Body and Beauty and Living-Naturally

I’ve been finding it challenging to find mimeral makeup suitable for very dry skin.  The predominant opinion seems to be that mineral makeup might not be suitable for dry skin especially if it contains bismuth-oxychloride. Bismuth-oxychloride is a naturally occuring mineral that is supposedly  included in many mineral makeup formulations to add “shine” or “glow” to the skin.

All in all, haven looked into the area of mineral makeup,I’ve decided at this stage to call this experiment quits.  Finding something to suit my skin tone,type and sensitivity is way more work that I have the time for now… And I have not come across any literature that say mineral makeup might be suited for dry skin, just more anectodal evidence that it might not be!

I’ll stick to my shea butter,  lip gloss and maybe some  blusher for now!

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I took advantage of the offer from everyday minerals a good while ago and ordered the following from their website:

Golden-Medium Tan (Original Glo)
Warm Sandy Medium (Original Glo)
Warm-Medium Beige Summer (Original Glo)
Snuggle
Spring Concealer

All of these ended up just not being right colourwise for me to start off. The only one that was any good for me  was the golden medium tan.
And even this  did not look well on my very dry skin when I applied  it  with the brush- it seemed to emphasise the dryness but when I mix a tiny bit with a little bit of NiEriu’s natural facial oil serum. it leaves a nice glow-same as you might get from a tinted moisturiser. The colour is still a little bit off though, but since this seemed to be the most suitable colour I could find for my skin colour on the website, My search continues. I am trying to find ones with just the natural stuff contained so that’ll probably rule out a good few but we’ll see. The main thing though is I want one that’s okay for my dry  skin… Any ideas?? The colour will probably be another challenge…*sigh*

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Mineral makeup is made up natural, finely ground minerals from the earth such as mica, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide amongst others. It is considered purer as it doesn’t contain any binders, fragrances or dyes/colourants or indeed preservatives.

While the use of mineral makeup is often attributed to the 1970s, historians have shown that the ancient Egyptians were quite vain and used body oils, perfumes or scents, makeup, hair dye(henna) and even hair-extensions as part of their daily grooming routine.

The most popular of the Egyptian makeup is probably the eyeliner known as “khol”.

As I said earlier, tt is suggested that because mineral makeup is purer, it is “kinder” to skin as it doesn’t contain any of the usual suspects such as talc, phthalates, binders,etc, but it is supposed to be better at not accentuating lines and wrinkles, and of course it naturally has some sun protection as we have mentioned earlier.

Some people have had an improvement in their general skin condition and appearance (when they are not wearing makeup).

I have not really seem much on how suitable mineral makeup might be for dry skin or indeed very dry skin.

See links below for more info:

http://www.webmd.com/skin-beauty/features/the-lowdown-on-mineral-makeup?page=3

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/beautyaids.html

http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/v051.htm

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We will be running more soapmaking workshops in 2009.

Venues and dates are yet to be decided but if you are interested, please send in your contact details and location.

There will be a small selection of ingredients such as sheabutter and cocoabutter sold at the workshops but you can also get these from www.nieriu.com .Others such as coconut oil, and others can be got from most asian stores or indeed your local supermarket.

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Happy new year to all.

Here’s wishing you good health, happiness and a full belly in the new year….and …the will to keep your new year resolutions!

I am again not bothering with new year resolutions this year. What I am doing though is trying to decide whether to go for pilates or yoga or both.  My decision will probably be made by the availability of either. . .I’d considered just getting a dvd but I know from experience what will happen. I’ll do the motions the first two times and then the third time, I ‘ll stop half way through and watch the dvd, and then I ‘ll probably not bother doing it again!

Skincare wise, I am giving loads of TLC to my skin as I am determined to keep the scalies at bay this time so when summer comes I ‘m ready.

I am also on the hunt for some mineral makeup….I ‘ve tried a few but they are kinda like what using makeup must have been like before the makeup companies realised dark skinned women use makeup too! Theyseem great on my lighter skinned sisters but once I use them, I might as well have rolled in the dust.

If any one knows of any mineral makeup that would suit , do let me know!  And I will also keep you informed.

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soap basket,
originally uploaded by NiÉriu.

As I have mentioned before, NiEriu was recently at the MM- fair in aid of Meningitis Trust & CARI(Children at risk Ireland), two very worthy causes.
We shared a table with Simplybaby, this ensured I had company…as I said, a gal’s got to talk! If you are looking for babygifts check out their site www.simplybaby.ie.
Anyway, we had a few of NiEriu products there, we had decided against carrying the full range. As it turned out, the whipped sheabutter went down a treat. have got some good feedback too about it so yay!
Anyway…enough of the talking…here are the pictures. They are a bit grainy as I used my phone and the lighting wasn’t great.

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So, on Saturday we had the soapmaking workshop at the Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre in the Naul.

Was my fist time in the Naul so left home earlier than I needed to and arrived in plenty of time.

We had more than 20 attend the workshop but this worked out okay surprisingly. Hopefully some do go on to make soap now.

The centre also run other workshops for children such as woodturning, mobile spiders (yeah!) , and a host of others. Check out their site here .

The soapmaking workshops are going to become a regular thing now so if you would like to host one, contact us!

Now roll on to Sunday. It was the day of the mm-fair. I shared a table with simplybaby so I would have company…a gal’s got to talk! All in all, it was a good day, and all for a good cause.

**Ingredients such as sheabutter and cocoabutter for making soaps can be got from www.nieriu.com and others can be got from most asian stores or your local supermarket.

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NiEriu will be facilitating another soapmaking workshop on Saturday the 22nd of November 2008.

This one is hosted by the Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre in the Naul.

So those of you who missed out last time can avail of this one.

If you are not fortunate enough to get a ticket this time, once again, do email me your contact details and I can let you

know when another one is scheduled.

Remember that prices will very depending on the host!

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Sorry this is late- in typical NiÉriu style!Well, the festival of world cultures has come and gone. The started with a few grey skies and we packed our gear in the car hoping that it would clear by afternoon.

We arrived at the venue early. First had to attend a child protection workshop- I wasn’t working with children so I had itchy feet thoughout this!I suppose I did have the kids helpign me-but they went off to attend another kiddies workshop. They even got themselves into the irish times gallery!

Eventually went up to my room to set up and barely had enough time before participants started to arrive.

There was no sink or running water in the room as I had requested but no biggie as the FWC-volunteers were extremely helpful and we were given buckets with water. We did have to run off to get an extension lead as the power source was not too accessible.The class started at 10.30 as planned…I KNOW…on time and all, but we had to be as we had loads to do. There were 12 people in all. I was expectedly nervous starting off, but once I got in my stride, it was all good.

There were loads of questions which I hope I was able to answer, all in all I had a good feeling at the end of the class…it had been an interactive session, the participants were brilliant and very interested-what more could I have asked for!And as promised, here is the link for melt and pour soap supplies.We made cold process soap with sheabutter, cocoabutter, coconut oil, palmoil, and superfatted with avocado oil. For scent, we used lavender and lemon. All participants went away with a few bars of soap-same recipe but one I made earlier. Infact I had made 2 batches using cold process and hot process to demonstrate the results from these two different methods.And special thanks to the organizers of the festival who did a brilliant job…especially Olga and Fiona.

**Ingredients such as sheabutter and cocoabutter for making soaps can be got from www.nieriu.com  and others can be got from most asian stores or your local supermarket.

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