Pressed Pigments = Super easy to use eyeshadows.

Home pressed pigments

Top one to press is a pink shimmer mica, I have been dragging this around since my last bout of makeup creation. Beautiful shade, light with a purple shimmer finish. I got it as a mica tester back when I was formulating my own colors and I loved it.

Second pigment to press was an indie cosmetic creator from Fairfield from a consignment shop called The Rose, called TigerEye. It is a beautiful deep copper brown with a duochrome green effect. It reminds me of MAC Club and of a pigment I pressed earlier in my pigment adventures.

Third is called Lavender Dream. which has a beautiful silvery pearl effect and fourth is a highlighter/eye shadow called Swedish winter from yourMinerals Sweden. Gorgeous finishes.

The fifth is Nyx Ultra Pearl Mania in Oro,  a gorgeous coppery brown that is simply divine. Opaque coverage,

The sixth is from The Rose, as well. A shimmery pink brown called Nude that swatches a bit more sheer than Oro. I misplaced it while photographing it and you can see it's next to the number 5 swatch. Meep!

Why press my pigments? I find loose minerals do not adhere to the skin well, and they are messy. I don't have time for that.  Adding the binder to the also powder acts as an adhering agent, much like a very expensive primer. The one I use has 3 different silicones, lending a buttery texture to the pigments.

I use a 1 to 1 ratio with drops of binder and 91% alcohol to liquefy the pigments. I mix them up using a sanitized mini spatula and then I press into a godot (also known as an empty makeup tin), using tissue and a pressing tile or coin. I let it sit overnight so the alcohol evaporates. Voila! Gorgeous eyeshadows in the morning!

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Meal/Menu Plan Service - Green Chef

The first meal we tried with Green Chef was the Paprika Chicken. This was amazing, too. Green Chef is an organic meal service. There is less selection than with Plated (previous post) but they are have a lot of gluten free options. There is a special on Facebook for a code that gives you a weeks worth of meals for 9 dollar shipping. I don't have the link but if you can find it, it's a great deal to see if it's up your alley. 

The choosing is more finicky, they have 4 different meal plans with gluten free, omnivore, carnivore and herbivore with different pricing for each of them. It's harder to find ones without tree nuts or peanuts, so that's something to think about. But the meals we have gotten seem very well thought out. It's possible to recreate the menu but the printed intruction cards do not have set amounts on them. All in all, it's a great service, if your set amounts for your grocery budget aren't fluctuating.           

The link is Green Chef - Menu/Meal Service

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So, yeah, these DIY meal services- Plated

So I am trying out some of the various food service/prep delivery service. Since Mark is working so much during the day and I can't really be on my own while shopping, we've had to get creative with meal planning.

Okay, both Green Chef and Plated are both PHENOMENAL services. But I am just going to talk about Plated now. We haven't had a bad meal yet and it's expanding our culinary expertise. Instead of just eating in a restaurant, we are learning how to make gourmet for less than a trip to Applebee's and 10 times more delicious. Plated includes amounts rather than just the instructions. We add them to our kitchen recipe binder so we can reproduce it time and again. 

The first meal from Plated we opened was the Vietnamese Caramel Fish. To be frank, I am not the biggest fish fan and I loved this meal. The sauce and marinade was divine, and the flavor melded together beautifully. The bok choy and vermicelli gave it a delightful texture. It will be a repeat.


I'll let Mark take it from here: 

"You pan-sear the fish for a bit and that makes up for the non-breaded issue. I used a couple splashes of rice wine for extra caramelization. Then with the red pepper & ginger sauce, along with the lime juice, made for a really good flavor combination. All I know is I now have a way to make tilapia taste pretty damn good."

 Me again! <3 I think you'll love it, if you really love food. There are veggie, land and sea options, and you can select your menus when you want them. And with the first few meals paid for, it's a pretty safe thing to see if it's up your alley. I like the ability to personalize them and skip weeks if I so choose. I can click and pay and they'll send it out the next shipping date.

Here's a link to some meals free with the purchase of 2 of them, I think. It might be something else, but it's still a great deal to try it out.

Plated Meal Delivery Service up $30 dollars off referral link

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DIY Cardboard Folding tool.

