101 Free Ways to be Beautiful - #2 Smile

We've all heard it.  

Smile, and the world smiles with you.

It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown.

A smile is just a frown upside down.

There are so many ways smiling makes us beautiful.  I mean, come on, how many times have you heard "Oh, she has such a beautiful scowl".  I know it's difficult at times but if you practice, and give yourself permission to smile more, even if you don't feel like it, you'll be amazed at the changes that will happen in your life.

People like people who smile.

It's that simple.  When you meet someone who smiles at you, it sends a message of friendship and safety.  It's positive, inspiring communication without saying a word!  When you smile at someone, especially in today's society, it could be just the thing that turns their day around.  What's not beautiful about that?

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. ~ Mother Theresa

Smiling brightens your face.

 

Seriously, people seem to have a brighter light to them when they're smiling.  A happy glow.  It works from the inside out. It increases beta endorphines and lowers stress, worry and tension levels. It's good for your health and healthy people are more attractive.

I have never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. 

~Anonymous

Smiling can make you more successful.

It increases energy, motivation and drive by increasing positive energy and can make you more popular.  Who wants to hang around the grouch with the slouch?  It's also habit forming so over time the little acts of positive energy will multiply and magnify.  Smiling reduces negativity and puts it on hold for a while.  It helps put you in a positive state and in that state you have more power and potential to shine.  There's a reason that almost all advertising photos have people with big smiles.  A smile is the universal language of good things.

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. 

~Charles Reade

So.  What are you waiting for?  It's free.  It's beautiful. It's contagious.  It can change the world.  And it's one habit that's good for you.  It's the first step to feeling better and better.  When you feel better, you look better.... 

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,

 but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh

DIY - Eye Make-up Remover

Hello Beautiful People!

This week I have another fabulous DIY beauty product for you.  Eye make up removers can be just another expense to add to your beauty arsenal but they don't have to be.  Yes, a commercial product contains a whole bunch of things claiming to be gentle, have amazing, out of this world benefits and blah, blah, blah.

Honestly.  All you need is... oil.

 

Most eye make up products are designed so that water will not wash them away.  An obvious idea because our eyes are likely going to water (yes, I say my eyes leak because apparently "Big girls don't cry" *eye roll*)  So, naturally washing with soap and water isn't too effective.  That means that most eye make up is what we call oil soluble.  Dissolves in oil.  Now, I could have designed a product, as the big companies do, to make money off you but I can't in good conscious bottle plain old oil, jack up the price and sell it to you as something else.   I find it a little bit ridiculous when all you really need is oil.  

Any oil.  But my favorite is jojoba oil.

Okay, you got me.  Jojoba oil is not really an oil.  Its a wax ester that takes a liquid form but for our purposes it acts extremely similar to our own skins sebum.  It's gentle.  It's not overly greasy.  Though I don't recommend putting it in your eyes on purpose, this of course, has happened to me, and it doesn't terribly hurt.  But I digress.  Use what you've got, but I'll mention again, for those of you new to this... baby oil is mineral oil.  Mineral oil is a petroleum product.

K.I.S.S.  (Keep It Simple Sister) 

Humans, and IMHO the cosmetic industry, have a tendency to over complicate things.  Just take the oil, put it on a cotton pad or swab, gently wipe over your eyes and voila.  Cleansing and moisturizing in one go.   As I mentioned, you can use any ol' oil.  Almost all of us have olive oil in the kitchen now.  Sunflower oil is usually my go to body oil.  But I love the jojoba for eyes, face and hair.  You'll likely have to search it out at a health food store.  Although some of the larger super markets may have some in the beauty section (ie: soap, shampoo etc) if they've jumped on the "all natural" band wagon.  You know the section I mean, the one carrying the "natural" products from the really big companies *another eye roll is required here*... but that's another story.

Vegetable oil.   I ask you, what could be simpler?

DIY - Enzyme Scrub

Hello Beautiful People!  

Today I have a real treat for you to be even more beautiful.  It's a fabulous DIY enzyme scrub recipe!  What's that you ask?  Only the easiest, most amazing way to get your tootsies touchably soft.  That's all!

Many of you are probably familiar with a traditional pedicure (or manicure for that matter).  Basically you exfoliate with a pumice on dry feet, then remove nail polish, scrub with enzyme scrub, soak, moisturize and paint toenails.  Voila!  Sounds simple enough.  Pretty DIY friendly.

But what about this mysterious enzyme scrub?  No problem.

An enzyme scrub chemically helps break down the bonds in dead skin cells to allow them to slough off easily, revealing touchably soft skin underneath.  It softens corns and callouses and gives you confidence to step out in style.

So without further ado... here's what you do.

 

Juice one small lime.

(contains the elusive enzymes)

Dissolve 5-10 aspirin tablets in the lime juice.  (contains beta-hydroxy acids)

Add to this 5 tbsp of cane sugar.

