Scrubby Soaps & Heavenly Honey

I don't know where all you ladies are from, but if you live in Illinois you will know that today was so stinkin' gorgeous that it actually felt. Like. Spring. Yes. Amazing. Too bad I had to be stuck in an office all day! Luckily I had last Friday off to prepare for family coming over this past weekend, and Friday was also gloriously spring-like. I was actually walking around outside without a coat on. Geez, you'd think we'd been in a deep freeze for months—oh wait, we have. So it's about bloody time. :)

Anyhow, on to more important things. I needed to share a couple of wonderful little items I've come across in the past couple of weeks. First of all, we have to start with charcoal. Yes, charcoal. I've been reading a lot about how activated charcoal can help suck out dirt, oil and other impurities from your skin. It sounds weird, but it's all the rage right now, so I decided to try it. I couldn't find a reasonably-priced charcoal face product online, and I was a little wary about some of the products that claimed to perform miracle-like skin rejuvenation. I mean, nothing is that perfect, right??

What ended up happening was that I found myself at a trunk show. It wasn't even a beauty trunk show; it was for these amazing purses (by MoJo Re-Creations... so cute!) at this cute little boutique in Lemont, Aurora Rose. And I came across this beauty.

Photo from ButterduckFarms.com

Butter Duck Farms is a well-known brand 'round these parts, seeing as they're from Bolingbrook, IL. I've seen them several times at farmer's markets and summer festivals, but never got around to purchasing anything. When I saw this activated charcoal soap at Aurora Rose (oh, and a delicious-smelling alpine cedar soap), I grabbed it up, took it home, and immediately washed my face.

AND. I. LOVE. IT. For real, I can honestly say it's the best facial soap I've ever used. My skin feels soft, smooth and bump-free. After using it for about three days, a cheeky bump that was about to flourish into a not-so-cheeky pimple shriveled up into oblivion. It's a wonderful product, smells great, and keeps my combination skin in check.

All right, on to my second find. In case you weren't already aware, I have something of a honey addiction. Okay, so I have about ten bottles of raw honey in my cupboard and you know what? I'm not ashamed! Eh hem. Basically, I love anything having to do with local, raw honey. I just love tasting seasonal honeys one after the other and noticing the subtle flavor differences. That's what brought me to Honeyrun Farm.

Photo from Honeyrun Farm's Etsy Shop

I ordered the sampler above ("sampler" being a light term, since these are nicely-sized 8-ounce bottles) plus the Spring Black Locus, Lemon Verbena- and Lavender-infused sampler. The floral notes in the seasonal honeys are so wonderfully different from one another, that having six bottles is totally okay. The flavors are so subtly different, especially to a honey-happy gal like myself. The lavender-infused honey is INCREDIBLE in chamomile tea, by the by.

The owners, Jayne and Isaac Barnes, make this awesome raw honey and cold-process soaps on their family-owned bee farm in Ohio with chemical-free practices (which I love, of course!). I also ordered the soap sampler gift package and found myself with six luscious, great-smelling handmade soaps that I've been having fun trying out every day. I also ordered fresh bee pollen, which is loaded with protein, B-complex vitamins and free amino acids. It's great for your skin, gives you energy, and actually helps boost your immune system! (source) I love sprinkling it on greek yogurt and granola (with a drizzle of honey, of course!). If you're a honey hound like yours truly, I highly recommend checking them out!

That's all for now, cookies. Enjoy the weather while it lasts! Hopefully we'll see some spring blossoms soon!

xo

It's Almost Spring ... Kind Of!

By Just2shutter at freedigitalphotos.net

The first day of Spring is Thursday, March 20; so you know what that means, right? Hopefully no more bouts of unforgiving snowstorms, nasty droughts and bizarre polar vortexes. I've had about enough, and I'm sure you have too. I long for the days of warm, fresh breezes filled with the scent of blooming lilacs and honeysuckle; the days of high sun, cool drinks and the seemingly never-ending aroma of barbecues and freshly-cut grass.

