Design & Style: DIY Wedding Hairstyles

Don't you just love it when you recommend a resource to a friend and he/she actually uses it? I asked my sister to take a look at this hairstyle book and a few days later, she sent me a link of these hairstyle pics that she did herself.

Neither my sister nor I is good at styling hair so I was pretty amazed at what she came up with within a few minutes of giving the instructions on the book a try. She told me it was actually easy and the only tools she used are a comb and some bobby pins. The lower left pic (called the Sweeping Twist) is my favorite. I might just use it on her wedding!

Design & Style: Curly Girl Must-Haves

I am one happy, curly girl. I wasn't always glad like this about my curls before (you know it comes with free frizz) when I was still clueless on how to manage it properly. I came across with the THE book for us curly girls and my love affair with my curls got SO much better. Tell you what, the secret is simply to give those curls lotsa moisture and lotsa TLC. Absolutely no fine-tooth comb and hard towel rubbing allowed!

I have rounded up my 10 favorite curly hair products that worked for me:

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: 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.