(contains alpha-hydroxy acids)

After scrubbing dry feet with a pumice, scrub this mix on.  It will be sticky.  Leave it on as you put your foot into the foot bath.  This can just be a tub of warm water.  You can also add milk powder or milk to this foot bath because it contains lactic acid which will further enhance the softening aspects.  Leave your feet for 5 minutes and towel dry.  Continue with your pedicure and don't forget to moisturize with a great nourishing cream like mains de mariposa's Healing with Calendula.  Calendula oil, olive oil, shea butter, glycerin, and castor oil are an unbeatable team for tootsies!  You can find them all in this cream guaranteed to help soften heels and keep toes glowing and looking their best.  Amazing for thick, cracking skin, you'll want to show them off as they're never looked better!

Have you tried this?  Is it not the absolute best gift you've given your feet in ages?  Forget expensive enzyme scrubs from the spa!  This is effective, fresh and chemical free!

Give it a go!  Let me know how you glow!

Spa Night!

If you live in the Ottawa area and you're interested in taking the DIY spa a step further check out our all natural spa nights!  $45 per person and you'll learn by doing all natural facial and pedicure/manicures.  Get some old friends together, wear some old clothes and leave feeling brand new!


Get a group of 4 or more together and the cost is only $40 per person.  With groups of 4 or more you can even set your own private Spa Night date.  Great for girls night out, mothers day gifts, bachelorette parties, you name it.


For dates and other workshops available check our site www.mainsdemariposa.com under workshops.

How to Naturally Remove Chlorine Smell From Hair

Hello again beautiful people!  I trust you made it through the holidays and life has hopefully returned to normal, whatever that may be.  For me it means getting back to an exercise routine.  One thing I love to do is to swim at my local pool.  One thing I don't love is the chlorine smell.  Especially in my skin and hair.

What's a girl to do?

There are many products on the market to prevent the chlorine smell lingering in your skin and hair.  There seems to be mixed reviews.  Some swear by them while others say they didn't work at all.  It seems, as usual, this is going to be a trial and error process.  Myself, as I train for triathlon, I've tried a product called "Triswim".  It worked quite well for me but as is often the case was a little more than I wanted to spend.  I was also curious to see if I could find a more natural DIY alternative.

Beautiful Baking Soda!

This was almost a no-brainer.  We use baking soda all over the place to get out odors!  This was no exception.  But after reading the ingredients from all of the commercial options I was getting a little skeptical.  Could our humble sodium bicarbonate really rise to the challenge?  After some routine trials at the local pool with my swim partner, we definitely agreed that the chlorine smell was greatly reduced if not totally avoided by using baking soda in our post swim shower at the pool.  But there is more!

Surprising side effects!

My swim partner and I have very different hair types.  My hair is very fine, straight, limp and at very high risk for appearing oily.  Hers on the other hand is a "fro" waiting to happen.  Very curly, on the drier side and at very high risk for puffing up like a blow fish if not treated with respect.  Any of this sound familiar?

We both found that by using baking soda in our post swim shower that our hair felt different, in a good way.  It felt smoother and more controlled.  We also agreed that it looked better, longer.  Mine didn't get as oily, hers behaved longer.  We can only assume this is due to the way baking soda alters PH levels.  Sort of the way an apple cider vinegar rinse does to hair.  I liked it so much that I've added a container of baking soda to my shower at home and use it some days even when I don't go to the pool!  But because it alters PH I wouldn't recommend it on a daily basis.

Avoid the green of swimmers hair!

This is not a problem that my friend nor I have experienced but from researching the topic I did find that it is for many people.  Hair can develop a green tinge from chemical deposits developing in the hair.  The consensus is that using a baking soda wash post swim helps immensely.  Some also suggest a weekly aspirin treatment.  Dissolve 2 aspirin in a cup of warm water and use as a rinse over clean hair.  Like you would an apple cider vinegar rinse.

How to naturally remove the chlorine smell from your hair.

Beyond baking soda there are a few other things you can incorporate that I've found effective.

      
• Before you swim, wet your hair and add some conditioner.  Your hair will absorb them and leave less room for the chlorine water to be absorbed.
• Shower at the pool or immediately when you get home.  Just like you wouldn't leave your bathing suit without rinsing it, don't let the chlorine sit on your hair and skin.  Wash it right away.
• Baking soda!  In your post swim shower mix equal parts shampoo and baking soda in your hand to form a paste and then use that to shampoo hair as usual.  Yes it still makes suds.
• Use a good conditioner or a few drops of jojoba oil post swim. 

Do you have a favorite mains de mariposa product that has worked for you when all else failed?  Tell us which product you love and why and as a thank-you we'll enter you into the next monthly draw.  You could win a fabulous gift pack!  Send your story to bonnie@mainsdemariposa (dot) com


To view other testimonies visit the website at mainsdemariposa (dot) com