I am not conditioning my hair. Another reason this is not as easy to give a review on is because I recently just started using bar soap. I know everyone out there is probably thinking I'm crazy. I also know in the past I have banned my brothers from using bar soap, but I am using gentle handmade or natural soap with lots of oils and such. :-)
      I have been quite happy with the way my hair has been acting. The first day took me aback, I mean, it was a bit frizzy and such... But the next time I used the natural stuff instead I had smooth hair that behaved - at least as much as my hair will behave lol. One of my girlfriends at work couldn't believe I wasn't using conditioner or anything. I think that first day was my hair getting used to being clean without extra chemicals and such. If I had longer hair I'd probably use the shampoo I made, but with my hair being so short I feel like it is just easier to use the bar. My mom says she likes the shampoo, though, and she is not as hippie etc as I am. :-)
     Another thing I love so much about using this method is that I can smell like any essential oil or combination of essential oils that I want, and I prefer those scents to most other scents found in shampoos and soaps.
A VERY convenient aspect of my new routine is my new ability to feel comfortable going to a shower (as long as I don't need to shave) armed only with a bar of soap, vs soap for the face plus soap for the body, along with shampoo AND conditioner. Quite a difference!
      So! My review and opinion on the use of natural soap/shampoo is that it is worth it. I have a hard time figuring out if it is better value or not, but I feel like if is more, it isn't by too much. This choice does make my hair more manageable, making my life easier. Also, this stuff smell great, making my shower time a better experience. :-)
     Final decision: this is a change I will stick with.

My Opinion on My Homemade, Natural Deodorant.

2012-07-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

So, I all but promised an update. The deodorant seems to be the most logical choice. I had already been using a deodorant spray that uses mineral salt and aloe vera for areas other then my armpits.

Application for the homemade deodorant is simple, almost just like store-bought stuff. The only real difference is that you have to warm it up in your pit a little before trying to rub it in as (like I mentioned previously) it is kept in the fridge. So far it is working better then the stuff I've been buying…. and I buy the "good" stuff! I really haven't noticed a point where I start to smell, and sometimes I sweat a LOT.

As I sweat throughout the day the first thing I start to smell it the coconut oil, so if coconut is not a smell you like then this deodorant is not for you! At times, later in the day, I can smell a whiff of the essential oils I added. I don't know if I feel anymore wet OR dry then normal, but it is not enough for me to get bothered by it, and getting too sweaty/smelly is something I am pretty conscious about…..

I am a fan of the deodorant spray I am using as well. I plan on continuing to use that product. :)

SO. To wrap it up… Overall I feel that in regards to performance this is a better choice. Considering you can get almost a quart of coconut oil for less then $7, that the other ingredients are SUPER cheap (especially in the quantities used), and that this yielded more then a normal-sized "stick" of deodorant, it is a better choice value wise. Just add that this is a more natural, and I'm thinking more eco-friendly choice this is MORE then worth the fact you have to store it in the fridge. :) Totally great and easy way to dip your toes into to natural and/or diy water. :)

Hippie at Heart - Making Toothpaste, Deodorant, and Shampoo

2012-07-26T18:22:00.000-05:00

I am what I refer to as a hippie at heart. I love the idea of being more natural and environmentally friendly, but I am so sold on convenience. With a busy college and work schedule as well as the lack of money associate with going to school I thought becoming more environmentally friendly just wasn't something I could make a priority. The upside to my situation is that I am pretty adventurous, willing to try almost anything at least once, and usually giving whatever I am trying a sporting chance. Wait, I may have lead y'all astray just a bit…. I'll give most things a try as long as it doesn't take too much time or effort lol.

My favorite cream shaving cream (Eos, I LOVE their lip balm as well) was getting hard to justify shelling out dough for, so I started a google search for homemade shaving cream. As Google often does, it was completing my sentence for me, and one of the options was homemade shampoo…. I was intrigued and tired (leading to easy distraction) so I temporarily abandoned my original search and persued this new idea. Upon investigation it took just a few ingredients to make this shampoo, and already owning my favorite essential oils meant I could have it smell like peppermint and lavender, AWESOME! In my distraction I also stumbled across homemade deodorant. I set out the next day to obtain some ingredients. I went to HEB first, but the location I went to was lacking. I could have likely gone to the less ghetto one, but a natural food store was closer, and I DO like supporting the local economy. :)

I am glad I decided on the natural food store instead of the other HEB because the employees where even able to give me all kinds of help, including discussing a recipe for toothpaste. The toothpaste only required maybe one item I wasn't planning on getting already, so I decided I was going to try that as well.

