How to Choose Your Perfect Lip Color?

Sephora has done it again ladies! Visit the Make Up For Ever Lipstick Finder page at Sephora.com, for 3 easy steps to find the perfect Lipstick shade based on your skintone and hair color! With the Lipstick Finder, it matches your skins undertone (I'm a huge advocate of matching your skins undertone) and hair color to the perfect lip shade of red, pink or nude! I personally love a nude lip... its safe, sexy and very versatile! I love wearing it with dramatic eyes and pretty blushes. There are soooooo many choices when it comes to lip color, so I'm really excited to hit Sephora and try out my shades based on the lipstick finder match! Did they just make my life easier???!!! I'm also excited about... wait for it........maybe trying a RED for the holidays! We'll see... I'm not a red lip girl... :/

Right now I'm really into Nars Honolulu Honey for my nude lip. My skin undertone is yellow resulting in Golden brown skin. What's your staple lip color? Please share your skintone and hair color as well!

Is Writing a Gift?

I think its such an amazing gift to be able to focus your thoughts and write a book. Have you ever read a book from a particular author and the words touched your heart so deeply that it brought you to tears or a place of unexplainable emotion? What a gift to not even be in the presence of someone and but their words have such a captivating, spell bounding, mesmorizing,responsive effect on your emotions.   There are countless authors and poets in history whom I adore. 

One of my favorite authors right now, who writes with authority and no shame, who's words evoke deep thought, sometimes bringing my heart to tears, and causing me to read 2.3.4 times over... is Dr. Myles Munroe.   He writes in such a way to not convince you that he's words are truth, but for you to understand his words, create your own perspective and hence create you own truth.

Who is your favorite author, blessed with the Gift of Writing? ...I'm talking about someone who's words truly move you to a place of emotional euphoria, creating a blissful connection between their words and your intellect to spark an emotional reaction? Pay homage in the comment box below.....

I'm currently reading Understanding the Purpose and Power of Prayer, by Dr. Myles Monroe.

I love reading!

Dye Hair Naturally with Indigo!

Well, the months are getting colder and the days are getting shorter... The easy breezy summer days of 2010 have come and gone. What does that mean for me? Time for change! This weekend I am planning on dying my hair black (its currently dark brown) naturally with with Organic Indigo. I recently dyed my Mom's salt and pepper hair with Indigo and covered ALL of her grey with amazing results! She wanted a chocolate brown/dark brown color and we achieved it beautifully.

So this weekend, I plan on doing my monthly henna treatment and this time.. drum roll please... following it with a dose of Organic Indigo.  The Indigo will darken my henna, which currently gives me reddish brown highlights in the light.  It was perfect for summer and fall, but winter calls for change. I plan on leaving the Indigo in for about 45 minutes (the longer you leave it in, the deeper the stain) resulting in dark brown/black shiny hair!  I am excited!  I love dark hair in the winter! 

What do you think?  I am excited to share my results!  Please check back soon for updates....

Some Indigo History:

Indigo comes from the ground leaves of the indigo plant which contains a deep blue dye.  The leaves of the plant are harvested, dried, and ground into a powder.  In modern day, Indigo is most commonly used to dye jeans, but has been used as a hair dye for centuries and many cultures still use this as opposed to chemicals to dye hair.  Indigo combined with Henna is a great ALL NATURAL replacement for modern chemical dyes and is non-damaging!  

Indigo Results:

1. Mix Indigo and Henna together, you achieve a medium brown to rich deep brown hair dye.
2. Apply Indigo AFTER Henna application, you achieve rich, shiny black to jet black color.
3. Indigo and Henna together cover grays.  (click here for pictures!)
4. Adds incredible shine to dull hair!
   
   
   

I'll post before and after pics!

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles: FRUIT SWEETENED (c)

MORNING DOLLS AND DUDES:

I hope your day is going amazing thus far! If not, think of something your thankful for and I'm sure you'll feel great ;).... hey it could even be that you found this great recipe! ;)

So yesterday, I headed to an outdoor festival with some friends. Yes its cold in my neck of the woods, but its still great fun to be outdoors! The ladies decided to bring food and snacks for the group to try... A few of the folks coming are Vegan and I personally do not eat or drink anything with processed sugar, so I decided to make some Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles and some Vegan Chocolate Walnut Truffles! They turned out AMAZING....

