That one time I smeared poo on my face

No not really. But it sure looked like it.

I'm trying to deal with nasty pregnancy acne. I had to stop using Retin-A. There are also so many commercial face washes that are not suggested for use when pregnant. The top ones being salicylic acid and benzyol peroxide (well benzyol peroxide isn't out 100% but there hasn't been much research either way, so I am avoiding it).

If anyone has any pregnancy safe skin treatments or even just ideas please share in the comments, I'll try anything!

So before I put anything on my skin I research it. I found this one recipe for a natural face mask/wash containing honey, lemon, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Source: myyellowsandboxblog.com via Alana on Pinterest

Totally looked like I smeared shit on my face.

I do think it significantly reduced my redness. I haven't seen much of a change in my acne yet, but it's still early. One suggestion, if your honey is sort of stiff DO NOT MICROWAVE IT, it gets really hot and stays hot, and too runny to put on your skin. I had to put mine in the freezer for like an hour to get it to solidify enough that I could spread it on my face. 

Shout out to my sister for this idea too, she rocks! 

I've also been using 100% natural apple cider vinegar as a toner (ACV) I use 1 part ACV and 1 part water, the first few times I didn't mix it with water and I smelled like easter eggs, You know that smell when you are dying them? yeah that was my face and back. 

But the thing I really like about the ACV is I don't have that dry feeling on my face after I use it. I can skip lotion if I don't need the extra sunscreen, like when I shower at night. ACV balances out the PH of your skin, so it's not over dry or oily. It's like magic smelly juice! 

I would be so happy to get my skin under control before the baby comes. It's really depressing to look in the mirror and see the mess on my face, neck and back. My back is the worst, it's a nasty mess, but thankfully people can't really see it. 

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Nails

It's no Pinterest perfect manicure, 

but:

Pin It

I am loving turquoise & cacios by Essie

($7.50 at walmart)

Makes me feel all springy, even though it's cold and gloomy outside. Montana wont see real spring for another month-ish.

I've been hoarding nail polish lately, I buy it almost ever time I go to through Target. 

I especially am loving the pastel colors. 

My baby sister got married.

Wednesday November 23,

My sister became the 6th woman in our family to get married on this day. 

<3

My father walked her down the isle

They said their vows 

My parents saw their baby get married. 

We took fun pictures 

Paul and I also celebrated our 5th anniversary

And the happy couple got silly. 

Andrea and Matt on New Years Eve two years ago while sister was visiting me in Japan.  This last two weeks of wedding stuff has been bananas. But it all came together beautifully.

Friday Paul and I started our drive home and got back to Montana yesterday. 

Now we relax. 

Fun with beauty

Today I've had fun with beauty products.

I dyed my hair, It's sort of messed up but I got the stuff to fix it, it'll hopefully be close to this same color but I need to do it right so my hair doesn't reject it. See what happened was I bleached my hair out last year, it was white. Then I did hot pink. Then it started to wash out and I moved back to the states. Then I decided I needed to get a job so I needed a real hair color, blonde with washout pink doesn't work well when you want to work somewhere besides hot topic. So I tried a box dye, within one wash it was greenish red. Then I bleached it again (with box bleach) and tried to dye again. And I ended up greenish. So I wen't to Sally Beauty Supply and got a box stripper and stripped my hair and tried to color again. no go. I don't even remember how many times I tried to fix it before I asked for help. I needed a filler and pro color, that finally did the trick. And today I did a box color attempt to make it redish, well the box color started washing out the part that had been colored over blond and I have a distinct line where I can see the dark and the washed out blond. I just hope it stays a few days, because I don't have time to fix it until tomorrow or thursday.

I painted my nails with the most awesome nail polish. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, It's great. I am really hard on my nails and they are usually chipped within 12 hours. With this color the first time I did it last friday my nails still looked good yesterday, until I started building my treadmill. Then they looked scary. So I re-did them today.

I also got some pretty eye shadow and brushes. Now I have pretty eyes.
And here we go. I look weird here, I don't think this looks like me.

Just in Case

just in case you wonder how beautiful it is here

apperantly i cant do anything right

i dont think i ever mentioned my experience at the nail salon getting a pedi while i was in tucson, my feet were in bad shape, we'd been on the road for three weeks, and i was living in flipflops, my feet were dry and just not cute. so the woman made me swear up and down i wouldnt let that happen again, i needed to take care of my feet, i have pretty feet i just need to treat them nice so they stay that way. but the woman scolded me for the way i treat my feet.
so fast forward to a few days later, i am told again, by someone else in the beauty world that my hair would be so much nicer if i did this, and stoped doing that, okay lemmie just say i am hopelessly addicted to pony tails, now that my hair has gotten a bit longer i can get it up with a pencil again or a hair stick, but i will still always love my pony tail, as i was told ponys are bad for your hair, they cause weak spots and breaking.
and now today. i go to get my uni brow waxed, i am a strict plucker, i used to pluck every night, pluck until there wasnt a sight of a stray hair. my brows looked okay, not perfect but they were always maintained. a few weeks ago i gave up on plucking, i decided that this may be something i leave up to someone who knows what they are doing, besides waxing lasts way longer. so i go in, and the woman tells me my thin bushy stray eyebrows make me look old, i should let them grow in and she will make them pretty. now one brow is thicker than the other, so she waxes it clean, the other she cleans up the lower part with twezers and waxes my unibrow, again i am scolded for plucking and asked not to tuch my brows for a month, then come back to see her. so now i look super weird with two different brows, wich i guess i looked like before they were just both super bushy and uneven, now they are just sort of bushy and still uneven until my right grows back so i can have thicker brows and not look so old,