All Natural Face Serum and LipBalm - Giveaway!

So I've been using this all natural face serum for about a month now. It's called Smelly Face Serum by Crunchy Mamas. The lip balm is their Honey Lemon which smells and tastes super tangy and nice. It fells really moisturizing on the lips and I keep it in my diaper bag! What I like the most about these products is that they're 100% natural. No chemical crap, no fake preservatives, no artificial fragrances, just real stuff. I'm on a journey to ditch the chemical crap in my life and only eat real food and only use real products. It's not something you can do overnight, but this is a step in the right direction!

Ingredients in the face serum: organic unrefined coconut oil, beeswax, organic hemp seed oil, organic rosehip seed oil, organic tamanu oil, vitamin e, organic carrot seed essential oil, organic geranium essential oil, organic myrtle essential oil

Ingredients in the lip balm: organic unrefined coconut oil, beeswax, raw honey, organic lemon essential oil

The serum is a really nice texture and feels like a light oil, not thick and heavy on my face. It takes about 5 drops to moisturize my whole face well. My mum even got to try it! When she put it on she said it smelled really funny. I'm like yea mom it's called Smelly Face Serum for a reason haha. It's the carrot seed essential oil that has that really earthy almost dirt-like smell. But it's ok mom it helps with wrinkles! "Oh gimme some of that then" she said lol!! 

Crunchy Mamas says their serum can help fight against wrinkles, age spots, uv damage, acne, dark circles, fine lines, blotchy skin, blemish scars, t zone problems, large pores, and dull skin.

I definitely noticed an improvement in my combination skin. It's like it evened out my skin type. I don't have that flaky dry skin on my nose and eyebrow area anymore. Seriously it would be dry even minutes after putting on my previous store bought stuff, and always has been honestly. I feel like it made my face look brighter and healthier overall. To be honest, even if it did nothing more than store bought stuff, I'd use it because it's completely natural!

I was afraid to use it except before bed because I thought it was going to make my face look oily or be too moisturizing like a typical night time moisturizer. I decided to try it and honestly I feel like it soaks in well in about 5 minutes. This is me about 5 minutes after using the serum. No makeup, bare it all haha! It feels great and doesn't look weird at all.

So I have a giveaway for you guys! You can win a Smelly Face Serum and a lip balm from Crunchy Mamas, and a custom sample of essential oils from me! The giveaway starts on Instagram, so you'll have to do the steps there to enter first. You can get extra entries on my Facebook. I'll post the giveaway form for extra entries here too!

MAC Viva Glam V

 I love me some Mac lipstick! I got my mum hooked so she had to get some too! She chose Viva Glam 5. It's a gorgeous mauve shimmer.

It's kind of fun to see how different lipstick looks on different people. Ok, well it doesn't look all that different. But it actually did on our lips! It comes across much darker on me. My mom wears it lightly so it's nice and versatile.

And here's MAC Viva Glam V. I really like it on me and I don't even like shimmers. The shimmer is a subtle gold. Love the quality, nice creaminess, and everything I expect in a MAC lipstick.

Nekkid lips for comparison.

Cult Nails Sale

So Cult Nails is closing its doors and having a huge closeout sale. Their polishes go for $12 a bottle, but they're 75% off right now. The discount is applied in your cart once you go to checkout. Don't worry, you can see it before you commit. I put two polishes in my cart to play with, and with shipping and all it was $11.99. Shipped! So hop on it if you wanted some Cult Nails before they fade away!

Thieves Cleaner VS Ants

Thieves Cleaner 1 : Ants 0

I saw a trail of ants in the bathroom. I guess it's because it's getting so much warmer lately. My bathroom is pristinely clean because we're selling the house. I sprayed the ants with Thieves Cleaner that my husband made diluted 20:1. I wiped up the icky things and checked a couple times a day. It's been two or three days now and no sign of ants at all!

I honestly don't kill things, but ants are infesty and that's just not okay. I even leave spiders alone or take them outside. I used to use Windex to kill them on the spot, but they came back within minutes and I don't use chemical cleaners anymore. And honestly what little we have left makes me cough terribly. I can't stand to be on that side of the house, let alone in the same room. It even makes my one year old cough. Thieves cleaner kills 99.96% of germs and has no creepy side effects! I love it, and even my skeptic husband uses it!

Let me know what things you've used Thieves Cleaner for other than simple cleaning!

Comparison: Zoya Dark Greys

Some of these polishes look a little similar, so I did a comparison for you. From top to bottom in each pictures it's Zoya Evvie, Noot, Kelly, Evvie. 

 This 1-2 coats of each and all the formulas are great.

 Noot is much darker than the others, and I never realized how much blue/purple really Kelly really had until I compared her to much more normal grey like Noot. Evvie is lighter than Noot and is supposed to have a slight hint of green, but that is very hard to see for me. Maybe it's just my skin tone, because I have seen loads of green swatches.

