Beauty Blog

Mondays Mary Make and Do

April 4th, 2011
When it comes to testing lotions and potions we at L’Onglex consider ourselves to be no more than human Guinea pigs for your beauty amusement.
Simply, if a product looks like it might beautify our pretty little faces we’ll slap it on no matter what the cost to our skin and post up the results on these very pages and having recently tried a compact containing what turned out to be toxic blusher toward the end of last week we thought it about time we made a healing face mask and let our skin calm down a little.
The face mask in question is a soothing Aloe Vera remedy designed to calm skin and can be made in a jiffy. Guaranteed to work for rashes, sensitive skin, breakouts and even sunburn you can get hold of pure Aloe Vera online or at many good pharmacies for a fraction of the price of most creams. For the face mask all you’ll need for our latest Mary Make and Do recipe is the following ….
3 tablespoons of aloe Vera Juice
1 table spoon of Aloe Vera gel
Rose essential oil
Here’s how it’s done ….
To make the mask simply mix the three ingredients in a bowl until they’ve blended and then apply to the face and neck. Allow the mix to work into skin for five minutes before rinsing away the mask with water and cotton wool.
And finally ….
Although it may cost a few quid it’s one of those things that can be used neat and is great for hand repairs and intensive treatments, as a final reminder don’t forget to apply your moisturiser afterwards as although it does a great job at repair, Aloe Vera can leave skin a little dry afterwards.

aloe_vera

When it comes to testing lotions and potions we at L’Onglex consider ourselves to be no more than human Guinea pigs for your beauty amusement.

Simply, if a product looks like it might beautify our pretty little faces we’ll slap it on no matter what the cost to our skin and post up the results on these very pages and having recently tried a compact containing what turned out to be toxic blusher toward the end of last week we thought it about time we made a healing face mask and let our skin calm down a little.

The face mask in question is a soothing Aloe Vera remedy designed to calm skin and can be made in a jiffy. Guaranteed to work for rashes, sensitive skin, breakouts and even sunburn you can get hold of the masks main ingredients (pure Aloe Vera) by buying online or at good pharmacies and all for a fraction of the price of most creams.

For our latest Mary Make and Do recipe is the following ….

3 tablespoons of aloe Vera Juice

1 table spoon of Aloe Vera gel

Rose essential oil

Here’s how it’s done ….

To make the mask simply mix the three ingredients in a bowl until they’ve blended and then apply to the face and neck. Allow the mix to work into skin for five minutes before rinsing away the mask with water and cotton wool.

And finally ….

Although it may cost a few quid Aloe Vera is one of those products that can be used neat and is great for hand repairs and intensive treatments. As a final reminder don’t forget to apply  moisturiser afterwards as although it is good at repair, Aloe Vera can sometimes leave skin a little dry after use.

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Posted in Beauty treatments, DIY beauty, Face creams, Mary make and do, Natural Beauty, Organic beauty, Skincare |

Mary Make and Do: Perfectly Preened Paws from Porridge

March 20th, 2011
In an ideal world L’Onglex would be eating our porridge in Highland hideaway with a gentle but rugged scottish fisherman type who comes complete with his own kilt and a soft lilting voice.
Given that such men are thin on the ground these days L’Onglex is reduced to trawling the internet looking for homemade recipes for the cobwebbed packets of porridge in our kitchen press.
So. Having left our trusty gloves on the Luas months ago and looking for something to undo the damage of tapping out our daily blog posts we found this recipe for an oatmeal hand mask which promises to smooth away the dry bits and give hands some serious conditioning. You will need ….
1 + 1/2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons of porridge oats
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1/4 of a cup of water
Here’s how it’s done ….
Mix the porridge with 1/4 cup of water and leave to soften for 10 minutes. Once the oats have soaked up the water add your lemon juice and olive oil to the porridge and mix well. Coat your hands with the treatment, place your hands in sandwich bags and put your feet up for ten before you rinse the mix with warm water and pat dry – eh volia – perfectly preened paws from porridge.

oats

In an ideal world L’Onglex would be eating our porridge in a Highland hideaway with a gentle but rugged scottish fisherman type who comes complete with his very own kilt, a soft lilting voice and a roaring open fire.

