Hello!

Hello!
I'm covered in flour - it would take too long to explain...

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Doing it all myself

Hello,
This week and hopefully forever, I am trying to make my own cosmetics. This is for a two fold reason a) they are cheaper and b) after my father's death five years ago from cancer and my mother's recent operation for cancer, and both my Aunt and Uncle having cancer - yes, I'm kind of at a higher than average risk myself. For me this means I have two choices - ignore this fact and do everything I can to get cancer seeing as I probably will anyway or (and this is my preferred option) do everything I can to lower my risk because even if I get cancer, I'll hopefully be as fit as possible to deal with it.

So, this (and my quest to have a second successful pregnancy after loosing two in the last year) is behind my diet changes and more. I know I never had a bad diet, but there is always room for improvement, so I've switches where I can to organic meat and dairy, as many veggies as I can afford, and whole grain everything. I try and make all the food myself, so why not try and make cosmetics also? We put a lot of chemicals on our bodies that mimic estrogen which is not doing our fertility much good, and neither are the parabans which are used to preserve cosmetics but also have been shown to destroy anti-oxidants and promote free-radicals in the body, all of which may increase ones risk of developing cancer.

I'm also a big fan of making stuff and too poor to buy the organic alternatives, so hence I'm doing it myself.

Most of what you need you can buy through the super markets (or local farmers markets  if you want extra brownie points) - so later this week I'll have a lot more to show you.

My first experiment is olive oil, organic of course, which this week I have been using to moisturize and cleanse.

This is me without make-up. To remove it, I massaged OO all over my face and eye lids, then pressed a warm face cloth over my face. After a minuet, I then massaged off the make-up with the facecloth - and look, all gone, It even got my water proof mascara off - which soon I shall be be replacing with a home made alternative. (Yes, really!)
I then had an exfoliate with a handful of finely ground oats and water, and then a finger tip application of more OO as a night cream.
I also used OO to condition my hair - I worked it into the ends and then wrapped my head in a towel for 15 minuets, then washed it out. I have to use conventional shampoo at the moment, but I'll be working on a homemade one soon. My hair combed through fine when wet, and as you can see and despite being rather heavily bleached last week, rather a good shine. If you put OO and water into a little spray bottle and shake well, you can mist it over your hair as a shine spray, which I'll try later also.
 The next quest is make-up. I don't have all the things I need yet, so I had an experiment with cocoa powder. Yes, really! I will be using beeswax and cocoa butter as a base, but today all I had was vaseline, which is not natural but I'm just experimenting - no parabans at least. I just mixed some with cocoa powder and used it to paint my eyebrows, that worked a treat. It was too pale for eyeliner, but it did make a good translucent eyeshadow, and I brushed a little mineral eyeshadow over it - not good enough yet as it has aluminum and titanium in it, but it's a start. I used conventional mascara and eyeliner - no foundation other than a morning massage of OO, but I'll be investigating powder foundation later.
I also used the vasaline and cocoa powder on my lips - which tastes and smells amazing....

...but after eating obviously doesn't have the staying power of conventional lipstick. However, I'll be making my own soon, and I can easily re-apply - it does keep your lips moisterized nicely.

And what has this got to do with writing I hear you ask? If you're wondering why I've changed my hair colour, the main character in my WIP is blonde and living at a time when economic conditions means she has no money for cosmetics and has to do what she can. Call it 'getting under the skin of your character!'

5 comments:

  1. Good for you,Sophie. I'm a great believer in the natural way and use similar products myself. Far too many additives, perfumes in products. Knowing you (!), perhaps you will even turn the production of your cosmetics into a small business. Love the fact that you are getting under the skin of your character in the way you are. Jill

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    1. As you see, I'm not really 'anon', just couldn't work out how to publish my comment in any other way. Jill :)

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  2. Thanks Jill, and who knows? This time next year.....

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  3. Absolutely fascinating! And I agree, how fantastic if something started purely for your own peace of mind and circumstances could eventually be turned into a business? I look forward to seeing how you get on :)

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  4. Loved this Soph. I did a spot of research a while back, looking at how women managed to look glam during the second world war. They used soot & vaseline as a mascara but I'm guessing the soot being burnt, it probably some form of carcinogen. Certainly well worth checking out some of those sites. Good luck with your quest!

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