The Good, the Bad and the Glycerin (Part 2)

The Good, the Bad and the Glycerin (Part 2)

As promised, here is part two of Glycerin. I have been searching for negative attributes to having glycerin in your hair and skin products…I was unable to find any. BUT that is a good thing! Glycerin in products may be seen in the Ingredients list as:

glycerol or glycerine

How many of you remember Paula’s choice…the link with the ingredients search? How about glycerin scored as BEST! That’s an awesome score for a product. Read more...

For The Record Friday

Listen! What is the deal with these body wipe cloths that are in the market for use after a workout? Most gyms have showers, right? So, why not just take a shower? The time it takes to use one of those wipes to wipe the sweat off your skin, you could have at the very least rinsed off in the shower.

I mean, they come up with everything! What do you all think about these wipes? I am NOT a fan! I mean would you wet wipe your hair when it needs to be washed? (but I've digressed) I know how sweaty I am after a workout. I can't imagine. Yay or nay to wipes..are we wiping our sweat and going to the grocery store or to church or to a meeting or going shopping. OMG, going shopping! do you think people use the wipes and then go clothes shopping and try on the clothing?! Just that thought alone is way too much. What are your thoughts? To body wipe or not to body wipe?

Treating Dry Skin

My Face is peeling!

 Last week, I’m fixing my hair in the mirror and noticed what I thought was dandruff sitting on my forehead. I brushed it away and continued pinning my Marley Twists, thinking I got to take these out so I can wash my hair…out of the corner of my eye, I saw more dry skin, but thought, maybe I didn’t brush it away properly…I took the time to brush it off, this time making sure the dead skin fell in the sink. Then, I realized, that’s not dandruff at all…my skin is peeling!

Vegetable Glycerin for Skin?

OH NO!! About a year ago for my birthday, my beau gave me about 10 essential oils. I have pretty much used all of them, but most importantly, the Vegetable Glycerin at 16 fl. oz. is DONE. Di-sas-ter! I have used this oil everyday mixed with my Suave lotion to lotion my body and cure my normal to dry skin, especially during the winter months. I do not want to have dry skin during my birthday month and I am waiting for my beau to replenish my essential oils. Until that happens, I do have avocado oil which can also be used on my skin, as well as almond oil. They are both nice oils for skin....I just prefer the vegetable glycerin for my skin. Either way, I CANNOT have dry skin during my Birthday week, but I was dressed and ready to celebrate my birthday with my cute skirt. No dry skin here! lol

Natural Bath Salts

I found myself coming down with a cough  New Year's Day and the beau suggested I take a bath. I thought my cup of tea, a few vitamin C's  and my multivitamins would do the trick, but decided to take the bath anyway. I put the Hugo Naturals Mango & Guava Effervescent Bath Salts (natural bath salts), olive oil, and a few drops of rosemary oil into the bath and remembered how much I love baths. I was not impressed by the bubbles that were produced by the bath salts but I figured it would have to do.

10 Must Have's for the New Year

There are just certain items one MUST have in order to be a naturalista. Keep in mind that these are not listed in order of importance. Click to read more!

Air Pollutants

The sun is shining bright, the clouds are parted and I'm in a very chipper mood... I'm driving down New York Ave heading into work this morning. Enjoying this chipper mood, I put the windows down and start singing...until I pulled up next to this huge truck and tasted the exhaust in my mouth. DISGUSTING! I quickly hit the power windows button to put all the windows up. I saw another truck ahead of me and thought of all the pollution these vehicles emit into the air...

"Ahhh, city air." is all I could muster.

Needless to say, the singing stopped. Then I thought about how dirty our skin must be when we get home after a full day outside. Where I'm from people say, "You smell like outside." Please don't ask me to describe what outside smells like, but in my opinion, it's similar to saliva, breath, and wet dirt mixed with a little must. (LOL, I know it sounds awful, but I'm telling you this smell does exist!)

 

Regardless, I wanted to remind everyone that even though you may not pass a truck that emits black clouds of smoke called exhaust, this stuff is very harmful to our bodies. After periods of exhaling such polluted air, it's no wonder when we clean our noses, we find black/brown soot-like looking matter there...Washing your face and your skin overall is a must after being outside, especially in such polluted air. I can't imagine how harmful this is to our hair for women who don't wash their hair daily. Just the thought is again, disgusting. I'm definitely going to wash my hair tomorrow and be certain to use a nice natural scrub on my face to get rid of today's grime as soon as I get home today.

