Eco Loca: One Ingredient Beauty

I realized I left my favorite face cleanser the moment I got to the plane. I doubt it's available here in the UAE  and thought of getting a replacement. I brought a big bottle of honey though for my big home spa treat plans for my husband and remembered reading about women who uses honey as their face cleanser. It's been a week now since I gave it a try and I'm glad to report that I do not miss my old cleanser at all. It is probably because I need all the moisture I can get due to the drying effect of the warm tap water here. 

Design and Style: DIY Mineral Makeup

Hi, folks! I made make-up this afternoon, yay! :)

It's been a while since I touched this stuff from my previous biz. I'm meeting my sister in UAE soon and I thought to pack some for her. It's actually pretty easy to make powder foundations, correctors, blushes, bronzers and eyeshadows once you have all the tools and ingredients with you. 

Eco Loca: Lip Scrub-A-Dub

Just to humor you a little, after posting about quitting sugar, my DIY post today is made up of 2 kinds of sugar.  This is my favorite lip scrub recipe and it is based on the book Green Beauty Recipes by Julie Gabriel. It does a great job of removing flakiness and dryness on the lips and it smells delicious! You only need a few minutes to whip this up and you can store it for 3-6 months. 

Eco Loca: Peppermint Hard Lotion

Have you ever tried Lush massage bars? They're sooo good, right? I get spa images just by smelling them. I love the novel idea of making a body lotion/butter in a bar form. Thanks to this MadeOn Lotion ebook, I learned that it's so easy to make something similar to a massage bar. Enter hard lotions...

Eco Loca: Why Dry Brush

I've got a morning habit that I have been doing religiously for 2 years now. It's called dry brushing. I first learned about it from the book "Do It Gorgeously" and had been reading about its great benefits since. It helps detoxify your lymphatic system, sheds dead skin cells, thus, improving skin texture and increases skin circulation flow (no more clogged pores and less cellulites!) to name a few.

But Jen, wouldn't it hurt to brush the body dry??? Just a tad bit, honey. It depends on your brush. I purposely chose a brush with bristles that is on the medium to hard range. One of the reason I do this is to wake up my senses. I used to wake up so early for work when I started this habit and I needed a real wake-me-up ritual and this came along perfectly. I love my brush. I make sure it's on my suitcase when I travel. :) Make sure that you choose a natural (vegetable bristles) brush with a long handle and you're good to go.

Eco Loca: Quick Carpet Dry Shampoo

Vacuuming is not enough. Carpets need some pixie dust a.k.a. baking soda + a few drops of lavender essential oil. Just sprinkle and leave the mixture for about 30 minutes before vacuuming. I use this easy deodorizer formula a lot because just between us, I like doing crunches on carpets instead of using the yoga mat. *wink* Ahhh, fresh and clean... ready for my next workout! 

Eco Loca: The Oil Pulling Experiment

A few months back, I "oil pulled" before breakfast. What the hell is oil pulling? It is basically swishing a tablespoon of oil in your mouth for 15-20mins with an empty stomach to remove the toxins that accumulated inside your mouth. You spit the oil out after and clean your mouth with pure water and by brushing your teeth. Many people claim that they achieved a long list of health benefits from it. Research will also lead you to numerous books published specifically about it.

There are different types of oil you can use and one of them is sunflower oil. I got my bottle from an organic supermarket in Dubai. I luckily have it in our room when I first learned about oil pulling like I really have no excuse not to try it that time.

Eco Loca: Homemade Baby Wipes

If you have commercial baby wipes within arm's reach as you read this, take a minute and check out its ingredients. Chances are, you will see a garden of chemicals including parabens. Making homemade wipes ensures that what you use for your baby is safe. It's easy as making a cup of coffee. You simply stir the ingredients in water. The only hard part is slicing the paper towels into two. If  you don't have a very sharp knife, you can just score the roll with a knife and cut it around using scissors. Repeat till you get to the core. You need to remove the core after because you'll be pulling from the center first.