OT - Cleaning the Natural Way - You, Your Mask, Your Home

Hmmm... Well, I guess I'll just have to wait for my new microfiber cloth and see if it works better. These mitts might become dustcloths...

LOL,
B.

I received two of my new books today! I had them sent to the office. Big mistake. It was so hard to focus on work when I had all that fun sitting there. My boss came by and picked up the books and got very interested in the recipes. It gave me an excuse to thumb through them with her. I found a recipe for a powder that sounded simple and I made up a small batch tonight to see if I liked it. It smells very nice. I will use it tomorrow and report on how it works.

Herbal Body Powder (I cut this in half to see if I liked it)

1/2 cup white clay
1 cup cornstarch
1/8 cup powdered herb (I made lavender bud powder in my Vitamix)
4 drops essential oil (again, I used lavender)

Mix all together and put through a sifter for good measure.

The fun part was making the powder puff. I haven't had my sewing machine out in years! Threading that puppy was easier than I thought it would be.

I made a nice fluffy off white puff out of a material that looks suited for a cozy bath robe with a twill tape strap handle.

Too bad I don't have any powder boxes. Do they still make those things?

You can get sifter cans out of tin or plastic for powder. I've seen them on the container websites, but can't think of a particular one right now.

What were the books? Did you post them?

Cheers,
B.

I don't remember if I posted the names of the books or not. These two came yesterday:

The Herbal Home Spa: Naturally Refreshing Wraps, Rubs, Lotions, Masks, Oils, and Scrubs

and

The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy: Over 600 Natural, Non-Toxic and Fragrant Recipes to Create Health - Beauty - a Safe Home Environment

and I have one more that just came to my desk as I'm writing this:

Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Every Body

The herbal body powder was from the first book. I had a bad night last night and couldn't sleep. I ended up getting up and made the other powder recipe I posted earlier to keep my mind off the fact that there were dogs barking on my street last night - all darned night long. And it was hot, so I had the windows open. Darned dogs.

I used the herbal powder this morning. I thought it might feel scratchy with the powdered lavender in it. It's nice though.

Babette, let me know if you run across those powder boxes. I did a search and just came up with antique ones, or a perfect cardboard one that had a minimum order of a gazillion.

Okay, this is clearly too small:
http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.j ... sku=287094

These might work:
http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin34a.html

I think this one you didn't like:http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/froog ... d=othsift2

Weird site
http://www.mineralcosmetics-makeup.com/sifterjars.htm

Oooo! Potentially nifty site
http://www.makingcosmetics.com/store/in ... t=d53.html

Okay, must get back to work. ))
B.

Discovered last night I had used the last of the Provigil, so now I guess I have to go off cold turkey. AND I decided to taper myself off the Lexapro, so I split my 10mg pills and plan a long taper over the next month or so. I've read some horror stories online about Lexapro withdrawal, and I've been on it for 3 years now. I'm also going to go off my birth control pills.

Babette,

Unless you are a fan of self-mutilation, I would NOT advise going off all of these at once. I tried to get off of Lex for YEARS under the care of a psych! We tried several combos and I scoured the internet for ideas. Finally what worked (after YEARS, YEARS!) was this:

I switched to a comparable dose of prozac and then weaned off of that. Lexapro has a very SHORT half-life. In no time, you will be jones'ing for more and getting dizzy spells, headaches or brain "zaps" (really the only way to describe it!). This made me very, very angry--that a company that is supposed to be helping folks is getting them essentially addicted to a drug and then condemning them to purchase it from them for the rest of their life. I tried desperately to go cold turkey after slooooooooowly tapering and had to go back time after time. It was devastating.

But the prozac worked. My body didn't have any trouble SWITCHING from one brand to another, only had a prob WITH SLAMMING MY BRAIN INTO A WALL with the short half life of lex.

So, the good news is twofold: prozac has a very LOOOOOOOOONG half-life and is EASY to wean from. I tapered from 40 to 20 to 10 to 10 every other day (all this tapering occurred over months--weeks were spent at each step and it varied) and then went completely off 3 weeks ago and. . . nothing. No zaps, dizzy spells, headaches. Nothing.

Now, weaning off the darvocet--that was different, but not that bad, actually and it is over now.

The provigil (an antihistimine, right?) shouldn't give you much trouble. The bcp's, well, I just wouldn't do it at the same time as an SSRI--can you say RAGE PMS--they might have to come up with a new category!

