My Ultimate Cleansing Secret

Everyone is busy with their lives nowadays and yet, even during wee hours of the night I still see people posting many things about what they did at the gym or what they ate. It's really a no-brainer to say that these days people are opting for that healthier option. While there are still plenty people that would react to this, one can never digress to the fact that more and more people tend to value and give more attention to their health compared to, like, a decade ago.

I'm one of those people. I take notice of what I eat and get concerned about my health. I know how to appreciate food like the next foodie out there, don't get me wrong, I love food and I eat a lot. Like, a lot - A LOT. However, I am also not a fan of pure meat diet or the meat everyday routine. I can't live like that. My tongue also wants variety and adventure, what do you think?

Anyway, since I just came home from GenSan (where I went overboard with my adventurous tongue) I felt that I should do a bit of self cleansing. You know, self-cleaning, flushing toxins, fat burning, whatchamacallit. As I have mentioned before, and if you know me personally you know how I really love to eat and make my own food, I made something to help me cleanse.

 I was browsing my Facebook feed when in popped a message from one of my friends asking for a recipe. This is all about that new photo I posted in Instagram of a drink I concocted a few days ago now.

This is the Instagram photo of the juice that I posted.

Now this friend of mine asked for the recipe for this and after a few exchange of messages she closed the topic by saying "you should blog about this and the many stuff you make soon!" Which gave me this idea to share the recipe to you too! (Thanks so much Anne!)

There are a lot of benefits to each ingredient I used and I believe that this is not new to many health-buffs out there. So here goes~

What you will need:

1 cup freshly squeezed calamansi
1 cup honey
1 L *approximately* water
1 medium sized cucumber
1 Orange or Lemon
1 Stalk of fresh lemongrass
(brown sugar if you don't have honey or do a half and half for honey and sugar)

1. Slice the cucumber, orange or lemon and set aside. Crush the lemongrass' stalk with a pestle or the hard handle of your knife.
2. Mix calamansi juice and honey in an empty pitcher and pour half a liter of water.
3. Add the lemongrass first, stir and let sit for 5 minutes before adding the cucumber and orange or lemon slices. Add the rest of the water or if you're like me, I added ice instead. (And no, ice won't make you fat.)
4. Let sit for 10-15mins before drinking.
5. Enjoy!

My Pimple-Free Journey with Malunggay (UPDATED)

Well, as everyone knows what malunggay is, I won't delve deeper into it, just some, courtesy to those who live far, far away.

Moringa, or what the locals in the Philippines call Malunggay, is a highly nutritious, leafy vegetable. It has been called many names, but the one that stuck to me is "The Poor Man's Vegetable" due to the fact that this plant is so common and is consumed by everyone, particularly in the rural areas and slums. You don't have to buy these as they grow everywhere without any tending.

I just recently discovered the amazing uses of Vitamin C in the skin if applied topically because I started selling Derma Rollers. I will discuss more about that in my other blogpost soon. Anyways, I am aware that Vitamin C is great for the body, except that I am not well informed about its amazing powers on the skin  as applied in a serum form.

I am aware, however, that this plant is very very nutritious and thought, what if I applied malunggay juice to my pimples? Since Vitamin C helps reduce the breakouts and I know malunggay is full of Vitamin C, I mean, why not? It's organic, healthy, cheap and I don't have nothing to lose! (Except the pimples, which is wonderful!)

I will share with you some notable benefits of Malunggay :

• Malunggay leaves helps strengthens the immune system.
• Malunggay can help restores skin condition, controls blood pressure, relieves headaches and migraines.
• Malunggay tea can help strengthen the eye muscles.
• Malunggay tea can help heal inflammation of the joints and tendons.
• Malunggay tea can prevent intestinal worms.
• Malunggay can help increase semen count.
• Malunggay help normalize blood sugar level therefore preventing diabetes.
• Malunggay has anti-cancer compounds (phytochemicals) that help stop the growth of cancer cells.
• Malunggay helps relax and promotes good night sleep.
• Malunggay tea is used to treat fever and asthma.
• Malunggay help heals ulcers.
• Malunggay is high in calcium (four times the calcium in milk)
• Malunggay contains three times the potassium in bananas.
• Malunggay contain four times the vitamin A in carrots.
• An ounce of malunggay has the same Vitamin C content as seven oranges.
• Malunggay leaves contain two times the protein in milk.

