• Natural toner for the face
• It has skin brightening properties
• Remedy for puffy eyes
• It heals sun burns
• It refreshes as it cleanses the skin
• It is a natural remedy for blemishes
• It has anti-aging properties
• It works as a natural moisturizer for the skin
• It has anti-bacterial properties
• It relieves skin irritations and inflammation
• BONUS: makeup setting spray

• Fresh roses
• Clean water
• Sauce pan
• Clean spray bottle 

• Wash the roses. You will want those to be chemical and pesticide free
• Tear the petals carefully and put them in the sauce pan
• fill the sauce pan with 2 cups water 
• Bring the water to a boil and simmer until the petals lose their color and the water becomes pink. The red ones really turn the water nice bright pink.  
• Turn of the heat and allow the water to completely cool
• Pour into the clean spray bottles. If you want to give your rose water protection from UV light, then use the amber/cobalt blue spray bottles.
• Refrigerate your DIY rose water and use within a month or less.

Ah...Bistek Tagalog a.k.a Filipino Beef Steak.  I would like to share this very famous Filipino recipe and how I do it in my own kitchen.

It has been a month since my last post, which as usual, is about my hair. I am giving my hair a break and I am giving you guys something new to read about from my blog. So here I am...sharing a recipe.

Bistek Tagalog is one of the home favorites that I often cook for my family. It is also a common "pambaon" recipe. It is simple. It is tasty and it is a combination of two of our most favorite ingredients--Beef and onions.

Every household, mmm, every mom, has a different tweak for this dish. For us at home, we prefer it served with plenty of caramelized onions and roasted garlic.

There is nothing very fancy about the ingredients and the steps to making this famous Filipino dish is super easy. The taste, however, has a rich and luxurious feel. BISTEK, please correct me if I am wrong, is a colloquial term derived from BEEF STEAK.

The saucy dish originated from the Tagalog region. The strips of beef, preferably sirloin, is marinated and slowly cooked in soy sauce and kalamansi juice. In our home, and in most places, we top it with roasted minced garlic and lots of onions, then we serve it with steamed rice.

And the onions...some people use red onions while my family prefers white. It does not really matter which one you prefer. For me it tastes the same when caramelized, although white onions tend to have a stronger flavor. I cut the onions into rings and brown them in oil, then I pour enough water to cover them, then I add just one half of a chicken broth cube. I let it cook until most of the liquid is gone and then I set the onions aside.

Without further ado, this is how I cook my own version of Bistek Tagalog.



The first thing to do is marinate the beef. You need at least one hour to ensure that the beef will be flavorful when cooked. Some people would marinate it overnight, but in our house, 1 hour does it. Also, I sometimes use tenderloin because I prefer my beef really tender, not chewy.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While the beef is marinating, obviously an hour can seem too long if you are simply waiting for it to pass, mince about 6 cloves of garlic and cook it in oil until it turns golden brown. Remove the garlic from the pan and drain on paper towels and set the garlic aside.
 
 
Then I caramelize the onions. I do this buy sautéing the onions in the same pan where I browned the garlic. Then I add a small amount of water, just enough to cover the onions. Add Magic Sarap or salt then let it cook under medium heat until most of the water is gone. Then I add butter and let is continue to cook until the onions are tender, translucent and brownish. Remove the onions from the pan and set it aside as well.
 
 
 
So those are the things that you need to do before you actually cook the beef. This is the recipe:
 

Ingredients:

500 g of beef, sliced thinly
4 Tbsp of soy sauce
6-8 pieces of calamansi,juice
2 Tbsp of Knorr seasoning (optional)
1 beef broth cube
1-2 tablespoons of sugar
2 Big onions, cut into rings
Oil for sautéing
Salt and pepper to taste
6 Cloves or Garlic

Steps:

1. In a bowl, marinate the beef in soy sauce, Knorr, calamansi juice.

2. Mince the garlic and cook in oil until golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside. Using the same pan, add the onions. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add water enough to cover the onions. add salt or magic sarap to taste and cook under medium heat until the water is almost gone. Add a tablespoon of butter and continue cooking until the onions are caramelized and the water is all gone. Set the onions aside

3. Then in a bigger pan, heat oil then sauté beef until brown. Add water enough to cover the beef. When the water begins to boil drop the beef cube. Also, pour in the marinade.
 
