Beauty Tuesday: Microbead-Free Exfoliation

Last week I decided that every Tuesday would be Beauty Tuesday and I would talk about sustainable fashion, environmentally responsible cosmetics or natural beauty products on Tuesdays. This Tuesday, I want to talk to you about microbeads.

You've probably heard about microbeads but you may not know what they are. A lot of companies use microbeads as a selling point. It is a selling point - microbeads are great for exfoliation - but microbeads are wreaking havoc on our waterways and marine life. Microbeads are plastic. They are tiny little pieces of plastic that go down your drain and then never, ever dissolve or disappear.

You can read about what microbeads are, exactly why they are a problem and what products you may have that contain them here (the link will open in a new tab).

If you have something with microbeads, I would suggest throwing it out. You should know by now I don't suggest throwing things out lightly, but the less microbeads flooding into the ocean, the better.

I don't have a photograph of microbeads for you as I don't want to demonise a particular brand or product, so I drew some for you:

I didn't think that adequately captured how evil they are, so here they are lighting a bushfire and running away:

And here's one making a fish sad:

But on a serious note, they make fish more than sad, they make them sick, dead and extinct. Don't use them.

"But what," I hear you cry, "can I exfoliate with?! I'll get all scaly! Do you want me to be all scaly?"

Of course I don't want you to be scaly, and that's why I've made this simple recipe for you.

You will need:

The most gentle conditioning baby shampoo you can find

Normal white table sugar

And... that's it. Pour one tablespoon of baby shampoo into a small bowl or a teacup.  For the kind I have, 1Tbsp is ten pumps, so that's easy.

Next, add two tablespoons of sugar to it.

You can either just let it sit, or poke it with a spoon for a bit, either way, in less than a minute the sugar will have absorbed all the baby shampoo and turned into a sort of crunchy gel:

You can use this scrub and know that you will not be scaly and you are helping to keep marine creatures and environments safe.

If you have very dry skin, you can replace the baby shampoo with olive oil or coconut oil.

I would like to make this post an informal link-up, which will be open... well, basically forever since it's informal. If you have a beauty post you would like to share, link to this post on yours and leave a comment here letting me know you've linked up.

You could link an environmentally-friendly alternative like this, a natural skin or hair care product like the one linked here, a fashion-centred op shop/thrift post like the one at this link, or a refashion project like this one. I really look forward to seeing your stuff! :-D

Happy Scrubbing!

Linky love,

Cassandra Louise.

Three-in-One Hair Cleanser

This is my recipe for an all-in-one "shampoo" (sham-shampoo, if you will), conditioner and rinse. There are many like it in books and on the internet, but this one is mine. I adapted this recipe from one used by a Twitter friend of mine that I won't link to because I know she wouldn't want that, but this is me waving to her.
First, this is a cleanser, not a shampoo, so it will clean your hair amazingly well and get rid of all the scalp-yuck you may have, but it won't bubble or lather at all.
You will need:

Rain water, filtered water or spring water

Bentonite clay powder (I get mine on eBay) 

 Honey

Green tea, bag or leaves is fine but if you use loose leaves you'll need a super-fine strainer.

The clay is the cleanser, the honey is the conditioner but also acts as a cleanser and the green tea is the rinse. Green tea will leave your hair extra silky and shiny. Regular green tea is better than decaf for this because caffeine reduces hair fall, but either is fine if you're not concerned with that or only have decaf.

You will also need:

A plastic squeezy bottle

Using a non-metallic spoon, measure out one tablespoon of honey and put that in your plastic bottle. I usually use a funnel for this but I can't find my kitchen funnel right now so I just poured and hoped...

...and got honey all down the outside of my bottle.

Anyway, you're more organised than me and have a funnel, so now your bottle looks like this:

To that, again using a non-metallic spoon, add two teaspoons of clay powder. It will look something like this:

Mmm! Clay-y. Meanwhile, you can have a cup of green tea brewing. I brewed mine in an infuser because of the whole funnel thing, I needed a pouring lip, but obviously a normal cup or a glass is fine. Let it brew for at least ten minutes.

When the green tea has brewed for a while, pour it into your bottle, leaving some space at the top for cold water.

Fill to the top with cold water, put the lid on and shake well to combine all the ingredients. It should end up looking something like this:

Take the lid off the bottle to let the mixture cool down for at least five minutes, as you're going to apply it to your head while it's still warm. To use, I apply it to my dry hair in the shower and let it sit for several minutes before washing it out, even though I have quite long hair, I find there's enough liquid in the bottle to thoroughly wet my hair, you might like to apply it to wet hair and that's completely up to you, I don't think it really matters. Just make sure you get the mixture on all of your scalp, as that's where all the buildup is that makes your hair greasy and makes your head smell funny.

Unlike regular shampoos and conditioners, if you don't quite wash all of this mixture out of your hair, it won't do any damage at all.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think!

Much love,

Cassandra Louise.

Natural Hair Growth Oil

This is the oil recipe I use on my hair.  I don't know if it actually speeds up hair growth, the last proper science thing I read on that said it's almost impossible to actually speed up hair growth, but it does make the hair you've got stronger and less likely to break, thus meaning you retain length more easily.

First step, make yourself a nice cup of tea.  The tea is optional, but a cup of boiling water isn't, so you may as well use it to make tea with.

Fill the cup and sit a small bowl on top.  This bowl is what you'll make the hair oil in.

Add about that much olive oil (roughly 2-3 tablespoons, but my little bowl very conveniently has a line in it as part of the pattern so I don't really measure)

Next, add about a teaspoon of coconut oil.  If you're lucky enough to live somewhere that isn't blindingly hot, your coconut oil will be lovely and white and solid and easy to measure.  Mine looks like this, though and that's alright too.

Coconut oil can be very expensive so if you don't have it or can't afford it, don't stress too badly.  Personally I think grapeseed oil would be a good substitute, but you can do your own investigation.

Lastly, add 6-8 drops of this stuff:

(do not adjust your sets, blurry photo is blurry)

Tea tree oil.  You can also use eucalyptus.  If you don't have those or don't like them, peppermint or rosemary oil.  This ingredient is optional, as it's the weird hippie-voodoo bit.  This is a "warming" oil and it's included to stimulate the scalp and increase blood flow to the hair follicles, which may speed hair growth, but again I'm not sure.  I include it because I like how it feels on my head.

Let the bowl sit on the cup for 5-10 minutes.

To use, make sure you completely detangle your hair, working from the bottom up to limit hair breakage.

Take off or cover up that nice shirt and flip your hair over the sink.  Massage the oil into your scalp and the roots of your hair first, then the very ends, then the rest of the hair shaft.  Cover your hair with a plastic cap, cling film or a hair scarf so you don't get oil on everything ever.

Leave the oil on your hair for at least an hour (I leave it in at least over night, sometimes the next day, but I totally rock hair scarves) and then wash it out.  Try to wash it out with cold to warm water, not hot, and use conditioner in place of shampoo.  The "conditioner as shampoo" thing works well and was recommended to me by a dermatologist.  Conditioner is basically a mixture of oil and water, and so contains enough detergent to clean your hair in order to bind the oil and water.

Happy... ahh... hairing?

Cassandra Louise.