Help for Winter Skin and Hair

Happy Wednesday, My Lovelies!

Today I want to share with you a few of my favorite products for combatting winter dryness.

Our skin and hair put up with a LOT during winter.  Heating systems dry out our hair and skin, and blowdryers compound the damage we do to our hair because we tend to use more heat on our hair in winter than in summer.  It's so important to protect our skin because it's the largest organ in our bodies!  Plus it's our first line of defense against illnesses.

These are my personal favorite products, and my daughters have introduced me to a few of them.  Many come in travel sizes so you can try them without spending tons of money.  

HAIR:

I've tried many moisturizing conditioner, but either they really aren't that moisturizing, or they make my baby fine hair too limp.  R+Co's Atlantis Moisturizing Conditioner  ($29.00 for 8 ounces) is the best I've ever tried.  Leave it in your hair for 10 minutes for extra conditioning, plus it smells heavenly with bergamot, wild fig, and cyclamen. (Available in travel size)

Some days I need even more moisture, so I use Aveda's Dry Remedy Daily Moisturizing Oil ($31.00 for 1 ounce).  Just three or four drops for longer hair is all that's needed.  It also helps with flyaways.  I can either use it on wet hair before styling or dry hair when needed.  It's also a multi-purpose product because it's great on dry elbows, knees and cuticles.

BODY:

Lush's Scrubee ($7.95 for 3.1 ounces) is one of my favorites.  Introduced in 2017 for their Mother's Day line, Lush has kept it because it's so popular.  You can see it in the lower left corner, above.  The Scrubee is made with shea butter and honey to moisturize and almonds and coconut shells to exfoliate.  Some folks shy away from exfoliating during winter, but this is a mistake!  The way you use it in the shower:  Rub the bar over wet skin and massage the rich butters and exfoliants into skin.  Rinse, and pat dry with a towel.  Easy peasy!

Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream (not shown; $10.99 for 16 ounces) Is one of the best body moisturizers on the market.  I love it for my heels, especially.  (Available in travel size)

HANDS:

L'Occitane Gommage Mains One-Minute Hand Scrub (now made with shea butter and sold in a tube, $24.00 for 2.5 ounces) is quick and works wonders for dry hands.  I also like all of their hand creams, especially their Shea Butter Hand Cream (not shown, $29.00 for 5.2 ounces, available in travel size).

Aveda's Hand Relief Moisturizing Cream ($24.00 for 4.2 ounces) is my very favorite hand cream.  It only takes a little, and it's is very emollient.  My mom bought me one for Christmas!  (Available in travel size)

LIPS:

Lush Lip Scrubs (10.95 for 0.8 ounces) should seriously be illegal.  It's my guilty pleasure of the moment, and the flavors include: chocolate, honey, cherry bubblegum, and "mint julips."  I have the chocolate, of course!  They also make the lip balms to match, and with instructions like this: "Take a pea-sized amount and scrub your lips soft, then lick off the excess," need I say more?

Fresh's Sugar Lip Treatment ($24.00 for 4.3 grams) is the smoothest lip balm ever.  It's proven to keep lips moist for at least 6 hours, and it has an SPF 15 protection.  

FACE:

Clinique's Moisture Surge Overnight Mask ($35.00 for 3.4 ounces) helps prevent moisture loss while you sleep because everyone loses moisture overnight.  I've always loved moisture surge, so when Clinique came out with the overnight mask, I had to try it.  I love that it literally stays put on my face and doesn't get into my eyes overnight like many serums tend to do.  In the morning, your skin will look rested and moisturized.  (Available in travel size)

What are your go-to products to combat winter dryness?  Please let me know in the comments section below!

Until next time...

Blessings!

Ricki Jill

Bringing In a Little Cheerfulness for Gray January Days

Fresh flowers from the Piggly Wiggly

Happy Monday, My Lovelies!  This time of year I enjoy fluffing our home with fresh flowers and plants.  These additions help to brighten-up dreary, gray winter days.

And we've had bunches of those lately....

But fortunately for me we had a couple of sunny days recently so I could take some halfway decent photos in our home. 

I placed our fresh flowers in our powder room and kitchen:

I always scatter primroses around our home during January.  I also purchased a new fern and a cineraria.

Primrose in our family room

Cineraria in our foyer

New fern also in our family room

I moved this philodendron from our kitchen to the foyer

I decided to keep this red primrose on the breakfast room table for Valentine's Day

I usually don't decorate for Valentine's Day so early, but I decided to go ahead and decorate the breakfast room table.  I will probably change it closer to the big day...maybe change the runner and bring in roses.

Resources:

Primroses:  The Leaf 'n Petal

Raffia hearts and rose napkin rings:  Pier1

Hearts teapot:  Emma Bridgwater

Runner and heart dessert plates:  Williams Sonoma

Napkins:  Anthropologie

Heart shaped dishes and bowls:  MacKenzie-Childs

I can't decide how to decorate our dining room.  I asked my Instagram Friends, and some of them had funny responses.  ;P  The three choices I asked their opinion about were: Mardi Gras, winter (which I'm sick of....but mayhap I should embrace the coldness and gray skies), or Valentine's Day.  Right now I'm leaning towards Mardi Gras!  What do you think?

I'm thinking about going out today and buying more primroses.  Maybe I could arrange them at each place setting in the dining room because it's the darkest and most depressing room in our home!  

How do you beat the post Christmas I hate winter because it isn't baseball season yet blues?

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Literary Friday: Beartown

Happy Literary Friday, My Lovelies!

My first review for 2019 is Beartown by Fredrik Backman.  Several of my Instagram Friends have read it and loved it, so when I saw it at my local library, I checked it out.  I read it at the perfect time, when we were having flooding rains here in Central Alabama.  Beartown's setting is so cold and dismal that it made me feel better about our weather!

I've also read A Man Called Ove written by Backman, and I loved it.  

According to Goodreads:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true.

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

My Review:

Beartown is located far from a major city, and is close to the arctic circle.  Although small, it is a microcosm because many different demographics call Beartown home.  And don't be fooled thinking that this is a novel about hockey and it wouldn't interest you (I'm from the Deep South and I know next to nothing about the sport).  This book is very deep, and has many, relatable themes.

It helps to know a little about the Swedish education model before reading Beartown.  Students with certain abilities can attend specialized high schools called gymnasiums (an art school would be an example).  There are also gymnasiums for sports, too.  In Beartown, the citizens are hopeful that the junior team will win the national hockey semi-finals and possibly the finals.  Then their town would receive a charter to build a hockey school, which would bring in families, which would bring in commerce and save the town.

I enjoyed the deep themes of this book: mob mentality, feminism, ethics, racism, and class divisions.  But the most compelling theme is that no matter what parents do, they cannot keep their children safe.  This is the theme that will wake you up at 2:00 A.M.  The story is very good, but at times during the plot Backman is repetitive (we get that Beartown is a hockey town already...quit repeating it).  I also enjoyed the characterizations, especially the teenage girls.  I found it hard to put down, and although I'm a baseball girl, Beartown has piqued my interest in hockey.  I suggest you grab a copy, make some hot cocoa, build a fire, and read!  It's the perfect book for winter reading.




The book above is an affiliate link for IndieBound

Are any of y'all reading Pride and Prejudice this month for book club?

You still have a couple of weeks to read it before we discuss it on January 25th.

I'm enjoying this edition so much!  

There are recipes scattered throughout the book.

I also love the quotes!

Please read it with me!!!

Until next time...

Happy reading!

Ricki Jill