DIY all natural body products - Tooth Paste

When I first stumbled over a recipe for homemade tooth paste I was very excited to try it, but I just wasn't ready to deny myself the bubbles of regular tooth paste, so I did not even finish the first batch. But, after having replaced body lotion, body scrub, facial cleanser and deodorant, it felt like the obvious next step to make my own.

So, with determination I concocted anoter batch and this time I did not think it tasted so bad after all. I am still using regular tooth paste in the morning, but in the evenings it's only been my homemade tooth paste for a few months. Half the waste is better than all the waste, right?

And now I present to you the foolishly easy recipe that I adapted from Trash is for Tossers:

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
25-30 drops Organic food grade peppermint essential oil

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients. (Foolishly easy, right?)

Xoxo, have a great week!

PS: I am no physician or chemist, so I can not guarantee these recipes to work or be absolutely safe. As always, please be very careful with homemade products and test them in a small area first.

Update September 3rd, 2015: I have now switched to using this tooth paste mornings and evenings and after 2 or 3 days of adapting my mouth and teeth feel great!

DIY all natural body products - Body Butter

You all know how I am trying to live a greener, more sustainable life - and for most part still fail to do so. However, there are a few parts of my life where I already managed to either recycle, reuse or cut out substances that are harming the environment. --> See my other posts on 20 ways.

I have always been a little sensitive when it comes to my skin, for example I couldn't stand the feeling of 100% wool, or very often felt itchy after taking a shower. And once I started reading about all the harmful ingredients found in most body butters, body lotions, shower gels and hair products, I decided to try and make my own.

When starting out, I was a little worried if I would like the feeling on my skin, if it would work as good as the commercial stuff, if it would spoil real quick because of the missing preservatives.

I was thrilled after I first tried making my own body butter. I absolutely loved the fluffy, creamy feeling on my skin, it worked even better than the commercial products I had used before (it was absorbed by my skin just as normal body lotion and the skin was soooooo soft) and it doesn't spoil for about 2-3 months.
Since then I have made quite a few batches of body butter with alternating ingredients, but always with the following recipe in mind, which I have adapted from One Good Thing by Jillee:

Ingredients:
1 cup shea butter/cocoa butter
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil (or almond oil, jojoba oil or any healthy, organic oil)
30-40 drops of essential oil

Instructions:
1. Melt the shea butter and coconut oil and let cool for about 20 minutes.
2. Stir in olive oil and essential oil.
3. Let sit until the mixture starts to solidify.
4. Whip until you get a butter like consistency (duration will vary depending on how solid the mixture already was)

There will be more posts with recipes and instructions for a body scrub, body wash, deodorant and
tooth paste which all work great, so be sure to check back.

Xoxo, have a great week!

PS: PS: I am no physician or chemist, so I can not guarantee these recipes to work or be absolutely safe. As always, please be very careful with homemade products and test them in a small area first.

Colorful summer mix

This last week I've been feeling playful - with summer in full swing, temperatures (almost) in the 30s and a few of my best friends coming to visit I felt like I needed something colorful and relaxed. So I came up with this easy and light nail design:

Xoxo, have a great week!

PS: Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures - it was already very late that day.

Colorful

Fiiiinally I have got another nail design for you, it's been an eternity since I last painted my nails anything other than plain color. Last weekend during watching my new favorite TV show Masters of Sex, I decided to try one of the many inspirational nail arts I have on my Pinterest boards. And I think they turned out pretty amazing. But see for yourself.

Here's the inspiration:

source

Here's my version:

Xoxo, have a great week!

"Sugarfree" Cotton Candy

A long, long time ago, I posted a few nail designs here, today I've got another one for you! A few weeks ago I found this amazing idea for Cotton Candy Nails on Youtube and decided to give it a try. It kinda looked a little tricky, but I was surprised how easy it actually was and how great the outcome looked! But see for yourself:

In case you are interested in a how-to, klick here for the video.

And, because my introduction to this post made me think of Don McLean's American Pie, here's the video:

Xoxo, have fun creating "sugarfree" Cotton Candy!

Summer love

Summer's finally here and so is nature - everything is in full bloom!

Xoxo, enjoy!

What NOT to have in your cosmetics

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Today I have another post for your health, in terms of which cosmetis to use and not use.
I have found this picture on Pinterest and it made me think and check my cosmetics for toxic ingredients.
I got to say, most of my cosmetics - which I mainly use because they are working very well - actually contained a few of the toxics mentioned.

I have not had the time to go shopping for surrogates, but I am planning to do so this weekend.

The ones in my picture are only a few of the toxic chemicals used in cosmetics, but there are many websites and articles about this topic.
For example, this website (The campaign for safe cosmetics) has a list of toxic chemicals to be concerned of. And the David Suzuki Foundation has also listed a lot of toxics to avoid.

I hope, this'll open your eyes a little - as it did to me - and make your live a healthier one.

Xoxo, until next week!

Did you know?

I just found out that the squares on paste tubes - that I always thought were random - had a secret meaning about which ingredients where used.

Did you ever notice they had different colors? There's green, blue, red and black.

Apparently green means that only natural ingredients were used, blue indicates natural and medial ingredients, red is a mixture of natural and chemical ingredients and black is pure chemical.

I think this knowledge makes it much more easier to decide which tooth paste or cream to buy. Especially in times like these, where the body is exposed to so many chemicals which can cause a great number of illnesses, it seems like a good idea to minimize this exposure wherever it is possible.

What about you, do you pay attention to ingredients and how your toiletries are made? Or are you more like me and choose whatever is cheapest, smells best, has the most outstanding packaging or just caught your eye first?

Xoxo, have a great week!

Christmas everywhere - even on my nails

Today I thought, I'd share my favorite Christmas nail designs with you. I'm so excited for Christmas already that I decided to get me some more Christmas decorations.

Here are my top 4 designs I'll definitely wear this season:

Santa's Hat
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Simple and easy design, but nonetheless beautiful!
source 

Sophisitcated Christmas tree (if a thing like that even exists)
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Simple tree ornament
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I will post my own recreations of these wonderful designs until Christmas. I'd also love to see your recreations!

Xoxo, have fun being creative on your nails!

Málaga Shopping

Remember my little trip to Málaga a few weeks ago? And of course I didn't leave Málaga without doing some serious shopping. Because Spanish women are crazy about dressing up, and basically looking perfect at all times, there are make-up stores and drugstores at every corner. I guess you can imagine what that meant for me. I really had to restrain myself not to buy everything that caught my eye. There where so many colors and textures and different effect polishes that I really didn't know how to decide which ones to buy.

Here are the ones I finally decided upon. There's one "Mirror" nail polish, a "Sugar Matte" polish in salmon pink, two bottles of beads for the "Caviar" effect and a bottle of plain green polish.

So far, I've only worn the "Mirror" nail lacquer, which is a nice bluish anthracite. It looked really nice and very shiny when I first painted my nails - and it dried very fast, too, but after half a day of shopping and cooking dinner it already started chipping. Although that's a bit disappointing I think it's perfect for nights out.

Xoxo, what do you think of this new "Mirror" effect nail polish? Have you tried one yet?