DIY All-Natural Bronzer

 We can file this one under #whitegirlproblems.

I long for olive skin like Princess Jasmine or Pocahontas, but apparently my Irish genes won out (as my scalding sunburn from spending the past weekend at the lake attests). So to deal with my unrequited paleness, I add a little bronzer to my makeup routine in the warmer months.

I stumbled upon this awesome, thrifty, and very effective DIY bronzer recipe over at www.crunchybetty.com. This recipe is great because it has zero funky chemicals, it smells divine, and you don't have to put on pants to drive to the mall to buy anything.

It literally is as simple as adding powdered cocoa, nutmeg, and cinnamon to a little cornstarch. I didn't add cornstarch to mine because I didn't have any at the time (and like I said, I wasn't planning on pants that day, so no shopping) and it turned out peachy without it. You pretty much cannot mess this up. Happy experimenting!

Shalom.

DIY All-Natural Mascara

I feel like buying mascara can be such a roll of the dice. Maybe I just have selective memory loss, but it seems like I can never buy the same brand and style of mascara twice in a row. This results in a lot of inadvertent eyelash-coating experiments with varying levels of success.

Probably this isn't a universal problem. Probably you're an adult and can remember to buy the same colored tube each 4-6 weeks. But just in case you have mascara buying issues OR if you have very sensitive eyes and skin, I have a solution.

This comes from the divinely-inspired www.crunchybetty.com, of course. I can't find the exact post, so please forgive me. This is all-natural, it's simple, and it works really well.

The recipe is simple. Add activated charcoal to aloe vera gel until you get the desired amount (not more than a few teaspoons really). The consistency should be gelatinous, not too watery. I have the utmost confidence in your ability to accomplish this.

The hardest part of this whole thing is cleaning out an old tube of mascara and then inserting your new mascara into the old tube. I suggest one of those plastic syringes you use to medicate babies and puppy dogs. You know the ones.

And really, this mascara looks amazing. It doesn't run as long as it's dry, and it thickens really well without getting clumpy. Oh yeah, and it costs four cents!

Shalom!