Curlbox October 2012

Well guess what came in the mail today?? My Curlbox!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!!! I signed up for Curlbox last month when the list opened up. Curlbox which is a monthly subscription you pay $20 to receive a box with 5-7 hair care roducts. This is a great program for "product junkies" so that you can be able to try out different products every month. When the list for new subscriptions opens up, it is like ants on a piece of candy! lol the website crashed a few times last monthe on the 22nd from what I read, but I was lucky enough get my curlbox in 3 minutes, some had to wait for for over 30 minutes. The best way to ensure that you will get one is to log onto curlbox.com create an account, and get on their email list that way when the list opens up, you will be one of the first to know about it. So lets get to our box: This month the theme was "For Colored Girls....when boring hair is enough". I was kinda dissapointed this month not with the products, but because I would have thought the packaging would have been pink in honor of breast cancer awarness month(the tissue inside is pink).

The products I received in my box were:

Reshma Femme Henna Hair Color Natural Highlights-HK 6A 2.12oz.
Curl Care by:Dr Miracles Nourishing Conditioner 12oz.
African Pride Shea Butter Miracle Bouncy Curls Pudding 15oz.
4 Twists 'n Locs Shea Butter Organic Leave-in Conditioner .5oz each
Lustrasilk Moisture Max Keratin Amino Acid Leave-in Creme Conditioner 1.75oz.
Eden Body Works Jojoba Monoi All Natural Hair Milk 2oz.
I also received a pack of Bodycology Body Cream in the scent wild poppy .25oz. my mom already claimed that pack lol

I'm so excited about the suspense of next month to see what is in the November Curlbox

I'm a henna-head!!

Since I decided to go natural, I have been researching my little fingers and mind off!! lol I have come across some of every kind of thing or heard about some kind of product. I have been watching youtube videos and noticed that alot of people who are natural/transitioning use henna. So I decided to look a little deeper into what henna was and the side effects of it.


From Wikipedia.org "Henna (Lawsonia inermis, also called henna tree[1]) is a flowering plant used since antiquity to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather and wool." Henna has been used as a cosmetic hair dye for 6,000 years. In Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra and Nefertiti were known to have used it. It was commonly used for many centuries in areas of India, the Middle East, and Africa. Henna is known to be dangerous to people with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD deficiency), which is more common in males than females. Infants and children of particular ethnic groups are especially vulnerable."


I heard great things about the cassia, and was tempted to buy it. But decided to go with the henna, knowing that it would change the color of my hair, but I was okay with that. So wash day came this past Monday and I washed my hair with the Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo(will do a review on this soon, and conditioned my hair with Proclaim Olive Glossing Conditioner because I needed to use it up. I then towel dried my hair and divided my hair in 2 sections and applied the henna in small parts by finger-parting my hair. I left it on for 3 hours and rinsed for like 20 minutes until it was rinsing clear. I then checked my hair to make sure it was all out before applying my deep conditioner(Herbal Essences Hello Hydration). I let the DC sit for an hour(will let it sit longer next time), and rinsed and applied the Shea Moisture Conditioner. I noticed that my hair has just a small amount of red and that my gray hairs were coppery orange. I styled my hair with flexi-rods and flat rope twist, and put on my silk cap then went to sleep. The next morning I took out the rods and my hair was so soft! I even noticed that it loosened my curl pattern, but not by much, it just made it easier to comb. As the days went on, I noticed that the red is showing up more. This is something I will most likely do every other month. The brand of henna I used was the Godrej Nupur 100% Natural Mehendi with the goodness of 9 herbs that I purchased from Amazon.com for like $4.00 a pack.

Re-Launch of influenster.com

Hey readers! I just wanted to tip you guys off on the NEW re-launch of influenster.com I have been a member of this site for a couple of months now, and I absolutely love it. They are in the process of re-launching their new website as I type. ;)
What is Influenster you may ask? Well it is an online community where people can go to share their honest opinions for different products that they have used. There is no sign up fee, which is a plus for me seeing how I'm on a budget. And to top it all off, they give voxboxes full of free goodies for people who qualify for one based on your Influence score.
I would have to say that I like this new site more because it gives more people an opportunity to qualify for a voxbox. There is nothing I can complain about the new site. Hope to see you there!!

Product Review - Shea Moisture Shea Butter Conditioner

I wanted to do a review of this product since hearing great things about it, but none of my local stores sold this. So I waited, hoping that my local CVS would soon be carrying it, so I could purchase it there. Well, to my surprise I saw that it was advertised in the CVS sales paper, but didn't get too excited because my store has such a small section of African-American/natural products. So I decided to stop by there one day and saw that they did carry it, and it was on sale buy 1, get 1 free!! I purchase 2 of the Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioners and tried it out on my hair since Monday's are hair washing day, and it worked great!! It can be used as a wash out or leave in conditioner, so I used it as a leave in.

