Are you a Snotsucker?

Now before you start passing judgment here me out.  

This is the NoseFrida.

Better known as the Snotsucker.

And if you have a baby or toddler I suggest you buy one...immediately.  

Because this thing is archaic.

The Nosefrida is a plastic syringe you place gently just inside your child's nostril.  Attached to the syringe is a tube with a replacable filter.  You suck the tube and all of the mucus from your child's nose shoots into the syringe.

Yes its gross.

Yes you look like a freak while doing it.

But it WORKS!! And if you are like me you will do anything to unplug your babies nose when they have a cold.  They can't breathe, which means you can't sleep and its all a vicious cycle. So at 2 am when your poor stuffy 6 month old is up crying because they are congested do what I do:

1. Drop two drops of Little Noses (or pediatric saline drops) into one nostril.

2. Place nosefrida against that nostril

3. SUCK SUCK SUCK
4. Repeat on other nostril

5. Clean Nosefrida and change filter

6. Smile because your baby can breathe

7. Go back to sleep

The Nosefrida is available online and in Utah you can buy it at Funfinity and Buy Buy Baby for $15.99.

I am a Snotsucker and proud of it.

Are you?

Product Review: Organix Moroccan Argon Oil Conditioner

Time for another product review!  This week I went in search of a new conditioner that would detangle my mess of curls.  You already know about my love for Herbal Essence Hello Hydration conditioner. The downside to that conditioner is that it is not a sulfate free conditioner.  I only use sulfate free shampoo because it does not dry out your hair. Sulfate free conditioner is also less drying, but in my experience does not work as well as traditional conditioners.  It usually does not give your hair the slip you need for the comb to gently glide through your hair during the detangling process.

Back to the product review.  After doing some research online, this conditioner got rave reviews and was available at my local Target for $7.99! Sounded like a win win solution to me so I purchased it with haste.  After shampooing my hair with Giovinni 50/50 Balanced Hydrating shampoo (MY FAVORITE!!) I sectioned my hair into 4 clips and slathered it on. The directions said to leave the conditioner on your hair for 3-5 minutes before rinsing. I left it on for 10 minutes because I have extremely thick hair and wanted to give it plenty of time to work its magic.  After 10 minutes I started the detangling process...and this is where my disappointment began. Let me start by saying my hair was extremely tangled so I knew I was in for a fight. However if you are going to be my go to conditioner you need to be with me at my worst.  This conditioner did not work for me at all.  While it is a thick conditioner and glides on easily it has no slip at all.  After applying more than half of the bottle to only 2 sections of my hair I was still fighting with tangles.  For the remaining two sections I ended up rinsing out the Organix conditioner and applying my trusty Hello Hydration and the detangling process was MUCH easier.  While I do not like this product for a detangling conditioner, I think it may have some promise as a deep conditioner.  Next week I am going to deep condition with this product and my heat cap to see if it can redeem itself. If that fails too, I'm giving it to Kelsey. 

So for right now this guy does not get the Brown Girl seal of approval.  Boo. I was really hopeful!!  If you have had success with this product please let me know! Or if you try it let me know your experience! 

TURN OFF SOCIALCAM SHARING

"Mom eats 3-week old son, says she didn't mean to"

"Man eats half of other mans face"

"Hidden Camera Girlfriend Swap"

Really people. Look its America I get it. You have the right to watch whatever vulgar, disgusting smut you want for your entertaining pleasure. But for the love of all things holy, turn off the sharing to Facebook in the Socialcam app!  I really don't want to know that you are watching a drunk girls gone wild video or worst a video of a cannibalistic man. If you want to fill your mind with that garbage you go right ahead but why should my timeline be clogged up with your vulgarity??

Watch whatever you want to. Watch it as many times as you want to. All I am asking is that you follow these simple steps to keep what you watch private. Or if you want to explain to Aunt Lucy why you like watching half naked woman wrestle you go right ahead and keep sharing.

Instructions to Turn off Socialcam Sharing:
*provided by Becky Worley*

Go to Facebook and on the left hand column under apps double-click Socialcam

Once in the Socialcam app itself, in the upper right hand corner, choose Settings.

Then in Settings, scroll down to "Auto Sharing" and unclick both the Facebook options. Scroll down again and hit SAVE.

Now save yourself some embarrassment and stop sharing your socialcam videos.

Please and thank you. 

Baby soft hands and feet

My favorite comment ever is when someone tells me I have soft hands.

I am obsessed with soft skin.

I love the look of it.

I love the feel of it.

My husband thinks my soft skin is pretty great too...

However baby soft skin only seems to only come naturally to babies.  Yes there are a few of you lucky people walking around with soft supple skin that you have to do nothing to achieve.  For the rest of us, soft skin is something we have to work on.

Dried out hands and feet is always a battle for me.  In the winter my hands are extremely dry from the cold and in the summer the bottoms of my feet are extremely dry from wearing sandals constantly.  And living in this desert climate certainly does not help. Never fear though, I have found 2 simple solutions that eradicate dry hands and feet!