I completely understand wanting to get off all the crap--I do! I have been there, sister! Preaching to the choir! But these have strong affects on mood and body. Go slow!

Now, unrelated: I'm pissed. I never got any updates that this thread was still going and I missed out on a lot of interesting stuff until I just caught myself up!

Whoever asked for Christine's bath cleaning recipe--you'll have to go back in the thread. You can dig or I can, but you'll learn lots of cool stuff if you go back and I've already read all of it. If I had the recipe to hand I'd post it, but it is buried at the moment, sorry.

Soap making is going strong. I am ordering and searching out all the raw ingredients and buying books. I'm hooked! I joined two soapmaking forums last night! Plan on making some soap this weekend again! Yeah!

Curly girls UNITE. OK, not only did I lose 15 lbs since the surgery, but can you see those CURLS ON MY AVATAR! Holy curly hair, Batman! I have sproinged to a whole new level. this book (Curly Girl) ROCKS. If you think your hair is even only WAVY--RUN to the nearest bookstore or library to check this book out. I just ordered 5 copies on amazon ($10) to give as gifts.



I made the quilt in the background by the way. It is a Kaffe Fasset design for those who quilt. I love him and hope someday to meet him--a man who quilts and knits, ahhh, the drool. He's cute too.

I use white terry cloth washcloths to wash face with. I've never tried microfiber. I buy stacks of the white cloths and then they go in with all the whites and a hot wash. I only use them once, per my derm's orders to help with acne, then into the wash. I have a ton of them! Very cheap right now at Target--$2 for 12, I think? Back to school time.

I've been having success with abbreviating the ocm treatment in this way. Most of the time I wash with a very mild soap--Desert Essense tea trea and awapui face soap, a castile soap. Then put 2 drops of my ocm on my clean hands and rub into face. One or two times a week I'm putting on the full OCM and using a face steamer then extracting. That is working well. Got a small flare up with my cycle recently and used my Zeno to nip in the bud. This gadget really works by the way. It says it isn't for cystic acne and warns you to not use it for that--but I've found it significantly reduces the cystic acne cycle. And I don't even use it as often as recommended. Just right b4 bed instead of 3x per day. I saw an acne cyst blow up to blueberry size on monday, zapped it that night and then it was 1/3 the size the next morning and almost gone now after another zap last night. I highly recommend this product.

I want a steamer!!!!!!!!! I've been spending waaaay too much lately though. On the soap. Oh, the soap--got more ordering to do tonight b4 bed, so better go!

BTW--the pic is from Sunday--and I was premenstrual at that time--don't give up on some version of OCM--I have faith that some variation of it will help everyone!

Jen

JEN YOU LOOK FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't know that about Prozac. I might ask the doc for some of that for this weaning. I'll print out your post and take it to her and see what she says.

I'm already experiencing rage PMS last weekend. I've determined that it's a variety of factors, and with all the drugs in my body, it's just tough to pinpoint what might be a drug interaction vs. a lack of a necessary drug.

I've done pretty well the last few days. I'm not missing the Provigil, which had worried me. I'm taking 5 mg Lexapro and only experiencing mild physical symptoms, not anything to really notice. Yet. I could go back to 10 mg and talk to the doc about Prozac. I've got a list of things to talk about, and getting appointments is a long process. She's got a huge caseload, and getting an hour appointment is usually a 2-3 month wait.

I'm totally jealous about your hair! I haven't been able to do the Curly Girl thing. I'm still washing. Not every day, and not blow drying, but my hair just gets so very greasy I have to shampoo every 2-3 days. I can't seem to get over the hurdle yet.

As for OCM, I'm this close to completely abandoning it. I did find the Rice Bran Oil. I bought some Alaffia brand African Black Soap on Monday evening and have been washing my face with that, and putting on some OCM oil as a moisturizer afterwards. My face appears to be responding positively from that. Time will tell.

Huggers,
B.

Babette,

Thank you! This is the best I have looked since I was 14 and acne was just starting. Seriously. There were brief stints when diff drugs worked, but I never looked this consistently good for this long. OCM--it is hard to find the right combo and technique. I would guess that a very mild castile (read: natural, not detergent) soap combined with a few drops of oil as moisturizer would be better than nothing. Remember these oils are far better for the skin than any over the counter moisturizer could be and most absorb fast so no greasy skin.

