DIY Spa Day

    This weekend I had to work on Saturday, which meant I couldn't go with Kris to our hometown when he left on Friday to go to work for the weekend. This is my first weekend alone in Denver, and I must admit, after I got off work on Saturday, I didn't leave. I spent Saturday evening laying around and watching the last season of Gilmore Girls and plotting what I'd do on Sunday via Pinterest.

   I've seen all kinds of DIY recipes for hair masks and facials and since Kris wasn't here to make fun of me for "glopping random stuff on my face," I decided to try some of them out.

     I started my day out with an egg/olive oil hair mask. We recently received 18 farm fresh eggs and we haven't had much time to make breakfast lately, so I wanted to put them to good use. I used two full eggs (some recipes recommended just using the whites, but I figured it didn't matter much). I whisked them together, combed it into my hair, and wrapped my hair on top of my head for the day. I saw some tutorials that said to leave this sort of mix on for 20 minutes and some that said to leave it on for as long as possible for the best effect. My hair's been suffering lately, so I opted for as much of an impact as possible, but more on that later.

    My next recipe was a three part baking soda/one part water facial scrub deemed to provide the same results of microderm abrasion. It was easy and cheap, so I figured it was worth trying. I didn't use the whole mixture and didn't notice any significant different in my skin, though that could be because I went straight to a honey mask next. I didn't have any of the recommended mix-ins for a honey mask (oatmeal, nutmeg, lemon juice, etc...), but I figured since honey was the main ingredient, I would be okay if I just shmeared plain honey on my face. I left it on for about 30 minutes and after I washed it off, my skin was nice and soft.

     Later, after some intense house cleaning, I mixed up what I'm calling a vanilla cappuccino scrub and a balsamic peppermint hair rinse. The scrub is made up of whatever was laying around my kitchen that I'd seen in miscellaneous recipes online:

• Three tablespoons of the coffee grounds from my breakfast coffee
• Half a cup of brown sugar
• A quarter cup of olive oil
• A few drops of vanilla 

This one actually worked beautifully. It smells amazing and my skin was silky soft. The only problem was that it left my bathtub a huge mess, due to the coffee grounds.

    I did the same sort of scrounging for the rinse:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 10 drops peppermint oil

 Vinegar is the primary ingredient tons of hair rinses, and I thought the peppermint oil would help stimulate circulation to my scalp and encourage my hair to grow.

     My shower was kind of a fiasco. By the time I got in, the mask from the morning had gone completely hard (I'm still not sure if that's a good thing) and it took me ages to rinse it out. I ended up having to use shampoo anyway, just because I couldn't stand the thought of having raw egg in my hair without some sort of attempt to get it out. After I'd rinsed my shampoo out, I used half of the vinegar concoction before I conditioned it. After I'd let the conditioner sit, I used the rest of the vinegar to help rinse it out. The peppermint left my scalp all lovely and tingly and did wonders to mask the scent of the vinegar. My hair feels lovely and silky, though I'm terrified that I missed some of the egg and will be wandering around with it in my hair for ages.

    Next on my list of things to try is a lemon juice toner, a multi-ingredient honey mask, and a gelatin peel. What are your favorite DIY beauty recipes? 

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