a few of my favourite things- skin care edition

i have recently fallen hard into the world of all that is youtube. yes, i realize i'm super late to the party, but i guess i just figured i had enough other online things to waste my time with. ;)

some of the videos i have really enjoyed are of people sharing their favourite, tried, tested and true beauty products. obviously cosmetics can be expensive, which can make trying new things a cost prohibitive risk, so being able to hear other peoples honest experiences before you venture out to try something new is awesome!

so i figured why not share a few of my favourite things with all of you?

these six items are what i use most days- my trusty 'skincare regime' if you will (insert silly-face emoji here). all products i wholeheartedly LOVE, would never replace and simply could not live without.

|| one || rocky mountain soap company - bamboo skin polish
this company is so fantastic! all of their products are free of any harsh toxins, chemicals, or artificial fragrances and are each lovingly and ethically handmade in canmore, alberta. this is my second bottle of their skin polish- the first time i tried the coconut vanilla scent which i really liked, but always felt like it needed a little more grit to it. so more recently, i decided to try the bamboo scent, and although it is marketed for normal to oily complexions (something my ultra dry skin is not) i LOVE the course grit of bamboo version. you can REALLY feel it sloughing off that dry layer of skin, and it smells amazing! my first bottle of this product lasted me well over a year, so in addition to being an awesome face wash, the value is incredible!

|| two || frank body scrub
this body scrub is made from coffee beans, almonds and essential oils and is so nice! waking you up from the outside in, franks scrubs away dry, flaky skin and targets pesky skin conditions like cellulite, stretch marks, eczema, acne and psoriasis. i tend to spread out how often i use this product as 1) its a little on the pricey side and 2) i don't want that deep scrub of my skin all the time, but its a really awesome treat before a special night out, after a few too many days in the sun, or on a saturday night in when you have some extra time to take a super long shower.

|| three || thayers rose petal which hazel toner
i'm a huge fan of toners and absolutely love this one! this product is completely natural and works to moisturize, soothe, reduce redness, and balance the PH of your skin after washing it (which truthfully, i don't know why thats important, but it works and i dig it). the bottle also claims to make you 'look 10 years younger instantly' so who am i to argue with that? apply to a freshly washed face before your moisturizer goes on and watch the magic happen. (they also make lots of other scents if rose isn't your jam. this product is also AH-MAZING to use if you have little ones with diaper rash- soothes, reduces redness, and starts the healing process right away without any harsh chemicals.)

|| four || wibi moisturizing lotion
as you can maybe tell, i tend to lean toward more natural products in most areas of my life, but this product is not that. that being said, my mom has used this moisturizer since she was 16. i have used it since i was 16, and NOTHING has ever come close to being as incredible as wibi. i literally have tried dozens and dozens of other products trying to find a more natural alternative, but keep coming back to this my favourite. i will add that you CAN NOT find this lotion in stores anymore- once a year my mom and i stock up and order a few bottles off ebay or amazon - usually enough to get us through at least a year. but truly, this lotion is worth every struggle, hassle, shipping cost and chemical exposure. it's THAT awesome.

|| five || doterra frankincense oil
they call frankincense oil magic in a bottle, because it is literally just that. it can be used to help relieve chronic stress and anxiety, reduce pain and inflammation, boost immunity and even fight cancer. but my favourite (totally superficial) benefit is that it is a natural anti-aging and wrinkle fighter! i add a couple drops of frankincense to my lotion above, mix it together and rub it all over my face and neck. (perhaps the cancer-fighting benefits of the oil mitigate some of the chemical components of my lotion? heres hoping.) but i can honestly say i have noticed a serious reduction in the size and depth of some of the fine lines and little scars on my face since i started using this oil a year ago. if you only take one thing from this entire blog post, let it be to get yourself a bottle of frankincense oil!

|| six || kiehl's creamy eye treatment
i go back and forth between a few different eye creams but this one is good and one i continually come back to. once again, this isn't the best product from a natural ingredients standpoint (i try to make a point of not buying products that aren't transparent about their ingredients- listing ALL of their ingredients on the packaging and their website is important, and something kiehl's is not great at.) and i do sub it out with this organic eye cream, but i really love the smoothness of this product and how well it keeps my eyes moisturized without making them itchy or heavy feeling. i have struggled with exzema my whole life, and one area that tends to always be sensitive and excessively dry is around my eyes. keeping them really well moisturized stops an eczema out break before it begins, so this is an important product for me.

hand-shaped ring dish diy

a few months ago, i was searching the depths of the internet for something special that finn could make for jeff's mom for her birthday. it's always a struggle to find that right mix of sweet, sentimental, and somewhat purposeful (that last one often gets looked over simply because there are not many useful things that small children are capable of making) - but this was one that i thought was worth sharing.

we used this tutorial and made hand-shaped ring dishes and were really pleased with the end result. it's a super simple activity, and not all that time consuming (so just perfect for limited attention spans). it was also quite cost effective- a package of air dry clay is only a few dollars and would easily make several ring dishes. i believe i may have even seen similar clay in the craft section at the dollar store. (though don't hold me to that. i'm not a huge dollar store shopper, so i get instantly overwhelmed when i go in those places and lose all sense of brain function. ;) )

we tried a couple variations of this project- my favourite being the one shown here, plain white clay (not painted or decorated in any way, which could be a fun addition to this project). but we also made one using oven baked clay (fimo or the like) in various shades of greens and yellows and used a marbling technique shared over on a beautiful mess blog. the end result of this version was really cute and little bit more fun visually than the plane white clay.