I Tried it Tuesday- Dry Shampoo

I've mentioned before that I'm trying to grow my hair out. One of the ways I'm trying to keep my hair healthier is to not wash it as often. My hair is pretty fine, but thick, which means that when it gets dirty, it is not easy to hide! I've used baby powder before to absorb some of the grease, and it worked, but it took a lot of work to make my hair not look white, and it also got baby powder all over the bathroom! I've been meaning to try dry shampoo for a while, but I couldn't justify the cost when the problem could be solved by just taking a shower! So when I saw that Suave had a dry shampoo for $3, I had to try it!

My review:

Awesome! It comes out of the bottle COLD (refreshing on summer day, not sure how I'll feel in the winter! Oh, what am I saying, I live in Texas...) and a little powdery, then you rub it in with your hands. It has a nice, kinda peachy smell and made my hair look much fresher. It also makes my hair a lot thicker and coarser. I wouldn't wear it down like this, but it was great for putting my hair in a style that it wouldn't usually hold. It doesn't make my hair as good as if it were freshly washed, but it does get me through one more day of dirty hair with no problem! 

I Tried it Tuesday- Sephora Primer

I love Sephora. With my whole heart. One of my favorite things about shopping there are the free samples. The last time I was in, I got a makeup primer sample. I had heard that primer helps makeup go on smoother, and keeps it on longer.

I wore it a few days, and I couldn't really tell a difference. So I decided to put it on half my face. Don't worry, it was a day I didn't do much, so no one could make fun of me!

My review:

Eh. My foundation did go on smoother, but not so much that it was noticeable. And by the end of the day, I couldn't tell a difference at all. And I'm pretty sure it made me break out. Not recommended...

I Tried it Tuesday- DIY Mask

***This post is dedicated to my cousin Ashley, who was always my mask parter in crime!***


This horrible summer weather has been taking a toll on my skin. It has been dry, flaky, and tired looking. While I really believe that how my skin looks depends more on what I put in my mouth more than what I put on my face, but no amount of water, fresh fruit or multivitamins were helping! I remembered a DIY face mask that I read about a few weeks ago, and decided to give it a try.

The recipe:
1 T olive oil
1 T honey
1 t lemon juice (I used the kind in the little plastic lemon, fresh would probably be better)

Mix all ingredients. If it's not mixing well warm the olive oil up a bit (not too much, it has to go on your face!). Put it all on your face. Wait 10 minutes, then rinse it off.

My review:
It was a lot less messy than you would think, but I did get some olive oil splatters in the bathroom sink that were difficult to clean up (hint: try a kitchen cleaner, cuts through the grease better than bathroom cleaner!) but once it was on my face, it didn't run or drip at all. It also took some serious scrubbing to get it off, I had to wash my face three times! I recommend washing it off in the shower, it would take FOREVER in the sink, and I wouldn't really want to get olive oil on a washcloth. But it WORKED. All of my flaky skin was gone, and I had a nice glowy look for a few days. And it was super cheap! So if you don't mind a little mess, and have a few ingredients to spare, I do recommend it!

I Tried it Tuesday- Almond Milk

Let me start this post by saying I love all things dairy. A PB&J just isn't complete without a cold glass of milk, I could have ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I never met a cheese I didn't like. So I never felt the need to try any milk alternative products, since the real stuff was obviously amazing. But when I got hit by a nasty bug at the end of May, I had to lay off the dairy products until it cleared up. And when it finally did clear up, I was out of the habit of drinking milk. After pouring yet another sour half gallon of milk down the sink, I decided it was time to try something new that didn't go bad quite as quickly. Enter almond milk.

I bought the unsweetened unflavored store brand almond milk, nothing fancy. It was about the same price as a half gallon of milk.

My review:

Good and bad.

Good: Almond milk is great for putting on cereal. It has a really nice almond-y aftertaste, but other than that, I couldn't tell a difference. It is also good to bake with if you are using it as a moistener and not a thickener (muffins are a big yes!). It has less calories, but the about the same amount of protein as milk. Lasts longer than regular milk.

Bad: It is NOT good to drink all by itself. A little chocolate syrup will fix it right up though. It also is not good to use as a thickener in place of milk because, well, it doesn't thicken! It also is not good to use in savory foods, since it does have kind of a sweet flavor.