Given that such men are thin on the ground the reality is that L’Onglex is reduced to trawling the internet looking for homemade skincare recipes which might offer us the chance to use up those cobwebbed packets of porridge that sit at the back of the kitchen press.

Having left our trusty gloves on the Luas months ago and looking for something to undo the damage of tapping out our daily blog posts we found this recipe for an oatmeal hand mask which promises to smooth away the dry bits and give hands some serious conditioning.

You will need ….

1 + 1/2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons of porridge oats

1 teaspoon of olive oil

1/4 of a cup of water

Here’s how it’s done ….

Mix the porridge with 1/4 cup of water and leave to soften for 10 minutes. Once the oats have soaked up the water add your lemon juice and olive oil to the porridge and mix well. Coat your hands with the treatment, place your hands in sandwich bags and put your feet up for ten before you rinse the mix with warm water and pat dry – eh volia – perfectly preened paws from porridge.

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Posted in Beauty treatments, Mary make and do, Natural Beauty, Organic beauty, Skincare |

Mary make and do: Lavender body wrap

February 28th, 2011
Having watched the oscars ceremony last night L’Onglex is currently feeling more than a little bleary eyed and more than a little green with envy. Pick of the bunch for us has to be Anne Hathaway who looked stunning in that red gown and lipstick combo and having missed our Z’s and woken bleary eyed after a few hours sleep our dreams of radiant Hollywood skin have turned to dust and what we are left with is a decidedly turgid constitution !
As we won’t be making our own acceptance speech in the near future this doesn’t matter too much but we are at the very least a little concerned about getting in shape for spring. In preference to a salon splurge we’ve been casting around for a Monday Mary Make and Do recipe that might help pick us up and not scare passing motorists when we do at last ‘dare to bare’. For our Hollywood style herbal body wrap you will need the following  …
A hot room !
A plastic sheet
3 old but very soft bath towels
1 large basin
1 cup of dried lavender
1 garden recliner ( plastic )
Here’s how it’s done ….
Lay the plastic sheet down on the floor and place the recliner over the sheet. Next, take 2 towels and place them in basin of hot water and add the dried lavender to the mix and allow this to soak for ten minutes. While the lavender is soaking, take a hot shower which will soften up your skin and allow the pores to open for the wrap. Once the towels have soaked wring the excess water from the towels and wrap one towel on your top half and the other on your bottom half. Recline for fifteen minutes and allow the mixture to seep into your skin. Once the time is up pat dry with a clean dry towel and moisturise all over.
So far so good. Yes, this does smell a bit ‘lavendery’ but the results are staggering ! More Mary Make and Do’s coming soon.

1659051

Having watched the oscars ceremony last night L’Onglex is currently feeling more than a little bleary eyed and more than a little green with envy.

Pick of the bunch for us has to be Anne Hathaway who looked stunning in that red gown and lipstick combo and having missed our Z’s and woken bleary eyed after a few hours sleep our dreams of radiant Hollywood skin have turned to dust and what we are left with is a decidedly turgid constitution !

As we won’t be making our own acceptance speech in the near future the state of our skin doesn’t matter too much but we are at the very least a little concerned about getting in shape for spring.

In preference to a salon splurge we’ve been casting around for a Monday Mary Make and Do recipe that might help pick us up and not scare passing motorists when we do at last ‘dare to bare’.

So … for our Hollywood style herbal body wrap you will need the following  …

A hot room !

A plastic sheet

3 old but very soft bath towels

1 large basin

1 cup of dried lavender

1 garden recliner ( plastic )

Here’s how it’s done ….

Lay the plastic sheet down on the floor and place the recliner over the sheet.

Next, take 2 towels and place them in basin of hot water and add the dried lavender to the mix and allow this to soak for ten minutes.

While the lavender is soaking, take a hot shower which will soften up your skin and allow the pores to open for the wrap. Once the towels have soaked wring the excess water from the towels and wrap one towel on your top half and the other on your bottom half.

Recline for fifteen minutes and allow the mixture to seep into your skin. Once the time is up pat dry with a clean dry towel and moisturise skin all over.

