my natural skincare routine

Whenever I see the word "natural" I pronounce it in my head the way Matthew McConaughey does in The Wedding Planner, "Nat-chu-raaalll".  Anyone else?  Just me?  Okay, moving on.  I still don't really feel like I have a proper routine when it comes to my skin care.  My progress in this area has moved at about sloth-like pace since I was 15.  I still don't wash my face at night, and pretty much never take my make up off (I like to think that because I don't wear too much it doesn't matter, right?  Right), but I'm trying to get better.  Slowly.  Anyway, I've never had terrible skin, so I've gotten away with being lazy in regards to skin care, but as I get older I want to be nice to my skin because it's the only skin I've got and it has to last me hopefully a lot more decades.  

Back in high school my extremely limited skin care was limited to trying to use astringent whenever a zit showed up, but I never really liked the feeling of the alcohol on my skin.  I have pretty dry skin and growing up in Alaska really exacerbated this because the air is the most dry of anywhere I've ever been.  I have a bit of Keratosis Pilaris, which mostly presents on my upper legs and upper arms, but it gives my cheeks a bit of ruddiness too.  In high school it mortified me and didn't really know what do to about it except feel upset that I didn't have the soft, smooth, beautiful leg skin that all the other girls had in gym class.  Any time I'm somewhere more humid than Anchorage (basically anywhere, really), my legs and arms get so much more smooth.  When I'm somewhere super humid, like Hawaii, it basically disappears completely.  I should've realized that moisturizing like crazy would've helped, but I could barely get myself to shower consistently back then, much less have any sort of skin care regimen.  

So, fast forward to now.  Or, a couple years ago, really.  I wanted to moisturize my skin but wasn't really interested in putting a bunch of products made in labs with a bunch of chemicals I could barely pronounce on my skin.  I looked into more natural alternatives to make my skin happy and started using a bit of olive oil as moisturizer (because I already had it in my kitchen).  I also discovered the oil cleansing method, and decided to try doing that.  For a longer explanation of OCM, click here, but the basic concept is, you massage your oil into your face, soak a clean washcloth in warm-hot water, and then cover your face with it. Allow it to stay until it cools, wipe the oil gently away and rinse the washcloth well in hot, running water. You repeat this two or three more times.  I'm usually too lazy to do the full oil cleansing method, but when I do, my skin is super happy.  I sometimes do a quick version of the oil cleansing method when I'm in the shower and it's all steamy.  I currently use Avocado oil mixed with Castor oil for my OCM oil.

Because my skin is super dry after I get out of a shower, I usually just put my Avocado oil on my face as a moisturizer without doing the whole OCM.  For the rest of my body, I moisturize with lavender infused olive oil (you can find a tutorial for that here).  My skin loves it.  I also have some Burt's Bees body lotion that I use sometimes too when I'm not feeling like slathering myself up with olive oil.  I find that the olive oil really isn't all that oily because my skin does soak it up, but it's easier to apply lotion than oil, so I switch between the two depending on my mood that day.



I also have a coconut oil mixture that I was given by a yoga instructor a few months ago, but I totally forget what else is in there other than coconut oil, I want to say maybe tea tree oil?  I use that pretty frequently as a face moisturizer too.  It's nice because it's a bit lighter than my avocado oil.  I love the smell too!  Once I run out I'm going to make my own with some essential oils.  
And speaking of essential oils, those are a part of my skin care now too!  I use both YL Frankincense and YL Lavender with my Avocado Oil.  I've been trying to do this morning and night more recently and I can tell that my skin is so much less flaky and much more happy than it was just a month ago.  I had some awful chapped lips last week, like to the stage of having little strips peeling off and cracking and almost bleeding.  I was trying my Burt's Bees chapstick but that really wasn't doing much, so after a little research I saw that lavender and frankincense help with chapped lips.  Lavender essential oil was my savior.  I put a bit of avocado oil on as a carrier oil and then rubbed a couple drops of lavender over my lips and I had instant relief from the pain of the cracked skin.  I reapplied a couple more times throughout the day and by the next morning my lips were completely healed and it's possible they were actually more luscious than normal.  Yes, I said luscious.  