* Daily washing of the skin and body is a must in order to ensure healthy and clean looking skin.*

 

Now to drink some water and take care of the rest of my health from the inside out. MuAh & CiAo! 

Follow me on IG @lofanaturalista

Skin Essentials - Cleaning Loofahs & Sponges

Taking baths with louffas and sponges can be soooo relaxing. In fact, I'd love to draw myself a nice bath and have me a nice bath in sea salts and sponges myself down listen to Lauryn Hill ...sounds lovely.

BUT, do you clean your sponges? Just like cleaning make-up brushes, you must clean your bath sponges ant loofahs. Bacteria builds in your sponges and your not getting very clean rubbing your self with soapy bacteria. Ewww! Just the thought makes me cringe! Here is an easy way to clean your loofah:

Step 1: Fill your basin or sink with hot water

Step 2: Add a splash of white vinegar

Step 3: Add some hydrogen peroxide.

Step 4: Allow sponge and/or loofah to sit in the sink for up to an hour.

It's probably best to do them individually if you have more than one and to dry it on cool with a blow dryer if you do not intend on using it immediately.

Keep in mind that when you do use your loofah, remove it from inside the tub/shower to allow for sponge and loofah to completely dry out. Loofahs and sponges should be cleaned at least once a week. Think about how often you clean your wash rags and follow suit. Once or even twice a week at least definitely works.

I need to clean mine or at this point, throw them out and start over from scratch. Here's to cleaner living and better looking skin! Live on Purpose! MuAh & CiAo!

Skin Essentials - Skin Tags and How To Get Rid of Them

I've always seen these things, but didn't know what they were called. Skin Tags..they are an overgrowth of skin that usually occurs in women. They run in families or women may see an increase in them when they are pregnant (progesteron and estrogen may produce their growth). This growth is usually not cancerous and can be easily removed by freezing or burning it off or a quick snip with surgical scissors. It's as painful as a mosquito bite and can be removed within minutes and heals within 24 hours.

I know of one person who removed their skin tag by tying it with thread...The skin tag fell off after a few days. It just seems to random to me to get skin tags. If it's not one thing with skin, it's the next. At any rate, there is nothing medically scary about skin tags since they are so common, however, if you do want to get them removed, schedule an appt with your dermatologist and get it done.

In case you don't know what a skin tag looks like, here's a pic.

So i'm closing this box now because it sort of crawls my blood, sorry to say. Alright now, have a wonderful Tuesday! :-) MuAh & CiAo!

Skin Essentials - Facials! Facials! Facials!

So, after I missed my flight the other day, I went to veg out at a spa. I was truly that pissed. All the stress, hanging around and waiting at the airport, it was the absolute WORST thing ever! SIGH. Well, i decided to get a facial since I hadn't been doing so and I had allowed all these little bumps to get on my face, due to lack of washing my face and drinking little to no water I know, I know. It's terrible. I'm working on the water drinking thing. The Asian lady looks at my face and asks me what I use. In my head I'm thinking, "Lord, what's that product on my top shelf I pull down once every blue moon to wash my face with again?" Sure enough, it's name come to mind and I respond and say,"the Mary Kay facial wash." I was feeling all proud. I used to use NEutrogena and Clinique happy as a toner with some brand of facial moisturizer, but when those products were finished, I never replaced them and only had the Mary Kay facial wash because I attended a session with a consultant I know. SMH. This was sounding bad already in my head. She asked me how often I use it. I said once every two weeks or so :-/ Yea, i know. pretty bad. Honestly, I would rather make my own facial and use that, plus I wipe my make-up off with lotion because it works better *shrug* and I rarely wear make-up anyway so no need for the extra products to wash my face with.

Long story short, she told me that I need to get a skincare regimen going because my skin is nice now, but in order to keep it nice, I need to wash it everyday, in the morning and in the evening and then use a toner and then facial lotion. So, I washed my face this am and followed up with lotion to moisturize and protect against UV light. I don't have any toner....guess i can replace that Clinique Toner today. I did get it from one of my fave places in the St. Thomas. Now that I'm back home, I can get it.

Well, that's all for now. Let me get some bfast in my tummy. I'm starving! MuAh & Ciao!

Body Essentials – Yogurt Can Do That?!

Who would have thought yogurt can be used for hair, skin and your overall body functions? Not me, ask me to eat some yogurt, I’ll tell you, “No thank you, I’d rather not eat spoiled milk.” but cheese is actually worse than yogurt. But that’s for another blog post.

