Guest Post: DIY Face Mask

Hey ladies! Today's post is going to be a guest post, by Michelle Pino. Michelle is the Manager at Skana Spa in Upstate New York, and she contacted me last week about submitting a post for my blog. At Skana, Michelle and her team are all about easy, natural solutions to skincare. Below you will find Michelle's post, along with a easy face mask recipe.

I tried out the recipe myself, substituting honey for the oil, and I was really impressed. Besides the smell (I learned that I hate tomatoes on my face), this mask left my skin feeling smooth, and looking great. I would definitely try it again in the future.

What are your thoughts on DIY skincare? Leave me a comment with your thoughts below.

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Get Fresh Skin This Canada Day!
Are you looking for a fresh, new skin treatment? Does your skin need a little brightening without using harsh chemicals? Does your skin feel dull and rough? Do you need that energizing summer glow to get your Canada Day holiday started. Make your skin as sparkling as the firework-dotted sky with an all-natural skin mask that is made from ingredients that are good for your body. You can eat everything that goes into this fresh, raw skin mask, and you can make just enough for one face or several. Hold a girl's night at your house, and celebrate the holiday with this natural face mask recipe. Just in time for Canada Day! The below recipe is inspired by the experts of Skana Spa part of New York resort, Turning Stone:

 

Red & White Skin Brightening Face Mask
Ingredients:
10 raspberries, more or less
1/4 of a fresh tomato
1 teaspoon of apricot kernel oil
2 drops of sweet orange essential oil (optional) 

Directions:

• First, put all of the fruit into a blender and pulse the blender for about 10 seconds. You want the fruit to blend smoothly and the chunks to disappear.
  
• Then, pour the mixture into a small bowl. Add the apricot kernel and the sweet orange oil. Stir the mixture together until all the ingredients are mixed.
  
• Place a warm wash cloth on your skin to open your pores. Leave the wash cloth on for about 30 seconds.
  
• Next, put the face mask on your skin and let it set for twenty minutes.

 

• Wash off the mask with cool water, and follow with your favourite moisturizer.

With regular use, you will begin to see your skin brighten naturally. This is an all-natural recipe, so you can feel good about putting healthy ingredients on your skin instead of chemicals. The combination of raspberries and tomatoes give your skin a healthy dose of antioxidants that help to reduce fine lines and inflammation. Raspberries and tomatoes also are super fruits that are high in Vitamin C and boost collagen formation. They protect your cells as well.  In addition, tomatoes have the anti-inflammatory antioxidant lycopene, which reduces skin redness and blotchiness with regular use. Tomatoes also naturally remove dirt and oil from your skin.

DIY: Food Edition - Taco Dip Recipe!

My favourite food is tacos and anything that tastes like tacos. My favourite dip is taco dip with low sodium nacho chips. For a Labour Day weekend BBQ I made Taco Dip and thought I would share the easy how-to recipe with all of you lovely ladies. This really is the easiest dip to make, so here we go!

Shopping List

500mL container of sour cream

250g of cream cheese

35g package of taco seasoning

340g bag of shredded cheese

430mL jar of salsa

10-12 cherry tomatoes

 

Utensils List

Medium mixing bowl

Electric mixer

Spatula

9x11 pan

 

Additional Optional Toppings

Green Onions

Lettuce

Ground Beef

Olives

Anything you would put on a taco!

 

Step 1 - Put the sour cream and cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Blend until almost smooth.

Step 2 - Add taco seasoning to liquid mixture.

Step 3 - Blend, blend, blend until cmpletely smooth. You dont want any clumps of cream cheese left.

Step 4 - Spread the mixture into the bottom of a 9x11 pan (glass or foil). You want an even layer.

Step 5 - Pour the entire jar of salsa over the bottom layer and spread evenly with a spatula.

Step 6 - Sprinkle the bag of pre-shredded cheese over the sour cream in an even layer.

Step 7 - Cut up the cherry tomatoes and sprinkle over the top of the cheese.

 

If you were going to put any other toppings on your dip just cut them up and sprinkle on top of the cheese along with the tomatoes.