It's really hard for me to fold clothes quickly without running out of energy. So I made my own tool folder and the kids love using to do their part in helping the household.

Wow, okay. It's far harder to type out, but essentially it is 6 rectangles of cardboard cut to 9"x12". Label each rectangle 1 to 6. Placing them short edge top and long edge side in grid of 3 columns and 2 rows.

Rectangle 1 is in the upper left, rectangle 2 is in the upper middle, rectangle 3 is on the upper right.
Rectangle 4 is in the lower left, rectangle 5 is in the lower middle, rectangle 5 is on the lower right.

Rectangle 1's right long edge is taped to rectangle 2's long left edge.
Rectangle 2's right long edge is taped to rectangle 3's long left edge

Rectangle 1's lower short edge is taped to rectangle 4's upper short edge.
Rectangle 2's lower short edge is taped to rectangle 5's upper short edge
Rectangle 3's lower short edge is taped to rectangle 6's upper short edge

Rectangle 4, 5 and 6 are NOT taped to each other at all.

Place your shirt on the middle of the grid with the collar at the top in Rectangle 2. Adjust your shirt so you fold in the outer parts of the shirts to fit inside the grid. Fold Combo 1 and 3, then Fold in combo 3/6 and fold up 4.

Voila! Perfectly folded shirt.


If my instructions aren't clear, just let me know in the comments! <3 <3

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Lemon Poppy Massage Bar Soaps! Nom Nom NOM!

#darbysmart #DIY Lemon Poppy Massage Bar Soaps. Totally amazing smelling. Totally in love!


I am a member of the ToDIYfor monthly box from Darby Smart and every month I get an interesting craft project that I can do. It comes with everything I need to do one project with easy to follow instructions. I am also a member of Darby Girl, which is a bimonthy project with a more youthful edge focusing more on things like accessories.

I love that they are so simple and I now own a soap mold for Melt and pour soaps and have lemon fragrance and the know how to make more! I love this so hard.

You can join too, if you think this is your bag (got a bag project that I can work on too!) just click on this link http://fbuy.me/7gyt , Darby Smart delivers simple, stylish DIY to your door. Use 'howdydarby' for a $10 gift card on your first order, as well! <3

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Darby Smart- To DIY For April 2014. Metal Stamping kit.

Watch me as I make metal stamped things! This is my mock tutorial from my Darby Smart kit from April, the metal stamping kit. It was a great deal of fun and I am going to stamping lots and lots of things!

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Coconut Beeswax Moisturing Balm, DIY Style!

Made some balm tonight for my hands and feet.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Coconut Oil
1 bar of Beeswax 1 of the bars in the package (estimated 1 oz)



I combined both the wax and the oil in a double broiler/bain marie. That's a fancy term for a silver bowl over a saucepan filled with water. I melted and stirred and mixed it all together. I let it cool down a bit then put it in a resealable container.

Voila! Coconut Beeswax Balm!

It is much harder than petroleum jelly, though I don't know if the consistency will be quite as hard in the summer as it is in the winter. It's definitely a balm, and I am using it on my lips, hands and feet. Basically, anything that seems to need a bit more protection from the elements or is a bit dry from the forced air furnace!  It smells nice, and it feels good. This DIY was a success.

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Oil haul and Glycerin!

Yesterday I got 4 oils and 1oz of glycerin from Butterbear products.

Glycerin is a humectant which means it attracts and moisturises skin. Glycerine also repairs skin but it CANNOT be used at 100% because it can actually take moisture FROM the skin causing blistering! ACK! So I am going to be mixing it in with a water base, and seeing how it helps my skin. :)

Cherry Kernel oil has properties that are pain relieving called prostaglandins. I am pretty excited about working that into a muscle rub or acne treatment.

Hazelnut is similar to almond oil, so I am pretty excited to find it. Tons of Vitamin E and is used to treat oily skin. Sounds like a fun summer oil to try.

Macadamia is super emollient, so I am interested in that around my eye area and on my elbows and ankles.

Castor is getting a lot of good press as part of the oil cleansing method and people are using it as a lash serum.

