Disclaimer: While I received this product at no cost, this blog post is not sponsored by the good people at Russell Organics (RO) and the fact that there was no charge to me for the product will not affect my view either way. Now, that we have that out of the way let's get to it :) 

As I said in my previous blog post when I received Russell Organics Argan Oil in the mail I was not really familiar with it. I had heard of it, it seems to be the new “IT” product for everything cosmetic and beauty. It is touted to be amazing for your hair, skin, and nails it’s a triple threat, so I was excited to use it. Thankfully, RO was kind enough to include a USP sheet and advice to start out small.

Russell Organics Argan Oil is:
Toxin and cruelty free, cost effective, versatile, convenient, and best of all Vegan!
While I do eat meat again now, I have always only used Vegan and cruelty free beauty products so this makes me very happy!

After I tore into my package and read everything I was excited to use the Argan oil, maybe too excited. I did not at first heed the warning to start out slow with a few drops to see how much my hair, face and nails actually need. Once I got over my excitement I adjusted. My face only requires two drops which means  this 2 oz. bottle is going to last me forever! RO argan oil is scentless, which I love! C over at C Takes On turned me onto coconut oil and I love it but the smell gets to me sometimes.  So, the fact that RO argan oil is scentless really impresses me and makes me very happy. Along with being scentless it is really great for moisturizing my parched skin out here in the desert. I got this just in time for the start of the really dry season here in the desert. Which means dry chapped skin if you do not stay on top of it. I have been applying the argan oil not only to my face but also to my hands, arms, legs and my elbows! My elbows are prone to become really dry and gross and cracking no matter how much I exfoliate and moisturize. With the RO argan oil I haven’t had a problem.

I have also been using it on my lips; this was not a suggestion on anything I read, my lips were just really dry and my normal go to wasn’t working out for me. I would just put a few drops on my finger whenever I went by my beauty cabinet and rub it into my lips. The bottle says organic, it’s 100% argan oil,  no fillers and no additives so I wasn’t worried about ingesting anything I shouldn't and I’m alive with soft, subtle lips so it was worth it. I am thinking of actually getting a flavor oil and making a gloss, since it’s an oil it does live a light shine to your lips and I like it! I just like my gloss to has a flavor.

 Let’s get to the hair!  First, you need to know that even though I’m a second generation cosmetologist and I know all the right things to do to be nice to my hair and make it beautiful genetics and my own addition to the blower dryer have rendered me with thin, damaged hair. For the last few weeks I have put my beloved coconut oil away and have not used it in my hair. I have been shampooing and conditioning with Suave Sleek, because I know it’s not doing anything amazing to my hair and I can see the results of the argan oil. Since my hair is so thin it took me a couple of tries to figure out how much was just enough argan oil for my hair.  In the end, my short thin hair only requires 6 drops anything more and I get a “greasy” look. Take your time figuring out what is right and be patient because the results are well worth it. My hair is mostly damaged because I like a sleek smooth straight look, which I achieve through daily blowouts (bad). With the argan oil I’ve been able to take my own advice and not blow dry every day. I can let my hair air dry and actually go out in public! No heat, no problem.  My normally frizzy air dried hair looks like everyone else’s normal air dried hair. This makes my life as a Mom so much easier! 

Now for your nails, I do not think I could find a better cuticle treatment. I am a busy Mom, and very mean to my hands. I try to be kind and get a manicure once a week, but sometimes I just cannot make the time. My cuticles are very much neglected most of the time. I started applying one drop of RO argan oil to every nail bed every night. I have had less hangnails and have noticed that my hands are the softest they have ever been (even softer than when I coat them in coconut oil, seriously). My nails even seem stronger,  I can’t say if that is 100% the argan oil since I have been sporadically taking a vitamin for my hair. But, since I am taking the vitamin so sporadically I do think the argan oil has more to do with the sudden health of my nails than the vitamins.

This product is versatile and has earned a spot in my beauty cabinet. 

Here is where to find this product.
It comes in two sizes, so if you don’t want to commit to a 2 oz. bottle try it out with their 1 oz. bottle first.
Russel Organics Argan Oil 1 Ounce
Russell Organics Argan Oil 2 Ounces

Before and After Pictures

On the right I have Sephora Nail Stickers on, but you can see my cuticles look so much better! 

The before and after of my face aren't really telling, but I think the hair speaks for itself. Again, that is without the use of a blow dryer or any other styling tools. I just applied the Argan Oil, combed my hair and let it air dry. 