Benefits of Yogurt

• WOMEN – if you have a yeast infection, you can coat your tampon in yogurt and put in the freezer for 1 hr, then insert tampon for 1 hr and remove. Do this process for twice a day until the infection is gone. Yogurt will kill the bacteria that leads to yeast infections in the first place./I read about douching with yogurt as well or just using castile soap with some tea tree oil. I mentioned this in a previous post.
• Use PlainYogurt as a face mask by simply spreading the yogurt on your face at the end of a hard day’s work for 20 minutes. The yogurt will work at breaking down the bad bacteria formed on skin throughout the day and will leave you with clean skin after rinsing it off. (If you have allergies, check the ingredients of your yogurt and be careful not to use if you are allergic to any ingredients listed – Better to be safe than sorry)
• Yogurt can also work on your stomach when feeling nauseous and it can also help you when you have gas.
• Yogurt can also boost your immune system is 2 servings per day is taken.
• Use Yogurt to help in making a protein conditioning treatment for your hair.

Ingredients & Steps to making Protein conditioning treatment

Egg Whites, Plain Yogurt

Mix ingredients in bowl. Put mixture all over hair. Put towel in warm water and place warm towel over head for 20-60minutes. Rinse out with luke-warm water. (Hot water dries hair out) Shampoo, rinse and dry as usual.

Who would have thought? Yogurt also helps to curve your appetite, so I guess I’ll be eating more Yogurt, though I don’t care for it, simply because of all the added benefits. I’ll take mine in a nice smoothie to go. Want a few healthy yogurt smoothie ideas? Click the following link:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_smoothie_recipes

MMMmm, yummy! These recipes makes me want to Live on Purpose, MuAh & CiAo!

Skin Essentials - Pesky Bug Bites

Nothing new has been going on with my hair. I did style two people's hair the other day, but I ended so late I forgot to take pics. Next time, I'll try not to be so absent-minded tho I was super tired. Outside of that, I was looking at my skin this morning and I have two marks where bug bites used to be. I have gotten comfortable with not scratching bug bites by spraying it with tea tree oil and washing the skin during bath time with Castille Soap. However, I have these marks on it. People talk about using shea butter and Cocoa Butter. So I'm going to get some this afternoon and begin using it. I'm not certain if it's too late to begin this regimen on avoiding marks on my skin from bug bites, but we'll see what happens. I'll keep you guys posted on it next week. Hmmm, perhaps I should take a pic. Ok, here goes.

Haa, i'm uploading the pic now. After taking the pic now, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but i'm light skinned so the dark mark really shows up on my skin in my opinion. Can you see it? You can prob just the the one clearly, the other one is lower down before the shading of the light against my skin comes into play.

Anyhoo, it's obvious to me and bothers me enough to want to try shea butter. As a child I used cocoa butter, but I've always felt like it did nothing to my skin in regards to reducing the marks on my skin. The bruise did heal fast, but it still left a scar. Well, here goes this test.

Oh, also, my hair is growing...I haven't been doing much with it recently, just leaving it in twists or wearing my curly twistouts. It's back in twist and I won't be rocking the twistouts until this weekend, but it's going to be great when I get to press it. Just a few more months before I could do a length check.Well, enough about my hair and skin for today. If you have ANY suggestions on caring for skin, please inbox me at niaimbue@gmail.com or leave a post or comment here. Thanks so much!

Live on purpose. MuAh & CiAo!

Skin Essentials - White Pantyhose or Flaky White Skin?

No judging here...*Puts head down* I am guilty of it too. Sigh. (not hardly as much as I use to do it) but how many times have you heard "because I'm wearing pants I may not lotion" Or I've heard people say, "it's summer, i don't need lotion." I hear guys say, "do you know how much money I spend on lotion because my body is so big. I only lotion what the public eye can see." No, for real. Guys, you do stuff like this. And some chicas too...Not cool. SMH

So, what I've had to do is right out of the shower I would take a mixture of lotion and oil, rub it together and lotion my entire body and i do mean ENTIRE body, even between my toes. The lotion moisturizes and the oil seals in the moisture. Some lotions that work are those with Shea Butter, Vitamin E and Cocoa Butter. Keri lotion is a really nice thick lotion that doesn't feel like it weighs my skin down, but it cost a little more than the other ones. I have tried the Vaseline brand, but wasn't too fond of it. Currently, I use Suave and other Bath & Body Works lotions mixed usually with this oil I use for my hair, skin and nails. Talk about a triple threat with that oil. Otherwise, you can always use Vitamin E Oil, Johnson's Baby Oil Gel (I use this often too)EVOO, or even tea tree oil if you have severely flaky and/or dry skin.

