How To: Clean Your Makeup Brushes

Okay, I haven't done a How-To in a while. I feel this one is very, very necessary though. Ladies, listen carefully.
Okay, I have very acne-prone skin. It's a toughy subject for me to talk about because I'm so insecure in this fact. And bad skin isn't something you can just ignore so easily. It's just so...there. On your face and in everyone elses'. So you can understand I go to lengths to cover up my imperfections as much as possible. Meaning: cover up and foundation.
I have a special, very soft brush I use for my foundation. I love it.
However, a week ago I really started noticing how it was feeling on my skin...it was very...gunky feeling. Weighted down. Gross.
When I originally got the brush, it was white. Now, it was dark brownish. Yuck.
So I decided to clean my brush. (And all of my brushes)

I got this method off of Pinterest. (Ah, my love!) It's really easy. All you need is Olive Oil, Water, Shampoo and some Paper Towels.

First, run your brush under some water. You can really see just how dirty it is when the water hits the bristles.

After you've wetted your brush, put some Olive Oil in your hand and twirl the bristles of your brush in the oil. Then you can start massaging the oil into the brush; make sure you do this over sink! It gets messy. You really get to see all of the gunk that gets stuck in your brushes. Yuck!

This was just me, it didn't say to on Pinterest, but I started squeezing out my brush while massaging the oil into it. I did this for a good ten minutes and I was still getting huge globs of makeup out of my brush. I'll be cleaning it more often, I can tell you that much.
After you've massaged your oil into the brush, run it under some water and squeeze the water (and makeup) out of your brush! Hot or cold water, it doesn't matter. You'll be amazed at the gunk that comes out!

Yuck! I sometimes wonder what I'm putting onto my skin...it just looks so...bleh! I can only imagine the bacteria that could just live in that...it makes me sick and so, so glad I did clean my brushes! 

After you rinse your brush pretty good, you don't have to get every out, then you'll move onto shampoo. Try to use a mild shampoo or baby shampoo. You don't want to ruin your brush's bristles. Gently lather the shampoo into your brush and try to keep the shape of your bristles. You don't want to cause breakage. 

Then rinse when you're satisfied. And repeat if you wish. I shampooed mine twice. 

You can then squeeze the water out of your brush with paper towels then lay it out somewhere safe for a couple of ours. My brush took overnight to dry, but it's thick. Yours might dry quicker. 

I'm more confident in my brush now. It's so soft and feels great! You can bet I'll be cleaning it a great deal of a lot more often. At least once every two weeks!

I'm thinking about making a Natural Foundation soon...keep in touch!

Thanks for reading!

 

How To Dye Fabric With Tea/Coffee

Hello everyone! I'm working on a secret project. 
This project is what's been taking me away from my blogging, all my friends, and everything else I usually do. I won't be able to fully reveal it for a few days, but I can reveal part of the process of my project; tea/coffee dying. I found the process on Pinterest and was really happy with the results.

First you need to pick out your fabric. The dying process works best on natural fabrics. Honestly, I'm not too sure on what kind of fabric I had. It was in the pile of scrap fabrics I keep lying around for special/recycled projects.

What you'll need:

•  Natural Fabric
• Tea (I used black; it tends to have a darker effect)
• Coffee (The kind I used was actually decaf. I don't think it matters.)
• A really big pot or a pot big enough to submerge your fabric in water

 Fill your pot with water and bring it to a boil. Then submerge your fabric in the water, making sure it gets thoroughly soaked through.

Make sure you have some very, very strong coffee brewed. 

Feel free to either brew tea, or toss the tea bags in the pot with the fabric. I used tea bags, a lot of tea bags.

Pour the tea and coffee into the pot with your fabric(s).

Stir the fabric so that the coffee/tea mixture soaks in completely.

Leave the fabric boiling in the pot until your satisfied with the color of your material. (I left mine in for about an hour and a half.) Then I washed the fabric out with cold water until it ran clear. 

I then put the fabric in the dryer and I loved the end result! (This isn't really a very good picture. The "before and after" photo really shows the fabric better)

Ta-da! That's how you dye fabric with tea and coffee! Oh, and whatever you decide to do with the fabric will smell like coffee. And tea. It'll smell good. I love it; it's all earthy and ahhhh...

Feel free to comment or email me any questions!

Til' next time, thanks for reading!

-Sarah

Crazy About Pinterest

 Hello everyone!Yes, this post is about the awesome site Pinterest!

