Lip Balm available!

I just finished up a new batch of lip balm and I have to say I really think this batch is awesome! If you've tried some of my lip balm before I would say this one is even better! 
I have 2 scents available, peppermint, and tangerine (very lightly scented). 
Also available in 2 sizes,

Lip tube .15oz.- $2.25,

Lip pot .25oz- $2.50

 Lip pot lid has been fixed!

Ingredients: beeswax, unrefined virgin coconut oil, mango butter, shea butter, kokum butter, olive oil, almond oil, peppermint or tangerine essential oils.

Natural Makeup Reviews

Here's a few of the different natural make-up products that I have used and my review for them. Hopefully this might help narrow down the shopping and testing you might have to do when going with the natural lines of make-up, cause there not so cheap!

Foundation 

Josie Moran- I ran out of my other foundation so I went to Sephora to get some more and they no longer carry it =(! So one of the girls there recommended this Josie Moran tinted moisturizer with SPF 30. Well, not so much my favorite. I did buy it but will be returning it soon. I'm not a fan of the smell, it smells like sunblock which I don't like and makes me think there are some other icky ingredients in it that i don't want. As far as it's application, it seems to cover fine, but I prefer an actual foundation to a tinted moisturizer. The tube it's in too would cake up and dry out the top part so I feel like I was wasting it too. I won't be buying it again. Cost- $34

Dr. Haushka- I like this foundation. It goes on smooth and blends really well. My only problem with it is that it is not readily available to me through any stores close by so I have to buy it online. Luckily I found a store called The Derm Store, which had it and shipped for free. That's always a good thing. But having to buy online can always be iffy if you don't know the colors. I lucked out in that the color ended up being just right for me. I order 02 and it blends really well with my skin tone. I am fair skinned with  a tan at the moment, normally I would go with the 01.This is my 2nd favorite right now. Cost -$36

This one is my favorite! Korres Wild Rose Foundation, unfortunately it seems Korres is redoing their foundation line and I can't find it in my color anywhere anymore. i really loved this one. Loved the coverage, loved the rose scent it had that made me feel pretty just applying my foundation! If you can find it somewhere I most definitely recommend it. But I guess for me I will just keep using my Dr. Haushka until Korres comes out with their new line which will hopefully be as fabulous as their old one was!

Mascara-

Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Volumizing- I wouldn't recommend, I had flakes under my eye after only a few hours of wearing it. As far as application, all else was fine, but I don't like walking around with my mascara anywhere but on my eyelashes! Cost about $18

Korres Provitamin and Rice Bran- This is the one I am wearing now, and I will probably continue to use unless someone else knows of a better mascara. Application goes on fine, seemed to clump around the edges of my lashes at first, but there is always that breaking in time of mascara where the wand always seem to have too much on it. Now it's better and seems to stay put for the most part. I haven't noticed any flakes on my face or black marks by my eyebrow which is a good sign. Cost about $18

    Tarte Mascara - I don't have a picture for this one. This was my first mascara purchase when going natural. I wouldn't recommend it. The packaging sure is pretty, but I didn't feel like I got a whole lot of bang for my buck! I think it only lasted a week before it started getting gross and gummy and I couldn't get it to go on smoothly. It was a pain because normally when that happens it's no big deal, i just throw it in some hot water and it thins out and I can get a few more weeks use out of it. well that pretty packaging wasn't helpful there, I had to tear off the outer fabric so I could get it in the water, and even then it didn't do much thinning out. I was super disappointed in it especially after the girl at Ulta told me it was one of her favorites. I didn't find much greatness from it. Cost about $18.



Eye Shadow/Eye Liner -

Tarte Femme Naturale Eye Palette - I love this eye shadow. It goes on so nicely and has great color. I like it better than the Bare Minerals eye shadows I have used before. I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive or that they would sell it in smaller cases with less options because I tend to only use about 4 of the colors on a regular basis. But I really do like it! Plus it comes with a brush and a dual eyeliner. I don't like the eye liner though, for eyeliner I am using Bare Minerals and I really like it and feel no need to try anything else at the moment. Cost $44

I also use the Bare Minerals eye brow powder which is working great for me, so if you're unlucky enough to have blonde eyebrows, I use the dark blonde color and it really works great!

So thats it for my make-up reviews for now. I'm kind of all over the place, I wish there was one brand that I could just have as my go to for everything, but unfortunately that is not the case. Oh and as far as Bare Minerals Foundation, I know many people like it and I have used it before, but I prefer an actual liquid foundation. My face felt too layered with the mineral powder and it came off of my husbands shirt's when I would hug him or lean on his shoulder. I like my make-up to stay on my face and not end up where it's not supposed to be! I hope this helps out to someone who is wondering which make-up to try out first!

Sweet Shoes!

These are my most awesome shoes I bought at target last night so that I can be lazy and get up to go check on the animals without having to put socks on with my running shoes. I might just have to wear them everywhere now. The best part is that they only cost me $4! I always like a good deal, and Mallory got some just like it! So we're both equally awesome!

New Products Coming Soon!

I have been researching some new products for Simply Me. After a litte tweaking I will soon be adding to my product list (hopefully if all goes well)... a sunblock stick, and a friend of mine has told me I need to do some goats milk soap, so I will be trying that one out soon and if it turns out I will be doing a bit more!

I'm really excited to be learning these things. I guess it just proves how sometimes through our life's trials we can be stronger. If I had never developed my crazy skin allergies I would never had started researching out the great natural products that I can make that are so much better for me. I'll be posting soon when I get my ingredients for the new things.

