Kate’s Morning Hair and Skin Routine… Exposed!
Meet Kate, a gal who has the type of happy-go-lucky attitude about failed DIY shampoos (no problem, she says, just re-purpose the ingredients!) that just makes her seem so nice and sunny. (Hence Audrey Hepburn in the sun hat here.) Read on for her very lavender-y routine; it’s nice!
Name: Kate
Age 23
Current weather: currently back to early-March style cold and rain at the very end of April. Thank you New England.
Hair: Shoulder-length brownish dirty blond. (I’ve experimented with dying/highlightss in the past. No more ammonia in my hair, thank you very much!) Greasy on the top, dry on the ends party all round.
Skin: Combination/t-zone facial skin. dry, flaky nose. Oily chin and forehead. My nemesis chin acne has left her red boot marks, but she is finally gone for good…I think.
Washing up…
I worked on an organic farm last summer and I decided that it was the best time for me to go clean by getting a little dirty. I tried out a lot of clean shampoos, but found that they made my hair much more prone to grease than normal. Gasp! However, I am sure part of that was my hair adjusting to the sudden change. After being disappointed by a few more tries, I stopped shampooing all together. I have been washing my hair with water and baking soda for about six months now and I love it! I wash my hair/shower about three times a week (scary for me to admit, since I was an every-day scrubbing freak fro years). For a while, I really missed my hair smelling like “girl hair” as Alexandra put it in the book. I had some lavender essential oil from another homemade shampoo experiment (but one that went horribly wrong), so I have been adding just a few (like two to three) drops of that in it each time and it gives my hair a nice little lavender hint. Once a week I will condition with apple cider vinegar in water.
Funny story, I keep both of these mixtures in an old glass mustard jar. I was house/cat sitting a few months ago and accidentally left the mustard jar in the shower. The guy I house-sat for was like, “so…you…ummm..you left a jar of mustard in the shower…?”
Okay, back to the shower, I use Whole Foods Triple Milled Organic Soap on my body once a week, which has been a nice change for my dry skin. Right now I am using the lavender scent (sensing a theme?) I also use this on my face every evening.
I started shaving with 100% pure aloe vera gel. Great idea! Thank you for the tip. It is really effective and does not dry out the skin!
Post-shower…
After I rinse my face in the morning I spray a mixture of aloe vera juice (the drinkable kind) mixed with a little water and a few drops of lavender as a hydrosol, then moisturize with pure organic jojoba oil that a fellow Connecticut farmer friend makes. At night, after I wash my face, I slap on some Apple Cider Vinegar, which has really helped with keeping my skin clear (that and eating less dairy and drinking more water).
This is my first year out of college and I have been on one hell of a budget (even though I am happy to say that I am now gainfully employed. There is hope out there for all of us!), so going clean and learning some of these great DIY recipes has saved me tons of money! I think it costs me something like a penny a shampoo when you average it out, which is an absolute Goddess-send! I call my routine “Fabulous Kate on a budget.” Thank you, I have learned so much in the past year!
Told you she was sunny and wonderful! What other tricks have saved you all many pennies in the past year?
Image via
Awesome routine! So simple. I too struggle with the hair not smelling pretty or girly enough for me and I found adding essential oils just isn’t enough. Sometimes I use a solid perfume as a smoothing creme for my hair and that tames fly aways and fuzzy bits and leaves a great scent as well!
Have to say I am just LOVING all these morning routines! Keep ‘em coming!\
Kate, organic pressed coconut oil is a good investment. You can use it for everything! Make up remover, shaving cream, body lotion, conditioner (I just add it at tips of my hair when its dry before I shower). Thanks for the tips!
Loved her routine!
I’ll share my two DYI tricks I have been using for months. (I decided not to enter the contest – takes too much time to do the photographs and upload etc etc etc so I’ll share them here.) They are money-savers!
For deodorant, I mix organic baking soda and french white clay (proportions are 1:1), and apply after my shower with a brush. It works great! I’ve been using it for months, even on hot days, and it works!
For a rose scented handcream, I mix Giovanni face moisturizer with Duchess Marden rose scent body serum. I add appx 2 teaspoons of oil serum to appx 1/2 cup of moisturizer, and stir til it is creamy. It’s wonderful night time hand cream (I use on my neck also).
