Hello lovelies,

So this is a mini rant about shrinkage. Yes shrinkage is a *insert cuss word here*. Its the only reason why my hair will go fromTO
I try my ‘bestest’ to embrace it but it is so frustrating. On my way to the library today i ran into my friend and she goes ‘Omg did you do the  big chop again?’ *Insert blank stare here*. Okay rant over. Hehe. Share your shrinkage stories in the comment box. Its time to RANT!!

Stay Natural!

Itunu for The Natural Saturdays Team

>Hello lovelies, so this morning I woke up and the first thing that crossed my mind was the fact that my face was in need of a serious facial. I don’t know about you guys but long ago i established that as a student I couldn’t afford bi-weekly trips to the spa hence the birth of a lot of home-made remedies. That’s part of how ‘NaturalSaturdays’ came about but that’s another story for another day.
Anyway so today I shall be sharing how you can do a facial that would rival any spa’s one at home using 100% natural ingredients. So Legggoooo!! Hehehehe i crack myself up

Facials generally follow 5 steps. cleansing, exfoliating, steaming, facial masks and lastly moisturising. Cleansing ensures that you remove the dead skin layers on your face, this will remove the unwanted dull, dark cells that hide your natural inner skin tone. Exfoliating, use of masks and steaming ensures that you open the pores on your face to remove dirt/makeup residue and oil which cause black/white heads. This will prevent black/white heads and keep your face smooth and clean. Moisturising helps restore the essential oil balance to your face.

You will need:
1. Cotton Wool

2. Cold Water

3. Black soap

4. Witch hazel or rose water

5. Facial Scrub: Brown sugar and honey

6. Vitamin E oil

7. Soft Towel and Paper Tissues

8. Steaming hot water

9. Herbs of your choice: Rosemary, sage, chamomile powder

10. Cucumber slices

11. Bentonite clay

12. Some soft music (optional)

Steps:

Step 1: Cleansing:
Wet your face and apply the black soap all over, massage in an outward/upward direction. Leave for 10-15 minutes. This will loosen the pores in the face and also remove dirt and oil. It will also make the face ready for application of facial scrub. After 15 minutes, wipe the black soap gently off your face with a cotton wool then follow with rose water or witch hazel.

Step 2: Exfoliating
After cleansing the face, it’s time to remove the white heads and black heads from your face. For this, again wet your skin with a little water. Apply the sugar and honey scrub on your face and massage gently with outward/upward movements. Keep massaging for 10-15 minutes. This will remove all the white and black heads from the loosened pores.

Step 3: Steaming
Get your large bowl of boiling water (at this stage herbs of your choice should have been added to the hot water), then cover your head with a towel making a tent around the bowl. Steam your face for about ten to twenty minutes (If you get too hot at any point lift the towel). By steaming, blackheads or white heads come out of the pores and it becomes easy to extract them. To extract white heads and black heads, place the bottom of your thumb on the blackhead and exert mild pressure until you see the blackhead come out. Take utmost care not to use your finger nails and not to apply too much pressure as too much pressure can lead to scarring

Step 4: Face mask
Mix the bentonite clay with water or apple cider vinegar if you have some. After mixing gently rub into face and neck. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. While you’re waiting for your mask to dry, place your cucumber slices over your eyes to get rid of eye bags, play some soft music and use this time to relax and meditate, its a wonderful experience trust me. After about 15 minutes Rinse with warm water until all traces of mask have been removed. Do a final rinse with cool water to close pores.

Step 5: Moisturise
Moisturise with a drop of vitamin E oil. Apply while face is still slightly damp in order to seal in the moisture.

And that’s it. You’re done! You can do this facial at home 2 to 3 times a month.

PS: You can purchase your black soap and bentonite clay at our online store.

Stay Natural!
Itunu for The Natural Saturdays Team

>In this video I invite our lovely reader/customers and Natural Saturday lovers to discuss skin problems. This post is in special reference to Facial skin, We will go into Body later.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IizG3CPy_FQ?rel=0&w=560&h=349]

 Oil Cleanse - http://naturalsaturdays.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-cleanse-method.html
Hyperpigmentation (more later)
Bentonite clay (treatments coming up) see online store soon

If you are unable to watch the video, kindly answer the questions that were addressed in it. They are as follows
Did you participate in any of our skin challenges? If yes how was it?
What are your most pressing skin problems? (mine are dry skin and allergies)

Can’t wait to hear from you (P.S invite your guyfriends, boyfriends and brothers… they need good skin too )

Sabirah for Natural Saturdays

>What are the 3 products your hair can’t do without? I’ll go first. I absolutely cannot do without water. I know weird right, water is my friend, my hair loves water!! Although this causes shrinkage but hey. Next my hair cannot do without Shea butter, hence I use Natural Saturdays hair butter which is primarily made up of Shea butter. Lastly my hair cannot do without castor oil, I know I keep raving about this oil but it has done wonders for my edges and nape. Other products/items I use regularly:
1) Black soap to wash my hair
2) Home made deep conditioner, mostly using bananas and avocados
3) My big detangling comb
So over to you guys, what are the three products your hair can’t do without?

Stay Natural:
Itunu for The Natural Saturdays Team.

>Hello lovelies, this is just a quick video update on the hair growth challenge, video is kinda all over the place but I’m sure you’ll get the gist of it lol. I finally took out my braids and my hair is growing!! Yayyyyy! Anyway just general chit chat. If you haven’t read about the hair growth challenge, you can do that Here. Happy viewing!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7B3pe391QQ?rel=0]

Pictures of my hair semi stretched out:

Stay Natural
Itunu for The Natural Saturdays Team.

>

Natural Saturdays Body and Facial Pack

>Hello lovelies. With the launch date of our online shop getting closer I thought I’d let you guys know 5 GOOD reasons why you should buy our products.