The results …

So far so good. OK, it does leave skin smelling quite ‘lavendery’ but the results are staggering ! More Mary Make and Do’s coming soon.

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Posted in Anti ageing, Beauty treatments, DIY beauty, Mary make and do, Natural Beauty |

Bespoke brows for London Fashion Week

February 18th, 2011
Whether you go the salon route or take the bottle approach, matching your collars with your cuffs is always a bit of a tricky one. Lets face it, eyebrows just never come out the same colour and the mismatch that is the end result is always a bit of a giveaway.
Quite why nobody has come up with a solution to this two tone dilemma is really beyond our reckoning but news this week of a London salon who are rolling out a range of brow colours in time for London Fashion Week has had us quite intrigued.
Using a hand painted palette of custom dye which features around fifty shades, the treatment from the people at Blink Bar promises a match to any colour and to  any tone and is so accurate we are also assured it can even be matched to highlights. Since the problem with dyeing your hair and not your eyebrows is the difference in colour, L’Onglex did wonder whether the dye could be used on lashes as well … it can.
Having worked out that we’d really like a go of this to see if it works were probably going to have to wait for a little while until the salons in Ireland get round to making up a batch or two of their own dyes for our colouring pleasure. As much as we love getting our ducks in a row, getting on a Ryanair to London to have our brows dyed does seem to be a treatment too far for the moment.
http://www.focusonstyle.com/var/fos/storage/images/focusonstyle.com/fashion-shows/fall-winter-2010-runway/mary-katrantzou/66812-1-eng-US/Mary-Katrantzou-Fashion-Show-Photos-London-Fashion-Week-fw-10_fashion_show_image.jpg

Whether you go the salon route or take the bottle approach, matching your collars with your cuffs is always a bit of a tricky one. Lets face it, eyebrows just never come out the same colour and the mismatch that is the end result is always a bit of a giveaway

Quite why nobody has come up with a solution to this two tone dilemma is really beyond our reckoning but news this week of a London salon who are rolling out a range of brow colours in time for London Fashion Week has had us quite intrigued.

Using a hand painted palette of custom dye which features around fifty shades, the treatment from the people at Blink Bar promises a match to any colour and to  any tone and is so accurate we are also assured it can even be matched to highlights. Since the problem with dyeing your hair and not your eyebrows is the difference in colour, L’Onglex did wonder whether the dye could be used on lashes as well … it can.

Having worked out that we’d really like a go of this to see if it works were probably going to have to wait for a little while until the salons in Ireland get round to making up a batch or two of their own dyes for our colouring pleasure. As much as we love getting our ducks in a row, getting on a Ryanair to London to have our brows dyed does seem to be a treatment too far for the moment.

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Posted in Beauty gadgets, Beauty news, Beauty tools, Beauty treatments, Beauty trends, Brow pencils and liners, DIY beauty, Eyeshadow and mascaras |

Would you let Tesco wax your bits ?

February 5th, 2011
Would you let Tesco wax your bits?
Not content with having their own record label, bank and phone network those clever cats at Tesco are now planning to roll out as many as 70 UK Salons at stores across the UK.
Set to be operational before the end of the year, these new beauty zones will feature all the usual treatments including budget tans, bikini waxes, manicures, cut and blow drys, eyebrow threading and, would you believe, their own brand of Tesco massage therapy.
Called Your Beauty Salon, the supermarket behemoth have started two trial salons in Leicester and Chesterfield which by all accounts are going down a storm, which is hardly surprising since offers available currently feature a style and cut for £12.50 and a wax for no more than £10!
Much to our dismay, there are no Irish based stores on the cards as yet but, like everything the supermarkets do, should they prove a success it’s only going to be a matter of time before the other supermarkets catch on and the aisles are full of ladies adding bleach and laser hair removal to the weekly shop.
What this means for shopping as we know it we are as yet unsure, but maybe it is time we all popped out for a cut and blowdry at SuperValue before heading over for a file and paint at Londis. On a final note, although every liitle does indeed help, I can’t see the man who works at my local Spa being too happy about giving me a Mud Wrap !
2116470

Not content with having their own record label, bank and phone network those clever cats at Tesco are now planning to roll out as many as 70 UK Salons at stores across the UK.