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Mock Vanity: AKA where all my makeup lives!

I keep reading where people are applying makeup in their bathrooms, toting their makeup around in a case.

A vanity doesn't have to be a big deal. It can even double as a writing desk or even taken down, but a place to sit elegantly, a place to rest your elbow while using it as a fulcrum while doing your eyeliner, a well lit area (all you need is a single full spectrum bulb, and a place that you can be calm and relax.

I think it's a right of passage for every teenager to get their own little space to do their beauty routine, that isn't the same place they defecate. My vanity before this was a desk we picked up from the side of the road because some college students were moving and left it on the curb. It's been repurposed into a work table for an indoor metal shop.

The reason the bathroom is bad is because the humidity and bacteria can actually ruin your makeup and cause your mascara and other 'moist' products go bad before their time. It's better to do it near a window or with a full spectrum bulb. You can get a vanity set up for free from stuff around the house. :)

It really doesn't have to be fancy. It just needs to be YOURS. Here is mine. It was made by getting a bookshelf and not using it for books. This one used to have a hinged door on it but apparently it wasn't very strong, because it fell off.

There is a place for everything I need and it's in modular form so I just pull out the basket I need and put it on the top of the vanity when I use it. It makes it easier to put things away.

I made the dirty brush holder out of rice, a plastic cup and food coloring. It works great. When it gets full, I wash them. and it makes it so brushes don't roll off and get caught under foot. I accidentally ran over a few of my Real Technique brushes and ruined them. Total facepalm.

My mock vanity, filming and makeup storage area

And I didn't mark it on the picture but my cell phone tripod is up there,(by the foundations, near the mirrors) so I can see myself while doing reviews. It's all coming together pretty nicely. My husband also set up a brown backdrop from the ceiling at my request to cordon it off a bit more for me so I can get into doing my makeup more without being distracting to either of us. His office is also in the bedroom so it gets triple duty now.


Has this sparked an idea for you? Let me know in the comments below! I'll be doing a video of it some time, so it's a bit more interactive.

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DIY: Brush Cleaning

One of the things I see a LOT is people not washing their brushes. Unclean applicators and brushes are one of the biggest culprits for promoting acne. The bacterium Propionibacterium acnes (aka P. acnes) and Staphylococcus aureus (Staph A) are the resilient bacteria that cause acne and whiteheads and often times what we are trying to cover it up with is what is aggravating it!  That's why it's important to clean our pillowcases and phone often, but I digress. Cleaning our applicators helps reduce one of the ways that acne persists.

And washing your brushes isn't all that complicated.


First you need to see if your brushes are natural or synthetic. Natural brushes are made with animal hair/fur and should be treated as such. You want to shampoo them and condition them. Properly cared for brushes will last a very long time, and will continue to perform well. If you aren't sure if your brushes are natural or synthetic, treat them as natural brushes.

Synthetic brushes can take things like antibacterial soap. Natural brushes get stripped too much, and need to be reconditioned. I prefer to wash my natural brushes and synthetic brushes in Garnier Fructis 2-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner and then spray them afterwards with a conditioning spot cleanser and reshape the bristles.

Weekly:
Rinse your brush heads in warm water, taking care not to get water down the 'ferrule' (metal part) because you don't want to weaken the glue that is holding the brush head on. Putting a bit of your liquid cleanser in your hand *a tiny amount* you'll want to swirl them gently in your hand and rinse them until the water runs clear. Place your brushes on a towel and 'roll' them trying to get as much water as possible from them. Let dry either upside down or on a ledge, so that water doesn't run back in to the ferrule causing damage. After they are dry, spray them gently with the conditioning cleanser and reshaping and smoothing the bristles, bringing them back to original form. You can use brush guards for this or you can use your hands. Either way works well.

Daily:
I spray them with this conditioning cleanser and wipe clean with either a microfiber or paper towel until no more product comes off of the brush.

*adding a few drops of Tea Tree Oil is optional but very helpful in the cases of persistent acne.

If you want to make up your own conditioning cleanser, I made up a little instructional card to print out and cut out to keep with your bottle so you don't forget what it is!

Conditioning Cleanser printable cards

Hope this helps!

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