1) Handmade with love: All our products are handmade with love from us to you. This means that we tailor make our products to suit each individual’s specific needs. As each product is handmade after you place your order, this makes it possible for you to leave specific instructions regarding scent, flavour, allergies etc when ordering your products.

2) 100% Natural: All our products are handmade from scratch using ingredients that nature has provided us with. This means you can enjoy the advantage of using natural products on your skin without worrying about harmful chemicals and preservatives present in most commercial products.

3) You’re giving back to the society: We at natural saturdays are dedicated to empowering underachieving girls in Nigeria. We have set up an empowerment project which you can read about here. For every product you buy 1% of the money goes into supporting this project. So you’re staying natural as well as helping underachieving people, how awesome

4) Tried, tested and trusted: All our products go through a test run over a period of time. What this means is that before we release a product to the public it is guaranteed that we have tested it over a period of time. PS: We at Natural Saturdays do not support animal testing.

5) We’re readily available: We are  just one click away from you, be it twitter, facebook or via email. This means that we’re on deck to provide support and answer all your skin care and haircare questions. We’re always here to advice you on how to get the best out of your products too


I could go on and on but I’ll stop here for now. Happy Shopping.


Stay Natural
Itunu For The Natural Saturdays Team

>Hello Everyone,

This is the second installment of “The Best of your NS products series” but before we begin we have some exciting news!!

*Drumroll please*
We are launching our Natural Saturdays online store (For our UK & US customers) This Saturday!! whooop whoop! If you are following us on twitter and you have liked our Facebook page (If you aren’t I suggest you do so now so you don’t miss out on good deals) You would know all about it already but to our loyal readers here you have it! So if you are in the UK or US get ready cos we are bringing the Natural Goodness to you!

On to today’s post.

A lot of our readers have purchased our body butter and by the look of things, it is definitely our best selling product yet! So here are some different ways to use it.

1. As an all over body moisturizer : This is the most general use of our body butter, we recommend using it right after the shower, Gently pat excess water from your body and apply the body butter all over paying attention to particularly dry and rough areas like knees, elbows and ankles. It will not only lavishly moisturize your skin but the various oils in it will also seal in the moisture.
2. As a foot balm : After a long day, wash your feet and apply a generous amount of NS body butter, massage it well into your feet and slip on some thick socks and go to bed. Wake up the next day to soft and pampered feet. This is not only an excellent way to relax, but doing this often will lead to baby soft feet!
3. As a part of your manicure and pedicure : If you get your nails done often then you know how drying nail polish removers etc can be. NS body butter contains cuticle loving oils that can be used to replenish all this lost moisture. Just massage it into the nail bed often and watch your cuticles repair.

>Hello Lovelies,
You know how when we were little our mums had these little salon kits that contained everything we needed regarding our hair (well my mum had one). As a natural here are some items that should be in your own kit, well except this is not a salon kit per se but more like items every natural should own. In no particular order:

1) Detangling Comb: Every natural needs a sturdy wide tooth comb to detangle hair.

2) Satin Hair Bonnet or Silk Scarf: Protect your hair while you’re sleeping by using one of these, silk prevents your hair from moving around thus preventing breakage and snagging.

3) Empty Spritz bottle: In mine I have a mixture of water and glycerine. I have two of these, one large one that I keep at home and a mini one I carry around, for when my hair needs that extra moisture when I’m out.

4) Bobby Pins: If you ask me these are life savers. Useful for when you need a quick pin up style or when you need to keep your hair in place. Bobby pins have saved my hair on countless occasions.

5) Heating cap/deep conditioning cap: Perfect for hot oil treatments and deep conditioning.  Better than bubble dryers won’t dry out skin, scalp and hair.

6) Hair section clips: Ever find you just don’t have enough pairs of hands when styling your hair?
Section Clips are light-weight clips that hold your hair firmly allowing you to control and section hair whilst styling.

Elastic hair bands: These are essentials, whether its to put your hair up in a bun or for use in the banding method of stretching hair. However look for the variety that says “no damage.” these are usually simple rings of elastic covered in fabric. These types of elastic hair bands tend not to get caught in the hair and are far easier to remove. Additionally, they have excellent hold, and will keep your hair safely in its style. Avoid bands that are joined by a small metal bar as they are very likely to get tangled in your hair and removal may rip hair

>

You know the drill, we at Natural Saturdays try to encourage everyone to grow their hair naturally and stay away from relaxers, they are bad for you in the long run, but we do acknowledge that some of our readers have relaxed hair and at the end of the day, whether relaxed or natural, hair needs to be cared for regardless and so we started the relaxed series. This is a continuation form part 1 which you can read here.

Relaxers: Ahhh the infamous creamy crack, If you must use relaxers on your hair make sure to do it properly. Read all instructions on the box very carefully and ensure your stylist (if you use one) Knows what she is doing

Proper use of heat:

First rule you should stick by is: ALWAYS use a heat protectant. A simple natural alternative is Grapeseed oil. Its protects your hair from temperatures up to 450 degrees. Always blow dry hair about 8 inches away from the air, and never blow dry soaking wet hair. Flat irons should be a treat, and done very infrequently, they are the leading causes of permanent heat damage, You can achieve the straight bouncy look by wrapping your hair at night, or just wear your hair in more curly styles to avoid using the flat iron all the time

Extensions:

These are a blessing and a curse, while weaves and braids can help protect your hair against the weather and constant manipulation, they can also damage your hair when  they are kept in for too long. People also neglect their hair while wearing extensions which is a leading cause of breakage. Your braids should be washed  and moisturised often (tutorial coming soon) and so should your weaves.

Stay Natural:

Sabirah for The Natural Saturdays Team

*Images courtesy of google