Hand Scrub Day

Last week at the checkout counter I noticed that the cashier had what looked like the most beautiful manicure ever, and looking at my own hands as I accepted her change was almost embarrassing.  It's winter, I don't drink very much water in a day, and we use our fireplace quite a bit for heat, so my hands are in quite a state right now.  Often they are so bad that no matter how much oil and lotion I use, they're still rough and chapped.  I longingly thought of getting a nice manicure, but that seems like such an indulgence especially since lately Dave hasn't been able to work in this cold weather.

I set out this morning to try a salt scrub for my hands, but I found that we only have the super coarse type of salt.  I tried it out with a couple other mamas who brought their boys over to play.  I'm not sure if it worked for them, but I was unsatisfied.  I think the salt was too coarse to do a good job exfoliating. 

Here's the recipe for the first scrub:  equal parts olive oil & salt, rub over hands for a few minutes

Thank you Sharley for your beautiful hand modelling!

My second attempt was a bit more in-depth.  I found a recipe for "nail whitening" on a site that also had a hand scrub recipe, so I figured I'd try it since I already had the ingredients. 

Here are the steps:

1) drink a big glass of water with ACV

2) soak nails in 1 c. water with 1 denture soak tablet (This is the "nail whitening".  Not quite sure why you'd want to do this, but what the heck...)

3) mix hand scrub (1 T. white sugar, 1 T. veg. glycerin, 1 drop EO - I used grapefruit) and scrub for several minutes, then leave to set for 3-4 minutes, rinse off

4) moisturize (I used sweet almond oil)

My hands feel absolutely wonderful right now.  I will freely admit that I have abnormally wrinkly hands for a person my age, but right now they are feeling downright buttery soft and youthful!

Week 9: Bubble Bath Flop

(March 1, 2011)

As suggested by a friend of mine, I set out this week to make a nice bubble bath for Charlie's evening baths.  Something gentle with natural ingredients and soothing and bubbly!

I found this recipe several times over, so decided it must be a good one:

1 cup liquid castile soap
3/4 cup water
1 tsp. glycerin
6 drops essential oil

For a soothing sleepytime bath, I selected Lavender EO.  I mixed it up, and put it in a nice pump bottle and got excited about using it, but it doesn't work!! 

The only thing that happened is that it turned the bath water very milky and slightly lavender-scented.  I even added just straight soap and it didn't bubble!  Maybe I need more glycerin? 

This was a pretty disappointing project for us...  Though the bath was nicely soapy and smelly and it did the job getting a small body clean, the whole point of a bubble bath is the BUBBLES!



I'll probably continue to tinker and search for better recipes to make this work.

Pants helps to stir it up

Cost breakdown: Castile soap $5.00 + glycerin $0.30 + EO (varies depending on type of oil) = between $5.50 and $6.00 for just under 2 cups of bubble bath.  That doesn't work.

On the plus side, apparently this liquid Dr. Bronner's soap can be used for a multitude of things, so at least I can use the rest for other projects along the way.  And the "bubble" bath still smells quite nice.  Maybe it'll just be cloud-bath from now on...

Cloudy bath water!

Made It:: deodorant

I've been wanting to try my own deodorant for a while, but I sort of had this little fantasy in my mind that maybe I don't need deodorant any more.  Like, maybe I magically stopped needing it.  However, the other night after a busy shift at work, I realized that I do, in fact, need deodorant.  I've been sporadically using just a little bit of baking soda rubbed on, but sometimes it just doesn't cut it.  

So here's what I used:

 1) Scoop 2 tablespoons of coconut oil into a bowl and microwave in small intervals just until it is spreadable.

2) Add  2 tablespoons each of cornstarch and baking soda.  Mix it up.  (The recipe I used suggested equal parts of the first 3 ingredients - I just figured that this would make a good amount for now, and 2 tablespoons is a nice round number)

3) Add 3-6 drops tea tree oil.  Apparently the tea tree has antiseptic and antifungal properties.  It also gives the deodorant a slightly minty smell.

4) Pour/scoop into a vessel of your choice.  This actually hardens quite a bit, so you could even put it into a regular deodorant container if you have one, or Dave was suggesting that I roll this into a ball and not have a container at all.  It's pretty tricky to get it out of this jar.  I had to scrape it out with a spoon and spread it on my skin with my fingertips like lotion. 

I should mention that this is not antiperspirant.  It doesn't stop you from sweating, just from being stinky while you sweat.  I can handle that.  No sweat...