I Tried it Tuesday- Deep Conditioning

Every time I watch Tangled I get the urge to grow my hair out. Sadly, summertime has not been kind to my hair, and my first thought is to chop it all off!! So when I heard that Fantastic Sams had deep conditioning for $10, and used Redkin products, I knew I had to try it! I went to the nearest salon, where they sat me in a chair, washed my hair and then put a mixture of deep conditioners in it. I sat under a dryer for 15 minutes, and then it was rinsed out.

My review: The salon was not fancy AT ALL. If you like full service, this is not the place for you. I left the salon with dripping wet hair! But it was only $10, after all. While the service wasn't the best, the product was great. My hair was (and still is) silky smooth and much more manageable, and I think I extended the time between haircuts at least a month, maybe two. If you want a good, cheap deep conditioner, and don't mind a bare bones salon experience, I highly recommend it!

I Tried it Tuesday- Heatless Curls

I love the idea of having curly hair for every day wear. Unfortunately, I have very straight hair, and the humidity is usually somewhere between 98% and 150% (seriously, I could swim to work if I wanted to), there just isn't enough time (or hair products) available to make that work. Also, it has been about 300 degrees every day, and the thought of using a blow dryer or curling iron seems crazy. So, curly hair is just for special occasions. So when I read about No Heat Hair, I knew I had to give it a shot!! Watch this video to see how it is done:

Isn't her accent cute??

My review: AWESOME. It really is as easy as the video makes it look. And the curls lasted two whole days! I put a little mousse in my hair and let it air dry almost all the way before I put it up. I slept with the headband in, and took it out the next morning. 

This is a really bad picture, but just trust me, my hair looks very nice and wavy. Not bad for 10 minutes of effort!!

I Tried it Tuesday- Laundry Soap

I was talking to a friend from church, and she mentioned that she made her own laundry soap. She was kind enough to teach me how!

You will need:
2 cups of Borax
2 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
1 bar of Zote or Fels-Naptha or Dr. Bronner's Soap bar (these are all concentrated bars of cleaning soap, I found Zote at the local Mexican grocery)

Directions:
 1. Take the bar of soap and grate it all up using a cheese grater. The finer you grate it the quicker it will melt. It will look like coconut, but resist the urge to eat it!!

2. Place it in a large sauce pan and add 4 cups of water. Cook on medium heat until it melts. This was the longest part of the process, it took about 20 minutes.

 3. Put the Borax and Washing Soda in a big plastic tote or 5 gallon bucket. Mix with 2 gallons of HOT water (just hot from the tap, it doesn't need to be boiling). DO NOT use cold water, it will make the Borax hard as a rock!

4. Stir until dissolved. You can use an electric mixer to do this, but we just used wire whisks. It only took about 5 minutes with the two of us mixing.

 5. Add the melted soap to the bucket. Stir until it becomes a thick jelly.

6. Add 1 1/2 gallons of more water to the mixture, and mix it again until it is fully blended. You can add essential oils at this point, if you wanted your soap to be scented. I don't really care, so I skipped this step.

7. Pour into plastic bottles. It makes about 4-5 gallons. I put mine in a big tupperware, and have a special measuring cup to scoop it out with. My friend put hers into empty milk jugs, which I think would make it a lot easier to store and to pour out.

It's a pretty strong soap, (my hands were very dry after mixing and pouring it) so you don't need to use a lot. I use 1/4 cup for regular loads, and 1/2 cup for heavy loads. I have done three loads with it (one white, one colored, and one towels) and I can't tell a difference between that and the store bought stuff.

The cost:
Borax: $2.50- will make three batches, so $0.83 per batch
Washing soda- $2.50- also makes three batches, $0.83 again
Zote- $1.00

Total Cost: $2.66, and if I'm figuring correctly, it should last over six months! I did make the initial investment of buying the tupperware ($9.00) but that was a one time cost.

Saves money, doesn't take very long, and helps us be more self reliant! What's not to love??