4. Add more water, if needed. The beef should be very tender.

5. Continue until the water is reduced. Add sugar and continue cooking for about two more minutes or until the liquid has reduced to a thick sauce.

6. Remove from heat, and transfer to a serving dish. Top the beef with onions then sprinkle fried garlic.

7. Serve with steamed rice and enjoy.

That's it. Bistek Tagalog is so simple to make. What is your version of this recipe?

 
 
 

This is something you NEED to read before using a DIY toner!

Photo Source: Pexels

I learned a really good lesson just recently and this applies to DIY hair toner. Before I continue, I must say that I am not a hair expert. I do my research online and often end up doing "hit and miss" experiments on my own hair. I am sharing my personal experience so you would not have to go through all the trouble. But it is important that you do your own research as well.

I have been trying to achieve a super light blonde. Don't ask me why--hehe--I just want to do it. So over the last couple of month, I have been doing several bleaching sessions. Some women achieve this in one day.

I am not going to go to the technicalities of how it is done. To make the long story short, hair bleaching involves bleach power + either 9% (30 vol.) or 12% (40 vol.), which strips the hair of its natural pigment. It is a strong process so in my case, hmmm...I chose not to achieve lightened hair to a  pale yellow in one day

The DIY hair toner I described above worked well for me until the day I had my hair bleached again. Here is what happened.

I went to a salon to get my hair bleached to a pale yellow, finally. So I was expecting to get almost platinum results with my DIY hair toner. The problem was not during the bleaching part because we were able to lighten my hair to the level I wanted it to be. The problem was after the bleach was rinsed.

I asked the stylist to apply the DIY toner on my head. I brought my violet dye with me and my preferred brand of condition. Why did I do that? sad to say...commercially sold hair toners (Wella T-18, Manic Panic Virgin Snow...etc) are hard to come by here in the Philippines. So, what salons would normally do for clients who want to go blonde is dye the hair after bleaching--something I do not want to do after bleaching sessions. And this is also the reason that I am not blaming the hair stylist for NOT knowing the things I learned on YouTube.

Moving on, it was either the stylist was not able to wash the bleach completely out of my hair or it was because my hair was very, very porous and that it still had remnants of the bleach in it, or the hair follicles are still open...etc. that when she applied the DIY toner on my hair, the bleach (or whatever that is left in my hair) acted like a developer for the violet dye.


...and platinum in some parts.

ooops! i left my DIY Toner a little too long and now i have some purple hair. hahaha. nah! im just gonna leave it there. it will wash off eventually :) #purplehair

A post shared by piaya d (@piayad) on Apr 5, 2017 at 8:08pm PDT

So I guess, the DIY Hair Toner is safe to use 2 or 3 days after bleaching if you don't want to end up with some purple tinge somewhere.

In my case, I left it there for a few days. Then I did a bleach wash to remove the purple color and finally used a non-DIY toner instead--Wella Color Charm T18.

What is a bleach wash? I will write about that soon.

Got a tip to share? Comments? Please write it below :)

Do you think your little ones or YOU need a little help in order to fall asleep? You probably just need some fresh lavender scent on the sheets during bedtime. This DIY lavender sleep spray might just send your kinds and yourself to dreamland in no time.
Take note that you only need a few drops at a time of any essential oil and for this recipe use therapeutic grade lavender oil, not the burner type.

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Have an amazing and super relaxing spa experience in you home with this super easy to make Lavender Detox Bath Soak

I recently wrote about the our experience in this famous hotel in Boracay and how I was bringing some of my DIY bath soak with me. Well, I am sharing the recipe here.

Being a super busy wife, as well as a mother of three lovely children, sometimes makes having a quality "ME" time so impossible. But any mom would never survive unless she finds time to pamper herself every once in a while. If you do not have the time to go to a spa, why not have a little spa experience at home.

