Though I was born and raised in upstate NY, my natural hair is well accustomed to the heat and humidity of Houston. There’s no way I’m heading home for the Thanksgiving holiday with my hair unprepared for the shock of the cold, dry, harsh air. A deep, moisturizing conditioner is in order!
Elements needed:
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup honey
2 tbs shea butter
10 drops sage eo
5 drops orange eo
7 drops bergamot eo
Put coconut oil, shea, and honey in a plastic container and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir to melt and blend all elements. Add eos and stir again. Apply directly to hair and let sit. You can leave this in anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. When ready, shampoo excess off and style as usually.
With this deep conditioning, you shouldn’t need to apply another conditioner after shampooing. The shea butter in the mix has coated the hair, protecting it from harsh weather. As I always say what works for some hair doesn’t work for others so give this recipe a try and see if your hair loves it or not.
Happy Friday everyone! I know Jamie and I have both been MIA this week. For that I do apologize. We’ve both been around, just scattered amoung a few other projects. Lot sto hget done between now and Thanksgiving. So since we haven’t given you any great reads from our own mouth, I decided to share with you all some of the best blog posts that everyone else has been working on this week. I present to you the top five posts that I’ve Loved this week (you know I had to work Love in there somewhere LOL)
You’ll notice the Essential U Blog makes more than one appearance – I can’t live without Kayla and her insight. She’s an industry “mother” as I like to think of her and I would not be able to bring you the quality gifts and favors that I do without her and a few other “mothers”.
Enjoy the posts and Jamie and I will be back next week.
Lemons really are an amazing fruit…not only do they add flavor and dimension to so many foods and beverages, but they, and the essential oil made from them, also have many therapeutic effects on the body. Lemon oil has anti-bacterial, antiseptic, and anti-rheumatic properties, as well as being a diuretic and an anti-inflammatory. This makes its uses around the home practically limitless.
Circulatory Aid – Lemon essential oil can help with circulatory woes. It helps stimulate blood flow. It can also help reduce high blood pressure, and help stop nose bleeds.
Digestion – Lemon is very cleansing to the digestion system. It can help ease constipation and dyspepsia. It has also been known to reduce nausea, and is very useful to many pregnant women with morning sickness. Some report that even just the smell will help them feel better.
Fight Infection – Lemon essential oil can be used to boost immunity as well. Since lemon is anti-bacterial and antiseptic, it is also used to help fight common infections such as the common cold and influenza. This, plus its anti-inflammatory power makes lemon essential oil especially helpful, when consumed in a drink, for throat infections. Lemon also helps reduce fever.
Skin Care – There is a lot of roles that lemon essential oil can play in skin care as well, as long as it is diluted enough, as it can irritate the skin in strong doses. It is a great tool for exfoliation, acne, and greasy skin and hair, and helps with problems such as insect bites, varicose veins, and warts as well.
Cleaning Products – With all the virtues listed above, it’s no wonder that lemon essential oil would be a good addition to cleaning products as well. People have been cleaning with lemon for centuries, and for good reason. It disinfects without being too harsh, and combined with a few other simple kitchen products, can help make a great natural multi-purpose cleanser that is also safe to use around children.
Lemon essential oil is a must have for any essential oil enthusiast’s cupboard. It is a very well-rounded oil, and has uses in virtually every household arena. Whether you use it cosmetically, to help your circulatory and/or digestive systems, to fight infection, or to clean with, or all of the above, chances are that it’s already an indispensable part of your household.
We are still excited from our participation in the Napptural Beauty Expo yesterday afternoon in Dallas, TX. We met some fabulous women, saw some beautiful hair, and made lots of new friends!
We received some wonderful questions and comments from guests who
stopped by to talk skin, hair, and gifting with us. I want to share a few with you guys so you too can be in the know!
Questions asked at the show:
What makes us (mainelement: love) different from others? Our pri mary focus is making spa gifts that you know are healthy for your body. It’s easy to run into the mall and grab a spa gift b asket but we want you to know what’s in the spa basket and feel confident that that lotion you gave your mother, sister, wife, daughter, or friend doest have the potential to cause her body harm. We also want you to be able to express your Love in your own words, because no one knows the person you are pampering better than you do. That’s why we allow you to customize the labels to create a gift that is truly from the heart.