I don't get blemishes too frequently these days, but every once in a while one or two will pop up.  I saw that a friend uses a dab of YL Purification essential oil blend on any blemishes that she has pop up, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I happened to have a stubborn little cluster of red spots that wasn't going away, so I rubbed a bit of Purification on there and by the next day they'd nearly disappeared.  Yay!  Not looking forward to having another blemish, but I am looking forward to seeing how well Purification works on more blemishes with a little more personal research.   I also tend to get flaky skin so something that helps with that is this scrub/mask.  I also add a bit of sugar for extra exfoliating power, and coconut oil for moisturizing sometimes.  I recently did this and then did the full oil cleansing method afterwards and my skin was amazing. I've been having a lot of fun incorporating essential oils into my daily life.  I made a lavender and frankincense lotion for a friend who needed something for her super dry hands and she's in love with it!  I'll definitely be sharing that fun (and ridiculously easy) recipe soon, as well as a few others I've been creating!  It's like an essential oil Breaking Bad laboratory at my house, complete with a Winnebago in the driveway for ultimate authenticity. I absolutely love having totally natural skin care products.  It feels really nice to know that there aren't any crazy weird chemicals going on my skin and I'm pretty sure I have better skin now than I ever have!  Plus, it's empowering to know that I'm not beholden to the corporate skincare industry for my skincare needs.  I love being able to find recipes for skincare products that I can make on my own in my own kitchen! // With any health or body care routine, make sure to do your own research and consult with any doctors or dermatologists you feel will help you make a decision on how to best care for your body.  This is just my story, but make sure your story is informed and healthy for you! //

house and home

They say you don't know what you've got till it's gone, and I definitely feel that way about snow.  Since I went to college in Washington on the east side of the state, I don't think I realized that the west side rarely got snow.  Winters in Spokane were a bit shorter than those in Anchorage, but they still got plenty of snow and familiar frozen temperatures.  Since moving to Tacoma three years ago I've seen about five days of snow on the ground, total.  Even though snow means it's pretty cold outside, I think snowy outfit photos have always been some of my favorites.  I only managed to get one outfit session in before the snow melted away the next day, unfortunately.

I found a couple amazing macrame hanging plant holders the other day and decided to grab some plant friends at Home Depot to hang in the living room.  I hung them from the cabinet over the kitchen sink while I was working on drilling hooks into the ceiling and I was blown away by how those two plants completely transformed the kitchen.  It was one of those turning-a-house-into-a-home type revelations.  I've never been a houseplant person, and truth be told I already completely killed the beautiful palm fronds that were in my living room corner, but I was so struck by how much those few plants brought the whole room together I'm determined to keep them alive.  I was so sad to not have a hanging plant over the kitchen sink anymore after I moved the two into the living room that I went back to Home Depot and bought one just for over the sink.  Maybe it's because it's just so damn grey and dismal in the winters here in Tacoma that I was struck by their home-making effect even more so than I would be in summer.  Having those little bits of life surrounding me feels so lovely and refreshing.  I also bought a few succulents and they are happily hanging out on my windowsill, soaking up any sun rays the Pacific Northwest offers.

 


dress/cosette :: coat (similar)/coldwater creek :: mittens/the north face boots/vogue footwear :: amethyst necklace/handmade :: belt/thrifted shell necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis :: tights/ courtesy of the stylish fox