Set to be operational before the end of the year, these new beauty zones will feature all the usual treatments including budget tans, bikini waxes, manicures, cut and blow drys, eyebrow threading and, would you believe, their own brand of Tesco massage therapy.

Called Your Beauty Salon, the supermarket behemoth have started two trial salons in Leicester and Chesterfield which by all accounts are going down a storm, which is hardly surprising since offers available currently feature a style and cut for £12.50 and a wax for no more than £10!

Much to our dismay, there are no Irish based stores on the cards as yet but, like everything the supermarkets do, should they prove a success it’s only going to be a matter of time before the other supermarkets catch on and the aisles are full of ladies adding bleach and laser hair removal to the weekly shop.

What this means for shopping as we know it we are as yet unsure, but maybe it is time we all popped out for a cut and blowdry at SuperValue before heading over for a file and paint at Londis. On a final note, although every liitle does indeed help, I can’t see the man who works at my local shop being too happy about giving me a Mud Wrap !

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Posted in Beauty news, Beauty treatments |

Mary Make and Do: The 2 Egg Hair Rinse Recipe

January 17th, 2011
Mary Make and Do: The 2 Egg Hair Rinse Recipe
Although we at L’Onglex HQ have cut down on the amount of hair styling of late it did manage to occur to us that for the most part our wholly unmanageable main may be suffering from something of a festive hangover. But with all the curling one minute and straightening the next ( not too mention the spray and spritz ) we now find our limp locks in sorely in need of some serious lift – which is where this weeks Mary Make and Do comes in !
Yup, after hours spent searching online looking at the weird and wonderful concoctions available, we finally came across a protein rich hair mask that is guaranteed to put the bounce back into your bonce whilst at the same time leaving hair silky smooth and well protected. Why exactly we finally decided to use this treatment is that it was the easiest method we could find and, more importantly,  all it was going to cost us was 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of water and dash or two of olive oil !
So …..
Step 1 – Beat the eggs and water in a small bowl and apply to clean, damp hair, making sure to massage the mix into the scalp and roots.
Step 2 – Put your feet up for 15 minutes and leave the protein in the eggs to get to work restoring your tired tresses.
Step 3 – Once your 15 minutes is up, use a mild shampoo to rinse the egg mix out
Step 4 – To finish ( and while hair is still damp ), work the Olive Oil through hair from the tips to the crown
Finally, we would like to mention that despite the simplicity of this recipe we somehow managed to get it wrong at the first time of asking. Basically, despite having egg in our hair it did not occur to us that if the water we rinsed with was too hot the egg would start to thicken and cook and we would be left with the rather unpleasant task of having to untangle bits of omelette from the ends of our hair. If you are going to try this we would suggest using warm water as opposed to hot when it’s time to rinse out the mix !

egg_hair_treatment

Although we at L’Onglex HQ have cut down the hair styling it did occur to us that our wholly unmanageable main may be suffering from something of a festive hangover. With all the curling one minute and straightening the next ( not too mention the spray and spritz ) we now find our limp locks sorely in need of some serious lift, and that’s where this weeks Mary Make and Do comes in !

Yup, after hours spent searching online looking at the weird and wonderful concoctions available, we finally came across a protein rich homemade hair mask recipe that is guaranteed to put the bounce back into your bonce whilst at the same time leaving hair silky smooth and well protected. In truth we decided to use this treatment as it was the easiest we could find and, more importantly, all it was only going to cost us was 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of water, and dash or two of olive oil !

So …..

Step 1 - Beat the eggs and water in a small bowl and apply to clean, damp hair, making sure to massage the mix into the scalp and roots.

Step 2 – Put your feet up for 15 minutes and leave the protein in the eggs to get to work restoring your tired tresses.

Step 3 - Once your 15 minutes is up, use a mild shampoo to rinse the egg mix out

Step 4 - To finish ( and while hair is still damp ), work the Olive Oil through hair from the tips to the crown

Finally, we would like to mention that despite the simplicity of this recipe we somehow managed to get it wrong at the first time of asking.