I love lists. List make my world go 'round and 'round. Without them I would be nothing (sorry Aust!). So when I discovered Pinterest a few months back I was in awe. Suddenly I was surrounded with lists on top of organized lists. Of everything and anything you could imagine.


Yesterday I went through my Pinterest and made a couple of boards. I went a little crazy. Everyone following me was probably thinking how much of a Pinterest nerd I am, but whatever. It's an awesome site, I love it.

You can check out my Pinterest page here!

 

I also made a cute board calling Making It Work<3.
It's made for all of the Marine girlfriends/bestfriends/
wives out there. It's full of gear, tips and cute quotes to conquer the "military love" lifestyle.
I've pinned a lot of pins for the upcoming deployment in January. It's so far away, but I'm afraid that it's going to sneak up on me and before I know it all my time to spend with Austin before he goes away for a year will be gone. In a way, I kind of want him to go ahead and leave so he can come home and be back already...as weird as that sounds. I just want to get it over with. (I'm sure he feels the same-getting it over with) 
If you're on Pinterest and have an significant other in the military, you should follow my board. I update it frequently (as frequently as I'm on pinterest-which is everyday).

Well, I also have another board that you all might want to check it. It's all green and eco-friendly. It's full of natural and homemade beauty products you can make at home! I made this board for my upcoming life-style turn around. With all of the reading I've been doing lately, I finally notice just how bad a lot of the everyday products you use are for you!
I've been checking labels and ingredients every time I get something at the store now. If they have it, I get the most natural and organic brand they have at the market of the product I want. It's a bit more pricey but it's better for you and the amazing green Earth God made for us. :)
Over the course of time, I'll probably post up some DIY's using the technics from this board. You'll probably see the homemade translucent powder really soon (as soon as I find the green clay!). You can make so much of it for so little; it'll really be better than buying the really expensive stuff from the store. What I'm looking at in the mean-time are all of the Tea Tree Oil recipes. There are so many uses for it!

The last board I'm going to share with you is my Workouts/Health Foods :). It's full of fun exercises and workout plans to get you in the best shape! Most of them are pretty easy too and only require 15 minutes a day or so. (Because I know I don't have enough time in the day to spend three hours exercising...) I have a few yoga sequences to go through too. I haven't tried any yoga, but I've been thinking about it.
I'm just not sure though, because yoga is originally a practice of some other religion and I really don't want to be un-knowingly or knowingly worshiping another religion...
(I don't want to get into a whole religious philosophic thing, so we'll save that for another post.)
But feel free to follow any of my boards and I'll follow yours too!

Just email me at slhallphotography@gmail.com and let me know about your pins and boards! Also, feel free to ask me any questions about anything else you might want to know!

Thanks for reading and go check out Pinterest! Now!

-Sarah

How To Improve The Taste Of Water

Evening everyone! I'm going to make this post short and simple.

So many people complain about drinking water, which I understand. It does have sort of a "blah" taste, but it's so good for you! You really need to drink about a gallon of water at least everyday. It de-toxifies your body and keeps you hydrated and feeling good!

I added grapefruit and blueberries this time.
A very good combination!

It can also help your acne and you'll find that you feel more energetic every day!

I know a few simple tricks to make that "blah-blah" taste of water go away:

• Add fresh fruits! This seriously is the best thing. I usually leave mine in overnight with a bunch of ice in the picture to keep it fresh and cold. I usually use lemons (and I toss in a bit of mint if I can get my hands on some!), but you can use any fruit of your personal preference! 
• You can buy flavored drops to put in your water now specifically made to make it taste better. Though I would watch which brands you buy and look at the ingredients first. Some of those flavorings are really, really un-healthy and completely take away the point of drinking water.  
• Adding fruit juice is a good way tot improve the taste of water too, so you don't have to go through the hassle of buying expensive fresh fruits. 
• Make your water bubbly! Some people prefer the taste of sparkling water to regular. Though again, watch which brand you buy and check your ingredients! 
• Flavor your ice cubes. Put in store bought flavoring before freezing, or take the fruit idea from above and chop it up into your water before freezing your cubes. You can have different tastes to choose from each time you get a drink! 
• To get your water intake, you don't necessarily have to drink water. You can drink tea. Fruit and herbal teas are known to be better for you then "black tea" or "English tea". There are tons of flavors to choose from! 

Hope this helps some people with their water dilemma. I know regular water can get a little boring, but honestly, the possibilities for water flavoring are endless. You just have to find your favorite!

Thanks for reading,

-Sarah