I found this interesting article on WedMD about the Causes of Dry Skin. http://www.webmd.com/healthy-beauty/features/dry-skin-causes You have to know the skin you have and work with it to make your skin nice and healthy.

And YES, it may be a bit expensive to lotion ur entire body, but your body craves that moisture. Also, drink water to help hydrate the body. It will show in your skin too. CiAo & MuAh!

Nail Essentials - Natural Hand Scrubs

OMG! Look at what I just found. So I was looking at my friend’s nails the other day and I thought to myself, ‘You know not because you’re a male means your nails gotta look grundgy.” In so many words, I told him the same thing and he asked me to do something about it. Well, today I found myself doing some research and I found this! Some AMAZING ideas and I think it’ll work well for him. I decided against looking in the store for something. I figure why not use the natural ingredients in my own kitchen and have a “Spa day” If he knows what I’m calling it and if he even reads this he will probably have my neck, but anyhoo, here goes some natural scrubs for a wonderful manicure. If he comes back, i'm charging! lol

Whitening Nail Scrub Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon Lemon juice

Enough Baking Soda to make a paste

Directions:

Combine ingredients and massage into nails. rinse well.

Anti-Aging Hand Scrub Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 tbs. Flax seed oil

1  vitamin E caplet oil

1/4 cup ground almond meal or corn meal

Directions:

Combine and massage into hands. rinse well.

Sugar Hand Scrub Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon sour cream

1 tablespoon of sugar

Directions:

Mix into a paste Rub into hands for 2 minutes. Rinse well.

Homemade natural hand and feet scrub tips:

·                                 Sugars, meals such as corn, almond, salt etc. make great skin exfoliates.

·                                 Exfoliating your hands weekly can reduce wrinkles! Yes, even your hands will wrinkle over time

I did see some other ones, but these tended to be specific to certain care needed for the hands. If you know of any other great natural scrubs, tell me, I’d love to hear all about it! J Live on purpose people! CiAo n MuAh!

Hair Essentials - Dry Scalp? Here are some tips...

Okay, so I admit it. I have dry scalp. And though I may wash my hair every week or every two weeks, I still get dandruff. Then, with having natural hair, my hair soaks up whatever moisture from products I use to style my hair, so I keep applying, but as I keep applying products to the hair, my scalp gets dirty. SO...I used a solution given by a girlfriend of mine to reduce dry scalp.

ThE FiRsT TiMe I TriEd this product my hair worked beautifully. I did it again, using less of the aloe vera juice. WRONG MOVE! But, the best thing about using aloe vera juice is that you don't necessarily have to wash it after you use it. So, I'm going to try it again, with 2 tsps of Aloe Vera Juice and only 1tsp of Cantu with 2 tbsps on EVOO. Here is the pic of the products I used with the simple Formula Below it.

1 Tsp for Aloe Vera Juice, 1 Tsp of Cantu, 1-2 Tbsp EVOO

Read more!

Skin Essentials - Does make-up do more harm than good?

Does make-up do more harm than good? Who HERE applies make-up to their SKIN everyday? Do You Think You Need It? I'Ve heard All tHe ComPlAinTs about bad skin this, and bad skin that? BUT, what are u doing to rectify this?!

Acne is often caused by lack of drinking water

(Water is a free cleanser inside and outside the body, USE IT)

I found this article by Discovery health magazine. I was looking for an article that spoke about the effects of make-up. Granted, everyone's skin is unique and are affected differently by make-up, plus it depends on how much you wear, how often you wear, the type of make-up it is (the company that makes it, and whether its liquid, powder, etc.) and how you cleanse your face before and after you wear the make-up.

Skin Essentials - Lips Chapped?

I don’t endorse a lot of products and the like, but in this winter season, lips tend to get dry and “chappy”. Sometimes, it can be painful and even bleed if it has gotten real bad. Remember, we’re trying to be naturally beautiful inside and out. So, first things first. What causes dry chapped lips?

* cold, dry weather

* consuming salty foods

* licking lips often

* using make-up that has not been stored properly (yes, it is so!)

 

Chapped Lips