Tips:
When applying argan oil as a smoothing agent after styling use a couple of drops in the palm of your hand, rub palms together and then apply first to the underside of the back of your hair, and then to the ends and lastly at the roots to prevent flyways. This will prevent you from overdoing it and creating a greasy look.

Apply a few drops to the pads of your fingers and massage into scalp before you go to bed every night. A healthy scalp promotes healthy hair, scalp stimulation is great for a healthy scalp :) 

Apply the argan oil to your nails and surrounding cuticle before applying polish, go over the nail bed with a q-tip before applying polish. This way once your nails are dry you just wipe away the oil and mess ups. The bonus here is your conditioning your cuticles while protecting them from a messy polish application. 

Have cracked heels? Add a few drops of argan oil to your favorite thick cream moisturizer and apply to heels before bed and wear thick socks to bed. Wake up in the morning to baby soft feet.

Clinique's Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector

I had meant to review Clinique’s Even Better foundation, but after a horrible break out I decided it would not be fair to review this product. I have somewhat sensitive skin, and am never really sure what is going to set it off. In this instance it was Clinique’s foundation, amazingly the Clinique’s  Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector did not cause a break out. So, I will sing to you its praises. I have no real before and after pictures to show you because everyone claims to not see my melasma (a darkening of the skin on the face). My melasma is just above my lip and on my upper left cheek, and terribly embarrassing for me I feel like I have a mustache when I don’t. But,  apparently it is invisible to the rest of the world, or everyone I meet is too kind to agree they see it.

I used the Clinique Even Better Dark Spot Remover for 4 weeks, because the package said this would allow me to see optimal results. I did! I was so excited as I watched my face brigten and my melasma fade, it’s still visible but much less noticeable without makeup. It has a hefty price tag though at nearly $49 a bottle it can take a chunk out of your wallet. I am grateful for gift cards; because I am not sure I would drop that amount of money on it for myself. 

A Day of Before and Afters

Let's start off with my pantry, I pretty much HATE my pantry. No matter how many times I "organize" it, it will always end up looking just like this!

BEFORE

It took me about 8 hours to "organize" it today. That was only because I spent most of the day coloring mine and my husband's hair while doing homework and STILL dealing with a crap load of pain from my surgery.

ANYHOO here is the AFTER

It still looks like a cluttered mess. One day I will conquer it!

My hair is ever changing. I grew up in a salon and was a stylist myself for a few years. So, it's "in my blood" I guess you could say. When I met my husband I had black hair so after the last baby he asked me if I would color my hair black again, SURE what the hell! Well guess what? I have gray hair and the desert sun is making my natural medium blond hair grow in much lighter so I was having to retouch pretty much every week to keep from looking like a skunk. I decided I needed a change my husband requested Vampire Red from Manic Panic, for some reason I agreed. So, today I started by bleaching my hair, I was pretty amazed that most of the black came out with one application of Manic Panic Amplified Bleach 40V. But then I got scared, I didn't want to go crazy red! I'm currently not comfortable with my weight and I didn't want to draw any extra attention to myself. Nope, BRIGHT red just wasn't going to do. I sent Jere to Sally's with a list of colors and the result while very "normal" is something I really like! I think we'll keep it!

BEFORE (with make up on)

DURING: L-R Just bleach, Tried to tone it with violet based color, Got real and mixed some Ash with the Violet POW!


My son and I dorking around with my new iPhone. 

My husband mid crazy hair coloring rampage decided he didn't want the Manic Panic Vampire to be left to a life in my hair supply pantry, so we bleached his hair and wala!
This picture melts my heart, I love seeing my "boys'' together. 

Name Monsters

I had forgotten all about these fun little creatures until I started playing Picasso with my son on the Kindle Fire.It has a mirror option., which is how we accomplished this Lady Dylan Monster/Alien/Thing.

But you can do it old school with a pencil and some paper. 

Fold your paper in half and with a heavy hand write the child's name in cursive on the fold, it's OK to spill over to the other side, as you see we did with the y and part of the N in Dylan.

Then you close the paper up so the pencil is facing the clean side of the paper. 

Next you can either rub really hard with the side of your pencil, or let your child color with a very heavy hand on the side with the name on it.

Open it up and you will see a light version of your original heavy handed name., trace over both with a sharpie and let your child decorate it with eyeballs and what not.

Goodwill $1 Day

Thursdays are $1 days at our local Goodwill, it is a new family tradition.
Today we made quite the haul 8 shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of PJ's for Mommy 1 hoodie, some weird pottery piece, 3 Sesame Street books, Wiggle DVD's and the VHS of Home Alone. All for just $18!!

This is serious.

