In part one we discussed the common problems of puffy eyes, sagging lids, and dark circles. Today I’m continuing on that track by providing solutions to a couple of other common eye conditions–sparse lashes and crow’s feet.

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A little less than a month ago I finally did it. I’d seen the widgets on various blogs and visited the site a couple of times… I wasn’t sure if this was for real or not. Could I really earn valuable prizes just by searching the web? I signed up for Swagbucks to find out for myself.

In less than a month, I have earned 455 Swagbucks, enough to trade in for a $5 Amazon gift card. There are six ways you can earn Swagbucks:

1. Search the web with the Swagbucks search engine. This doesn’t always earn you points, but I’ve found that I can reliably earn between six and thirteen Swagbucks every day.
2. Take advantage of Swagbuck’s “special offers.” In other words, shop. I haven’t done this and I never intend to. It’s totally unnecessary to earn substantial rewards.
3. Complete surveys for companies affiliated with Swagbucks. If you qualify for these surveys, the payouts can be big. I have never qualified for a survey, but have earned some points filling out my survey profiles. Swagbucks will usually award one point for simply visiting the survey page to check for new surveys.
4. Trade in your old cell phones and MP3 players for Swagbucks. I’ve never done this either, and haven’t found it essential to earning substantial rewards.
5. Answer the Swagbucks daily poll. This only earns a single point per day, but those bucks add up!
6. Invite your friends to sign up for Swagbucks too. I haven’t done this yet, but from what I hear this is usually the biggest earner, especially for bloggers.

Clearly, as I have demonstrated above, it doesn’t take much to earn real rewards on Swagbuck. And Amazon gist cards aren’t the only thing you can get with your earnings–there are tons of valuable prizes in the Swagbucks Store.

At the rate that I’m going, spending approximately two minutes a day on Swagbucks.com doing the bare minimum, I can earn $5 a month in Amazon gift cards, which amounts to $60 a year. Not bad for such a small investment of time!

If you’d like to get in on the Swagbucks action, you can sign up here. (Yes, you did just earn me some Swagbucks by doing that, and I thank you for it!) Happy earning!

Have you ever wondered what women did to keep their hair clean back in the day when shampoo wasn’t around yet? Over the last four years, my journey towards healing has led me to question many of our culture’s hygiene standards. We soap, shampoo, condition, brush, floss, moisturize, gel, mousse, and rinse with hundreds of toxic chemicals every day in our pursuit of cleanliness and physical perfection. And yet we seem to suffer more beauty maladies and body malfunctions now than many ancient civilizations ever did. Despite bathroom cabinets overflowing with products, we suffer from acne, body odor, frizzy hair, dry skin, rosacea, and premature wrinkles, not to mention more serious conditions such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Addison’s, Lou Gehrig’s, MS, CFS, Fibromyalgia, and more mystery illnesses.

As I have educated myself on natural living in recent years, the reality of deceptive marketing and its impact on world health has grown more disturbing, and I have found myself radically altering my lifestyle–from what I eat to what I brush my teeth with–in an effort to cleanse my body of the poisons I so willingly let in without realizing it.

Today, I am taking another baby step towards a healthier, eco-friendlier lifestyle by ditching shampoo and switching to a simpler, cheaper hair-cleaning technique known as no-poo. I have been using strictly organic shampoo and conditioner for over a year now, but this is expensive, and I am not terribly fond of the fact that every bottle of shampoo is made of non-recyclable plastic. I am also unhappy with the fact that shampoo of any kind, organic or not, strips hair of its natural oils. Without these oils,hair is unprotected from damage, grows slower, and, in my case, often complains by frizzing up to two times its normal volume.

I tried going no-poo once before, but my experiment failed because I didn’t know how to do it properly. As a result I was forced to return to my shampooed ways when after two weeks my scalp grew so greasy, smelly, and itchy that I couldn’t bear it any longer. Now, I have done my research, secured the necessary tools, and am officially two days into my second attempt at the no-poo method. My hair is definitely feeling better than it did the last time around, and I am hoping that I’ll be able to make it through the two-to-four week transition period without much discomfort and inconvenience, especially since I’m flying north in exactly one week and would prefer not to gross out my row mate on the plane.

I invite all of you to go no-poo with me. You can begin by participating in the No-Poo Challenge over at Feelin’ Feminine and read my recent Beautiful You article on the no-poo method for help starting out. I’ll let you know how it goes for me this time, and I hope you will too!

“But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” {1 Corinthians 11:15 KJV}

The August issue of Challenging Femininity is available to read at Feelin’ Feminine! Jocelyn is hosting a giveaway for a fifteen dollar gift card to a head covering boutique  and hosting a two week “no-poo” challenge in response to my Beautiful You article of two weeks ago. Miss Rachelle answers a reader’s question on remaining faithful while in public school and Miss Shani has written a wonderful post on being faithful with the little things. Gentleman Robert and Lady Kristen share two different perspectives on why modesty is so important. Miss Rachel gives some handy tips on clothing for pear-shaped bodies and Miss Jocelyn shares a bit about the history of hats and encourages young ladies to wear them as badges of femininity. I’ve also written an article for this month’s issue on self defense for women.

It is a common proverb that the eyes are the window to the soul. Our eyes communicate how we feel and what we’re thinking. The structure of the eyes has also been a major focal point when determining the attractiveness of a person in cultures throughout history. King David was described as having “bright” or “beautiful” eyes and the bridegroom in the Song of Solomon described the eyes of his beloved as “doves” and equated them to the “pools in Heshbon.” Unfortunately there are many conditions which take away the beauty and power of expression in the eyes, such as bags, wrinkles, and skimpy lashes. In today’s society women cover up these imperfections with heavy concealer, dark eye shadow, and thick applications of mascara. But wait! Before you reach for the makeup bag, try some of these easy home remedies which treat the cause, instead of just masking the problem.

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