 

Keep the dip refridgerated and serve with any sort of tortilla or nacho chips that you prefer.

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

DIY - Missglamorazzi Inspired Tote Bag!

Last week I linked to a video where Ingrid or Missglamorazzi made this adorable no-sew tote bag using only duct tape and staples. I was hooked and knew I needed to make one of these. So me and my Mom went to Fabric Land and got a bold and bright floral print fabric and black belting for handles. Then we went to Walmart and got the duct tape. She got yellow and I got a bright highlighter green.

 

I am not going to do a complete step by step on how to make it here but I will link the video again. This bag was super simple to make and took me about an hour. Below the pictures I will have some tips and tricks that I think might make it easier for you to make this awesome tote bag if you should decide too!

 

In this video Ingrid used:

-Two pieces of 18"x21" fabric
-Standard size stapler
-Scissors
-Tape measure or ruler
-Two 24" pieces of belting for handles
-Duct tape
-An iron

 

For my tote bag I used:

-Two pieces of 18"x21" fabric (which I cut out of a larger piece of fabric)
-Standard size stapler
-Scissors (both regular and fabric scissors)
-Tape measure
-Two 24" pieces of belting for handles
-Duct tape

 

Tips & Tricks

1. When getting your fabric I would recommend getting pieces already cut to the 18"x21" dimensions. It was very hard to measure and cut out the fabric perfectly and by the end the two pieces I cut were not the same size and didn't line up so I had to do some trimming.

2. Walmart sells tons of different sets of fabric already cut to this size so next time I will be buying them pre-cut.

3. When it comes to scissors if you can find or have scissors that are made to cut fabric this will make it much easier for you if you are cutting from a larger piece of fabric. I found that regular scissors were too dull and fabric scissors cut through the duct tape easier as well.

4. When buying the duct tape think about what kind of bag you want to make. My roll had 15 yards and that was enough for a bag without a square bottom. I was 2 pieces of duct tape short when I made it into a square bottom bag. My mom's roll has 20 yards so she will have more then enough for making the square bottom.

5. I did not iron my fabric and when it came to putting the duct tape on the back where there were wrinkles it was hard to get the tape to stick. I would definitely recommend ironing the fabric first.

6. Do not keep your tote bag in a super hot area or directly in the sun for long, because it will cause the glue on the back of the duct tape to soften, melt, and peel away from the fabric. This didn't happen to me but my dad said it will so I should put it as a helpful hint to others who make and use this bag.

 

 

As you can see I filled the bag with a ton of stuff! I had a textbook, iPad, wallet, change purse, puffer, keys, agenda, and hardcover book and it lifted no problem. To tear or ripping, it held up extremely well.

 

 

This is me lifting it off the ground with everything above in it and there were no problems.

 

 

 

Did you make one of these Missglamorazzi Tote Bags? If so leave me a link to your blog below, I would love to check yours out! :)



 

 

DIY - Depotting Your Lipsticks

I haven't done a DIY post in so long. This was the first series of posts I was going to do but then didn't have time to complete many DIY projects. With more time on my hands I may try and do posts like these more often. If you have any ideas for DIY Day email me at industrialdimestoremagic@hotmail.com.

Last week my favourite lipstick came to the end of its days. The Body Shop's lipstick in #10 Heather is the perfect "my lips but better" lipstick that I wear almost daily. It no longer turned up far enough to use, but I knew there was so much product left farther down in the tube. This DIY shows how easy it is to salvage the rest of your favourite lip products. It is crazy how much product is left in the tubes below the surface.

I took a toothpick and ran it along the border of the lipstick and the tube and the remaining product popped right out. Some additional scrapping got almost all of the product out of the tube. After that I just threw out the packaging.

Look at all of the product that lies beneath the surface! Almost as much as above the tube when you buy it new! I put the lipstick in a small 5 gram plastic jar that I bought from the Dollarama. I also made a label with the brand and colour for future reference.

You could leave the lipstick solid in the pot but I chose to melt mine with a blow dryer. It only took a couple minutes on high for the lipstick to melt. I mixed it together with a toothpick once melted to get out all of the lumps. Caution - The plastic and lipstick can get hot so be careful!