Ever the passionate, excited person that I am I tweeted and facebooked about making my own shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste. I made my mother some tea tree shampoo first (she loved some tea tree shampoo she had obtained one time, but couldn't justify spending so much on it regularly), then proceeded to make the other care items for myself. The number one thing I was pleased and shocked about was how easy it all was to do. I literally just poured a few things in a bottle for the shampoo. The hardest one was the deodorant, and that because with it's relatively low melting temperature it was difficult to get it into the old deodorant tube I had washed out without just a bit off mess. Other positives include getting to smell like whatever combination of essential oils I want, the sheer amount of deodorant yielded (a good bit more then a normal tube) and then of course the fact that all of this is more environmentally friendly and natural. The biggest 3 cons I have found is that I literally have to keep my deodorant in the fridge, and that I don't yet have a convenient way to bring my toothpaste in my backpack and that the toothpaste isn't exactly tasty. So as far as I'm concerned, no major problems.

I will be posting later some more information on how these, and other more environmentally-friendly choices I have made/tried are working. :) ta-ta!

We are conditioned to call it weakness,

2012-04-22T01:09:00.001-05:00

I call it being human.

Why is it that if we get upset over things, changes, people in our lives we are conditioned to consider ourselves weak? I don't mean upset as in hacked off that someone drank the last of the milk or miffed at the price of gas going up. I mean changes in your life that cause a reaction deep in your soul.

Why is it that people feel that they have no right to get upset? I interpret having no right to be upset as having no right to be human. I am by no means advocating wallowing in pain and sadness to the point of your life going down the crapper. BUT if you undergo a MAJOR change in your LIFE.... Why WOULDN'T you be completely justified in being more melancholy, eating more ice cream and gaining support from friends?? Everyone hits these points in life, and the thing that as a whole we need to realize is that something that would cripple me for days or longer might have no effect on anyone close to me. At the same time, we need to realize that just the opposite is true.

We all have different tolerance levels to different things. Some people can't handle the cold, some can't handle hot food, others hardly have to stand in the sun for five minutes to get a sunburn. Some people look awful in yellow, others are horrendous at math, some are more fit for science wile some thrive in the arts. Why is it that as a collective we can recognize these things and accept them, while not accepting the same ideas in regards to psycho/emotional limits.

Changes, especially ones that create deep reactions within us is how we learn and grow. By being present during another's "growth process" if you will is another way we can learn about the world around us, and potentially learn how to prepare or cope if something similar happens to us. There should be no feelings of shame or weakness for needing some time to heal, especially if major life responsibilities are not met.

Who is really the weak person? The one that avoids getting to emotionally committed in fear of the pain and handles the changes only being hampered or hurt slightly, or the one that give more freely and is therefor hurt more by the changes?

"Alleluia! Christ is risen!" "He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"

2012-04-09T00:18:00.002-05:00

I would be remiss, if after the wonderful weekend I had if I neglected to post anything. For most Christians this was a very important weekend, The weekend that we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. Orthodox has to wait till next week. I LOVE Holy Week. I prefer the Easter season to Christmas. I feel that Easter has so much more to teach us, and is much more rich with emotion.

Maundy Thursday is the service where we commemorate Christ washing the disciples feet. At the end of the service there is a stripping of the alter, usually done in silence with little or dimming light. This is the night we remember His suffering in Gethsemane, the night he was betrayed. This night and the next our hearts are to be with Christ, as this is all in remembrance of His pain and death. I don't believe in constantly feeling guilty, and low on oneself, even if we are all sinners. I believe that we should look to the miracle of God's love, however, this night is the night to feel that guilt, that pain, and to know we need to do better. This is the night to realize the magnitude of His sacrifice and how no matter how hard we try we will never be truly worthy.

Saturday I was blessed to see my brother perform in a choir that put on a musical program portraying the basic story of Christ, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It was a very nice performance. After the choir was over it was time for me to book it down to Easter vigil. Starting with relighting the Paschal candle outside, and lighting our own vigil candles on our way in, then many readings from the scriptures. The best part of the service is at the end of the readings, where the other alter candles are lit and the lights are turned on, in this case to the sounds of bells and chimes. This is the time where we start celebrating that Christ is risen!