They definitely aren't dupes, that's for sure. Which do you have or want? Which do you like best?

DIY Natural Eye Makeup Remover

So I heard someone say they use coconut oil as makeup remover and it sounded like a good idea! Coconut oil is a 4 on the comedogenic rating list, so it didn't seem like a good idea to use it on my whole face. But around my eyes, the extra moisture sounded like a great idea. 

I made a little comparison video for you guys and came up with a very simple two ingredient recipe. You can choose any essential oils you like for the second ingredient. I chose frankincense because it can help with wrinkles and no eye cream I've ever used has actually helped with that. We'll see how it does with my wrinkles, but it's seriously great at removing makeup. I just made some for my Mother-in-law and I added a little lavender because it's great for skin.

Have you tried making an all natural makeup remover? How did it go? Which essential oils would you add?

Search Facebook From Your Phone

My team has this really awesome educational Facebook group about essential oils called Drop Talk. It's a place where you can ask things like "which oil is good for coughs" and "I have lavender but what else can I do with it." I love reading what worked or didn't work for other people too. It's a great resource. 

So this applies to Drop Talk and really any Facebook group at all. This is a video tutorial I made that shows you how to use the search feature to search the group when you're using an Android smart phone. The Facebook app doesn't have that feature. 

Let me know if this helped you or if you have any other tutorial ideas you'd like to see!

Frankincense Face

So frankincense is one of my favorite essential oils. I call it the magic oil because it's in my reference book next to practically any ailment. It helps with things like depression, coughing, skin, wrinkles, aging, tumors, healing, headaches, stretch marks, the list goes on and on.

I like to put a drop in my moisturizer after I wash my face. I'm also thinking about making an eye cream or an eye makeup remover with it! I could definitely use a good wrinkle cream.

This testimonial picture really got me. She used a mixture of coconut oil, frankincense and lavender essential oils for two weeks and had great results. The stretch marks are much closer to her skin color and much less noticeable. When I saw it I thought it was awesome, but I kind of thought it was one of those pics you see circulating around that is too good to be true. And then the woman who posted it said "and I know it's real, because this picture is me." I got goosebumps. I know this woman guys, and this is legit. <3 Frankincense rocks.

I love how Young Living does awesome videos like this. This is a short video of where the trees grow and how they distill the oil.

The harvesting process of the resin from the frankincense trees is unique. They scrape the bark, wait 10 days, scrape, wait, scrape, etc. So meticulous and so worth it.

I love these videos and I love Young Living Frankincense essential oil. I've personally used it for headaches, boobie cream, stretch marks, calming, anxiety, cough, dry skin, and winkles.
What have you used it for?
If you haven't tried it, what would you use it for?

Happy Birthday Rowan!

My baby turned one! We had an awesome ocean themed party at home.

My awesome friend Shelly was kind enough to take all the pictures and help me with all the decorations. She even designed his birthday stat chalkboard! I super love it!

The food and decor was amazing! Shelly, my husband, and I made it all. We served rice crispy sushi, sea snails (pigs in a blanket), oyster cookies, seashell salad (pasta salad), seaweed casserole (green bean casserole), veggies and dip with a bell pepper octopus on top, and crab dip with a bell pepper crab on top!

A local military mom actually made the cake and cupcakes. I thought they were super cute.

The jellyfish were my favorite part of the decorations. I can do a tutorial if you want, just post in the comments!

I had a book that matched the party theme out for people to sign and write notes to Rowan in.

The cake smash was so much fun! I had to let all my crunchy mommy feelings go for just a little while and let him have fun. He really didn't eat much cake anyway :P.

Cake drunk lol! <3

Om nom nnoooommm!!!

Before - After

Definitely called for a bath! And naked babies are the cutest :D.

Birthday boy needed some mama milkie time and wanted more cake haha.

Antics of Rowan

Mommy, Daddy, and happy birthday boy Rowan!

Rowan loves his Auntie Shelly <3.

We had an awesome time at his birthday party. He loved all the good food and running around and saying hi to everyone. 

If there's anything I mentioned that you want a tutorial for, let me know!

Chiropractor in a Bottle

So I've been having this pretty serious neck discomfort. It's almost like a cramp in the back of my neck that radiates upwards. It would come and go throughout the day, but showed up again every single day. I tried my recipe for aches away cream on my temples, forehead, and back of my neck. I tried diluted peppermint, and I also pressed frankincense essential oil on the roof of  my mouth. I was really discouraged that the oils only helped a little. 

I really needed to just go to the chiropractor and get adjusted, but my schedule made that really difficult. Then it hit me....I was treating the problem (headache) and not the cause (neck cramping). After I mentioned how I thought a chiropractor would really help, I thought of the legendary chiropractor in a bottle! That's another nickname for the essential oil blend Valor by Young Living.

