Beauty

There was a time when I used to work in Lush and so was educated extensively on what was good and bad for my skin.

One of the things I did take away with me and stick to, to this day, is we are so health conscious about what we put into our bodies but why don't we think about what we put onto our bodies?

One of the scariest facts I learnt when I was researching a workshop was baby oil. The gloriously smelling oil that we wipe on our babies, use ourselves and pour in for a scrumptious hot bath. Yes that very oil contains a by product of petrol...PETROL. The stuff thats corrosive for skin, that can cause blindness yet we happily put it onto our babes delicate skin.

I use a few basic products that give even better results that the Neutrogenas and clearsols

Face

I use rose water on my face, its amazing, I use it as a toner/cleanser/make up remover, I try to use organic, but I have had to be flexible on that since living in Turkey. I use it with cotton wool, and leaves my face feeling soft and clean.

Hair

From previous posts you can see I tried the no shampoo challenge, however I struggled because I couldn't find any oil ( I only came with hand luggage, as I have a good amount of clothes etc here)
I finally found some oil I liked but alas it was too late as I had already started washing my hair again. However I adore oil on my hair, its incredible. Its a conditioner, treatment, softener, it does everything! My hair is getting longer now and so when I wash it gets knottier so the oil really helps with the brushing.

My hair does have a tendency to get greasy quickly, when I am in and out of the ocean its fine but living slightly inland here and when I am in London, it does get greasy. Since living in a small town here in Turkey its hard to find the same products I would use back home so I have to improvise, so my next favourite product is baby powder. Its what they use in batiste so I am just using the pure form :)

JOY

Total joy, I found oil, not the stuff that will make me rich but the glorious oil for my hair.
3 weeks without hair oil and boiling sun and my hair is crying...if hair could cry, mine definitely would be, and oh did it sing with joy when I applied liberal amounts to it.

Being based between 2 countries is fairly, dare I say, easy. As I said in a previous post ,I miss smoothies, Starbucks, British style cakes and understanding toiletries. I adjust to new surroundings fairly quickly, I am very lucky as Ramazan takes care of me very well, he makes the adjustment very easy. I also have stuff here and in the UK, so all I ever have to do is book a flight, grab my passport and away I go. Its going to be a bit different next time around as it'll be winter and I won't be staying in Dalyan, i'll be going inland, where the weather is colder and the consertavism heats up.

What I have come to realise this time around is that I need to learn more Turkish. Ramazan works a lot so for the majority of the day I am solo. Which is fine as I am used to holidaying on my own, but because I am staying in one place unlike all my other holidays, it feels like I have a very solo routine. So I will be back in the UK for a month before I head back over, and what I MUST do when I back is learn some Turkish, I have mastered some of the challenging pronunciations of letters that do not exist in the English language, as well as getting my head around C being pronounced as J. But I need more vocabulary, and am in desperate need of grammar.

I have been working a lot which is good, cycling a lot

Making nice food at the apartment (I found avocados in the market...not pictured)

and applying copious amounts of oil to my body which makes me rather happy.


Things I've been into:

Oiling up my hair, trying new cafes, apple and carrot juice, loading up the fridge with delicious, unbelievably cheap fruit from the Saturday market, changing up my coffee order 

Things I miss:

Toiletries in English, cinnamon swirls, mangos 

Things I'm over:

English tourists, Turkish chocolate 

Things I haven't been doing:

sunbathing

One of the many things

I miss from the UK when I am in Turkey is smoothies...and i'm not talking those innocent smoothie crap ones, I mean proper, green, healthy, full of veg smoothies.

It took me a long time to get the courage to try adding some spinach into my ordinary smoothie but when I did, wow, the after effects were amazing!
Since then I have slowly been adding more and more green stuff to my regular smoothies.

My favourite receipt is below

1 glass of oat milk (chocolate oat milk is delicious)
half glass of coconut water
half a cucumber peeled
1 small head of broccoli
shot of wheatgrass
80g of raspberries
80 g of spinach (I take the stalks off)

Put all your liquids in first, then add the fruit and veg and blend for a min and voila, you've got a sweet, healthy, green smoothie. The chocolate oat milk really helps if you don't like a particulary veggie smoothie.

I do however love the breakfasts here in Turkey and no matter how hard I try, I can never recreate them at home. Our veg is no where near as good as Turkish produce.

I have been gifted a french press and a bag of coffee from a dear friend who has just left Turkey so now I can have coffee to my hearts delight, no kettle so am having to boil the water on a good old fashioned stove.

Fresh peaches and fresh coffee, what more could I want in the morning!

Another thing I am loving at the moment is the freedom, the freedom to get up late, sunbathe all day, or do yoga. My day goes something like this

9.30am wake up
10.30am go meet Ramazan for a coffee, work until 1.30
1.30-4.30 we go for a cycle, swim, sleep, snooze, shop
5pm work for a bit, maybe watch an episode of sex and the city
7pm yoga on the balcony
9pm go for dinner
1am Meet Ramazan after work and get an ice cream

Can life get more perfect?

I failed

the no shampoo challenge.

It all just proved too much in the end. The final straw was wetting it and drying it, and having this sticky residue on my hair. It was driving me insane.

I definitely think washing less is the way forward, so will only wash it once a week. The other times i'll just use talc on it to soak up any excess oil.

In other news, I have found out the visa situation is a lot more positive than I thought, turns out I can apply for a new visa as soon as this one runs out! Which means I can come back in November and explore Turkey. Which is very exciting news as I was expecting to not be able to see him until December but this changes everything.

Things I've been into:

Cycling everywhere, spending warm evenings people watching, drinking coffee, Leblebi sekeri, having my dinner cooked for me every night, yoga on the balcony, finally having the time to catch up with friends, Turkish baths, reading blogs

Things I miss:

starbucks coffee, homemade smoothies, hair oil, 

Things I'm over:

London

Things I haven't been doing:

exercising