Once it is melted I just put it aside with the lid off to cool and harden or you could put it in the fridge. Once cool and hardened back to its regular consistency I put on the lid and now use it everyday with a lip brush.

I thought this lipstick was empty but ended up almost getting a full 5 gram jar of product by the end of this DIY. It will be a long time before I run out of this Holy Grail lipstick! :)

Have you ever tried to depotting your empty lip products?

DIY Day: Makeup Palettes

This is my first DIY Day Blog. These blogs are basically me sharing with you how to make different crafts and things that are related to beauty, organization, etc. The first installment in this blog series is Makeup Palettes. I have recently gotten on the band wagon craze of open palettes that you can put all your products in. I like their functionality, but I also like how it condenses everything and takes up less space. After much trial and error I have found my favourite way of making homemade makeup palettes. Hopefully, this picture tutorial will inspire or help anyone reading this blog, to make their own palettes.

Lets Begin. (Side Note: This post is very picture heavy.)

These are the products that I use to make the palettes. In this tutorial I am going to be making a windowless palette. To make a windowless palette you will need:

•  Scissors
• Card stock Paper of any design that you like.
• Self-adhesive magnetic sheets
• DVD Case.

If you are making a window in your palette I would also suggest having a think piece of cardboard and an utility knife handy as well.

For paper I chose a dark purple card stock with glittery multi-coloured hearts. In the past I have also used plain matte black card stock as well. I find the best paper to use can be found in the scrap booking section of most craft stores.

Before you trace and cut out the paper sleeve, you must decide if you want a window in your palette. I have made window ones before and although they are handy in seeing the products and colours that are inside; I find that fallout and excess product gets between the plastic of the DVD case and the paper making it look kinda dirty and unattractive.

If you are going to make a window, then cut out the DVD holding area with a utility knife. To prevent cutting the plastic on the other side of the case, slip a think piece of cardboard in between. You'll cut the cardboard..not the plastic!

This is what the case should look like if/after you cut out your window.

Trace around the DVD case to get the size of your paper sleeve. If you have a window make sure to trace around the inside of that as well.

Cut out your paper cover.

Once it is cut out you can decorate it further if you wish, with labels, names, pictures, etc. This is your chance to make your palette original to you. Something you don't get with generic mass produced palettes.

Next slide your cover into the case under the plastic, to make sure that it fits.

Mine needed trimming. Make any adjustments you need so that cover fits evenly.

I then folded the cover like a book so that the DVD case hinge could be seen in the paper. This will insure that the case closes properly.

For the magnetic bottom I chose to use Adhes-A-MAG. It is a self-adhesive magnetic sheet that can be found at Michael's Craft store for $18 CDN + tax. So far I have made 3 palettes with this and have enough left for at least 4 or 5 more.

Measure your palette on the magnet.

To get the perfect fit, cut out the magnet at little smaller then what you initially traced. Just like the paper it will be a little bit too big. So instead of trimming later and wasting some of the magnet, make it slightly smaller to start.

Before you can lay the magnet down you need to snap off the paper clip like holders, that usually hold the DVD information booklets. They are super simple to remove. Just bending them upward should cause them to snap off.

Once you stick down the magnet the inside of your windowless palette, it should look like this. All ready to hold your eye shadows, blushes, lipstick pans, etc.

This is what the outside out my finished palette looked like.

My ELF colour book eye shadows inside the palette. (In my next DIY Day tutorial I will show how I dissembled the old eyeshadow palette and made the pans magnetic for this palette.)

If you chose to make a window in your palette then this is what the inside will look like when you are complete.

Overall, this palette cost me about $5 CDN to make, and meets my everyday needs. Although sturdy for everyday use I feel that if used when travelling, you may find that your eye shadows will move around, because the DVD Case is more of a "soft" case.

Hopefully this picture tutorial was helpful. If you have any other DIY Day ideas, or would like to see something specific, leave a comment below.

Disclaimer: All of the products used in this tutorial were purchased with my own money.