Organic Beauty

Hello everyone! After a nice 3.7 mile run and dinner (with a shower in between, obviously ;)), here I am to talk about something I love, organic beauty products.

 

Most people worry about what they eat: whether it is good or bad for us, whether its highly refined or in its natural form: I know I most certainly do ;).

But do you ever stop and think about not only what goes into your body, but also what goes on your body?

There once was a little girl ( or maybe not that little since we’re talking about beauty products? ;)) who couldn’t care less about the ingredients in the products she used: all she wanted was for it to be functional and, most importantly, cheap enough so a student (as she was) could buy it. She would pay attention to ads and buy only appealing products.

Said little girl had often heard about how a lot of chemicals in beauty products weren’t good for the skin and the environment, but she never really cared; until one day she was curious enough that she decided to read about said ingredients.

source

Needless to say, she was shocked from what she found: so many ingredients are toxic both for humans and for the environments, and most products are based on petroleum; why would anyone want to purposefully cover their skin in it? After that, she started to look for organic and environmentally conscious beauty products, and was astonished to discover there are many! She learned to recognize the good and the bad ingredients, so she could read labels on her own. She also discovered that many beauty products can be made at home, some with normal ingredients that everyone has, and other with less common ingredients, and both were very fun to make!

So what are the products I use?

Some of them you probably don’t know because they’re Italian, but I’ll put them anyway.

 

 

 

Natural Facial wash with Aloe Vera. Bioearth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face moisturizer for normal and dry skin. Bjobj.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desert Flower shampoo and Herbal Conditioner.Miessence.

 

 

 

 

 

As for body moisturizer, I use a cream I made myself! Recipe soon to come 😉

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Gingerbread cookies

5 days ago I promised you gingerbread cookies: I assure you I had every intention of posting the recipe 4 days ago! As a matter a fact, on …. I did prepare a batch of gingerbread cookies… only to discover, once the batter was ready, that the oven wasn’t heating up! I previously found a piece of the oven-fan on the oven floor, but it didn’t seem like an essential piece…apparently it was! My oven won’t work on fan mode until we fix it.

So I froze my batch of cookies for a day when I could use the oven again, and that day was today! I’m sorry so much time has passed, but I had an exam yesterday I had to study for so I could’t really spend time cooking.

Without further ado, I present to you the recipe!

Adapted from here 

3 cups whole wheat flour (I used spelt, that’s all I had at the moment)

2 ½ tbsp ginger*

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup oil (I used olive oil, but any kind is fine!)

¼ cup molasses

¼ cup milk

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup brown rice syrup

* with this amount of ginger the cookies come out very spicy, so depending on your taste preference, you might want to reduce it.

In a bowl, combine together flour, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl combine oil, milk, molasses, sugar and rice syrup; whisk until well blended.

Add the dry ingredients to the second bowl and mix well.

The dough is a bit sticky, and I found that keeping it in the fridge for a while makes a big difference.

Form small balls and press them with the palm of your hand.

Cook at  350 F for 10’.

My cookies came out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I suspect not being able to use the oven-fan as something to do with that!

I’m a chocoholic… How could i not add some chocolate?

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Double Dog Duty

Hello y’all!

My day as been pretty busy: after fueling myself with a baked oatmeal and a raspberry yogurt (This picture is from another day, but you get the idea, right?), I head out with the dog for an hour-long walk, part of which was spent in the dog-area. For these last two days I’ve been on DDD -Double Dog Duty – which means an hour-long walk at 7.30 am and an hour-long walk in the afternoon! I know a lot of you are used to it, but I usually only take him out once a day at most, sometimes I’m lucky enough to skip a day! Thankfully, after my second walk with him I still have enough energy to go out for a 5 km run! Some roasted red bell pepper and basil hummus with bread helped 😉

This is what my sisters tell me when i make hummus…Fools 😉

The run felt great, I was able to run my 5 km in 27 minutes, which is a new record for me! Somewhere within me I then found the energy to do some ab workout and some push ups. I’m exhausted but very happy :).

Whenever I’m out running and I’m in a good mood, I always want to start dancing and singing out loud the song I’m listening too..but unfortunately that isn’t one of the best things to do in a park full of people; I already draw enough attention when I’m out with the dog and always talking to him, commenting on flowers, trees, other dogs…don’t give me that look, I know all of you dog owners do that to 😉 (you do, right?)

Going on to less insane things, I announce to you that tomorrow will bring a gingerbread cookie recipe..stay tuned!

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