The Kelly Green Clover

Here's my latest make-up-play-session: re-creating MAC's "lace collection" campaign look. It's an entry to a youtube contest in which you take a "runway look" as your inspiration. So here's mine:




And here's my recreation. It wasn't as tedious as it looks.. or maybe it was and I was just having too much fun to notice?

Several months ago, when I first started my little green revolution, I came across a product known as Egyptian Magic. What lured me to this product was its simplicity in its ingredients: olive oil, honey, beeswax, propolis extract, bee pollen, & royal jelly. Not to mention, Egyptian Magic had quite a following on youtube; beauty gurus continuously uploaded glowing reviews about this miracle cream. It could be used as a moisturizer, an eye cream, a healing ointment, for hair even. Girls would talk about its ability to make stretch marks and other long-time skin problems disappear.

Well, I paid the $40 to get my own jar. And I must say... I think those youtube girls were commissioned to make those reviews. There's nothing magical about it at all. This winter, I used it nightly on the backs of my hands, where I tend to get dry itchy skin. It didn't seem to do much at all. I used it as an eye cream...but don't really notice a huge difference. It works alright as a lip balm...but come on, I paid a pretty penny so I expected a little more... magic.

Now the thing is, I'm well-aware that the ingredients in this cream are in fact very good for our skin. And since it was a simple formula, with ingredients easily obtained from any health food store, I decided to get creative and work my own magic...


Cue my DIY Egyptian Magic: Texas Sass Cream. I considered "Irish Luck" too... but nothing about honey and olive oil makes me think of Ireland. Texas Sass is cute, right? Anyways...here's what I did.

Ingredients:
- 1 little beeswax bar (I think it's roughly 1 oz.)
- 6 TBL olive oil
- 2 TBL raw honey
- 4 capsules of the propolis / bee pollen /  royal jelly extract (only the contents of the capsules)

In a double boiler, I melted the beeswax completely, and removed from heat. Then added in the olive oil and honey, and the contents of 4 capsules. Sirred frequently as it cooled down. Pour into your container that you want to use, and let it set up a bit, but come back and stir it occasionally until it's about as solid as it will get. The idea is to make sure it's stirred thoroughly as it sets up, so there's an even distribution of everything throughout the cream.

I store it in the fridge, since it has "edible" ingredents. I must say, I've used this cream a few times and while it has some improvements to be made, it works a lot better than Egyptian Magic, and so much less money. I've used it mostly as a hand cream. It's a bit too thick/waxy (and grity from the propolis extract) to be used on the face, but I plan to try a new formula next time without the capsules and with more olive oil. I figure, since raw honey has propolis, pollen, and royal jelly still in it, there's not really a need to have the extra grittiness of the supplements added in.

Last night I got creative with the make-up for another youtube contest. The prizes are really great on this contest: Sigma make-up brush sets; these are like, professional quality make-up brushes. I would *love* to get my hands on a set. So I tried 3 different times to make something I felt good enough about putting onto youtube. I was getting frustrated; the first time I tried to make myself look like a painting:

The second time I tried to do a Monet waterlillies look...

And the third time I did this: a pseudo-cubist inspired blue/complimentary color creation that I improvised as I went along.



To be honest, I don't plan to win. But it's fun to hope!