Oh man… I feel like SUCH a jerk writing this, but… This morning routine just leaves me so cold. I mean, Kate really does seem great and I love her attitude and resuorcefulness, but I thought the idea behind these series was to give your readers a glimpse into other people’s medicine cabinets, so to say. Part of the thrill was learning about new products or getting first-person accounts of what product works for whom. I totally get that not everyone can afford Tata Harper or Tammie Fender (in fact, plenty of people probably can’t), but all of these have been just so DIY-heavy of late. I mean, yes, the baking soda hair wash works for a lot of people and it has been discussed time and time again on this blog. It’s not exactly new and exciting info, is it?
I really am sorry for being a negative Nellie because I do not want my criticism of the post to read as a criticism of the writer. Good on Kate for being fabulous on a budget and even more so for being so wonderfully positive! But, I mean, I am sure there are women out there who just splash their faces with cold water, brush their teeth and go to work. And you know what? I think they are awesome and I admire them tremendously. But I really, really don’t need to read about their routine. Sorry again to be a buzzkill (although I think the fact that there have not been any comments so far might mean that I am not alone in my meh-ness?)
If I may add to that constructive criticism, I’m finding that a lot of the same brands are being used in morning routines. There is a lot more diversity in clean beauty products nowadays, but I guess we all tend to fall back on things that have been reviewed profusely. It would be nice to start a series with people posting about lesser known brands/products that they like.
Thanks for sharing Kate! I find it interesting to see how people manage without a ton of products (because that’s so not me!).
Go Kate! I love your innovation and fun tone…you sound like someone I’d love to be friends with! And yes, love lavender. Love it a lot.
I agree that some of the same ideas and products are repeated. I really miss general product reviews, old or new is fine with me!
I wonder if anyone else has noticed that these morning routines are never posted on their own anymore. They are always posted in conjunction with what seems to be the “main feature” of the day. Anyone who feels overloaded by the routines, or finds that some of them leave them cold, can simply skip the routine and read the other post. That’s what when it doesn’t feel like a morning routine day for me. Then I just come back and read the routine at a later time.
The thing is, I always find at least one cool tip in these sneak-peeks. Anyone who has been experimenting with natural beauty or trying different products for a while is going to come to a point where everything is old news. What’s cool is that somewhere in the pile of “been there done that”s of all these routines, there is always something I haven’t tried or thought of before. Sometimes the routine itself isn’t all that interesting to me, but it sparks something interesting in the comments section.
We can’t expect to be blown away 100% of the time by any one thing. I think this blog does a great job of informing me most of the time, and naturally there are times it doesn’t. It’s a lot of work to come up with something different to post about everyday. Most natural blogs I’ve seen only post a couple of times a week or less.
BUT if anyone’s looking for something new:
3 products I love that I haven’t seen mentioned on this blog before – Moksa Organics soaps and body butters (creamy soaps and great winter body butters), Skin&Bones body/face oil (smells super sexy).
As a product junkie, I appreciate articles/routines like this that remind me that I don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on pre-made products. I have been shopping around hi and lo looking for a nice facial spray and was about to spend $40+ on a lavender hydrosol one and then I come here to read that this girl Kate makes her own and it sounds lovely.
This routine is very DIY-centric, yes, but it’s also not bare bones. I enjoyed reading this routine and it made my cheeks turn a little red in embarrassment because I don’t make anything myself anymore (except for a mask here and there). Anyway, I respect Lolly’s opinion but I just wanted to make sure that NMDL knows there are two sides to that story.
Thanks Kate! I also find it interesting to read about people’s routines who do not use a lot of products; I find it quite admirable and inspiring to get me to stop spending on so much stuff! I also loved the anecdote about the house-sitter and mustard jar. I have similar things happen with my roommate (“what is that white stuff (coconut oil) in the pasta sauce jar in the bathroom?”) often.
I’m trying to cut back on the products I buy, and I have some trouble relating to the routines where nearly every product costs $50 or more–so way to go, Kate!
That is awesome Kate! I have always used Baking Soda as a facial and body cleanser and it originally started because I heard that it clears your chakras… but I think I will try it on my hair. I have been having a sensitive scalp for awhile so I LOVE the idea of using the basics. Not to mention I think we all could feel good about saving money in the cosmetic department :)
I am a natural blonde whose hair color used to stop people in the street so they could oo and ah. I have also become more natural in my personal care products, and so I was excited to learn of the cider-vinegar trick as a scalp treatment.