Basically, despite having egg in our hair it did not occur to us that if the water we rinsed with was too hot, the egg would start to thicken and cook whilst in our hair and we would be left with the rather unpleasant task of having to untangle bits of omelette from our scalp.

So, if you are going to try this ( and it is good ! ) might we suggest using warm water as opposed to hot when it’s time to rinse out the mix !

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Posted in Beauty treatments, Budget beauty buys, DIY beauty, Hair treatments, Mary make and do |

Mama Mio Boot Camp

January 11th, 2011
After hearing L’Onglex could get trim and slim without the pain of endless stomach crunching or the spirit crushing misery of a cabbage soup detox, we have to say we were more than intrigued by Mama Mio Boot Camp. If you haven’t seen it, this is a slimming treatment which aims to improve circulation, de-bloat and then clarify and firm the skin using a sequence of massage, toning creams and exfoliation.
Now before we even start, L’Onglex feels it only fair to place on record our absolute scepticism when it comes to all things slimming related. Especially given the number of celebrity fans of said regime. We’re a bit old school. If you want to slim. Eat less. Exercise more. Not that we do. But that’s how it’s done. Again, not that we do. However, deciding to go along with at the very least an open mind, we booked ourselves in and found ourselves rather pleased that the whole thing twas not what it seemed.
Firstly, rather than being a hardcore military inspired regime involving a shaven headed Sergeant Major, the boot camp is a surprisingly gentle routine. Finding ourselves on a massage table rather than in a dill yard the whole thing began with some reflexology focussing on pressure points around the stomach and moved on to some colon massage. Said to reduce bloating, if you’ve never had your colon massaged before, it isn’t all that nice, but then it isn’t all that bad, and since it does what it says it will do, we guess at the very least it works better than it sounds !
With the massage over the treatment moves on to a fruit exfoliation using citric acids to naturally remove dead skin and prep problem areas ready for a firming cream. By the time L’Onglex’s dead skin had been shorn away and the firming cream had worked its way into the skin things were feeling tighter already and it was time for an algae wrap to get to work at reducing cellulite by speeding up lipolysis. As this is key to helping the rate at which our bodies breakdown deposits of fat being stored we were told this was key to the treatments success.
After being rather impressed with the hour or so we spent being pulled, prodded and generally smoothed over we have to say we were quite pleased with the finished result. Overall Mamma Mio does reduce puffiness, it does help with water retention and although the treatment isn’t really a slimming treatment as such, it did give us a slimmer figure. At about €90 a go the Mamma Mio Bootcamp isn’t particularly cheap, but on the other hand, if you need to give the dieting or the detox a bit of a boost we think it’s well worth looking into.

boot_camp_slimming_treatment

After hearing L’Onglex could get trim and slim without the pain of endless stomach crunching or the spirit crushing misery of a cabbage soup detox, we have to say we were more than intrigued by Mama Mio Boot Camp. If you haven’t seen it, this is a slimming treatment which aims to improve circulation, de-bloat and then clarify and firm the skin using a sequence of massage, toning creams and exfoliation.

Now before we even start, L’Onglex feels it only fair to place on record our absolute scepticism when it comes to all things slimming related. Especially given the number of celebrity fans of said regime. We’re a bit old school. If you want to slim. Eat less. Exercise more. Not that we do. But that’s how it’s done. Again, not that we do. However, deciding to go along with at the very least an open mind, we booked ourselves in and found ourselves rather pleased that the whole thing twas not what it seemed.

Firstly, rather than being a hardcore military inspired regime involving a shaven headed Sergeant Major, the boot camp is a surprisingly gentle routine. Finding ourselves on a massage table rather than being screamed at in a drill yard, the whole thing began with some reflexology focussing on pressure points around the stomach and moved on to a pretty thorough colon massage. As to what I can say of having my colon massaged I’m not exactly sure. Said to reduce bloating, if you’ve never had your colon massaged before, it isn’t all that nice, but then it isn’t all that bad either, and since it does what it says it will do, we guess at the very least it works better than it sounds !