Here's my face. My pimples appear and disappear at times but I am tired of them especially when I'm about to have my periods. The breakouts are annoying and nothing ever works. Sometimes they stay for months and will not disappear and that makes me super shy. Eventually I will not go out because of them and my self esteem dwindles. What a downer! >_<

Fogrive my face and the camera quality. haha ^_^

So you can see, these pimples are so annoying and started to multiply even if I don't go out.

So I picked some fresh leaves and ground them with my hand after washing them until juice came out. I mixed it with a little water and continued to grind them until it feels sticky. I then applied it to my face like a mask, careful not to include the circles of my eyes and waited for like 15 minutes and then I washed with water.

TADAAAAH~!! Fat face haha

I didn't have a blender and I only used like one twig of the plant so there. I look funny! Haha

That's day one. Fast forward day 3. The pimples are not angry blotches as they have been days ago. I am religiously applying ground malunggay leaves and the juice in my face when I wake up and before I sleep.

I will update this post when I got to Day 5. I am seriously hoping this will work. For the good part, my pimples are not inflamed anymore. So yeah!

***UPDATE!!!***

Well, I felt compelled to show you how it went after my experiment with malunggay. So here's the outcome. After so many nights of smelling like crushed leaves and a whole tree cut down (LOL) I'm proud to say that I'm really pimple-free!

LOOK!!

DIY : Ombre Shorts

Ok.

So recently, I got so busy delving into another world that also exists in this Earth: the Internet. I was looking for things to do, things to craft and things to play as a way of relieving stress coming from my current job.

To be honest, I wasn't really looking for something, I was just surfing the net when I came across these cool-colored shorts that are clearly long pants not so long ago. Check these out:

(c) Internet, of course

I am a fan of breezy short pants and, boy! These are fashionable trendy! Being the researcher that I am, I quickly searched about this and where can I obtain one. I discovered it is called Ombre shorts . Sadly, some of these are from abroad and the ones here are just plain EXPENSIVE!

So hmmm.. How can I make one? Here's where the fun begins.
I got a lot of plain shorts so I closed my eyes and picked one, hoping it wasn't my favorite, in case I fail. And then I thought, "What shall I need?"

I Googled about how to DIY these and the first try (I typed "ombre short") I was directed to HAIRSTYLES! OMBRE HAIRSTYLES! Whatever Google!! But then when I saw the photos of the hairstyles, I realized, this is just the same as the shorts! It has layers of colors. Like this:

(c) whoever took Miley C's photo

Well, I am not a neophyte in bleaching hair, I've bleached and colored my hair following the rainbow shades already. All I have to do is combine those and wear my hair like the rainbow at once! Anyway, back to the shorts. Since it involves bleaching, I prepared everything I needed, if you want to do this, follow through:

MATERIALS

• your not favorite shorts
• NOT blunt scissors
• a lot of bleach (I used Zonrox since it is by far the easiest obtainable bleach in the Philippines)
• pair of gloves
• old toothbrush (or new, whatever you like)
• small basin
• some patches or studs if you want them (I do but I haven't had any for now)

So by now you are ready and a bit nervous.

First, trim your shorts to your desired length. A short ombre shorts are so nice to look at! So, pick up a pen and line the legs and start cutting now! Make it into a V so when you wear it, it's not awkward.

forgive my poorly chopped pants! LOL

Right. See?

Okay! Put on your goody gloves and start working with bleach.
So fill a small basin up to half and then pour the desired amount of bleach and mix it well. Get your shorts and dip it up to where your desired bleach effect would be up to.

PLEASE! Avoid dripping on the other side of the shorts or you will see some unwanted spots. Total FAIL.

Wait for about 20-30 minutes to see the effect.
If you want to get a nice color, let it be submerged in the mixture for more or less than the time given, depending on your taste.

Yup, after 15 minutes.

I sometimes changed the position to achieve a balanced bleach effect on it. After 30 minutes, I removed it from the basin, spread it and brushed pure bleach on the center right where the color ends so I can remove some messy spots. You can do that - or not! c^^,)

Old toothbrush is very old and unused~

After that, I returned it to the basin to bleach it some more. Like this:

I waited for about 15 minutes more for this.

So after you got the color you wanted, remove it from the basin and wash it in flowing water, the bleached side on the bottom. Wash it well to remove all the bleach as bleach tends to be itchy on skin. Hang it to dry.

VIOLA! You have a pair of cool Ombre shorts! Attach the studs after it has dried and wear to flaunt!

Here's mine! \ (^_^) /

Right. Don't bother my beautiful face! haha