I don’t wear makeup every day, but when I do, I like to take it off naturally. One of the things I’ve learned on my journey to a more natural life is that simple is almost always better. That’s definitely the case for this easy, 5 minute, 1 ingredient natural makeup remover!

Your eyes and the skin around them are so sensitive, so you really don’t want to be messing with ingredients that can be harmful. A lot of common ingredients in makeup removers include propylene glycol, sodium laurel sulfate, mineral oil, fragrances, preservatives, and artificial colors. These ingredients can range from mild skin irritants to full on carcinogens!

Oil is actually great at braking down and taking off your makeup without stripping your skin. It cleanses gently while also moisturizing. Who wouldn’t want that?

This even works to remove my natural homemade mascara and homemade foundation! If you love this makeup remover, you’ll love those too.

This makeup remover has only one ingredient:

Sunflower Oil

You could use any kind of oil to take off your makeup, but I chose sunflower oil for a few reasons. First, it is inexpensive. Second, it is non-comedogenic, which means it won’t clog your pores. And third, it is liquid at room temperature, so it will absorb into cotton pads really easily.

I’ve also used coconut oil to take off my eye makeup, but when it comes to removing makeup from my face, I like to stick to something non-comedogenic, because coconut oil makes me break out. This may not be the case for everyone, but I like to stay on the safe side.

Alright, ready to make it?

Another reason I love sunflower oil is that it feels so light. It really doesn’t feel oily to me at all- I’m always amazed at how great it is at taking off my makeup!

I haven’t bought makeup remover from a store in I don’t know how long- this stuff is so great there really isn’t any reason to. And it keeps me nice and moisturized.

So, what do you think? Let me know how your homemade natural makeup remover goes for you!

supplies used in this post

The post Homemade Makeup Remover appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

Ever since starting to research the harmful ingredients in cosmetic products, I’ve been trying to make my own cosmetic products. Makeup has been the hardest to replace. With colors and consistencies, it’s just sometimes hard to make. I’ve been trying for quite a while now to make a new mascara, with many many messes happening. And I finally came up with a formula I like.

Mascara is one of those products that is even worse than you think. From parabens, fragrance, to coal tar dies, these just aren’t things you want in and around your eyes.

So, make your own at home! After many tries, I think I have found the easiest way to make homemade mascara, and get it in the tube. Which is harder than it sounds. You should have seen the mess. Anyways, I digress… This mascara gives a lovely light natural-looking emphasis to your lashes without irritation or worries about health and environmental concerns. Together with my homemade foundation, you’ve got a great start to a completely natural makeup routine.

This mascara contains only natural ingredients. It gets its color from activated charcoal. Aloe vera gel consists of most of the body of the mascara. Beeswax thickens it, and bentonite clay helps it dry on your eyelashes and not smear.

So, here is what you will need to make this mascara:

• Aloe vera gel
• Beeswax
• Bentonite clay
• Activated charcoal
• Empty mascara tube
• Plastic syringe
• Double boiler or a pot over a pot of boiling water

Let me break it down for you.

This mascara is really nice, light, and non-clumpy. Don’t you hate it when you have mascara that seems to dry out and irritate your eyes until you can’t help but rub them by the end of the day? Well, that shouldn’t happen with this mascara!

Wondering what it looks like? The effect is pretty subtle which I like for my every day makeup look (even though I don’t wear makeup every day). My eyelashes are very light naturally, close to a dirty blonde color. You can see in the picture below that my eyelashes are black and emphasized. And still quite natural looking.

You should have seen the relief I had when I tested this recipe and it actually worked. This has been my most difficult beauty recipe so far, with lots and lots of trials before I got it right. Well, lucky for you, I did the work for you, and you shouldn’t have a problem making it yourself following my recipe!

Let me know how making homemade mascara goes for you!

supplies used in this post

The post Homemade Mascara: All Natural Healthy Makeup appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

I’ve been wanting to make the transition to homemade makeup. After one huge homemade mascara disaster, I took a little break from homemade makeup. However, I tried out this awesome foundation recipe from Sincerely, Kinsey and I am no longer discouraged!

Makeup is especially notorious for containing chemicals that are potentially harmful for your health and the environment. I mean, when was the last time you read an ingredients list on your makeup? Not recently, I’m guessing. Half the time you can’t even find the full ingredient list.

Well, this foundation is a nice, lightweight, everyday powder foundation. It provides a light coverage and the green undertones counteract redness on your skin. I like it just as much as the Mac powder foundation I’ve been using for years. And there is no guilt for using it- because it is actually good for your skin! And it costs less than $2 to make. You just can’t beat that.

You only need 3-5 ingredients to make this foundation. The relative amounts will vary depending on your skin tone.

• French Green Clay: highly absorbent mineral clay, tones skin, reduces inflammation in acne, removes impurities from skin (might have a slight purging effect the first few times you use it)
• Arrowroot Powder: dries up blemishes, absorbent, absorbs moisture (great for oily skin)
• Cocoa Powder: for tinting, full of antioxidants
• Cinnamon: for tinting, natural acne treatment, antiseptic, cleanses pores, stimulates blood vessels on surface of the skin
• Nutmeg: for tinting, anti-inflammatory

And it couldn’t be easier. You can whip this up in about 5 minutes.

Isn’t it lovely? I am a fan. Oh- did I mention it smells like cinnamon and chocolate?

I don’t like wearing heavy foundation on a daily basis. I only wear something a little heavier if I am at an event where I know I will be photographed. This foundation has just the right amount of coverage for me.