Awww the magic combination. When my hands are feeling extra dry, I slather on 100% natural shea butter before bed and then put on my moisturizing gloves. When I wake up in the morning my hands feel smoother and softer than my 9 month old baby!! I purchased the gloves from the dollar store but I have seen them everywhere. They are extremely inexpensive so I recommend grabbing a few pair.  The shea butter I purchased at Good Earth, however they also sell it at Whole foods.  Beware you want to purchase 100% natural shea butter; it has a sand like consistency initially but as you work it into your hands it turns into an oily texture.  This same trick works for your feet using shea butter, vaseline or heavy hand cream/lotion and white socks.  Slather up your feet, put on the white socks and drift off to sleep. In the morning your feet will be soft and smooth.  If you have extremely dry and cracked feet, you may need to do this several nights in a row before your feet are crack free.  Once they are soft and smooth, doing the sock trick once a week will maintain your new baby soft look.

If you do not have moisturizing gloves you can use white socks on your hands!  I do the hand trick at least once a week in the winter to help prevent dry hands and combat any cracks I may get do to excessive hand washing.  Also, if you do not have shea butter, you can substitute cocoa butter, vaseline, any heavy hand cream, or lotion/body butter.  I prefer the thick stuff (shea butter or vaseline) but I think the key is keeping them covered all night to let the moisture slowly soak in.

I hope this trick helps you as much as it has helped me! Let me know if it works for you!!

Should the First Lady go natural?

I came across this picture today on Google and nearly lost my mind.

Michelle Obama rockin natural hair?! Could it be so???

Apparently not.

The image was photo shopped back in March and the Twitterverse and blogs were all a-buzz.  I of course missed it because I had a 6 month old at the time. Oh the joys of life with an infant...

Even though it was discovered that this picture was nothing more than a photoshop image, it still gave me a moment of pause.  Why won't Michelle Obama wear her natural hair?  For every black person you see with long, silky, shiny, straight hair, there are countless hours of blowdrying, flat ironing, beauty shop sitting, or weave sew ins that you don't see.  Why the fuss? Why not embrace what is naturally yours?

I struggle with this issue.  I love my naturally curly hair but I still feel most "beautiful" when I take the time to straighten it.  Since childhood, we are subconsciously taught that straight hair equals beautiful hair? How are we taught this? Every TV show, commercial, magazine cover, and advertisement has a beautiful thin woman with straight hair smiling at us. Most of the prominent black woman in our society will not wear their hair in a natural state. Is it because they too want to fit into traditional beauty standards?

I would love to see Michelle Obama where her hair in its natural state. I think it would empower black/brown woman and girls everywhere to embrace what the Lord has given us and be proud of our hair whether its curly, kinky, straight, or somewhere in between.  I'm not going to hold my breath though. The only curls we will ever see on the First Lady's head will come from a CHI curling iron.

Yes black people get sunburned.

This is Kelsey.

She is my 9 year old, smarty pants, cheerleader, dancer, funny girl.

Love her little guts.

Today while Kelsey was at cheer, a few of the girls were all talking about how sun burned they got this weekend in St. George.  Kelsey said, "I was in St. George all weekend and I didn't get burned."  Kelsey's cheerleading coach said, "well that's because you are black." Um hello ignorant. Let's clear up some facts shall we?

Fact number one: Kelsey is bi-racial not black.  Much like our President (love him or hate him) who is bi-racial, and not black.  Just because they both are brown does not exclude the fact that they both have a parent who is white.  

Fact number two: Black/Brown people can and do get sunburned.  So please protect your darker skinned children the same way you would protect your fair skinned children, by applying sunblock.

Fact number three: Kelsey did not avoid sun burn because she is bi-racial (black per her coach). She avoided sun burn because she has a mother who puts sunscreen on her!

While I realize that people with darker skin tone do not burn as easily or quickly as our fair skinned friends, it is still possible for us as a brown community to burn. More importantly we are not immune to the harmful UV rays that cause skin cancer.  

So yes black people can get sunburned. And yes it hurts and yes it peels.

Any more questions?

Once again, stepping off my soapbox....

Product Review: Yes to Carrots Nourishing Body Butter

Last week I purchased this Yes to Carrots Nourishing body butter.  You already know about my loving adoration for The Body Shop Body Butter, but since the closest Body Shop location is 30 minutes from my house I am always looking for another option that is readily available at a local Target or Walmart.  I picked this up from Target for $12.99.  Judging by the size of the jar and the amount I used everyday (about a palm sized amount for my entire body) I would say this product would last me approximately 3-4 months.  Yes to Carrots is a 98% natural product and is paraban free so it is totally safe to use on children.

Positives: It is reasonably priced as far as good quality bod butter goes. Again I realize a large bottle of Suave body lotion costs $5.99 but if you are a fellow person of color you need something with more staying power. It glides onto your skin very easily and is quickly absorbed.  You don't feel greasy or oily after and you are thorougly moisturized all day long.

Negatives: I am not a fan of the scent.  It sort has an almost baby powder aroma to it. The consistency is more lotion-y and less butter-y, know what I mean? Well in case you don't, some body butters are very firm in their consistency, almost like semi softened butter.  I enjoy that consistency far more than a more lotion-y type of consistency.  And finally this body butter does not leave my skin glowing.  My sister once told me that my legs are a shiny as a video vixen (hot girl on a music video wearing very little except a bikini) after applying my trusty Body Shop Almond Body Butter. While I am very far from a video vixen, I do like to have shiny legs.

Bottom Line: I will definitely keep this in the arsenal.  I would buy this product if a trip to the Body Shop was not in my near future and I would definitely recommend it to a friend!!

Congratulations to Melanie Brough who is the winner of a Yes to Carrots body butter! Let me know how you like it Melanie!!