The Beauty Guinea Pig

Great, creative how-to with a little bit of historical context—nicely done Jezzie!

Finally, my dreams have been answered. I made it on Nails and Burgers, yesssss! (via Uncouth in the City)

Spot a Fresh Kiss & Tell truck in the city this week and get a free Sugar Lip treatment of your choice (I am still in love with plum). 

Theory tested: Your complexion can be soft and supple after 10-minutes of quality time with pureed pumpkin.

No one is thinking about pumpkin in the first week of June but perhaps we should be. It is high in vitamin A (retinol), zinc, beta carotene, alpha-hydroxy acids, lutein and vitamins C and E. Among many other things, pumpkin is supposed to slough off dead cells to reveal glowing skin underneath, which is why it is included in many cleansers, moisturizers and treatments at spas. My beauty buddies from The Beauty Cookbook suggest using it in a 10-minute mask.

Products used: A can of Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin left over from the fall.

Duration of test: 10 minutes

Application: Douglas and Pearlman recommend pureeing ¾ cup of fresh pumpkin and then putting it on your make-up free face. It is June and I don’t have any fresh pumpkins to puree lying around, but I do have a can of Libby’s orphaned after the aforementioned abandoned holiday cookie bake of 2010. The only ingredients in Libby’s are pumpkin and many traditional cookbooks claim that canned pumpkin is a great replacement for fresh, so I thought it was a fine substitute.

I put the cool puree on my face with my fingers. If you’ve ever cleaned out a jack-o-lantern at Halloween (and if you haven’t you really should), you know that as gourds go, pumpkin is a little messy. While it didn’t stick to anything, I found that if I put too much on my face, it sort of fell everywhere.

Results: After 10 minutes, I rinsed the pumpkin off my face and found that my skin indeed felt softer. I spent a lot of time outdoors the day before (with sunscreen on of course) and my skin needed a little bit of exfoliation, the pumpkin did the trick.

Conclusion: This pumpkin mask is a great tool to have in your beauty arsenal but pureed pumpkin is hard to come by outside of the fall months. If you can find pureed pumpkin, I highly recommend using this occasionally for all skin types—it takes 10 minutes and costs next to nothing. If you can’t find pureed pumpkin, this Pumpkin Enzyme Peel from Peter Thomas Roth can do amazing things for your skin. Or, check out this regenerating Pumpkin Lotion from Arcona.

Tip: Do not take pictures of yourself with the pumpkin mask on. It’s not cute, no matter how you try.

Anyone else at this stage in life? Never fear, beauty companies feel your pain. 

Fun manis and grilled, greasy meat? It is like the site was made for me! 

 - alesbiansadviceforastraightman

via: Uncouth in the City: Words to live by (also known as TIP #14)

The Shiseido Airstream trailer—bringing Japanese facial massages and samples of the new Bio-Performance Super Corrective Serum to a city near you. (Thanks Lucky!)

via LuckMag.com

Theory tested: That molasses, specifically the Blackstrap variety, is chock full of nutrients and will help your hair to be stronger, healthier and shinier.

The idea from this test stemmed from the zany minds of my favorite DIY beauty guides but I had to make some slight tweaks to it. Their moisturizing hair mask calls for 100% pure maple syrup and all I have is Mrs. Butterworth’s, so, I looked in my cabinet for something equally sugary—a jar of molasses leftover from a recent baking spree was it. This was actually a serendipitous find; molasses is touted as a natural cure-all for multiple beauty woes including split ends, hyper-pigmentation, aging skin and irritated complexions. Most people, however, use molasses as a super moisturizing treatment for dry hair.

Products used: Grandma’s Original Molasses

Duration of test: 2 Days

Day 1: Based on all the hair mask recipes that I read (and what is recommended in The Beauty Cookbook for maple syrup), I decided to apply the molasses directly onto my dry, clean hair. Some recipes suggested heating the dark, sticky liquid in the microwave to ease in application but my hair is pretty sturdy so I slapped it on at room temperature—this proved to be a mistake.

Hanging my head over the bathtub, I poured the black gold directly onto my mane and attempted to work it through. Molasses, if you were wondering, is boiled down sugar cane and it turns out, boiled down sugar cane is incredibly sticky. It clung to each strand of my hair and was not moving. I was only able to pour enough on to encase every bit after separating my hair into thirds. I then wrapped my crown in plastic wrap carefully covering all the molasses (even as I am typing this, it sounds ridiculous) and waited for 30 minutes.

After a half an hour, I showered and shampooed with a gentle cleanser (think: baby shampoo) to properly remove the gunk from my hair without stripping the strands from any nutrients they may have sucked up in their 30-minute sugar bath. I conditioned and styled as usual. Once it was blown dry, I noticed my hair was a little softer than usual but not any more shiny.

Day 2: My hair had much more bounce than usual but was still not shinier. I visit the salon often enough that I don’t suffer from split-ends, so it is difficult to decide if the treatment made my hair stronger. One thing worth noting is that it was a cloudy, humid day and my normal frizz was absent for most of the day even though I spent a considerable amount of time outside

Conclusion: This is worth trying and I will definitely do this again. If you want to see for yourself, a few recommendations:

• For goodness sake, heat the molasses before using! You’ll save yourself and your scalp from a lot of annoyance (cool molasses pulls the hair). If you don’t want to heat it, some natural beauty sites recommend mixing the molasses with an egg/egg white, which may actually enhance the shine factor.  
• Blackstrap molasses is supposed to be better for beauty purposes. Look for it at a health food store.
• Like Moroccan Oil, molasses may slightly tint your color with continued use. If that is what you are going for, consider this a benefit. If not, making a honey hair mask, which is thought to lighten hair, might be better.
• Realize that this is going to be messy and molasses smells a little smoky. Do not do this if you have somewhere to go right away.
• If you like to cook, keep a separate jug of molasses in the bathroom. Even if you are careful, this stuff is sticky and you will most likely get a hair in your molasses jar. Imagine how unpleasant it would be to offer your friends, family or co-workers some homemade gingersnaps and have them discover one of your hairs in it. No amount of bounce, shine or all around prettiness in your locks will make up for that.

Have any suggestions for a new test? Email me beautyguineapig@gmail.com!

As you know, I loves me some Kym Douglas but putting ketchup on her hair just to illustrate a point may be a bit much. What do you think? And which of her natural fixes should I try next?