Okay, I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. It's spring, not summer, for crying out loud. I'm not necessarily one to have the most optimistic attitude, but I am just so done with this freakish winter I've turned into a positive-touting guru. It's kind of disgusting, actually, but it's getting me through slopping around in slushy snow and ruining unsaid numbers of great shoes.

All right, let's get to the point. As you all may be aware, I had a full-time job in the real world which recently turned into another full-time job in the real world... thirty miles away from my apartment. Yeah. So, needless to say, I've been giving Piękny Cookie about five percent of what little time I have during the day. Um, last blog post was? Yeah, it's been awhile. One good thing about driving upwards of two hours to work every day (Chicago traffic + snow + ice + overly-careful drivers = NIGHTMARE) is that I get plenty of time to think and formulate new ideas. Which is why I came back to this blog and decided to get a little more disciplined about its upkeep.

The other reason I'm back is because I will be introducing my new Spring collection of perfumes (squee!) on March 20. I have four fantastic new scents that I just know you will all love (I know I love them, anyway). Plus, I will be re-vamping my shop just a tad and begin offering perfumes in collections. I don't really have a great collection area in my shop, and I'd love to be able to offer you guys packs of goodies for a discounted price. So, keep on the lookout for some new yummy scents coming your way in Spring!

Also, you may have noticed that my shop is lacking in the lip balm department as of late. Late last year I decided that it was in my best interests (financially) to discontinue lip balms and tints. The demand for them was minuscule in comparison to my perfumes, so I decided to focus all of my energy on fragrances. Sad news for lip balm addicts, but great news for anyone who loves great-smelling, moisturizing perfumes

Along with my new Spring collection, there may be a teensy little surprise for all you Facebook fans out there, so pay attention to your newsfeed mid-March for updates! I hope you all have a great rest-of-the-crappy-winter; don't worry, ladies, Spring is almost here!

xo

Summertime Blues -- I mean, Hues!

I REALLY need to start getting on the ball with keeping this blog updated. I find that I get so insanely busy at home, I end up neglecting something really important to me; namely, this blog and all those who read it!

Now that that's out of the way, we can get down to business. I've got a wonderful product to review! It's been quite some time since I've given a product review, so here goes.

Logona Herbal Hair Color

Yes, I went back and tried henna once again. You think I would have learned from the first time, but you know what? You fall off a horse and yadda yadda yadda. So I decided to try this brand I found online called Logona, a German-based cosmetics company that specializes in all things natural. It's a smaller company that only has about 150 employees, which really only helps things in my view. Sometimes the smaller the company, the more involved personnel are in the making of products; not to mention all that extra attention to detail!

Not only does Logona have a ginormous selection of products in general, it also has a superb selection of henna. Brown Umber, Flame Red and Golden Blonde are just to name a few. The other neat thing is that they actually have a super helpful color chart that gives you direction on the best shade for your natural hair color. Naturally, I decided to go with Flame Red, but when I consulted the color chart, it wasn't exactly recommended for my hair color. The regular Henna Red, however, was. So I went ahead and purchased it.

Yeah, it was the same smelly pile as before. On the other hand, I was prepared this time. Let me tell you a little secret about applying henna to your hair: use Vaseline around your hairline and cotton piping. Last time I only used the Vaseline, and boy, what a disaster. The cotton piping makes a huge difference. If you don't have cotton piping lying around, simple unroll a few regular cotton balls and stick them on top of the Vaseline.

I will say that the Logona seemed to have a less pungent odor than the Light Mountain Natural henna that I used last time. It was still green and it still had a slight manure-ish smell to it, but it was not nearly as strong. One of the other qualms I had with LMN was that it left very little color in my hair; meaning, practically none at all. Logona, on the other hand, left quite a nice red hue and left my hair shining. I was really happy with the results, and I even have enough left over for another application when the color begins to fade.

