DISCLAIMER: I'm not forcing you to do this. So if you blow up your house or scratch your lips or I don't know, gain twenty pounds or something, it's not my fault. Sorry, but some people will sue for ANYTHING.

Hey my gorgeous people,

So this has been interesting me for a while. My lips tend to get very dry very quickly and once I heard about lip scrubs (I didn't know you could exfoliate your lips!) I decided to look into it. Only loads of major brands are selling tubes of the stuff for upwards of £20 - I mean, really? - and even one of the cheapest (and nicest) brands, LUSH, are selling theirs for around £4.50. (review here: http://theglossgoss.blogspot.com/2010/02/spring-haul-part-1.html) This is reasonable considering it comes in lots of different flavours and is a lot cheaper than many other brands, but even so it's the best part of a fiver for what is essentially flavoured sugar. Knowing this, I decided to look into making my own.

Ingredients (or a brief guide, anyway):

Two tablespoons caster sugar (or any type you want, not icing sugar though as that will make a paste)
Half a teaspoon of cocoa powder (add more if you want it more chocolatey)
One teaspoon Jojoba oil (really, you can use any oil for this, I just fancied jojoba. Add more if you want it more moisturising or less if you want it more exfoliating. Make sure the consistency is right for you)
A few drops Mint essential oils, to taste (please make sure these are safe for your lips!)

So I started out with the sugar and the cocoa powder in a bag and mixed them together, really well.

 I emptied them, mixed, into this little tin that used to hold my rosin for my violin bow (it ran out, so I have another one now :P)

Here it is! So use this on damp lips or with a bit of Vaseline. You can apply it with your finger or an old toothbrush, and just scrub until all the dead skin is gone!

Love,

September Lena

Yeah, that's right.

The gorgeous Avon "Flash" that I swatched yesterday? It chipped after about a day and a half. I was horrified. It was SERIOUS chipwear. :( Such a shame, when "Minimalistic Peach" - which I reviewed here - lasted without any chips until I took it off. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to the topcoat, which probably last saw light some time in the 90's (meh. It was free.) and was really rather gloopy. I'll swatch it again at some point.

In other news, I hope everyone has had a great easter! As I was so disapointed with the Avon I painted over it with my Chocolate Franken that I talked about here. It's practically empty now but I want to make more frankens and I need that bottle to store them in :P

Just to show off the franken a bit more. I think my skin matches the egg, kinda :P And now for the nail art. I decided to use my brown Nail Art pen to graffiti my nails so that they looked like the weird crackle/shell patterns on this egg...

My school's production of Les Mis ended a week ago and since I was involved (playing the violin in the orchestra, it was great fun!) I went to the afterparty at the boy who plays Marius's house yesterday :P Was great fun, but this is how my nails looked like: