Coconut Oil: Benefits for Hair and Beauty

Hi everyone!

These days people are more aware of what products they are putting on their bodies. A lot of cosmetics have been linked to breast cancer among others, so many people are switching to organic, natural products. As a result, coconut oil has come to the fore front and has become the holy grail in this natural lifestyle, though it is not a new phenomenon at all, having been used in the US well before World War II.


There are literally hundreds apon hundreds of uses for coconut oil, to everything from cooking to adding in yoghurt and smoothies to putting on your dog! I personally prefer not to use it in food as I'm not sure would the taste be that great and also it is high in saturated fat, increasing your risk of heart disease, so this blogpost will just focus on its hair and beauty uses. As you might also expect, there are hundreds of hair and beauty uses too for this little gem! I'm obviously not going to talk about all of them as I don't want to bore you to death, and I didn't want to talk about things I haven't personally tried out myself.  I felt it wouldn't have been right to you guys, my readers, if I just paraphrased people's other work off the internet, saying it did this that and the other, you to try it out and it doing the opposite of what I was claiming it to do! My aim in writing this blog has and always will be about being really honest in what I did, so you'll know for sure about the product you're buying, the good and the bad bits. I got this big jar containing 500ml of coconut oil in my place of work, Home Bargains for £3.99 (about five euro), but I've seen it in Tesco and Holland and Barrett too.


Body Oil
My main reason for trying out this product was because of its moisturising properties I have heard so much about. I have mild to moderate eczema (a skin condition meaning my skin becomes itchy, red, dry and cracked, which fluctuates, hence why I have referred to it as mild to moderate, due to a number of factors, such as stress, detergents), plus sensitive skin, and contrary to what you might imagine, I have a difficult time finding moisturising products that suit! Many which tie the both together and soothe my skin are either ridiculously expensive or smell horrible! Simple is a good brand I have been using for years, but sometimes I want something that's slightly scented (being the girl I am).  Coconut oil is a natural product, inexpensive (see above) and smells like a beach holiday, meaning I'm always happy to slather it on everywhere after a shower or bath, and it doesn't irritate my eczema one bit! When I posted a photo of this on my Instagram HERE, I had a comment from one of my followers saying it helped calm down her psoriasis a lot, so if any of my readers have that, coconut oil is worth trying out!

Makeup Remover
Even the most waterproof mascara doesn't stand a chance against this guy! Apply some directly to your face to act as an oil cleanser or let it sit with a cotton pad, and voila! Your makeup will melt away. As it's a natural product, it suits even the most sensitive of skins. Garnier micellar water, you  have some stiff competition!

Lip Balm
In this winter weather, chapped lips are a common problem, which ain't great when you wear as many lipsticks as I do. I always used to use Vaseline as a lip balm, but I haven't used it in a while as I have read many articles claiming it to be linked to cancer. Coconut oil is a much more natural alternative, especially as it is semi-solid in room temperature. It makes lips super super soft - perfect coming up to Valentines' Day!

Under Eye cream
The skin under your eyes is delicate and thin, making it prone to fine lines, puffiness and wrinkles. Eye creams can be expensive (many retailing at £20 plus!), so save your pennies and invest in some coconut oil instead for a fraction of the cost. It's light enough for even the most delicate of under eye skin. Just rub a tiny amount between your fingers to warm it up before gently patting it underneath your eyes.

Frizz Tamer
I have naturally very curly hair so means whenever I try to straighten it in an attempt to look polished it ends up looking frizzy, ugh. The fact that my hair is dyed bleach blonde at the ends doesn't really do anything for the cause, to be fair! I've tried a lot of smoothing serums, from Tony and Guy to L'Oreál in the past, but this works just as well (and again, is a lot cheaper). Rub a pea-sized amount of coconut oil (any more and it will make your hair appear greasy), between your fingers to warm it up, then apply it to the bottom couple of inches of hair for all day frizz protection. If you're blessed with thicker, coarser hair, apply the oil in the same way but from mid-shaft to end for frizz control. The bonus with this is that it also leaves hair extra shiny and soft, plus smelling fabulous!

Shaving Cream
Whoever said shaving cream has to lather? Use this oil as a base to get a closer shave and a positive of this is that it results in smooth legs instead of legs that are dried out. Believe it or not, this actually works! It's less messy than using shaving foam, too. I didn't use it to shave my underarms as I feared it may be a little harsh on that sensitive area, but following shaving I did put a little under my arms to soothe it. I then lathered loads over my legs following shaving to lock in the moisture.

Dandruff Treatment
Dandruff and dry scalp often go hand in hand. Moisture is needed at the roots, which comes in the shape of this baby! Apply each night lightly to the roots, and massage in, which will also stimulate hair growth (bonus).
 

Leave in hair conditioner
Following shampooing, apply a tiny amount throughout your hair (breathe in that fabulous smell!). Then wrap your hair in a towel and allow it to dry naturally. I can really see the difference in my hair after using this. It smells better, feels better and created beautiful natural curls on myself. Love it!