Made It: Sugar Body Sugaring

So the last time I tried this whole sugaring thing (a whole week ago), I wasn't completely satisfied.  I went back to the drawing board (Internet), and got some new strategies.  

This new batch I made with only sugar, lemon juice, and water.  Here it is:

1) mix it up

2) microwave on high in a large bowl 30 seconds at a time stopping to stir until mixture reaches this amber colour and is about the thickness of honey

3) pour into your storage container

4) cool.  it'll be pretty toffee-like (you could eat it now if you wanted!  the lemon juice makes it taste a little weird though

5) take a scoop, smear it on your leg, and snap off, a la this video.

*this takes major practice to master because the paste will be more like taffy or something.  have you ever tried to get something sticky off your fingers using your fingers but without getting it stuck to your fingers?  yeah, this is how it turns out...

What I like about this method

- it doesn't use any strips so you're not limited by anything
- you can use the same tablespoon of paste over and over again and it's still effective
- the only ingredients are sugar and lemon juice, which is pretty thrifty!
- it seems to work just as well, if not better than the other sugaring I tried
- no granular bits
- there's kind of a knack to the snapping off and it feels like an art one might be proud to master

What I didn't like

- getting a snack for my son while having this gooey sticky all over my hands.  you should have seen what I looked like taking that last picture.  Yup, used my chin to press the button...
- my mixture was really thick, so it was pretty hard to spread.  I might try making it a bit thinner next time

Made It: Body Sugaring

I wasn't really sure what to call this Made It.  What I made was a thick, candy-like syrup from sugar, honey, and lemon juice that has the power to rip your hairs out by the roots. 

A while back, when I had TV and watched a lot of it at home, there used to be this infomercial for a product called Nads (hilarious, right?) which was kind of like a home leg wax kit, but was made of sugar instead of wax.  I recall thinking at the time, "I could probably make that..." but now with the miracle of the Internet, I can!

The recipe I used was sort of vague, and I feel like it should have been more specific regarding temperatures and such, since this is basically some kind of candy stage and it probably only works at a certain candy stage.  (soft ball?  hard crack?  what?)

At any rate, here's what I used:

Just mix it up and microwave in a fairly large container.  I used a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup because it's going to bubble up like crazy.  Here's where the instructions I had failed me.  I think it probably should have had some water or something, because even though the stuff was boiling and liquidy and all, there remained some granulation in the sugar, even when I was applying it to my legs like half an hour later!

This is what my supplies looked like as I was about to begin.  Yep, that's a great big plastic baby fork ("applicator").  And corn starch for dusting your skin with.  I can't recall the reason for the corn starch and forgot to use it on my second leg and didn't notice any difference.  So you probably don't really need it. 

 

 The Lowdown

While I was super excited for this project because a) I haven't removed hair by any means from my legs in several months and b) it is much more cost effective than paying someone to wax my legs and even buying those individually waxed strips, in the end I was slightly dissatisfied.  I think it was a good start, but here's what I didn't like about it:

- Sugar that stayed granulated to the end.  Rubbing paste with granulated sugar on your skin is not comfortable.  I'm hoping to make another batch next time and get the consistency right

- Each fabric strip was basically only good for one pass.  I only cut 6 strips so I fudged it and used each strip more, but I had to add more sugar each time, which made it sort of unwieldy and thick.  And kinda grody.

- It wasn't quite as effective as my old pre-waxed strips

- I'm not sure if this is just because I'm not used to using a liquid wax formula, but I didn't really like the whole spreading aspect.  And the long strings of stuff.

I didn't really like this recipe, but I've found an even BETTER method that I'm excited to try that does not even need fabric strips!  I'll let you know when I do it, though it might be a bit of a wait.  I have to wait for more hair to grow!

Made It: Cloth Baby Wipes

I just did this!  So, so easy!  Really, the most difficult part and the reason that I was procrastinating this whole project was digging around in our tiny storage area to find our baby washcloths.  I had put away all the "baby" stuff and when we moved here it got shoved to the back of the closet/crawlspace.

I basically just did exactly what this lady suggested, minus the tea tree oil.  I may try that if I end up getting some in the future, but for now, we make do!  Also, the feminist breeder has a pop-up method, but mine are already rolled.  Next time!

Got a bunch of baby washcloths?  Got a disposable wipes container?  Vinegar?  Water???  You too can have your very own cloth baby wipes, minus all the nasty chemicals in conventional wipes! The thing that makes this project so gosh-darned sensible is that we're already using cloth diapers.  Now with the cloth wipes, we just stick everything in the diaper pail together, instead of sorting out the disposable wipe for garbage. 

(image taken from www.cubitsorganics.com)