With the massage over the treatment moves on to a fruit exfoliation using citric acids to naturally remove dead skin and prep problem areas ready for a firming cream. By the time L’Onglex’s dead skin had been shorn away and the firming cream had worked its way into the skin things were feeling tighter already and it was time for an algae wrap to get to work at reducing cellulite by speeding up lipolysis. As this is key to helping the rate at which our bodies breakdown deposits of fat being stored we were told this was key to the treatments success.

After being rather impressed with the hour or so we spent being pulled, prodded and generally smoothed over we have to say we were quite pleased with the finished result. Overall Mama Mio does reduce puffiness, it does help with water retention and although the treatment isn’t really a slimming treatment as such, it did give us a slimmer figure. At about €90 a go the Mama Mio Bootcamp isn’t particularly cheap, but on the other hand, if you need to give the dieting or the detox a bit of a boost we think it’s well worth looking into.

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Posted in Beauty reviews, Beauty treatments |

Mary Make and Do – the papaya facial

December 30th, 2010
A few too many chocolate Roses, a few too many mince pies and five days spent beside the fire has left L’Onglex’s skin with about as much life as last Saturdays turkey !
As nice as it is to stuff ourselves even we will admit that it doesn’t really do a whole lot for the complexion and whilst it may not be quite the time to ditch the party foods and grab the fruit, we did at the very least come across a skin boosting recipe that will see us right for the new year.
As with any skin dilemma a homemade concoction is always more frugal than a store bought remedy and so our latest Mary Make and Do is a homemade facemask which helps retain moisture, cleanse skin and fight the pimples that invariably follow five days of stuffing ourselves silly.
You will need …..
Half a cup of unripe diced Papaya
1 tablespoon of plain Yogurt.
1 teaspoon of Honey.
So ….
Blend all of the ingredients into a food processor until a smooth paste is formed. Place the mix in a bowl and leave to chill for fifteen minutes. Once the mixture has cooled apply in liberal quantities to the face and neck and allow to seep into the skin for about ten minutes. Rinse skin gently with warm water and eh voila, your mask is done.
Although this is a pretty good pick-me-up for skin we think we should add a small note of caution. As yogurt contains lactic acid and live cultures if you suffer from very sensitive skin or feel a burning or stinging rather than tingling sensation wash the mix off immediately before it sits too long on the skin.

2476792

A few too many chocolate Roses, a few too many mince pies and five days spent beside the fire has left L’Onglex’s skin with about as much life as last Saturdays turkey !

As nice as it is to stuff ourselves even we will admit that it doesn’t really do a whole lot for the complexion and whilst it may not be quite the time to ditch the party foods and grab the fruit, we did at the very least come across a skin boosting recipe that will see us right for New Years Eve.

As with any skin dilemma a homemade concoction is always more frugal than a store bought remedy and so our latest Mary Make and Do is a homemade facemask which helps retain moisture, cleanse skin and fight the pimples that invariably follow five days of stuffing ourselves silly.

You will need …..

Half a cup of unripe diced Papaya

1 tablespoon of plain Yogurt.

1 teaspoon of Honey.

So ….

Blend all of the ingredients into a food processor until a smooth paste is formed. Place the mix in a bowl and leave to chill for fifteen minutes. Once the mixture has cooled apply in liberal quantities to the face and neck and allow to seep into the skin for about ten minutes. Once the ten minutes is up rinse away the mix gently with warm water and eh voila ….  your mask is done !

Although this is a pretty good pick-me-up for skin we think we should at the very least add a small note of caution. As yogurt contains lactic acid and live cultures if you suffer from very sensitive skin or feel a burning or stinging rather than a tingling sensation when you apply the mix wash the stuff off immediately before any damage is done. More Mary Make and Do’s coming soon !