Logona Liquid Foundation

One thing I thought I'd show you are the liquid foundations Logona offers. I myself use my tried and true mineral foundation from Noella Beauty Works, since liquid foundation has been putting me off for years with my oily skin. But for all you dry-skinned gals out there who are looking for natural liquid foundation, Logona gets pretty good reviews online (from what I've seen) and it might be something to try out. It's kind of pricey, but you can find deals on Amazon that will shave off a few bucks here and there.

That's all for now, cookies. Have a great weekend!

xo

Piękny Cookie

Time For a Vacation

That's right, cookies. VACATION TIME for yours truly. On Sunday, I'm leaving for Florida to visit my mom for her combination birthday/Mother's Day gift. Plus, my birthday was on Cinco de Mayo, so it's sort of a dual celebration! Anyway, the shop will be CLOSED from Sunday, June 3 to Sunday, June 10th. I'll have it back up and running by Monday. If you'd like to make a purchase while I'm away, I will be checking my emails occasionally, so feel free to send me a convo on Etsy shop or a message through my Facebook page.

Thanks, ladies, and enjoy your week! I know I will!

xo
Piękny Cookie

Spring Craft Fair

I have some more exciting springtime news! Piękny Cookie will be sold at the Spring Craft and Vendor Show hosted by Aurora Rose. I'm so excited to be a part of this show! There are so many amazing vendors at Aurora Rose and I can't wait to meet everyone. I will be offering an array of items (some not even in my Etsy shop yet!), so come on over and buy some stuff without worrying about shipping fees. Also, be sure to check out all the other great vendors. Oh, and if you're interested, there will also be a tarot card reader there! How fun. Hope to see you all there!

xo
Piękny Cookie

April Showers Bring SALES!

Okay, so I know it's mid-April, and not like, a milestone day or anything. But I decided to give my little cookies a present and offer some tasty SALE items, some up to 50% off!

Lately I've been craving citrus, whether it be in my food, perfume or body products, and I've decided that I absolutely looooove LEMON! Lemon is such a tart-sweet, invigorating scent that everyone should be able to enjoy this spring, which is why all of my lemony-delicious items are on sale -- including the popular CITRUSH Dry Shampoo!

CITRUSH Dry Shampoo

Sale items also include the Lemonade Stand 5-gram lip balm tub, Lemony Lassie Refreshing Facial Spray (um, a NEW item, so grab it while it's hot!) and Lemony Lavenderp Brown Sugar Scrub.

Lemony Lavenderp Sugar Scrub

So if you would like to prance around this spring with the light, sweet aroma of sugary lemon, take a gander at my SALE ITEMS available until the end of April. Thanks, darlings!

xo

Piękny

Oh, We Love Moisture!

 Lemony Lassie Refreshing Facial Spray

As much as cookies love milk. I've added five new moisturizing facial sprays to my shop; Lavenderp, Lemony Lassie, Chamomile, Geranium and Jazzmin. For a quick moisture fix in the morning, just close your eyes and spray it on your freshly washed face, then let it air dry. My skin is combination/oily, so I find this stuff perfect. It's light and great for summertime, especially when it's super humid outside. I live in Illinois, and there are times when I swear to jeeves it's a damn rainforest here. At least, the mosquitoes make me feel like it, anyhow. Ugh.

Zit Zappa Acne Spot Treatment

So, I got myself a pimple the other day and decided to take it out with my own acne spot treatment creation. With concentrated tea tree oil and witch hazel -- a great astringent -- I made my own blemish blaster I like to call Zit Zappa! I love it. Tea tree oil is great for zits, but I find that when you dab it on full force it gets a little too burny and stinky for my liking. Pair this with the Geranium facial spray (awesome for oily skin) and you've got your acne issues sussed.

Bare Naked Flavor-Free Beeswax Lip Balm

Also, for all you au naturale gals out there, I decided to offer a flavor-free version of my beeswax lip balm. Just the bare necessities in this baby, without the sweetness. Well, there's sweetness of course, but a different KIND of sweetness -- soft, moisturized lips! Enjoy all the new products, cookies, and have a great week.

xo

Piękny