When I put on a lot of makeup I am always worried it will cause break outs- but I don’t have to worry with this foundation. If your skin has a lot of impurities you might get a purging effect the first week or so of using it, but after the initial purging it should help keep your skin healthy and acne-free.

I’m hoping to adapt this recipe to make a liquid foundation in the future, so keep your eyes open for that!

Try making this at home, and let me know how it goes!

The post All Natural Homemade Foundation That’s Good For Your Skin appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

I love lip balm. I don’t know why my lips are so dry, even in the summer, but they are. And so I always have some with me. Well, I made some awesome homemade honey lip balm a while ago, and I am almost out of it. So when I went to make a new batch I decided that I should try making it tinted. Why not have a little color while I moisturize my lips?

And the results were awesome. Why spend extra on tinted lip balm at the store when you can make it yourself? You don’t have to worry about what is in it. Some of the worst offenders of the unnatural and toxic chemicals in our cosmetic products are artificial colors and scents. Well, this lip balm is tinted and scented naturally.

And at 40 cents a tube you can’t beat the price. That includes the price of the empty chapstick tube. Counting only the ingredients, it only costs 13 cents to make one tube! Amazing.

All the ingredients in this lip balm serve a purpose:

• Coconut Oil: natural moisturizer, antibacterial, full of antioxidants and nutrients your skin needs (you can get it here– make sure your coconut oil is organic, unrefined, and cold-pressed)
• Honey: Naturally anti-bacterial, natural humectant (attracts moisture to the skin), (use a raw, organic honey, and local is preferred)
• Beeswax: protects skin against damaging elements, antioxidant, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory, keeps lip balm solid at warmer temperature (you can get it here)
• Beet Root Powder: Natural colorant (you can get it here)
• Essential Oils (optional): for scent

I get my empty chapstick containers on amazon (like most of my ingredients).

This picture illustrates how you know the lip balm is done. The easiest mistake to make for this recipe is to not heat the coconut oil, beeswax, and honey for long enough. The honey takes a higher temperature to combine with the coconut oil and beeswax.

It is a subtle difference, but you can see in the picture on the left that the honey is “heavier” and sits on the bottom. On the right it mixes with the other ingredients.

There may be a little separation when you add the beet root powder, which is not a problem. Just make sure it is warm enough and mix it well before you pour it into the tubes and it should turn out fine. 

Looks pretty great right? It feels even better!

This should make about 10 tubes of lip balm

If you want to put labels on your lip balm, 2″x2″ labels fit my tubes perfectly. I think its always fun to have a label on a product you make yourself. It makes it feel even more professional.

My lips feel a little spoiled right now.

You can play around with other natural tints to get a different color. This was just the bright raspberry color I was going for, but nutmeg and cinnamon are also natural colorants that could be mixed with beet root powder to get your desired color. There are a bunch of other natural colorants as well, but you probably have those two on hand.
Next time I make these, I might just add some extra SPF as well. I’ll update the post if I end up doing that.

Try making yourself some tinted lip balm and let me know how it goes for you!

Visit Pins and Procrastination Blog’s profile on Pinterest.

The post How to Make All Natural Homemade Tinted Lip Balm/ Chapstick appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

I don’t know about you, but for some reason my lips are always super dry. I end up going through a lot of chapstick. I always have at least one tube in my nightstand and one in my purse and at least two others scattered throughout the house. Well, I was reading the chapstick bottle and it had some of the 13 ingredients to avoid. So I figured I should try to make my own. I found this recipe from The Frugal Greenish Mama.

It only costs about $4 to make 6 tubes of this lip balm- and that is including the price of the empty tubes. If you are going to reuse a container, the lip balm itself only costs 93 cents for six tubes. Pretty unbeatable price.

All the ingredients and supplies you need

I don’t know why all my homemade beauty products keep ending up being only three ingredients- I guess I am just drawn to the simplicity! Well- this one is nice and easy:

• Honey: Natural humectant (attracts moisture to the skin), antibacterial, natural antioxidant, smells and tastes awesome (use a local, organic, raw honey for full benefits)
• Coconut Oil: Natural moisturizer, antibacterial, full of nutrients your skin needs, smells awesome (use an organic, unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil for full benefits)
• Beeswax: Protective coat on skin, anti-inflammatory, keeps chapstick solid at room temperature

Seriously, these are all amazing natural ingredients that take a long time to expire. Why isn’t all lip balm and chapstick made using this recipe? I don’t know.

Make sure you also have some empty chapstick tubes or tins on hand when you make this recipe. You can easily buy them online here or here or here.

I prefer tubes just because I think it’s easier than tins to apply, but it’s all based on personal preference.

This is what the lip balm will look like when you first add it to the stove- the beeswax will melt and the honey will turn a darker color as it heats up

Here is what you will want to do:

I made the mistake of not heating mine long enough, so the honey and coconut oil separated a bit. The lip balm still turned out fine- there are just a few tubes with more honey in them. Make sure to heat for the full amount of time.

This recipe should make about 6 tubes of lip balm or 2 tins of lip balm. You can easily double or triple the amount to make more if you like.

I’m pretty happy with the quality of this homemade lip balm. I feel like I don’t have to apply it as often as chapstick I buy from the store. My only complaint is the smell of the beeswax is a little overpowering. Next time I will probably add a bit of an essential oil to help counteract the smell.

And they’re done! That was easy.

Let me know how making homemade lip balm goes for you!

supplies used in this post

The post How to make homemade lip balm/ chapstick (only three ingredients!) appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.