2 Comments »

Posted in Anti ageing, Beauty treatments, DIY beauty, Face creams, Mary make and do |

Mary Make and Do – The lemon and milk cuticle rinse

November 24th, 2010
Mary Make and Do – The lemon and milk cuticle rinse
With the winter weather set to send thermometers dropping this week we at L’Onglex HQ have been on the hunt for something that might give a pick-me up to our by now fragile hands.
Being as were currently keeping our greedy peepers off the piggy bank because of the whole Christmas thing we’ve been on the lookout for something we could make ourselves that doesn’t cost much. As with all these things you never really get what you look for and finding a homemade hand cream for winter is proving difficult.
What we did find during the course of our trawl through the weird beauty world that is the web is a rather nice rinse for dry and inflamed cuticles which uses only milk and lemon juice.
Now, when we first looked at this the thought of rubbing leon juice around our sensitive nails didn’t really appeal but once we’d worked out that the milk will neutralise the lemon and the remedy doesn’t sting we thought it might be worth a go – so here’s how it’s done …
Add 5 tablespoons of milk to 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, mix well and allow to curdle. Once the mix has curdled apply the mixture to your cuticles and leave for 15 minutes before rinsing thoroughly with warm water.
Cheap, cheerful, natural and effective  …. whoever said being tight wasn’t fun. More Mary Make and Do’s coming soon !

lemon_cow

With the winter weather set to send thermometers dropping this week we at L’Onglex HQ have been on the hunt for something that might give a pick-me up to our by now fragile hands.

Being as were currently keeping our greedy peepers off the piggy bank because of the whole Christmas thing we’ve been on the lookout for something we could make ourselves that doesn’t cost much. As with all these things you never really get what you look for and finding a homemade hand cream for winter is proving difficult.

What we did find during the course of our trawl through the weird beauty world that is the web is a rather nice rinse for dry and inflamed cuticles which uses only milk and lemon juice.

Now, when we first looked at this the thought of rubbing lemon juice around our sensitive nails didn’t really appeal but once we’d worked out that the milk will neutralise the lemon and the remedy doesn’t sting we thought it might be worth a go – so here’s how it’s done …

Add 5 tablespoons of milk to 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, mix well and allow to curdle. Once the mix has curdled apply the mixture to your cuticles and leave for 15 minutes before rinsing thoroughly with warm water.

Cheap, cheerful, natural and effective  …. whoever said being tight wasn’t fun. More Mary Make and Do’s coming soon !

1 Comment »

Posted in Beauty treatments, DIY beauty, Love your nails, Mary make and do, Nail Health, Organic beauty |

Yay for sticky nails

October 20th, 2010
If you visit these pages on a regular basis you’ll know how pleased we were with our Minx nails that we had done in September. Obviously being the sort of people we are it goes without saying we we are still rather impressed at how good the groovy prints made our nails look and if we had the money we’d probably be in there every week laminating our talons with whatever design takes our particular fancy.
As good as the speedy application and groovy print was the €35 price tag is a bit hefty and whilst we don’t want to be sticks in the mud there is a point at which even our beauty budget folds …. or so we thought !
This morning the nail gods answered our prayers when we were sent a pack of nail stickers from none other than budget beauty gurus Essence. Available in all the colours of the rainbow these are the DIY version of our beloved minx’s and at a purse friendly €2.49 per set we don’t think they’ll be on the stands for too long!
As we only have a photo to go from at the moment we at L”onglex can only guess at their greatness but rest assured dear readers we will be sticking them on as soon as we get the time and will of course dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to pictures.
In the meantime, if anyone has tried these we’d love to hear your thoughts !

nail_transfers_nail_stickers

If you visit these pages on a regular basis you’ll know how pleased we were with our Minx nails that we had done in September. Obviously being the sort of people we are it goes without saying we we are still rather impressed at how good the groovy prints made our nails look and if we had the money we’d probably be in there every week laminating our talons with whatever design takes our particular fancy.

As good as the speedy application and groovy print was the €35 price tag is a bit hefty and whilst we don’t want to be sticks in the mud there is a point at which even our beauty budget folds …. or so we thought !

This morning the nail gods answered our prayers when we were sent a pack of nail stickers from none other than budget beauty gurus Essence. Available in all the colours of the rainbow these are the DIY version of our beloved minx’s and at a purse friendly €2.49 per set we don’t think they’ll be on the stands for too long!

As we only have a photo to go from at the moment we at L”onglex can only guess at their greatness but rest assured dear readers we will be sticking them on as soon as we get the time and will of course dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to pictures.

In the meantime, if anyone has tried these we’d love to hear your thoughts !

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Posted in Beauty news, Beauty treatments, Budget beauty buys, DIY beauty, Love your nails, Nail tips |


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