Natural Avocado Hair and Face Masks

Dry, flaky summer skin or damaged hair? Okay, let's get to business. 

Here are two great recipes I found and they work wonders for your skin and hair.

The first recipe is for your skin. 

Ingredients:

1/2 Avocado, pitted

1 tsp honey

2 Tbs hot water

Directions:

Dissolve the honey in the hot water by stirring it. Add this mixture to the avocado and combine ingredients until smooth. You can use a fork or a mixer. 

I used a fork, and it took a few minutes to mix up.

Apply the mixture to your face. Make sure you coat your face with a thick enough mask.

Set a timer for 10-20 minutes until the avocado has dried and then rinse the mask off. It's best to rinse off the mask in the shower because it is a little messy,

A little frightening, but I look like a ninja turtle "chya chya." 

The second recipe is the hair mask. This one is strictly for your hair, the other one can be added to the hair mask, if you do not have enough.

Ingredients:

1/2 Avocado, pitted

1 Tbs Honey

1 TbsAvocado oil

Directions:

Put ingredients in mixing bowl and mix on high until combined and smooth. You want this to be completely smooth or you will have trouble getting the clumps of avocado out of your hair. I don't know too many people who like green chunks in their freshly washed hair.

Distribute the mixture throughout the hair. Use only on tips of hair first then apply the rest to the roots. The tips tend to be the most damaged because they've been around much longer than the hair closer to the scalp.

Enjoy!

Expensive College Books? Look for Alternatives.

As an incoming freshmen, buying books was foreign territory. So like any other inexperienced and under educated new college student, I ran straight to the school's bookstore. My books totaled to be over $500. Yes, ridiculous. I even had to buy a $200 book for Biology. 

Anyways, the good stuff, the alternatives. First of all, ask ask ask! Plenty of upper level students have taken these courses, and some of them may still have the books. You can ask to borrow them or ask to pay them a few bucks to rent them. It beats spending hundreds of dollars on books that you're not even gonna get half the price for when it is time to sell them back.

Next, find the book titles and look for them on Ebay.com or Bookholders.com. You can even find some books that ring in at $80 at the bookstore for as cheap as a penny at Bookholders.com.

Another option is to ask on your school's Facebook page to see if other students have a book you need and are selling it for cheaper than the bookstore.

Sometimes you have to buy a book from the school bookstore, but it doesn't hurt to try and save a penny here and there.

Good luck with purchasing your books this semester and save some money!

Natural Makeup Ideas for Interview

Heading to a job interview? This means you may need a makeup makeover.

You don't want to show up caked in makeup and bright eye shadow. You just want to enhance your natural look without overpowering it.

For your face, use a light foundation and a loose powder. A few dabs of the powder should do the trick and rub a quick swab of a tissue to pick up the extra foundation off your skin.

For your eyes, use a natural shade of eye shadow like brown, tan or any color that is a shade or two darker than your skin color. You just want to add some shine to your eyes, but not make them the only thing you can focus on. Definitely skip the liquid eyeliner. It may be cute, but it isn't very professional. Save it for casual events like parties and gatherings. Mascara and eyeliner are fine, but don't wear too much or it can make you look intense and overdone.

Skip the lip gloss and opt for a light lipstick close to your natural lip color or stick with chap stick.

Make sure you use the right shade of foundation too and don't get any on your collar.

My favorite makeup items:

The Naked Palette is perfect for finding eye shadow colors that match or are the closest to your skin color. They have a light dusting of shimmer to them to help make your eyes pop.

Covergirl has an amazing foundation that helps with oil control. Do you know what that means? Less acne. It's a perfect creamy foundation that isn't too thick like a lot of other liquid foundations I have used in the past.

Ofra mascara is stunning. In one swipe you have instantly bolder eyelashes, without the clumpy mascara residue most mascaras leave behind.

My favorite eyeline is Clinique's quickliner. It is easy to apply and doesn't run or smudge easily. It will smudge if you cry or sweat a lot, but it is pretty resistant to water.

Summer, I Will Miss You.

It's already August. That means Fall is approaching fast, and I am going to miss summer dearly for two big reasons. First reason, I have to go back to school. Second reason, it's going to start getting dreadfully cold.

I hate the cold for a few very good reasons. 1.) There's no watermelon in season in the fall. 2.) I can never find anything warm enough to wear when it starts to get cold. 3.) Cold temperatures give me the blues

Did you know there is a condition called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder; Seasonal depression)? And there are more than 3 Million reported cases a year.

What is SAD? It is a mood disorder that is characterized by depression and typically occurs at the same time very year. It can cause fatigue, depression, and social withdraw. 

If you have this disorder, you may experience many changes to your mental and physical being when the seasons change. some these changes include, mood changes, psychological changes, sleep pattern changes, weight and behavioral changes.

Its a disorder that's worth reading about because maybe that's why winter puts you in a funk.

Are You Eating Enough?

I once thought, the less you ate the healthier you would be, but I was so wrong. You need a certain amount of fuel to meet your daily tasks. This amount depends on a majority of factors like height, weight, gender, and daily activity. 

People always say you need to burn more than you eat in order to lose weight, and it seems simple "eat less, burn more." It's not that simple because people tend to cut out things their body needs, like essential fats and nutrients to get a higher calorie deficit. And then on top of losing the fuel your body needs to complete daily tasks, you add more intense exercises to further deplete your body's leftover energy, if there is any energy left to deplete at all. 

This constant war of not eating enough can cause severe damage to the body, and if the torture isn't already enough on your physical and mental well-being, it sure will be when you notice the numbers on the scale don't even budge. So, now what? You start think maybe, I'm eating too much and not exercising enough, and continue to put your body through more torture just to not see any positive results. By this time, you should've realized cutting the calories isn't helping. You need to eat right, not less. If you need to calculate calories to get an idea of how much you can have, then so be it. You should never feel deprived from food. You should never feel completely drained from working out. You should feel good, satisfied and most importantly, you should feel alive.

So next time you are thinking about a new diet, remember to eat healthily and to be happy doing so. 

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