I would like to take a moment to be serious. Having children is hard, only having one was slightly easier with two now it can be pretty difficult. That being said, I had never really been sick with either child so it was easy to be hands on and feel like I was doing an okay job. Even when baby #2 came along and I was recovering from a c-section, I still felt like a pretty decent Mom.
The past month and half have been hard, I've felt like a failure over, and over again. Being physically limited is one thing, adding medication to control my pain to it is a whole other story. I have never felt so worthless in my life at times. Here I am there Mom I'm suppose to take care of them always, and I couldn't. I'm very grateful to have an amazing husband who is also an amazing Father. I think I have been harder on myself about this than need be. Point being, and a point I'd like to share "We can't always be super Mom." it's just not going to happen and you can't beat yourself up when you aren't at the top of your game.
Someone very wise told me "They're still young, they're not going to remember the few days you spent on the couch when they were 3 y/o and 8 months". So, take care of yourselves and don't be too hard on yourself when you're not able to do 100% of the things you want to do with them.
I promise not to feel guilty about the extra hour he got to spend on Leap Frog so I could lay down and get my pain under control. Besides, he learned the word Kaleidoscope! He also dresses himself without help now. It hasn't been the worse experience ever, just a really tough one.

Tomorrow we're going to learn how not to Urkel, it's cute every once in awhile, just not all the time. He seems to really like this look.

Weezing the Juice

I was suppose to start a liquid diet today with the husband, but his surgery (fundoplication) has been put on hold pending something from the insurance. I figured since I was going to do it anyhow, I might as well just at least give it a go for a day. You know just so I'm prepared when the real thing happens.

I had a Greek yogurt and blueberry smoothie for breakfast it was really good, but when is a smoothie not? For lunch I decided to juice some tomatoes that were about to look like they'd seen better days. I let my oldest son help me and he suggested we throw some broccoli in there. Umm, Okay. In went the broccoli, followed by a handful of kale and a handful of beet leaves.

This is the result:

If I think about what is in it I kind of gag. But, if I just drink it it's actually really yummy! Mind over matter!

Recipe:
6 Vine Ripe Tomatoes
1 Crown of Broccoli
1 Handful of Kale
1 Handful of Beet Leaves

If your vegetables are not already cold I would suggest icing the concoction. Other than that just drink and be healthy! NOM!

Do you like an evening cocktail?

I do, not every night but occasionally I like a drink around dusk.

I found the Kinky Liquor at Sam's while shopping for my husband liquid diet. The bright pink liquid caught my attention, it was so pretty and  was only $15 for the bottle, which will last me a year or two.
When I got home I just threw it in the freezer and went about my day. Later I was going to just have a small glass of V8 Splash when I remembered the Kinky in the freezer, I mixed about a shot to 8 oz of V8 Splash. MOUTH SPLOSION! This stuff is amazing!

Eat Drink and be Merry...or something.

Brown Butter Rice Krispy Treats

I just scoured the Internet for the best Rice Krispy Treats ever. What I ended up doing was my own version of what my mind remembered from all the recipes I read, they all basically had the same ingredients just different amounts.
What I went with:
1 stick of butter BROWNED(my first time and it was NOM!)
6 cups of marshmallows
6 cups of Rice Krispys
I added a few dashes of Himalayan Sea Salt

First I browned the butter!
(this is my favorite spoon, I haven't been very nice to it)
Learn how to brown your butter here: http://allrecipes.com/howto/browning-butter/

Add your marshmallows

I used a mixture of mini marshmallows and left over Easter marshmallows.

Stir, stir, stir, stir, stir, stir, and stir some more.

Now, you add your Rice Krispys and Stir, STIR, STIR!

and STIR! 

Then I placed it in a wax paper lined pan and smashed it down, let it cool  20 minutes then EAT!

I made a mess!

Memory Blanket

I've been hoarding baby clothes to make a memory blanket out of. I started when my son was a month old, he's 3 now. I guess I should sew it all together. I have most of the squares cut out. I just need to really get off my butt and do it.

Any takers? Want to sew it for me? haha

A Super Quick Project

Minus the shopping this project took me all of 15 minutes.

Today at Goodwill(Thursdays are yellow tag $1 days!!), we found an old train table. I have been wanting a storage ottoman, and Jere has been wanting a coffee table. On the spot we decided we could transform the train table into something resembling them all. 

BEFORE

After

I also bought a few little storage bins that fit perfectly under the table for Dylan's letters, and blocks.

Cost Tally
Train Table     $35
Flat Sheet         $5
Cushions        $12
Bins               $10
_______________
                     $62

I will have some down time this weekend after the surgery there will be lots of sitting, so I am hoping to get some sewing projects done.