I Tried It Tuesday- Requests and Dedications

I would love to say I tried something new this week, but the truth is, I spent all week watching tv and downing drugs. The totally legal drugstore kind, of course!! Although, I might have had a little too much Nyquil one night... So the only thing I tried were Halls cough drops that have little pep talks on the wrapper. They are super annoying when you're not feeling well, and totally not exciting enough to write a post about.

So I decided to ask you-any requests? Is there anything you've been wanting to try but are too busy/scared/resourceless to do it? Let me know!

PS- If you'd like to make a dedication, that's cool too. I spent too much time listening to late night radio as a child (my parents had a strict 8:00 bedtime for me, and my alarm had a radio. Ah, the good old days!!), so now I can't hear 'requests' without mentally adding 'and dedications'.

I Tried It Tuesday- Whole Wheat Brownies

I thought take a bite before taking the picture would make it look more artistic and delicious. 

I was wrong, it just looks chomped on and kinda gross. Sorry!

The Cub Scout value for the month of May is Health and Fitness, so last week we talked about the food pyramid and what foods were good to eat. They pyramid has totally changed since I was in school, and one thing they push now is 'making half of your grains whole'. Ever since I took a nutrition class in college, I have tried to incorporate as many whole grains as possible into my diet, so I love the idea of cooking with whole wheat flour, it is SO much healthier, but sometimes the results can be dry and mealy. So when I saw a Whole Grain Baking cookbook at the library, I checked it out! I might have to buy this cookbook, it has so many great ideas!! And all the recipes have been tested several times, so you know they are good ones!

I tried the brownie recipe first:

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on low heat. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Heat the mixture briefly until it's hot and starting to bubble. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

Stir in the cocoa, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Cool the mixture until you can text it with your finger, it should feel like comfortably hot bath water. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth, then add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the brownies until a cake tester or sharp knife poked into the center reveals wet crumbs but not raw batter (about 30 minutes). The brownies should feel set on the edges and in the center.

Let sit overnight before serving; this gives the bran a chance to soften, giving the brownies a more pleasing texture.

Nutrition information: (if you cut it into 24 pieces) 252 cal, 13g fat, 3g protein, 8g complex carbohydrates, 25g sugar, 2g fiber, 125mg sodium, 216g potassium, 76RE vitamin A, 2mg iron, 46mg calcium, 100mg phosphorus, 15mg caffeine

For lower fat brownies: substitute 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce for 1/2 cup of butter. Add applesauce after the vanilla.

My review: These brownies are REALLY good, but they have no instant gratification! Smelling the brownies cooking, and then having to wait until the next day to eat them was not my idea of fun. I tried one the night I made them, and they were good, but they were better the next day, like the recipe said. I also didn't read the recipe all that well, and I really should have halved it! That's A LOT of brownies for two people!

While I wouldn't call them a health food, if you are looking for a slightly healthier brownie, this would be a good bet!

I Tried it Tuesday- White Vinegar

San Antonio has very hard water, and one consequence of this is the film that gathers over all the dishes in the dishwasher. A small helping on Jet Dry solves this problem, but it's kind of expensive, has a lot of chemicals in it, and forces you to use the heated dry setting (I hate this because it wastes electricity and if there is any leftover gunk on a dish, it gets baked on). I had heard that white vinegar can do the job just as well, but I hadn't got around to trying it quite yet. So this week I finally did. I filled the little rinse aid full of vinegar every time I washed a new load. I know there might be some down inside that little guy, but you can't see it, so I wasn't sure.

My review- AMAZING. Our dishes have never looked shinier! Everything looks better, not just the glassware. And it is cheap! A huge thing of vinegar is like $3.00, compared to a tiny thing of Jet Dry which is like $7.00. I did a little bit of research, and it turns out there is nothing vinegar can't do! Click here to get some great ideas!

I Tried It Tuesday- Shoe Stretcher

I went thrifting this weekend, and as usual, found a bunch of awesome stuff! I promise a full post on all the stuff I got will come later, but I did want to talk about this awesome shoe trick.