What you need for:

Sharron's Gourmet Veffles (Vegan Truffles) (c) :

Filing:
1 cup Raw Peanuts or 1 cup of Raw Walnuts*
1/2 cup of hydrated dates (about 4 or 5) pitted
Dash of Celtic Sea Salt or Pink Himalayan Salt
1/2 tsp of Raw Coconut Crystal by Coconut Secrets
1/2 tsp Coconut Oil
1 tsp of Organic Flax Seed Oil

For coating:

Vegan Chocolate Chips
Shredded Coconut
Hemp Seeds

To prepare:

Combine all filing ingredients in a food processor, blender or VitaMixer.  Scoop about a tablespoon size and roll into balls.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt down the vegan chocolate chips.  Dip each rolled ball into the warm chocolate coating all sides.  Set each truffle onto wax paper or spray foil with no stick spray.  Top each Truffle with shredded coconut and hemp seeds. 

I made a couple without Chocolate and a couple without Coconut for variety!

Place tray in fridge to harden chocolate for about 1 hour.  SERVE!



Yummie!

*Makes about 10 Truffles. 

I made 10 Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles and 10 Chocolate Walnut Truffles

I like food that "presents" a certain way.. I'm a sucker for all things gourmet, fancy and fabulous! I of course served the truffles on a fancy dish!  I am DEFINITELY making these again for the holidays so will have pics of the Truffle Presentation soon! 

Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite holiday dessert you plan on serving?  Any sugar-free or Vegan treats?

P.S. I make these delicious Sharron's Gourmet Truffles in various flavors, including special holiday packaging to make perfect gifts! Please contact me for shipping and pricing!!!! They make great gifts for family and friends. Surpise your love ones with this healthy treat. Contact me today! Guaranteed shipping before Christmas.

The Perfect Roller Set! Natural or Relaxed Hair

I'm a wet set/roller set pro, if I must say so myself! I've done my roller sets and several others since I was about 10 years old. My mom taught me how after she noticed my obsession with doing my dolls hair! I was always cutting and/or styling my dolls hair or making them clothes!!! I digress....

I love roller sets on my natural hair. I roll my entire head in 15 minutes! I of course use:

Jane Carter Leave in Conditioner and that's it!

Roller setting hair is a piece of cake once you get the hang of it. The trick is in the parting of your hair and the tight hold of the rollers.

What you need:
Rat rail comb
Rollers
Metal clips
Coconut oil or almond oil

Step 1:
Starting in the front of your hair, take the tail of the rat tail comb and part 1/2 inch at most on both sides from the center and apx. 2 inches back. Part another 1/2 of hair, horizontal. This will be the first roller.

Step 2:
Take comb end of rat tail comb and comb out any tangles. Take roller to almost the end, holding hair tight against the roller and roll down holding hair tight. Once roller reaches head, clip with silver clips.

Step 3:
Repeat step 2 for top 2/3 rollers in front of hair. Starting on your dominate side, make another vertical part above the center of your ear ,then repeat Step 2.

Step 4:
Continue this until all hair is rolled.

YOU CAN AIR DRY OR SIT UNDER A HOODED DRYER ON THE COOL OR WARM SETTING.

Once dry, I breeze my edges with a flat iron, PLACE A SMALL AMOUNT OF COCONUT OIL OR ALMOND OIL ON FINGERTIPS AND RUN THROUGH HAIR, wrap my hair with a paddle brush, wrap with plastic wrap, sit under dryer for 3-5 minutes on warm then take hair down. You can wrap at night for ocean wave curls or pin curl for fuller curls!

NOTE: IF YOU AIR DRY, THE PROCESS IS MUCH LONGER, BUT YOU CAN AVOID HEAT THIS WAY IF YOU DESIRE.

ROLLERSETS yield amazing curl and long lasting style!

How do you roll?

Quick Health Tip of the Day

Good Morning!

Prayers and Blessings for a great day!

Start your day with a good well balanced, breakfast. Eating breakfast each morning is GREAT for your metabolism and will provide you with the energy boost that you need to get your morning going.

Skip the coffee or tea and opt for Warm Water with 1/2 fresh Lemon (juice and pulp) and honey.

An easy Breakfast suggestion is: Sugar-free organic Oatmeal. Add raisins, walnuts and Cinnamon.

Enjoy your day!

Dash New York has launched: Kardashian and Fashion News!

It seems everything the K-Sister's touch turns platinum, so its no surprise that they now have another successful event to add to their list!  The business savvy Kardashian sisters hosted their launch party for their brand new Dash New York Store on November 3rd.  This is the 3rd Dash store for the Kardashian sisters and its sure to be a Big Hit in the Big Apple.  I wonder if there are plans in the future to open a store overseas? 

Here are some pics from the red carpet:

They all looked amazing at the launch party.   It would have been nice to see the matriarch, Kris Jenner there as well! 

I plan to make a trip to Dash NYC really soon.  The sisters have amazing style so I'm sure the selection will be uber nice!