Hand cream
Like many products mentioned, hand cream is another product that can be expensive. This multi-tasker helps here too! Apply some coconut oil to your hands and let it absorb (you can pop on some gloves to speed up the absorption process, but you don't have to). Result: silky soft hands. Yay!

Cuticles
I am in the process of growing my nails (so very determined to stop biting them for good now, but with placement just around the corner, we'll see how long that lasts!).  I had many torn cuticles caused by biting my nails and they were rather unsightly. I applied some coconut oil and it has greatly reduced their appearance. My nails look in better shape (well as good as a shape as can be expected!).

Some need to knows:

• As it's an oil,  it does take it's time to dry, and so therefore can be slightly messy to work with. So wait a while before dressing yourself or covering a certain part of your body. When I applied it I wore shorts and a light vest top.
• Coconut oil has a shelf life of 2 years, so don't worry about having to use it up really quickly. Just as well, I would struggle to use that big jar up in a short length of time!
• You can store coconut oil in the fridge or at room temperature, the choice is completely up to you. It may be slightly more soothing on skin to have it slightly chilled; either way it melts in your hand straight away so it doesn't make too much of a difference.

Beauty - Review of Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Colour Deep Treatment

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog! I hope you had a great week, and hope you have a great weekend too. For those of you who live in Ireland, I hope you have a great bank holiday weekend! (I'm actually so jealous by the way - could do with having a good sleep in on Monday!).

I hope you also enjoyed my last blogpost - on some creative, last minute simple ideas for Halloween. I got some good feedback on the post and I'm happy you found it inspiring and hopefully you won't be lost for ideas come next weekend! If you haven't checked it out, you can HERE.

It's been a while since I did a blogpost on some hair care product, so that's what I'm going to talk about today! Aussie are obviously an Australian-produced haircare brand. They have an extensive range of deep conditioners, shampoos, conditioners, hairspray, heat defence products just to name a few, all using extracts of some native and wild Australian fruits.

I think it would be an understatement to say that I have a severe love for the brand. If you'll know their products, you'll know that they smell absolutely divine to say the least and they really do the job as well, but the only downside is that they are rather expensive, although I have used some of their full sized products before, and really like their leave in conditioners, shampoos and their conditioners. The Aussie product I constantly repurchase however is their Miracle Recharge Luscious Long Lightweight conditioning spray, and a review of that product plus an in-depth view of my hair care routine as well as how I did my dip-dye myself, is HERE.

Luckily for anyone like myself that's watching every penny they pay out, they have some of their full sized products in little 20ml sachets for a very reasonable pound or two so you can try it out and see do you like it enough to commit to buying it in a full sized container.

I brought over a small sachet of their 3 Minute Miracle Colour Deep Treatment in my suitcase from Ireland a few weeks ago. I paid €1.50 for this small sachet in a local pharmacy.

 

I only have my hair coloured on the ends where it's bleached with the ombre, but I don't know is it from the stress of readjusting to life in a different country, or what I'm eating or my eating pattern (which is sporadic at best), or just an unhealthy addiction to the hair straightener, but the top sections of my hair have been feeling so dry and damaged recently. There's been a lot of frizz so most mornings heading into uni I look like I have been electrocuted (which wasn't really a great look to be fair...).

So as I had put this in a drawer, I decided to use it.

This comes in a small sachet like I said and you can easily open it using your fingers without the need to cut the top off. It smells beautiful. It contains Australian wild peach, whose kernels were used by the Aborigines as a form of hair conditioning oil, and you can really get the smell of peach off it! This new formula contains aloe vera also.

So after I washed with my regular shampoo (which is Head and Shoulders Classic Clean -  nothing else seems to get rid of product build up and dandruff quite as good!), before applying this in handfuls all over my hair. The packet instructions said to only leave on 1-3 minutes, depending what condition your hair is in, but I wrapped my hair in a warm towel and left it in for a half an hour, then washed it out using lukewarm water (not too hot, not too cold). I then left my hair to airdry naturally (not my intention, but my sister and mum Skyped me then and it wasn't exactly polite to blast the hairdryer, but I'm sure my hair thanked them for their impromptu call!).

My hair wasn't still completely dry when the Skype ended, so I still needed to use the hairdryer to dry some of my hair. I couldn't get over how soft my hair felt! I straightened my hair then using my hair straightener and thought it was absolutely amazing, so soft and although it didn't take away the frizz completely, it certainty made a noticeable difference.

Would I repurchase this? Definitely!

Hope you enjoyed this post ! x 

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Beauty - My Dipdye and Haircare Routine!

I've got a few compliments about my hair and a few requests to do a hair-care blog post so I figured to blend the both together!

