Have you heard of the tiny house movement? I have become a little infatuated with the idea myself. Not that I have any hope of fitting all my junk into a 200 or less square foot home. Still, I love to see how they have used the small spaces so efficiently and I am mildly envious of their clutter free lives. If you are curious, or already have a little of the tiny house bug, like I do, you might want to check out these free video's on Hulu.
Tiny House Nation and the Film Documentary Tiny.
Even if you aren't ready to get ride of all your worldly possessions it is inspiring to think about using the space that you have in a more useful way. Case in point my night stand drawer which I will be cleaning out some time later today.
Any-whoo on with today's tutorial.
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I had so much fun with this project. I love all the DIY health and beauty tutorials out there. Last year I made some lip balm and I was hooked. I don't think I will ever buy lip balm again.
So when I stumbled on to some make up tutorials I had to give them a try. I don't know which part I am more excited about. The fact that I made my own make up or the part were it all fits into an Alotid tin.
These are the things I gathered.
Altoid Tin
Make up mirror (removed from old compact)
Small pencil sharpener
Emery board - cut down to fit in tin
Plastic gift card with duct tape tabs (for divider)
Lip liner (cut to fit in tin)
Eyeliner brush (cut to fit in tin)
Eyebrow pencil (already almost too short to use :-)
These are the things I made.
Lip Balm in a bottle cap
Colored lip gloss in a bottle cap
Powered foundation in a bottle cap
Blush in a bottle cap
Mascara brush from old mascara
Mascara / Eyeliner in a ball point pen case
Read on if you are curious.
Lip balm - I love this stuff! It is really easy to make with just two ingredients. 1 part beeswax to 2 parts almond oil melted together and poured into a bottle cap to cool. I am assuming that anyone doing this will have cleaned and sterilized to what ever degree they feel is necessary. So onward. Here is a more detailed tutorial from Family Home and Life. It is for hand lotion bars but the process and ingredients are the same.
Colored Lip Gloss - I did this as an experiment but I am happy with how it turned out. Use the lip balm instruction above but add a few drops of red food coloring to the melted beeswax and oil. Then pour into a small container and stir until the wax cools enough to hold the color. If desired move to a smaller container while mixture is still soft and before cooling is complete.
Blush and Foundation - For these items I made my own combination from these two tutorials. Homemade bronzer from Thank your body and DIY Homemade blush from One good thing. Once I had a color I liked I pressed the mixture in the bottle cap and let it dry out over night.
The mascara brush was cut from an old mascara bottle which is harder than you might think. Use wire cutters not scissors. Wrap a little tape or something else to make a better grip. Protect the brush end with a small piece of ball point pen tube left over from Mascara / Eyeliner bottle below.
First the "bottle" and then some thoughts on homemade mascara / eyeliner. Remove the ink portion from a ball point pen. Cut tube to fit in the tin with the cap on. Cover the holes in the cap with small piece of duct tape and your tiny container is ready.
Some thoughts on home made mascara. First I tried this tutorial. It was weird because the aloe vera gel doesn't stay mixed in, but I was experimenting so I use the goop that was left and it didn't really stick to my lashes which was disappointing.
Then I tried this tutorial. It was better. This mixture actually put some color on my lashes but it didn't do much to thicken my lashes and it didn't stay on very well. So I thought what the heck and I mixed the two concoctions together in a 50 50ish manner. There was some improvement but still no real thickening of the lashes.
So I did a little research on mascara which some how lead me to try this. Starting with a clean mascara brush I applied my lip balm (love that stuff even more now) to my eyelashes and then I applied the mixture of the two mascara recipes to my eyelashes and it was remarkable how much fuller (thicker) my lashes were after the lip bam under coat. It still doesn't wear quite as well as my store bought mascara but it is a huge improvement.
As far as the eyeliner goes my mixture of two mascara's seems to work quite well.
So while I am not quite ready to move into a tiny home at least I know I have some make-up that will fit in it. :-)
Actually I made it as a travel kit.
Happy Upcycling,