For this recipe you will only need three basic ingredients: Epsom salt, baking soda and lavender essential oil.

First of all, please do not confuse Epsom salt with the salt that you use for cooking. Epsom salt, named after Epsom in England, is made from magnesium and sulfate. It does wonders to the body which is why it is the main ingredient in most bath soak or scrubs...


This ingredient helps reduce pain and swelling in the skin and it also has anti-inflammatory properties. Many people use it for the treatment of eczema and other skin problems. Best of all, it is all natural, which means it is safe for the skin. It should be noted, however, that its detoxifying properties work fast so soaking in an epsom salt bath should be limited to 15-20 minutes, 2-3 times only per week.

Moving on, baking soda also has many amazing benefits to the body.  Besides being a natural all-purpose cleaner, it can be used as a deodorant for the body. It also gently exfoliates the skin and helps give relief from itching or irritaion and much more. Many people use baking soda to soak colds away.



Last but never the least, lavender essential oil. If you can only have on essential oil, this is all you will need. It has very relaxing properties not to mention good smelling. It can help calm you or your children down so it helps get you or the young ones ready for bed in no time.

Oh, lest I forget...you can add a few drops of food color. I added a few drops of violet but it somehow turned blue. Anyway, I prefer blue as it makes me feel calm just by looking at it. This part is optional though, you can skip the food color.

• Many people claim it works
• I can't stand my yellow hair and I can't wait until the toner finally arrives at my doorstep.

Summer is upon us and besides all the fun under the sun, summer also means that there is an extra need for us to feel and smell fresh amid the heat and humidity. Surely, a nice body spray can seem to be the best quick solution. HOWEVER, some of us find colognes, body sprays or perfumes to have scents that seem too strong.



Wouldn't it be nice if we could find one that is mildly scented and does not contain chemicals? So, why not make your own scent?

Do not fret, it is not a difficult thing to do. Today, you will be learning how to make your very own Orange Body Spray with Vanilla.

Why are we choosing orange? Because the citrusy smell of oranges give that delicious fresh feeling. And oranges, YES! REAL ORANGES, as an ingredient in this body spray recipe is not that hard and not expensive to buy.

So let’s get right to it.

You will need these four things:

4 oranges
1 teaspoon of white vinegar
½ cup of distilled water
Vanilla flavor or extract

It is important that the pot, the bottles, or anything that will come in touch with these four ingredients are clean or have been sterilized.

You can go ahead and eat the oranges and set aside the peels. When you are ready, put the peels in a pot and put half a cup of water. Let the water come to a boil and turn off the heat. Cover the pot and let it stand overnight.

When you open that pot the next day, prepare to smell oranges. Then you will notice that the water already has a slight yellow tinge. This means that will not need any artificial coloring. Our focus is to keep it as natural as possible.

Notice, as well, that the water will feel a little oily. That is because you have just extracted the oils from the orange peel and that is good. Next, pour you the mixture into a container that has an airtight seal, but let the liquid pass through a coffee filter or a clean white cloth, you don’t want to include some of the fibers, rind or whatever that came off the orange peels while they were soaking in the water.
After that, pour in ½ cup of distilled water, again let it pass through coffee filter—just to be sure. You may add more or decrease the water to adjust the strength of the orange scent. Add a few drops of vanilla extract. Then add a teaspoon of vinegar, which will act as a preservative. Don’t worry, the orange and vanilla scent will mask the smell of the vinegar and vinegar is good for the skin. In addition, vinegar repels ants, so you can now imagine what it is for.

Mix all ingredients and put the mixture into a big spray bottle or a smaller spray bottle. You can refrigerate any remaining liquid. As a bonus tip, you can add body glitter. Enjoy your homemade Orange Body Spray with Vanilla

Did you try it? Let me know what you think. 

 Make this sparkling crystal bead hoop earrings with memory wire...

Step 4. Slip 16 beads through the wire and create a loop at the other end. Do not close the 2^nd loop yet.