Sunday was two services again, Starting with Easter mass, full of joy, Alleluias, horns and bells. There is nothing like Easter mass, and between Easter vigil and Easter Mass I am filled with joy. HE IS RISEN! After mass I went to another service, where I got to sit with my family and had a trimmed down version of the choir performance the night before. After all of that I had family dinner with the boyfriend's family. I love his family, they are such great people. His parents hosted his two brothers, their wives, and the three grandchildren. The food was great and we all had a lot of fun hunting for, and breaking confetti eggs. Following last year's tradition I made sure to crack at least one down my man's shirt, because I am mature like that. :) After family dinner at his house we had family dinner at my house, with my parents, four siblings, one who might as well be a sibling, five missionaries, my squeeze and two friends. Yeah, that is right. FIFTEEN PEOPLE! ALL adults. We where loud, and friendly, and it was wonderful. After all that was math homework, yuck. lol

After all of that I feel so blessed and filled with joy. I have such wonderful people in my life, Christ is risen so I can be as well, and life is so amazingly good.

The need to create.

2012-04-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

My fingers itch. I have never had this sort of problem before, but that may have just been due to taking care of the urges before things started getting out of hand. I find myself painting things on an invisible canvas with my fingers. I have sketched ideas of art to bring to life. I see dances and paintings translucently suspended over the world around me. I have never before this time realized how closely my sanity is tied to creating, to art. I decided recently that I will take an art class as soon as possible, maybe next semester. I am fairly confident it is required for a theatre degree anyway, but regardless of that fact I feel I need to for my own psychological health. I so often feel the desire rising in me to make something, but without the skills that idea just adds to the pile of things I MUST do. There are times I can feel the utter NEED to compose something, anything. I can feel the urge in my chest, a whirlpool, waves, splashing in the cavity there. The hunger drowning my heart and threatening to overwhelm completely. I wonder if it is possible to get lost to these urges, this hunger, but I always just accept its presence and move on. I never have the time to entertain the idea of any course of action other then just to take a breath, feel it beating and swirling in my chest, and to live with it inside me. At times I wonder if this presence will prove my undoing or my preservation. Regardless of if parasite or benevolent burning, it is a part of me. It is a part of me that I am unaware of a way to live without, and am really not interested in researching a life without it anyway. So here I am, sitting at my computer, without the resources to form what my inspiration is whispering to me, fighting the urge to paint the air, and attempting to stay as sane as I normally am.

Shadow primer, Urban Decay vs ELF

2012-01-06T01:03:00.001-06:00

This chronicles the competition I held between my two shadow primers, ELF - $1 and Urban Decay - $15 (on clearance due to being old style bottle) XL size.

Also, I am going to apologize for my pictures being taken in different lighting. Also, I am using a cell phone camera. Deal with it. That is all.

Here we have the beginning product. As you can slightly make out, the eye on the right is slightly brighter then the one on the left. I am using CoverGirl's Gold Sizzle eyeshadow, something bright enough to be able to use for a comparison, but (hopefully) not so bright as to look awful should there be a huge difference between the two. The comparison shows that so far, and in my opinion, it is probably not worth the price difference.

Application is pretty similar as well.... Urban decay is a bit more creamy, but nothing too drastic.

Next is a trip to Gold's gym where I do Body Pump (basically cardio weight lifting) and Body Flow (yoga-y class). Two hours worth of sweating and let me tell you I am NOT in shape.

Do you see the creasing on the left eye? The lack of consistency? Whereas the Urban Decay has pretty much stayed in place? Now, mind you, this WAS after 2 hours of working out. The choice of which to get is all up to you and your lifestyle. I tend to be SUPER busy, and lucky if I put makeup on at all, so I want it to stay. I also an a huge fan of super bright colors, so I will continue buying Urban Decay. I will however also continue to buy ELF for the days my eyeshadow isn't so bright, or when it doesn't have to last through as much.

Hope this helps! :)

FIRST! ;-P

2012-01-05T22:08:00.000-06:00

Well, here it is, the awkward first post :-P.
I just recently stumbled across a beauty blog, and it made me think about my old blog and how I'd abandoned it, like I do so many projects, and how when I love something I want to tell EVERYONE! As of lately I've also become much more opinionated and yet much more lost in regards to my life. If you hang around long enough you will really see what a contradiction I am.

Feel free to ask questions about anything, and I'll answer, either publicly or privately ;).

Thanks for reading and enjoy the ride!