PROS:
The smell!! It smelled like honeysuckle
It's Organic
Sulfate Free!
No Mineral Oil!
I Love It!!!

CONS:
The size of the bottle, wish it were bigger for the price. I purchased the 12oz.
The locking of the pump when you are trying to get some out, but no biggie.

The Verdict:
I will continue to use this because it left my hair soft and shiny and not weighted down with a greasey feel. I plan on purchasing more from this line in the near future. =)

All coconut oils are not created equal

For some time now, I have been using coconut oil for my hair. I have used it as a leave-in moisturizing spray and hot oil treatments. The brand I originally purchased was this brand of LouAna coconut oil with the green lid.

First off I loved the scent, it has a very nice coconutty fragrance that you can still smell once you wash it out with shampoo. The way I applied it was only as a hot oil treatment that I would leave in from 1 hour to overnight. The results were soft hair that was moisturized without the need to add hair grease. I also noticed that my hair had no tangles when it came time to comb it. =) I also noticed less hair shedding and that my hair had grown a little past my shoulders and was getting thicker. A couple years pass and I was given this brand that was okay, but it left white build-up on my hair it seems to attract lint! So I found my self having to wash my hair much often when I used this one. I would use this as a hot oil treatment as well.

The smell of coconut is there, but I just did not care for this brand. So a few years pass and I need to buy more coconut oil so I head out to my local grocery store just to find that the packaging has been changed, so I figure, well it is still made by LouAna so the product should still be the same. BIG MISTAKE!!! I guess along with the changing of the label the company decided to change the ingredients of the oil. It has no coconut oil smell whatsoever, which is what I was hoping for. I have only used it in a spray bottle mixed with some distilled water and purified water. I dont know, it could just be my hair, but I noticed that when I used it as a leave in moisturizing spray it seemed to dry my hair out more and frizz it.

I will however try using it again as a hot oil treatment to see if the results will be different. I will keep the post updated, since I have now started my own hair care journey into going natural! I had my last relaxer on June 21, 2012 so I am transitioning since I don't want to make the BC as of yet! I am also looking for great products that keep the hair well moisturized to avoid alot of breakage during this time. So if you know of any good ones, please let me know.

Hey mom! What's for dinner?

How many of you have heard this being asked almost everyday? I know I have! My son ask everyday "Hey mom, what's for dinner?" So today when he asked I said I don't know, that was until I remembered that I had picked some eggplant from the garden a couple days before. So I said eggplant lasagna, keep in mind that I had never made nor ate this before, so I was clueless as to how to make it. So I just winged it and it turned out wonderful! My whole family devoured it, including my son who kept telling me that there was no eggplant in it because he doesnt like eggplant. He had never eaten it up until then, so its a good way to sneak in veggies ;) The recipe is below. Hope you like it. ENJOY!!








Eggplant Lasagna

1 medium size eggplant, peeled and sliced
1 lb. ground turkey, pork, beef or chicken (I used pork)
2 jars spaghetti sauce, any kind
1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese, use more if you like
2 tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 small onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 heaping tbsp minced garlic


Instructions:
In a large skillet brown the ground meat, onion, garlic, pepper, salt, black pepper & italian seasoning. When it is done, drain off the grease and add the 2 jars of sauce along with the meat to a pot to simmer on low for 10 minutes. During this time you can peel and slice the eggplant. To assemble add a layer of eggplant to the bottom of your 9x13 baking dish, spoon the meat sauce over and sprinkle with cheese. Continue doing this until you are done. Sprinkle top of lasagna with the remaining cheese. Preheat oven to 350*F and bake lasagna until a fork or knife test that the eggplant is done.

Garden Update!!

Hi folks!! =) This morning I tried to do a video update using my cell phone, but I got interrupted! =( So I decided to post the pictures of what I have been able to pick from my garden. The pictures are a few days old, but here they are. This is the first thing I picked from my garden, a nice sized bell pepper. I sliced this up and put it in the freezer since we didnt need it yet.

This is my green beans that I picked. it was probably about a cup once I got them washed and cut into pieces. They smell SO FRESH!!! I froze these also because we still have bags of frozen green beans that were store bought.

This is the picture of my little zucchini, nothing compared to the ones in the picture below hehehe, but still I washed and froze this one too.