WELL: after more than a year of my new fabulous routine, I started noticing that I had turned into a brunette in photographs. And in real life. I felt like a right Charlie, I can tell you!
It was the vinegar! So blondes: use white vinegar! Is Kate is really a dirty blonde, or is it accidentally colored?
I like to add a little lavender oil to my coconut oil when I use it as a moisturizer to add a little something extra. I kinda agree with Lolly, I am hoping to see a bit more new products etc since the DIY stuff has been featured quite often. No offense to those who do the DIY, I love it, it’s just not new news.
Love it! Thanks, Kate! I very recently started using diluted ACV as a toner, morning and night, and it immediately cleared up my angry, stressed out, end-of-the-semester-finals, broken out skin!
I enjoy the more DIY routines myself, because there are already so many product review out there (and not that I don’t enjoy them!), but we’ve all pretty much heard of what is out there. I guess that’s the other side of the coin. But, honestly, I really love reading all of these!
LOL! great routine and hilarious mustard jar story!!
@Kat, I’m a Moksa fan too! The body butters are more reasonably priced than most I’ve seen, and feel fabulous.
I love this routine, because it might me rethink one of my problems. I have switched to clean shampoos last summer and not that much happened. But those were the cheap clean ones with not the best ingredients either. After a few month of using clean shampoo my sculp went crazy. Sebum overproduction. Serious overproduction. :( I just can’t get it to leave and I don’t know what to do. Is this some switching period? Or what reasons could there be? I have just bought a Belmar shampoo for greasy hair and also have an Aleppo soap that I will try, but I don’t even feel like hoping anymore. Does anybody have tips? Pleeease?
And I also miss the girly hair, does anyone have tips on which oils to use to make it smell amazing? Thank you all :)
Kate, the routine was awesome! I will start calling my DIYs “Fabulous Iris on a budget” :)
@zimt-peppermint, have you tried John Masters (they have pretty scents or unscented)? Or a less well-known favorite of mine, Griffin Remedy (smells orangey and lovely)? I never had any sort of “adjustment” – just switched to clean and fabulous, and I guess I’m lucky! For oils to use, lavender, vanilla and sandalwood alone or in any combo are good ones to try in my opinion.
@Rebecca Yay! They ARE reasonably priced. And they smell yummy.
@Kate The useful thing I took from you was the lavender essential oil in your hair. I’d never thought about rubbing essential oils straight into my hair! I also miss having nice smelling hair and my boyfriend complains that my hair always smells weird since I’ve gone clean. Not like my “me” smell and not like shampoo either. So that was a great tip.
I also love the more DIY-ey routines (obviously). I find them interesting and so helpful, given that for packaged products you can find reviews everywhere, whereas ideas on how to skip on product overload and using cheap, natural ingredients are not easy to find. In fact, that was what prompted me to write-up my own routine, in hopes it would spark more interest in the DIY beauty area.
So I would say keep it up!
Awesome DIY! I too have tried somethings DIY, and have failed :( But the best one I have done is for a deep conditioner. I had spent way to much money on these very unclean “deep conditioners” that didn’t really seem to work any better than my normal conditoner. SO! I decided to try using oils and seeing how that goes. I gotta say, wish I thought of that sooner! Once every one to two weeks, I deep condition with oils, and acutally do the “wash your hair backwards” thing. I just jump in the shower, get my hair wait, slather on the oil (which varies from time to time, I’ve used grapeseed, coconut, olive, jojoba, whatev’s, they all seem to work great!), put it up, do the rest of my shower routine, and at the very end, shampoo it out. This makes my hair super soft, shiny, and just great. I tried doing this every time I showered, thining maybe I could replace my conditioner with this, however, after the first time, it just is too much for my hair, and acutally makes it greasy and dirty looking (boo). So, instead, I do this as a sometimes thing, and it works great :) Thanks for all these routine posts! They are very awesome to read and inspiring!!!!!
@Emma, I’m with you on liking to see the DIY and encouraging others to try it. I used to think I was a busy urban girl with no time for DIY, but seeing other people doing it opened my mind. A major comment I see on this blog is about cost of products, and DIY (once you purchase some basic supplies) is inexpensive.
@ Kat, hear hear! I’m not much of a DIY-er, but I’m always inspired, and find the odd hint I can use :)
I love the morning routines, whether they’re DIY or not. Please keep them coming!