Valor smells delicious and is used for a multitude of things. I've personally tried it for sleep, calming, discomfort, and realignment.

So I put a drop of Valor on my neck one time, in addition to my cream I made with essential oils. It really helped, but it still came back. I applied Valor once a day for three days, and lo and behold it was gone. Seriously. This cramping in my neck that had me wanting to make a doctor's appointment and go to the chiropractor went away. I seriously was skeptical about why they call Valor chiropractor in a bottle because I'm like how can an essential oil actually change the alignment of your spine. But it did. I seriously was begging my husband to come home from work early so I could go to the chiropractor and get realigned...but Valor did it for me.

Do you have back issues, neck discomfort, or headaches that you think Valor could help? Have you ever used Valor for anything and how did it go?

Lemon Lavender Cake

I've been looking for recipes I can make with essential oils. It feels like a science experiment and I love it! I made this lemon lavender cake for my first oil class and it was delicious! I used this recipe from Fudge Ripple and changed it up a bit to substitute some essential oils.

Cake

1 cup unsalted butter--room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 cups white all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat all purpose flour

4 large eggs

1 cup almond milk

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 Tbs lemon zest

juice of 1 large lemon

10 drops Young Living lemon essential oil

2 drops Young Living lavender essential oil

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, salt and baking soda.

Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice and almond milk together in another bowl. 

With the mixer on low, alternately mix in

the flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, in 3 additions. Do not over-mix, just allow the ingredients to come together. 

Stir in the essential oils and add more or less to taste. Pour into coated 2 loaf pans. Bake at 325 F for approximately 50 mins. When cool, pour glaze over. This recipe makes enough glaze to drizzle over both cakes.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbs cream

Juice of lemon (more or less to your taste)

Stir together and pour over cooled cake.

I didn't change much about the recipe, I just simplified it a little. I added the lemon juice and not just the lemon essential oil because I feel like it needed the extra liquid. I really wanted it to be lemony so it definitely needed the essential oils. The two drops of lavender was just enough to give it a faint flavor. I used dried lavender buds to sprinkle over the top but I didn't put them in the batter. It's just for fun so you don't have to do that bit. 

Let me know if you try this recipe!

Are Essential Oils Cheaper Than Otc Meds?

So I've been doing a lot of research lately. I've been into essential oils for years and making my own diaper cream, stretch mark cream, and all kinds of things. I asked for the Young Living premium starter kit for Christmas and I couldn't wait so I got it sooner haha. A friend asked me if there were any oils that were cheaper than over the counter meds. I was like I have no idea, let me look. This whole time I've been thinking that oils are probably more expensive, but they're natural so I'm totally okay with that. I was wrong guys lol. 

So here is some of my research. I just picked out a few over the counter drugs that essential oils can be used for instead, then calculated price per dose, and compared them. They can be used for a million other things, but here are just some good comparisons.

Lemon essential oil can be used for reducing a child's fever (Children's Tylenol), getting mucous and stuff out because it's good for drainage (Mucinex), and for weight loss (Hydroxycut). 

Peppermint essential oil can be used to reduce fever and pain (Tylenol), for heartburn (Zantac), and nausea and other belly issues (Tums). Did you know that Tums is actually a category C in pregnancy? Kinda scary.

Thieves essential oil blend is a really useful for keeping the sickies away. You can use it when you first feel a cold coming on (Zicam), for cold sores (Abreva), and for oral pain (Oragel). I actually made a diluted coconut oil cream with this for Rowan's gums and it's awesome. Haven't touched Tylenol or Oragel since.

Lavender is helpful for allergies (Benadryl and Zyrtec) and sleep (Melatonin). 

Seriously I didn't know this info before doing some research. Let me know if you want to see more comparisons of oils or over the counter meds. Leave suggestions in the comments!

Pssstttt.....BOOM!

 So my husband said I've been such a  good wife lately, he'd let me paint his toes, which I love doing! He picked the color green, but I wanted nail art, so I came up with an awesome idea of something we'd both like!

If you don't recognize this, its one of the creatures in Minecraft. We like to play that game together :). It is called a creeper. When you get close to it you can hear it start to go off like a bomb and if you don't run away quick enough it blows up in your face!
(image source)

 
So I got a picture and a palette ready and went to town. I sponged his toes with China Glaze Gaga for Green, Zoya Bevin, OPI Stranger Tides, and Julep Selena. I also mixed some of these shades with black to make them darker, hence the palette.

Here is the finished product! Kind of a camo green (was definitely not going to take the time to do perfect little pixel squares) with the creeper face on the big toes.

I totally coated them with some China Glaze Ghoulish Glow that a friend just sent me for fun. They glow pretty awesome, but of course it's almost impossible to photograph a glow-in-the-dark.

 

 Close up

He likes them! Does your husband or SO ever let you paint his toes?