I have found that for me, the best way to get my hair and facial skin to be less greasy is simply to wash them less often and to liberally dose them with these oils whenever I have the extra time to pamper myself. If your skin isn't getting stripped of oil on a regular basis, it shouldn't overreact and produce tons of extra. Of course, every individual is diff and we all have to find what works for us.

You, of course, have a package in the works from me to include: my homemade soap, lip balm, the knitted item (can't order the yarn until the end of the month, but then it should be quickly made) and the NAII that I promised you. And maybe by the time I ship there will be more to add to the list! LOL!

My soap is superfatted--I used less sodium hydroxide than would be necessary to turn all the oils into soap, which means that there are excess free oils in the soap to condition the skin. And I used PREMIUM skin oils in this batch because I just had a bunch on hand and I had no idea what I was doing, so I went for it. The list of ingredients includes: palm oil, olive oil, macadamia nut oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil and then there are good for the skin essential oils in there too. I think it should be a most EXCELLENT face bar--kinda like combining ocm with a mild soap. The bars are big and UGLY but who cares, it is just soap! Future batches will look prettier now that I have a better idea what I'm doing!

I'm also looking into making my own shampoo+conditioner. The same concept of superfatting would apply in some way. I'm researching now. I'll let you know how experimentation goes.

I found that a very light aerosol mouse (goes on kinda like hairspray), Redkin brand maybe--it is sold in salons, is working best for my curls. I tried the clear gel (biolage) and it is too heavy and weighs the curls down. The mouse gives them lift and body. I'm only washing my hair about 1-2 times a week now and it is suddenly quite dry--the opposite of any past experience. So I made up a bottle of distilled water, put in some jojoba, vitamin e drops and good for hair and skin ess oils and spritz my hair with it in the morning to get it to look freshly washed again without washing. I spritz until just slightly damp so the curls sproing back up.

Went to my derm this morning. My biopsies came back pretty normal this time. Good since last time they were pre-melanoma. I am going to have to continue to be diligent in having anything suspect cut off.

Interesting talk with him about laser resurfacing to try to get the pits from past acne smoothed out (not visible in pic, but is quite prevalent on my cheeks). I'm hesitant but he says it isn't even as bad as a sunburn and I like him and trust him so we will see. Anybody here done this?

Equally interesting talk about my super-dandruff. Turns out he says that my hair follicles are infected with fungus that feed on the sebum my scalp produces. Since this probably started about the same time as I had thrush when breastfeeding, I'm not surprised at all. I had no idea the scalp could be infected by fungus. He says to try nizoral, over the counter anti-fungal shampoo since I've already tried the other brands without success. He also encouraged me to try any ess oils I think might fight fungus.

So, I'm going to be doing research on naturally fighting fungus of the skin. I seem to remember a doc on tv telling some lady with foot fungus to soak her feet in strong black tea--that the tannins would do something to fight the fungus, so I bought cheap black tea at Target just now along with the Nizoral to add to my post conditioning rinse with the lemon juice to see if it helps. I will be doing lots of research online to see what I can find, but do any of you have any suggestions?

He said a last resort to get it under control would be diflucan--a systemic drug. But he would rather not do that. And neither would I, obviously. I want to try to get this under control soon so that I can be completely healthy when we start trying to make baby Wells number 2. I'm taking all my vitamins and omega 3 oils regularly again.

By the way, about the prozac--most docs don't even know about this! I invested a lot of hours on pubmed and other med websites searching for alternative ways to "discontinue" lexapro. Luckily my psych was open to listening to my research and open to suggestion. He said he would prob try it for other patients now, considering how well it worked for me. I hope your doc will be open to listening to this suggestion as well. It certainly worked well for me.

Jen

Goodness, sorry that post was so long. I'm making up for 2 weeks of inactivity, obviously!

I wanted to say that my hairdryer recently died and I replaced it with the cheapest "ionic" hair dryer at target (around $15) that came with a large cup shaped diffuser.

My hair is curliest when I use this and put the cup diffuser under the hair and push it up so gravity isn't weighing it down. Then I move to a diff spot, trying not to destroy the integrity of the curls.

This thing dries faster on low temp than I used to get when using a vent brush and hi temp/hi speed on old (but good quality) hairdryer. And my hair looks BETTER than air dried--I've tried both ways. The water drags the curls down too much and it is limper with less curl and volume. JMHE (e=experience)


Jen
Jen

Okay, I just called the doc and got an appointment for 09/18. I'm going back on the 10mg Lexapro until then. Maybe I'll even keep taking the BCP. What the heck. I'm out of Provigil. One drug at a time.