3 Natural Toothpaste brands

More and more people are converting to natural toothpaste as an alternative to cleaning teeth. Have you ever checked out the ingredients in regular mainstream toothpaste? Most people probably have not.   However, if you read the labels, most of the ingredients in mainstream toothpaste are chemically derived and names that most of us can't pronounce. I can assure you that you would be alarmed at the amount of chemicals that go into your mouth each day, at least twice a day. 

Most people that start using natural toothpaste, notice an IMMEDIATE difference and would not dream of converting back. I must admit, it took me a WHILE to convert as I had my favorite brand, but now, I love my natural toothpaste.  The best natural toothpaste ingredients consist of herbs and oils that protect the teeth and gums and promote a healthy, chemical-free mouth! Here are my top 3 favorite natural toothpaste that I would recommend are:

1. BlanX USA

2. Toms of Maine, Whole care, with Fluoride.* NOTE: This is now sold at Target, if you have a phobia of going into "natural' stores. ;)

3. Burt's Bees Natural Flouride-free Toothpaste, whitening without Fluoride. 99.2% Natural.  I have not personally tried this but have read great reviews on it!  Let me know if you've tried it.

BONUS: There are also natural mouthwash alternatives. Previously, I was a firm believer that if I didn't feel the "burn", then it wasn't working! I will review my top picks soon!

*This does contain sodium lauryl sulfate but it is derived from coconut and/or palm kernel oil

Do you have a favorite natural toothpaste or what are your thoughts on the ones above?

NEWSFLASH Curlformers: Extra Wide and Long

As promised, on an earlier Curlformers post I wanted to post an update once I used my Extra Wide and Long Curlformers to achieve larger and fuller curls. I received my Curlformers on last week! (Sidebar- Super fast shipping by the way!) Well, last night after an invigorating Kickboxing class, I washed and deep conditioned my hair and I was ready to ROCK with my new larger Curlformers! The process of course is the same, NO HEAT STYLING but I DID USE DIFFERENT PRODUCTS, just for fun and I love trying new products!

This time, I used only 2 products:
Jane Carter Solution Leave in Conditioner (my staple leave-in)
Natural Oasis, Conditiong Foam Wrap and Sculpting Lotion

The Natural Oasis is new to me and is a DREAM!  OMG!  So love this! I stumbled upon this while in my local hair store last week on my quest to find an all natural setting lotion.   The POWER of PRAYER! True story-- For a couple weeks, I searched for an all natural setting lotion with no luck and was secretly dreading getting one with alcohol :/. Right before I went in the store, I prayed to find an all natural setting lotion, and there it was!!! ...recognize each opportunity as a blessing and give thanks for even the smallest of things! I will post a FULL review on this product soon but needless to say, I LOVE the combination of the Extra Wide and Long Curmformers, JC L-I-C and Natural Oasis.

My curls came out nice and full, like.. Ocean Waves with body!

Here are some pics of the final "do" with the Extra Wide and Long Curlformers:


Day 1. 
I promise to take better pics and do a vid next time! This was an experiement, but I loved my results!

Day 2
A little frizz, but still nice and curly!



Yummie Stuffed Cabbage rolls.. Vegan Style

The other day for lunch, I had Stuffed Cabbage rolls from one of my favorite raw/vegan/natural eateries. It reminded me of how much I LOVE cabbage, so I decided to make my own this past weekend along with some raw pumpkin pie for dessert! Yummie! The Stuffed Cabbage Rolls were super easy to make! Here is what my Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 small head cabbage
1 cup brown rice
Vegetable stock or Chicken stock (your preference)
1 medium red onion
1/2 cup of Apple Cider (local and fresh preferably)
2 Organic Carrots, sliced
2 Organic Celery stalk cut into pieces
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green pepper
salt
pepper
thyme
rosemary
1/2 teaspoon of raw honey
Tofu (optional)
1 can of Organic marinara sauce
Cheese or Vegan alternative

Prepare rice based on package directions. Add salt, pepper, butter rosemary.

Steam sliced carrots and celery until soft.

Warm Organic Marinara Sauce. Season as desired.

In a small pan, simmer apple cider, then saute onion, garlic, red and green peppers until soft. Add carrots, celery and cooked rice. Heat gently for a few minutes to let flavors meld. Remove from heat and add honey and firm Tofu.

Take cabbage and core and plunge into hot water for a few minutes to loosen leaves. Peel off 4 leaves.

Put a layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan. Lay a cabbage leaf and spoon rice and vegetable mixture into the cabbage leaf, fold up the sides and roll. Put the rolled cabbage on the sauce.


Cabbage rolls before sauce and baking


Once all Rolls are filled, pour remaining Marinara sauce on top and top with cheese (optional)
Cover and bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Serves 4
Prep time apx. 30 minutes (40 minutes including rice)

*You can freeze these for up to 3 weeks.