getting dressed

Sometimes you get a new dress and you wear it three times within a week of getting it.  I'm not saying I just did that with this dress... okay, yes I am.  Maxi dresses in winter are incognito-comfy because I'm totally wearing leggings underneath to keep warm but nobody knows but me!  Style does not have to equal freezing-your-ass-off.  I once wrote an article in my college newspaper criticizing how almost the whole school wore sweatpants and sweatshirts 80% of the time and got a ton of hate mail.  One in particular mentioned how girls who wear skirts in the winter are slutty and it made no sense to wear revealing clothing in winter.  I was baffled at the correlation that wearing a stylish outfit equals showing an inappropriate amount of skin in freezing temperatures.  I think after I got that email I was even more determined to dress stylishly in spite of cold weather (and certainly not in an irrationally skin-revealing way, because frostbite).  I think the poor guy simply couldn't conceive of tights, or cardigans, or perhaps any skirt-based outfit that didn't involve a tube top and a miniskirt that barely covers butt cheeks.  
Let's face it, putting on an outfit that has any semblance of personal style in the winter can be a challenge.  It's cold, it's snowy (or rainy, or just gross), and the dismal weather can leave us totally uninspired.  I'm certainly not immune to those feelings, but I can't deny that it boosts my mood to "get dressed."  Not just putting on a hoodie over the leggings I haven't taken off for three days dressed.  Since it's hard to get dressed in the dismal pit of winter, I love dresses like this maxi that aren't just fancy looking, but are also ridiculously comfortable.  I picked this dress out for the fabulous print, color, and the sexy blocks of black down the sides, but it's so comfortable it's basically like wearing leggings on your whole body.  In my mind that's pretty much the holy grail of dresses.

 

dress + cardigan/courtesy of modcloth :: short necklace/handmade long necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis

remix archives // zig zag maxi

I absolutely love the more ikat-esque look to this zig zag print.  It's a nice change from the ubiquitous clean chevron/zig zag pattern that has been on every thing the past couple years.  I love a good zig zag myself, but the more natural look seems to give this dress more versatility, I think.  ModCloth has this dress in a red version too, now, which is another interesting variation.  This black and off-white version is still my favorite though.  One of my favorite things about remix posts is that I get even more inspiration for remixing.  Looking back at some of these old outfits I have new ideas for styling this dress in new ways!  Also, it's funny to see my hair growing longer!

slowing down

Monday night I fell while climbing and hyperextended my knee.  I'm pretty sure I also gave myself a mild whiplash because I felt my chin slam against my sternum, my teeth smacked each other, and I woke up with a nasty sore neck.  I was supposed to start month two of this round of Insanity, but I know I need to give it time to heal and not re-injure it.  It's hard for me to rest intentionally.  One of the reasons I really enjoy the Insanity workout is that it is so intense.  I don't feel motivated enough with low intensity workouts and tend to fall of the wagon more easily I think.  I'm a big fan of bootcamp-like experiences and if I could afford it right now I'd love to do a yoga retreat to really spend some quality time focused on moving forward in my practice.  
But alas, I have to turn off beast mode for a while.  I don't want to compromise my knee for the future.  This is the first fitness/sports related injury I've had since rolling my ankle during basketball practice freshman year of high school.  I'm a good decade older than I was back then, so my body probably won't be as quick to bounce back.  Even though I hate it, it's good to be forced to slow down.  I'm great at pushing myself, but not so great at the opposite.  

 

dress/courtesy of modcloth :: top/courtesy of free people :: boots/vogue footwear purse/courtesy of minnetonka :: amethyst necklace/handmade :: hat/the north face shell necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis :: photos by Dan I think I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I'm giving essential oils a try.  They actually just came today and since I have an injury it's kind of the perfect time to start experimenting with them!  I'm an EO newb so I'll probably wait a bit before doing a post on my experience with them, but I'm pretty excited.  I've been slowly transitioning my life from a pretty regular American lifestyle, to working on being more and more mindful about what I consume, when I consume, and how I consume, from food and medicine, to material objects and clothing.  The transition is gradual, and in some ways it seems like some changes trigger others.  I remember back when I made my 26 before 27 goal to only purchase thrifted/vintage/sustainable/made in the USA clothing, it sparked my interest in transforming how I ate as well.  Thinking about what I put in my body food-wise influenced me to look into natural alternatives for birth control.  It's funny how that happens.  Always changing, always evolving.  When I go thrifting these days I'll be sifting through the racks of clothes and I'll see an item I would've immediately snatched up in high school, or something that I would've adored three or four years ago (or even last year!) and I have no interest beyond amusement at changing styles and preferences. It can be frustrating to know that life is constant change, but sometimes it's exciting and encouraging.