Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Fix Winter Frizz: 3 Organic Mega-Hydrating Deep Conditioner Recipes

Image via mikal_bisnovat

Brrr! It’s brutally cold outside for most of us this winter, and the harsh wind combined with dry indoor heating robs our hair of its moisture. Get some luster back into your locks with easy, homemade deep conditioning recipes that only take a few minutes to whip up.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand the smell of mayonnaise – especially in my hair – so I avoid recipes that contain it, or any combination of eggs and vinegar. I prefer to use the natural moisturizing properties of yummy-smelling ingredients like coconut oil, papaya and honey.

For all three of the following recipes, just throw the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth, apply to your hair and let it sit for at least 10 minutes (preferably more like 30), then rinse.

Avocado-Coconut Deep Conditioner

1 mashed avocado
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp coconut oil

This combination smells so delicious, and the avocado is rich in nourishing fatty acids and protein for super-soft results.

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Post-Holiday Spa Goodies You Can Make Right Now

Why is it that every year, despite our best intentions to relax and have a good time during the holidays, we end up running around crazy anyway? Entertaining visitors, attending parties, shuttling kids to various events and commitments, braving the crowds to pick up gifts, making crafts – there’s not much time left to squeeze in a little R&R, is there?

You might not be able to make it to the spa, but you can revitalize your skin at home on the cheap. These quick and easy homemade bath & body goodies have delicious holiday-themed fragrances and ingredients designed to perk you up, soften your skin and make you feel pampered and relaxed. You probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry (especially if you’ve been making holiday treats!)

Candy Cane Body Scrub

½ cup granulated white sugar
¼ cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
2 candy canes, finely crushed to powder
3 drops peppermint oil

Mix together all ingredients in a small bowl or jar. Make sure that you keep the mixture in a warm place before use so that the coconut oil stays in liquid form, and scrub away! It’s a great way to use up candy canes that you don’t want to consume, the scrub smells awesome and it’ll slough away all that flaky, dry winter skin.

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Fun Stocking Stuffer! DermaQuest Vegan Makeup Brushes

Want to apply your makeup using expert tools – minus the fur of some poor mistreated animal? Decent quality vegan makeup brushes can be hard to find, let alone really good ones that are soft and non-shedding. As a girl who uses an angled eye brush every day to apply liquid eyeliner, I can tell you that most of them don’t stand the test of time.

Just when I got fed up with the way the bristles on my old brush started splaying out at the ends, making precision application pretty much impossible, I found DermaQuest’s line of vegan brushes. Designed by a makeup artist, these brushes are as soft as animal fur but 100% free of animal products.

My new Precision Angle Eye Brush #330 has a perfectly tapered shape that makes my morning routine a whole lot faster (with 80% less cursing).

I haven’t been using it long enough to testify whether it will stay that way for any length of time, but I can already tell that the quality is much higher than typical synthetic brushes, and I’m content with the knowledge that no furry friends were involved in its making.

They’d definitely make a great addition to holiday stockings! Prices range from $16-$42 – find them at DermaMinerals.com.

Blissoma: Possibly the Most Natural (and Affordable!) Skincare Line Yet

As a green beauty blogger, I get a lot of pitches, and I’d say a solid 70% of them are from companies that don’t really even know what ‘natural’ means. Hey, it’s a somewhat ambiguous word, and certainly not one you can trust to mean anything on a label. Hence, the requests I get to review products that contain parabens, harsh fragrances and other toxins. It’s like they think adding some essential oil or herbs to a conventional product makes it ‘eco’.

That’s why companies like Irie Star are so refreshing. Their ‘Blissoma’ skincare line is about as natural as it gets, short of creating your own homemade products. It’s all 100% natural and vegetarian, and all ingredients are disclosed – no hiding behind vague words like “fragrance”.

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Into the Hermitage: Low-Impact Gypsy Life on the Road

Few of us can even begin to imagine whittling our possessions down to just a few boxes full of items and living in a room that measures barely eight feet wide. But what if that room was a recycled gypsy home on wheels, with an ever-changing view of the Scottish countryside out of reclaimed leaded glass church windows?

Welcome to the utterly enchanting reality of artist Rima Staines and her partner Tui, a musician. The talented pair live a nomadic existence in their wooden horse box turned charming miniature home, complete with a double bed, rows of bookshelves and a wood stove – all documented on their blog, Into the Hermitage.

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