Cheers,
B.

Okay! It's Xmas!

First up - the MicroDermabrasion Cloth from Ebay got here. Weave is definitely different than the cleaning cloths I've bought. I'm very intrigued. And I LOVE the "ugly" flourescent green color! In fact, I'm wearing it on my head, my toes, and my torso today! (Khaki pants) Here's what the enclosed flyer says:

The Original MicroDermabrasion Cloth - Dermal Grade (tm)
*Wipes Away Acne, Pimples, Blackheads
*Erases Wrinkles, fine lines, Age Spots
(more... read it on his Ebay site)

Instructions:
Wash face thoroughly with mild soap - pat dry. Scrub face/neck with cloth dampened in warm water. Do not rub too vigorously or concentrate on any one area. Go easy at first, spending NO MOER than 90 seconds total for your first treatments. Rinse the cloth in warm soapy water to clean. Treatments can be given every 7 to 10 days. Genuine results will be seen after 3-4 treatments, but your face will go slightly pink for 24 hours after the first treatment. This is normal and bolsters the production of collagen and elastin. (More........)

Anyway, I thought those instructions were pertinent, and I plan to test this out.

NEXT....

Chagrin Valley order arrived!!!!!!! My coworker with excema and I have been talking about it. We test drove the Whipped Shea Butter and the lotion bars and think they are WINNERS!!!! We're really excited about them. Unlike other lotion bars I've tried, these are NOT GREASY! They leave a sheen, but you don't feel GREASY! I think it's because they don't have any petro products in them, unlike alot of other so-called "natural" lotion bars. I got the ones in the ziploc bag, instead of paying for the tin. They are small, but I like that, since I was just "test driving" them anyway.

The Bamboo Washcloth is SO SOFT!!!! It's amazing! And the Sisal Washcloth is very soft, too. Just enough exfoliation without being as tough as you might think, from it's appearance. Obviously, haven't tried the soaps or shampoo bars yet. Will report on them after trying.

WHEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, I heard from another forum member that a pound of unrefined shea butter lasts her a year in her body cream recipe. Just for reference. I had no idea how much I would want to order, if I made my own.

SleepingBeauty, if I whine and tell you I had a really, really heinous weekend, would you send me a teensy sampler of your shea butter body cream? I'd pay you!!! Then, of course, I'd have to have your recipe, if it works for me...

I think I'm converting my coworker to the joys of shea butter. We both love the way our ears feel after putting on this shea butter just now. We both have a hard time with excema behind our ears.

Oh, and I finally got around to covering my chinstrap with the cotton poplin. I just cobbled it on there and stitched it down with big ugly stitches to test drive. Seems to be helping. Need to get to work on developing a better, removable cover, and/or a completely new and different natural fiber chinstrap.

Cheers,
Barbara

SleepingBeauty,

I wonder if you asked these folks if they might tell you where to buy their containers:

http://www.feelgoodproducts.com/bodyPowders.html

Found this on a DIY dusting powder site:
http://www.nikileighspa.com/

What about just using shortie glass jars (like on this page above) and making your own puffs?

OOOOOOO!!!!! Make your own dusting powder AND CONTAINERS!!!!!
http://www.rachelssupply.com/dust.htm

http://www.rachelssupply.com/powpuff.htm

Say you love me... come on...

LOL,
B.

DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU SIMPLY MUST SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.essentialwholesale.com

Jen, check out the wholesale 90% organic hair conditioners!!!!!

Lotsa other good stuff....

LOL,
B.

Lastly....

http://www.essentialwholesale.com/category_s/45.htm

SleepingBeauty, SOMEWHERE on that list should be the containers of your dreams!!!!!

LOL,
B.

Can you tell I'm annoyed at work?

http://www.unrefinedsheabutter.com

CHEAP! And fair trade! And check out their RECIPES! Jen, try their lipstick recipe!

Another interesting site:
http://www.naturessheabutter.com

Bargain shea butter
http://www.crabapplesoap.com/rawsheabutter.html

I really need a soap/lotion makers forum to go play on... Please post some tips!!!!

http://www.treasuredlocks.com/shebutben.html

Another sale on shea butter:
http://www.sheabutterweb.com/

For those of you - like me - still too sleepy to make your own:
http://www.purelyshea.com

LOL,
B.