Ramya Merona

Heyho, People! :D How do you do? Happy Friday! The holi-Fri-day!

Today's we're celebrating Chinese New Year, where all red stuff are being shown anywhere, I bet some of you are wearing red clothes too... Hey, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! <3 

Anyway, I have a red surprise for you guys.  Oh, it may not be a surprise for each of you, since it's not a freshly-baked recipe from my mind, but...well, it's quite interesting!

So, what is this thing I'm blabbering about?

It's a lip and cheek stain topic!

I bet it sounds red (or pink, orange, magenta, purple, I don't know), isn't it?  Almost all girls love that product.  It's multitasking, useful, cute, practical! Many manufacturers make this kind of lip/cheek colour.  Some of them are for lips only, some of them are lip + cheek's friends. 

Due to my concern about ingredients in my cosmetic, I never bought any lip + cheek stain, because it's usually a little drying, and red colour usually contains carmine.  Carmine are from crushed beetle...ah, I can't imagine using crushed beetle on my lips.  Even Ancient Egypt ladies were suffering from carmine! You may find the data anywhere... Oh, and, have I mentioned another dangerous chemicals inside them?

But I have one lip & cheek tint from 100% Pure, a US brand I love. It's not containing any carmine or another synthetic dye. 
Though it's lovely, I still want to try a liquid stain! And I want it immediately.

One day, I read a blog, somewhere, I even forget who's the blogger, but she talked about a DIY lip stain from beetroot! And I've read about The Zero Waste Home, where Bea Johnson makes her own lip stain from beetroot.  After reading all the information found (credits to all of ya!), I decided to make one!

The ingredients are simple. I follow the most simple recipe I discovered.  We only need a beetroot and vegetable glycerine (make sure you have that plant-based one, or the one you'll get will be so...bloody since some glycerine is derived from animals!).  I don't know whether we can make one with other ingredients like VCO or lemon juice only, I'll try it after my premier stain runs out.

Anyway, here's the written guide for you, if you're not too visual: 

First, peel and chop the beetroot, just do it randomly...be careful with the stain it makes.  Put them in a pyrex or ceramic bowl (find anything heatproof).  Drop the glycerine onto 'em, and boil them on top of double boiler (alias kukusan in Indonesia), or use your Indomie boiler pan (call them 'Panci Indomie yang ada pegangannya'), fill it with water, boil while you cook the beetroot inside a pyrex/ceramic bowl.

Wait for 20 minutes or less, or more. The stain will be mixed with the liquid of glycerine.  
  
Let it cool for a while, then pour the red liquid into a lipgloss container, or a glass jar if you don't mind using your finger to apply the potion. 

Your all-natural-carmine-free lip and cheek stain is ready! Please not, we better keep it in the refrigerator to avoid bad things happen.  Or, you can bring some of it with your lip gloss tube, and store the rest in your refrigerator.  In case you want to do a touch up on the road.  But I think you should consider keeping your lip gloss tube in that freezing-drawer too after you arrived at home. 

I love this lip stain I made.  It's red, it's not breaking me up, it's very lightweight but it still gives blushy effect and red on lips. I'll post my photo later, wearing this brand new make up I made.    

I suggest you to try this at home! ;) 

Well, have a nice day, Fellas!