I should also be getting in my ingredients soon for my other products, so if you want something in particular let me know!

Simply Living Is not Always So Simple...

So this week has been off to a wonderful start! I am serious too. My Dad has been over at my house working all last week on building a goat and chicken pen for my mom and I. Monday was the day we were to have it all done and ready to go with the rest of my siblings and their spouses coming over for an old fashioned "barn raising" only we called it a Pen raising.

The kids and I were up early trying to get their chores and schooling done so we could go meet up with Grand-ma to pick up some chickens. I called my friend Brooke who is the person we bought our goats from and let her know that we would be picking them up later that evening. She told me that one of her Nigerian goats had babies on Saturday and that we should come see them. So... chores were dropped, school was being substituted for a field trip to see the babies. They were so cute. It makes me so excited to have our own in the next several months!

From there we went to meet up with Grandma and Aunt Louisa to go chicken hunting! Of course I had been up late the night before searching out the best chickens to get, the most heat tolerant, best layers, and most friendly, so I felt I had my list narrowed down and was ready to have each child pick out one of their own. Well that did me a whole lot of good! When we got to the feed store they had so many to choose from and they were all so cute that we went from getting only 4 to getting 5, and Grandma bought 4 others for mother's day gifts to my sister and sister-in-laws, plus my younger brother and his wife were bringing my mom some already laying ones for her Mother's day gift. I don't know how many will be heat tolerant, I don't know if they will all be great layers, and I can only hope that they will all be friendly. The kids just picked which one they liked the best. hopefully that will suffice!

Well I could go into the rest of the crazy day, but I'm going to shorten it up... My mom and I spent the rest of the day shopping for all of our supplies while the menfolk were working on finishing up the majority of the pen for later that evening. We picked up our cute little goats- mine is a Nubian with the longest, cutest ears- we've named her Snickerdoodle, and Mom got a Nigerian and named her Willow.

The night got crazy, tempers and endurance's wore thin and finally all the guys came in to take a break and watch a specially prepared Mother's Day video my sister made my mom. The animals were all left outside. The movie was almost an hour and at the end I went into my kitchen and saw that our sprinklers in the backyard were on. I rushed out to get the little chickies and move them out of the water, but a few were already really wet, whether from the sprinklers or their water dish I don't know. I put them in a box and moved them to the garage where I found much to my dismay that 3 of the chicks (2 of my kids and one my sister's family) were looking really bad, hardly moving at all. The kids were all around me and I told them some of the chicks aren't looking like they are going to make it. It broke my heart to see those poor little faces, my 5 year old son went into his room and just cried over his poor Blackie, and my 8 year old son was crying too. How my heart wanted to break! I felt so horrible for this tragic accident. I was able to use it to one advantage. I showed my kids that even when things seem hopeless we can still turn to our Heavenly Father and plead with him to save our chicks and give us strength and comfort. My sweet 5 year old said the sweetest heartfelt prayer asking for our chicks to be saved as he cried to his Heavenly Father. When we finished I told them that even if our chicks don't live, I know He heard our prayer and I strongly felt that everything would be okay.

Well the family all went home on a sober note, and I was checking the chicks periodically through the night while my dad and husband put finishing touches on the pen. Soon, I noticed that my 8 yr. olds chick had changed positions, and that my nieces chick was trying to eat and get water. Poor Blackie still wasn't doing much and after about an hour he really was finally gone. My poor boy was broken hearted, but strong. We went to bed with hope for the other two.

This morning I woke up and checked on them, the other two had made a miraculous recovery and were up eating drinking and chirping away with the other 2 in the box! So while we may have lost one, we know that our prayer said with such simple faith saved our other two. My kids were overjoyed with the news and my sister's kids were too (because of course I texted her with the news and a picture at 6AM)!

                                         (Our miracle chicks, the 2  bunched together were our survivors, Rascal and Jimmer)

So I guess sometimes the simplest of life is not so simple and yet we can find strength through some very simple things.

I did take my little boy today to get a new chick which he named Star, and of course I couldn't buy just one (the other chick would be lonely on the drive!) so now Daddy has a White Silkie chick we named Wiffle!

Product Pictures

Here's what I took with me to the Garden Tour on Saturday along with some yummy lemon burst cookies.

These are my homemade all natural products, Deodorant in Cocoa Tangerine and Lavendar Lemon, my body butters- Cocoa Tangerine and Mango Lavendar, and my amazing chapstick- in unscented and peppermint.

The Garden Tour was a lot of fun, although I believe I overextended myself a bit. I should have held back and only chosen about 3 things to take. But, my chapstick and deodorant sold really well, which I am really happy with. Plus I was able to hang out next to my cousin Aaryn, whom I hardly ever see but always have fun talking to when I do see her, not to mention seeing my other cousins that I grew up running around with, swimming, and pretending (although I wasn't right next to them so I didn't get to talk to them as much). I will definitely head back next year with a little bit more knowledge and experience under my belt.

If anyone would like to order any of these, just comment and we can work out the details. I am planning on doing some different scents with my chapstick and seeing what else I can do with my deodorant, it really works great by the way, I've been using it for about a month and when outside sweating the rest of my body starts to smell of sweat but my underarms still smell good!

Arcadia Garden Tour

I'm making some great homemade products for my aunt's Arcadia garden Tour this weekend. On the list so far is my homemade deodorant, body butter, chapstick, white and whole wheat bread, and just for some extra yumminess white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and lemon zesters. We'll see how it goes and I'll post some pictures of the products soon.