Pinterest Win!: Two Pins In One

I have been looking back through my Taming The Mane board on Pinterest, trying to decide what I've pinned that I actually-actually want to try. I had some extra time yesterday to play around with my hair before heading out to take pictures at the theatre, so I combined two of my favorite pins into one hairstyle.

Wearing scarves as headbands has always been something I love doing, in theory, but in practice, they tend to slip right off my head. I added some bobby pins at the back of the scarf, just to make sure it stayed in place and that really seemed to help.

The braid-as-a-bun was my go-to 2nd day hair option when I was living the corporate life. It's simple, takes little time and not a lot of product. It does require lots of bobby pins to keep that thick braid in place, but I'm good with that.

Here's a different view from the side:

And from the front:

**Photo credits to Jehremie, my personal photographer**

Pinterest Win!: The Sock Bun

I haven't had much luck with hairstyles I find on Pinterest, but this...this, I can handle.

Sock Bun, where have you been all of my life?

You make me feel like a ballerina, like I am more graceful just because there is a sock rolled up in my hair.

You also make me not give a rip about the gray hairs that are slowly overtaking my entire head. When I look at you, all I see are dainty, girly visions of myself gliding down a busy city street with shopping bags on my arms, while I wear a simple, yet elegant outfit, and cotton candy pink silk shoes.

Thank you, Sock Bun. Let's hang out again real soon!

A Face Like a 13 Year Old Boy

You know what I love about being 32? My skin, which has always been so smooth and pretty, has suddenly decided that it missed out on pimples and blackheads back in middle and high school. Today alone, I've had two pimples show up on my nose and one blackhead on my cheek. This is simply not acceptable. And I am going to do something about it.

In my ongoing quest to be kind to my body, I'm trying to approach things from a natural perspective, before I resort to better living through chemistry. Searching on Pinterest, I found a recipe for homemade Biore pore strips. Rock on! There are few things more satisfying than ripping one of those white cotton strips off my nose and seeing the little porcupine quills stuck to it.

According to the pin that took me to Petit Elefant, mixing milk and unflavored gelatin together and slathering it all over your face results in a full-face Biore strip-like effect. I did a little more digging and found a hilarious Pinbusters entry over at Pardon Our Sawdust where the truth of the homemade pore strip was told - it might work, but it hurts like hell.

I'm not really down with full face pain, so I've looked to other sources. The Arm and Hammer website recommends mixing 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water and using that as a face scrub. Can you get much simpler than that? I decided to give it a go.

3 Tablespoons of Baking Soda + 1 Tablespoon of Filtered Water + Mini Whisk (because it's cute)

So, here we go:

I wiped my face with a cucumber face wipe before I started the scrub. Figured it wasn't a great idea to be scrubbing smoodge all over the place. I spread the paste all over my face and let it sit for about 30 seconds. Then, I scrubbed. Well, "scrubbed" isn't really the right word - more like worked it around in small circles. I didn't want to be too tough on my skin.

I will tell you, I had to rinse my face 4 times to get all of the baking soda off. Once it was off, though - damn, that is some smooth skin.

So, the verdict: I think I'll be adding this to my Sunday "beauty" routine. I don't think it would be good to do this more than once a week.

Now to try out the new night cream I bought today. Aveeno Positively Radiant Intensive Night Cream. Maybe I can get this stupid 13-year-old-boy-like skin under control.