And take a look at these GIGANTIC Zucchuini that our pastor blessed us with!!I have never seen such massive things before in my life! =) I washed them and cut them up so I could freeze them for different kinds of recipes

The biggest one was close to 17"!! And just to think my child was 20" when he was born hehehe

Products of the month April

Disclaimer: I PURCHASE EVERYTHING WITH MY OWN MONEY. I DO NOT DO THIS FOR MONETARY GAIN. I AM IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH THE COMPANIES WHOSE PRODUCTS I REVIEW. Okay I decide to start back doing my products of the month. I really enjoy doing them because I give my honest opinion on the items. This month I decided to do a review on beauty products. I have somewhat acne prone skin, especially around that time of the month. Using Coast bar sop on my face when I'm in the shower was causing my face to break out more and become very dry. In the past when I was younger and going to my dermatologist he prescribed some acne cream that dried my skin so bad that it was coming off in pieces, almost similar to what the Coast bar sop was starting to do. So since I dont wear makeup, just lip balm I wanted my face to look fresh and clean, without caking on tons of foundation to hide my acne blemishes. So one day I was at Walmart shopping and decided to give the Equate brade version of Dove sensitive skin body wash a try Let me just say that I am hooked! It is so sensitive on my skin and it does not dry my face out nor cause a breakout, like some other soaps can. All you need is a dime sized amount, lather it up in your hands and rub it on your face and then rinse it off. I also have been using Neutrogena Rapid Clear 2-in-1 Fight & Fade Toner on my face as well. I spray this on my face when I get done washing it. My fae looks so much better, even spots that were on my face from old blemishes are now gone. If I feel a breakout coming on I simply spray my face and within a day I may have only 1 pimple on my face. The price for the Neutrogen is about $6.50 and the body wash is about $3.50 that is not alot seeing how it will last for a long time. Update: I was finally able to upload the picture!!

We FINALLY started our garden!!

I can't believe that it has been a little over a month since I started my garden. I planted everything (except the eggplant & jalapeno transplants) in both beds on (3/22/12), but the very next day I had ants in bed #2. Apparently they were VERY hungry because the ate every seed I had planted, but left the transplants un-touched! I thought we (my sister & I) had did something wrong like planting the seeds too deep, but all the seeds were planted according to the pkg/book. So I thought well I have to find a solution to get rid of the ants first without the use of pesticides and chemicals, so after searching the net I found DIATOMACEOUS EARTH which is a non-toxic organic pesticide and it got rid of the ants in 2 days!! I did have to replant bed #2 (4/4/12), but I was glad because I was able to plant other things that I did not originally plant. And let me tell you, everything is growing so good. We had prayed over both beds when we first planted and gave them to God, even our church joined us in prayer (Matthew 18:20). I told my mom the other day that the garden is starting to look like its on steroids =) because it has grown so high and full. I had to prune some of the zucchini and squash vines because the were reaching out well over 2 feet out of the 4x4 beds. Not to mention my beans that are all over 5 feet tall!! Here are some pictures that were taken last month

This is #1 bed with the two jalapeno transplants!

This is bed #2 with the eggplant, romaine lettuce & bell pepper transplants!

Bed #1 maybe 3 weeks after planting seeds!

Bed #1 jalapeno plant!

This plantet box had strawberries in them, but they didnt seem to be doing anything so I pulled them out and replanted with corn to see how it does!

Prepping from a single parents point of view

Okay as some of you may know, I am a single parent, but I still live at home with my parents. Even though I am still at home with them does not mean that I can't begin preparing for a disaster, job loss, sickness, etc. I know that with the economy being the way it is, everyone should be putting a little a side every chance he/she can get. I started out the begging of this year by purchasing my Berkey water filter system which has been a HUGE blessing for us. We have very nasty well water that has an awful egg smell and a rusty - yellowish color. Who want's to drink that!?!? So our Berkey gets plenty of use, since we use the water for cooking and drinking and the filters should last my family for at least 5-10 years, depending on how many gallons we use daily. Another thing I began doing is keeping and filling gallon milk jugs with our tap water and adding 1 tsp of bleach to it, so we can use for hand washing & toilet flushing. I also coupon and stock up on good deals when I find something good for my family. Yesterday I went to the local LDS home storage center and purchased some #10 canned items to add to out long-term food storage. Since this was my first time going, I didnt purchase too much. I purchased black beans, pinto beans, white beans, both quick & regular oats & white rice. I also went ahead and purchased the hard white wheat berries and the hard red wheat berries, since I am planning on purchasing a grain mill next month sometime. We also got a 4lb bag of pancake mix there also. I am planning on going back again next month to purchase more bulk items, this time I will have to to buy the 25 lb bags of items because my local cannery will no longer be allowing you to can in the building anymore. They will however still be selling the items in 25 lb bags. The older guy that I spoke with yesterday told me that I could buy a bunch of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers and seal the pouches with an iron! So guess what I gonna do since I dont own a sealer. =) lol Till next time guys....