Category: D.I.Y

D.I.Y

Colored Bobby Pins *DIY Project*

tracyfettig228

Are you ever sitting on the couch watching a trashy reality show, feeling guilty, knowing that you should do something constructive instead?  Why not do a little beauty project?  Most of us girls have tons of plain bobby pins around or can get them easily and cheaply, but their cute factor is definitely lacking.  Boring brown or black or maybe gold.  I have seen some colored one in stores for around $5 for a pack, but usually in colors that I don’t want.

Making your own colored bobby pins is easy and the best part is you can customize them however you want.  You can do one color, multiple colors, glitter, or maybe if you feel like bedazzling, glue some rhinestones on them with your paint job. This is also a fun project that you can do with your kids, grandchildren, nieces or friends.

First, gather your supplies.  You will need:  paper towels or paper plates, bobby pins, nail polish and any other goodies that you may want to glue on to your hair pins.  Nail polish remover may be required to clean up any spills or to clean your fingers.

I had some white, dark and gold pins and many different colors of nail polish, including glitter and clear for sealing.

 

Start by selecting your design of choice and start painting the bobby pin, doing one side and letting it dry, then the other side.  Repeat if necessary to get your perfect opaqueness.  If you are doing only the top side and don’t want the pin falling over on it’s side while drying, clip another bobby pin to it to help it sit upright.

If you are using dark bobby pins and want to paint on a lighter color, use a coat or two of white nail polish first. This will create a base to make the light color stand out.  You can get creative and paint dots or stripes or do gradient colors.  Here are the ones that I made.

Neon orange, neon yellow/green, purple, multi-colored sparkle, blue, mint green dots with sparkles, neon pink, multi-colored and pearly blue green.

I only made two of each because I don’t really need 9 neon orange bobby pins, but you can make however many you want.  These look great when you combine 3 or 4 pins in a row or for a little pop of color here and there in your style.

I hope your hair looks spectacular with your new fun bobby pins!

D.I.Y

Make your own Glow Lotion

tracyfettig228

Spring and Summer are here and it’s time to show the parts of our bodies that have been covered up by sweaters, scarves and long pants.  If you are anything like me, you probably have several broken or unused powdered eye shadows, blushes or bronzers taking up space in your makeup drawer that you just can’t bring yourself to throw away.  Why not find a new use for them?

I love making my own products and I always have tons of broken or unused makeup items that I save for later use.  Now that it’s time to bare our shoulders and décolleté, let’s make some Glow Lotion.

Items that you will need for your project:  (As always make sure your containers and utensils are clean and sanitized.)

Lotion:  If you are making something to go on your face, use a face lotion.  For the body, use a body lotion. You will need to use a good amount of lotion in your blender.  If it’s not enough, it won’t blend.  Body oil could also replace the lotion if you want a Glow Oil instead.

Broken or unwanted powdered eye shadow, blush or bronzer:  These can be a variety of colors, depending on what color you want your Glow Lotion to be.  Good colors to gather are browns, peaches, pinks, bronzes, taupes, golds and beiges.  Think “glowing skin” colors.

A Container:  If you don’t have a fresh container or bottle, you probably have a used bottle laying around somewhere that only has a tiny bit of product in it.  Clean it with soap and hot water to sterilize it and peel off the label if necessary.

Scent:  If you want your product scented, feel free to mix some essential oils (very few drops) or perfume oil into your personal blend.

Blender:  A blender is necessary to thoroughly mix your blend together, making sure there are no solid pieces of product left.  I will be using my trusty Magic Bullet, which normally cranks out smoothies.

Miscellaneous:  A funnel, small spatula, paper towels or napkins.

I will be making two different Glow Lotions because I can never just make one:  Face Glow Lotion, a nice pinkish highlighting color, and Body Glow Lotion, a bronzy color for the anywhere on the body, scented with “tropical coconut”.

I made the Face Glow Lotion with a light face moisturizer that I had and wasn’t using.  The shadow colors here are frosty light pink, very light neutral taupe, a beautiful busted rose gold and another rose gold cream stick eye shadow.  I did not use any scent in this mix because it will be primarily for the face.

Everything was scraped out of the containers and put in the Magic Bullet.  I already had the lotion in the bottle, so I just poured it out into the blender then washed and sanitized the lotion bottle.  Make sure that you have enough space for both the lotion and colored products to fit in your container or you will have extra.  It took a few times of blending and scraping the the sides of the blender to make sure that everything was incorporated, but the end result was beautiful!