So obviously, as you can see, my hair is dip-dyed at the moment. It may come as a surprise to tell you I did it myself! I was really bored of my natural black hair colour and needed a change, and as it was coming up to my birthday in September I decided to go for it. I have had bad experiences with dye at a hairdresser before (didn't last too long considering the amount of money I spent) and hadn't really the funds to get it done so I decided to do it myself. So I bought a box of L'Oréal  Wild Ombrés Préférence brush on dip-dye in Ombré No.1  from a local chemist for €7 and tried it out. There's three different kinds of this dip dye, each formulated differently for different coloured hair. I got No.1 because my natural hair (as you can see from my roots) is extremely black. No.2 would be for someone with light brown hair and No.3 is for someone with dark blonde hair. Because my hair was so dark, just two weeks after the initial application the dye turned slightly ashy coloured. By the time it came to my graduation in October the dye had well and truly caused my hair to go really ashy coloured. I re-done it again just before Christmas. It stayed good for about another 5 weeks, and looked really well. But I wanted a really platinum edge to the ends, and as my hair was already dark blonde at that stage, I said I'd give the No.3 a go.

If you're considering doing something like this to your own hair, I'd really recommend these DIY dye kits by L'Oréal. The kit comes with all the ingredients needed to dye your hair and also comes with a conditioning shampoo that makes your hair unbelievably soft and smooth after appplication. The brush that comes with it to essentially brush on the dye onto your hair is created by experts to make the job of DIY dip-dye a doddle. I will warn you though that this dye is really really strong so try not to go near your eye area or you will know about it! But like I've mentioned, it has taken me from September until April to get to that shade I have in the photos of me above, so please try to be patient if your hair is as naturally as dark as mine - you will get there eventually!

I haven't got my hair re-done in eight weeks. I bought a box of dye two weeks ago but haven't felt like it really needs to be re-done again at the moment, I kind of like the undone 'growing-out' feel to it.

Because the bleach really damages my hair, I'm conscious of keeping it in shape as best I can, so every 6 weeks, whether I dye it or not, it's to the hairdresser to get the split ends cut off. I have a severe addiction to using my GHD straightener which obviously ain't hair-friendly, but I've tried to limit myself to using it only on nights out and trying to embrace my natural curly hair a bit more. It's easier said than done though, as I like the sleek look that comes with straightened hair.



I'm more observant of caring for my hair way more now than I ever did when I had darker hair.

I make sure I use a conditioner frequently. I use a leave-in conditioner to save me the hassle.
Even though I obviously don't have long hair (wish I did!), I use Aussie Miracle Recharge Luscious Long lightweight conditioning spray (€4.49 in Boots) all through my hair. It smells so nice (like all Aussie haircare products do!), and as it's lightweight, won't make my hair super greasy. If I leave it to dry naturally, I'm left with these beautiful natural waves. I usually do end up straightening it the next morning though - the addition to the GHD is super super strong!



If I'm rushing and need to blowdry and straighten it straight away, I use a heat protectant. The one I've been using for the past three years is VO5 Heat Protect Styling Spray. It smells absolutely gorgeous and the price is right (€5 in Boots), so I've just kept re-buying it! It not only protects your hair against further styling damage up to 230 degrees but it also contains a heat activated complex which makes styling easier - your straightener will just glide through it - great when you're in a hurry!




If I'm going to straighten my hair before a night out, I like to use something that will give it some shine as with the ombré I find that my hair often lacks shine. YouTubers and hair-care experts on Instagram often rave about their love of Argan oil, so I had to try it out. Argan oil is a plant oil produced from the kernels of the Argan tree which is native to Morocco. I got a small 30ml Intensive Hydrating Treatment. It's a leave-in treatment, so you don't have to wash it out.  It smells so nice. Obviously, because it's an oil, within a few days, or if you use too much of it on the day/night of using, it will make most hair types look horrifically greasy so try to just use only one tiny pea size amount and just concentrate it on the ends of your hair. (Your scalp usually makes enough oil naturally). I find it works best for me when I apply it to damp hair, let it naturally dry about half-way, and then blow dry it. It does leave your hair with lots of shine and feeling super soft. You can get this Argan oil intensive hydrating treatment in pretty much every chemist nowadays or in Penneys - they're so widely available and they only cost €2-3 - bargain! Argan oil extract is also so widely available and comes in masks and shampoos and conditioners, most at reasonable prices too, so you can find something that suits you.

Regarding hair-masks, I have reviewed the one I use most frequently in a previous blog post (The Lovea Nature Mask), but I like to try out others an odd time. One other hair mask I have a strong love for is the Macadamia Oil Extract hair mask. This stuff smells absolutely gorgeous! It has been specially formulated to improve texture and manageability. It's enriched with keratin which is actually the very substance your hair (and nails!) is made up of. Macadamia nut oil is the oil from a nut that originated and is still found in rain forests in southeastern and northeastern Australia as well as other places like Hawaii. Macadamia nut oil is non greasy so it's easily absorbed into the hair shaft. The oil mimics the sebum, which is naturally produced oil on the scalp which protect it from damage. After shampooing, I towel dry my hair and apply a generous amount of this from root to tip, particularly concentrating on the ends of my hair. The instructions say leave in for 7-10 minutes but I leave it in for an hour to reap maximum benefits, then wash it out. It makes my hair feel super soft and the gorgeous smell stays in my hair until I wash it again. It cost €2.

I realise that some people do prefer a natural alternative, without any chemicals on both their hair and skin, so I will be doing a blogpost in a few weeks reviewing some natural haircare and skin care alternatives, using ingredients from your kitchen cupboard!