I found these beauties for $1.25!! I knew they had to be mine! I tried them on in the store, but when I got home, they were a little tight. I remembered a segment I saw on the Rachel Ray show once in the gym (her talk show, not the cooking show, is that still even on?) when I lived in Phoenix. I had never tried it, but I had remembered it all these years! What you do it put rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball, rub it on the inside of the shoes, and then wear them for half an hour. Something about the alcohol makes the leather conform to your foot, and then the shoes fit like a glove! (This only works on leather shoes, btw. If you are against wearing shoes that are all leather because they are expensive, call me. I'll tell you about the magical stretching powers of leather and how the shoe repair guy can fix them like 100 times and they still look good as new. Worth every penny! Also, if you need a shoe repair guy, I have an excellent one!) 

My review: Works like a charm! After I got over my feet being pinched a little when I walked around, they stretched out nicely. You have to get the cotton ball pretty soaked with the alcohol, and you really do have to wear them for a while. But if you have any (leather) shoes laying around that aren't being worn because they are a bit too small, try this! 

I Tried it Tuesday- Makeup Forever

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was in Sephora, trying to decide if I wanted to spend my life savings on makeup. Well, I ended up buying Makeup Forever HD Foundation. The sales people in the store probably thought I was nuts. I found the color that worked for me, picked up a bottle, and then had to decide if I really wanted to spend $40 on foundation (I usually buy  Maybelline mineral makeup from Wal-Mart for $6…). I would make up my mind that I was going to buy it, walk toward the register, and then change my mind and walk away. I did this three times before I actually made a purchase. They kept asking if I needed help with anything. I didn’t want to tell them about my internal struggle, because let’s face it, the longer I talked to anyone there, the more likely it was that I would walk out with $200 in merchandise. I’m an easy sale!

My review: I really like it. Like really really. But do I like it $40 worth? I’m not sure… It gives really good coverage, and it gives me a glowy look, but I’m not sure it’s THAT much better than the $6 stuff… It also makes my skin greasy, I have to use powder every day, which I didn’t have to do with the $6 stuff, but I also don’t have to moisturize at night anymore, my skin feels great after just washing it.   I haven’t decided if I’m going to continue to buy it. I hope that it lasts for a long time and I don’t have to make the decision anytime soon!

I Tried It Tuesday- Nail Buffer

I hate getting accosted every time I go to the mall by people wanting to sell me something. I know they think their hair straightener/Bahama vacation/knock off sunglasses are the best thing ever, but if was interested, I would come to you, ok?? But the one kiosk that ALMOST gets me is the nail buffer/sea salt scrubber guy.

I love the idea of having smooth shiny nails without all the hassle of chipping nail polish and having to do a touch us every few days. But $40 for that luxury?? I don't think so! I had tried the Sally Hanson brand from Wal-Mart, and it just didn't give me the same level of shine.

I was in Sephora, trying to decide if I wanted to spend my life savings on make up, and I saw a buffer for $5!

I grabbed it immediately. But would it be as good as the mall kiosk's? (That sounded really suspenseful. I feel like I should end with "Tune in next week to find out!")

My review-

Success! In about five minutes my nails were shaped, buffed and polished! I had a hard time taking a picture that really displayed how shiny they are, so you'll just have to believe me.

I Tried It Tuesday- Stress Ball

I decided to start a new theme where I try something new and review it on Tuesdays. This week- stress ball. I have been trying to stop crossing my legs. I feel the strain it puts on my hips and knees, but it has been so hard to stop! I'm usually crossing my legs before I even realize it!

I went to the Internet (of course) for help and found a few tips. The first one I found said to put a stress ball between your knees, then when you go to cross your legs, you will think about the stress ball being there, and not do it. I remembered the stress ball I got when I started my new job, stuck in the bottom drawer of my desk.

I am aware of the irony of me taking a picture of the ball propped up on my crossed legs, but it's the only way I could figure out to get a good shot without my boss noticing I was taking pictures!

My review-

Success! I didn't cross my legs for several hours. My muscles started to get tired of holding it between my knees after about an hour (not only a re-training tool, but a leg workout as well!) so I moved it up a bit, and it still worked just as well! The only problem was standing up. It's hard to look graceful when you're pulling a stress ball from between your knees every time you need a drink of water... But if you work in a less shared space than I do, I highly recommend it! In fact, I even recommend it if you do share a space. I care much more about my hips than what my co workers think of me!