How are our products “all natural”? I tend to avoid the claim “all natural”. I don’t hammer anyone over the head if they use it, but I avoid the expression because products that are made to be sold cannot b e 100% natural. Companies that claim that are manipulating their words. You can’t manufacture a product that will sit in someone’s bathroom that doesn’t have some type of preservative in it. As a manufacturer however you can be very selective as to what preservative you chose to use. I choose to use vitamin e (tocopherol) as my primary preservative and almost all of our products also contact rosemary which also acts as a preservative. These are healthier alterna tives to many of the preservatives commonly found in on the shelf spa products. As I always say, please read your product labels and know what you are putting on your body. I Love you enough to offer you a product that if good for your body, not every manufacture is a s caring.
What do I do to my hair to get it to look like that? – *blushing* I will always get warm and fuzzy feelings when people compliment my hair. My daily hair care routine is rather simple. When I shower I saturate my hair thoroughly and apply mainelement: love’s treasured tresses aloe conditioner (available on the website very very soon, I promise!) and leave it in. I do not rinse out conditioner, regardless of whether it says leave in on the bottle or not. Conditioner conditions your hair to be moisturized, in other words it is a moisturizer itself, and is my primary moi sturizer. I do use a separate one on occasion to give definition to my curls but my everyday routine is water and conditioner. That’s it. We all know with natural hair what works for some, doesn’t work for others so try it and let me know how it goes!
Why don’t you sell directly off the table? This was a fairly common question, w hich didn’t surprise me. I don’t make your products until you order them. My goal is to provide you with the best, freshest, healthiest product I can, which means I don’t have it sitting on a shelf waiting for you to buy it. Does this mean it takes a little longer to get to you; yes it does. But it ensures that what you get, what you send to your loved one is the highest quality skin and hair care I have to give you. I’m putting Love into your products so I need a day or two to get in all in there (smile)
Will you create a custom scent just for me? Absolutely! My fav orite part about my job is putting YOU into your gifts! Designing a custom scent for you lets you give gifts that are 100% from the heart. Your scent is unique to you and whomever you give it to will think of you every time they use it.
Comments at the show:
Your body butter feels surprisingly light! – *blushing* I’d have to say that is due to the fact that our body butter is more butter and less oils. Also there’s a distinct feeling between a synthetic oil based moisturizer (mineral oils, petroleum, etc.) than plant derived oils (palm kernel, jojoba, sweet almond, etc)
You have a very unique concept! – We offer a way to give Love because what you give you receive ten fold!
This Gingerbread scent makes me hungry! – Sorry! LOL! We heard that a lot last year which is why we brought it back again for the holidays this year.
Being natural is expensive; I love that your prices are affordable. – THANK YOU! That is one of the highest compliments we can receive. Healthier alternative to everything seem to be more expensive than their less that healthier counterparts. While high quality products are more expensive, we do not believe in making them unattainable. I can’t fathom paying $50 for a bottle of conditioner. Quality does come with a price but my goal is to keep that price reasonable and affordable, always!
It was a pleasure and a blessing to be a part of the expo yesterday and we’re looking forward to meeting more friends this Wednesday and Thursday at the 4th Annual Four Oaks Place Holiday Market on Post Oak Blvd in the Houston Galleria area. I hope to see you there; come talk skin, hair, and gift giving with me!
India Arie said “I am not my hair…” but your hair is most certainly YOU. It is as unique and individual as you are. Are you in tuned with it? Do you know what it likes? What it doesn’t like? Your hair has a personality all its own; do you know what it reflects?
I didn’t have that feeling about my hair when I relaxed it, I fully admit that. Altering my hair, change the personality of my hair. So when I wore it relaxed my hair’s personality was much more muted. My hair had a story to tell, and I kept it from doing that. It tried at times to slip out and whisper its stories, but I would relaxe it again and it would be silenced once again. Now that my hair has been liberated, it’s personality speaks loudly and it speaks to me and for me.
My hair tells me what it likes: lots of water, shea butter, and peppermint and rosemary essential oils. Those are its favorite elements. It doesn’t like dry climates, it tells me to deep condition it anytime I spend more than a few days in climates drier than Houston, which is pretty much anywhere I travel to. My hair tells other people that I don’t mind if you pay me a little bit of attention when I wear it wild and free. It tells people that I’m cool, casual, and comfortable when I pull it back and up into a puff. It doesn’t tell people that I’m a incense burning political rebel like some people like to assume when they see a large fro. Anyone that hears that from my hair is hearing what they wasn’t to hear and not what’s being said. My hair tells everyone that I Love the skin and hair I am in, that I was born with, and my hair and I hope that message encourages other people to feel the same.
So how well do you know your hair? Do you know what its personality it? Do you know what it likes