For the Body Glow Lotion I made a large batch because I had some very pigmented products to work with.  The colors here are light orange bronzer, medium taupe eye shadow, dark reddish bronzer, medium copper bronzer and a bronze eye shadow stick.  If you are making a lightly tinted Glow Lotion, just use one or two powdered products.  You can always add more if you want to deepen the color.  Everything was blended and the result was a very nice bronze lotion that actually made me look tan, which I am not.

Oh how lovely!

The fun part about making your own cosmetic creations is that you can make them exactly how you want, light or dark, sheer or highly pigmented and whatever color you desire.  Now all you have to do is make a cute label and tape it on.

I hope you enjoy all the compliments that you get on your glowing skin!

 

D.I.Y

Make Your Own Solid Perfume

tracyfettig228

Are you crafty?  Do you like to make your own bath goodies or signature scents for yourself or your friends?  I sure do.  My kitchen has been my “laboratory” since I was young.  Yes, there are always mishaps (I would NEVER (wink) spill anything) or stuff that turns out smelling like trash, but that’s the fun of it.

Looking around my house at my craft supplies, I decided to make my own solid fragrances for gifts for my loved ones.  A little research on the web told me that I needed a few basic things:  a container to put the fragrance in, grated beeswax, jojoba or sweet almond oil and fragrance, either fragrance oils or essential oils.  Easy.  Luckily, I have all these things.  I placed an order online a few months back from Wellington Fragrance, so I was stocked up on the fragrance and wax.  They have great fragrance oils that mimic favorite popular scents from big chain bath companies.  I didn’t have any small tins so I improvised with some sample size empty plastic containers that I got from a skin care trade show.  For the oil I used jojoba because that’s what I had on hand.

Gather your supplies:

Container for the final product:  Can be glass, tin or even plastic.  You can get creative with containers as long as they are fully sanitized and thoroughly dry.  You just need to be able to be able to get your finger on the product in order to apply it.

Grated beeswax:  I just grated my beeswax blocks with a vegetable peeler.

Jojoba or Sweet Almond Oil:  Vegetable oil could work in a pinch. I wouldn’t use any oil that has a heavy scent like olive or sesame, it will make your fragrance funky.

Small glass Pyrex measuring cup or dish

Droppers or straws:  For getting precise drops of your fragrance oils and mixing.  Straws are easy because you don’t have to clean them afterwards.

Fragrance oil or essential oils:  I used mostly fragrance oils, but did add essential oils to a few mixtures.

Paper towels or napkins

photo by T. Sotirakis

The hard part is figuring out what scent to make.  I was making these for my family, and not knowing exactly what they would like, I did more research on the internet.  Astrological signs are always a good general way to start if you’re into that stuff.  For example, I looked up what fragrance an Aquarius would like and it said: floral, green tea, and sea.  For Cancer it said:  jasmine, lily, magnolia, honey, mandarin, rose and sandalwood.

If you know that your best friend just adores the scent of roses, you can just go with one scent.  Trial and error and a little instinct are the ways to go with blending scents.  Just remember, your nose and body chemistry is different from theirs, so what they love may give you a headache.

A general recipe for the solid perfume is:
3 parts oil
2 parts grated beeswax
1 part fragrance or essential oil

Start out by measuring out the oil and beeswax in your glass mixing bowl.  Melt the wax and oil together.  You can do this in a double boiler or by setting the glass bowl on an electric burner set on low.  Be careful when handling the bowl when the mixture is melted, it will be hot.  Set the bowl on a hot pad so you don’t scorch your counter top.

Photo by T. Sotirakis

Mix in the fragrance of your choice.  I used cocktail stirring straws to measure out my oils and another fresh straw to mix.  Before your mixture cools, pour into your container.  Let it cool for at least 10 minutes.  Label the containers so you don’t get them mixed up if you are making more than one scent.  Wrap them up and include a card telling the recipient of the fragrance mixture.

I made a whole bunch, which took me a few hours with a trial and error session in the beginning.  Each person receiving one of these got their own custom scent, according to their astrological sign.  They all also got one small pot that was scented with coconut, tangerine and hibiscus.  I hope they like them!

photo by T. Sotirakis

These solid perfumes are cute, easy to make and small enough to slip in your purse.  You can make a countless number of custom scents to suit your mood.  Just remember to document your favorite recipes so you can make them again.  They can also be used to tame a few flyaways in a pinch or to moisturize and scent the ends of your hair.  Post your favorite blends here for others!  Enjoy!