Sugar Body Scrub

Dear Familia,

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I follow Gwenyth Paltrow's blog Goop. Although really it's less of a blog and more like a newsletter. Anyway, Goop introduced me to the Clean cleanse and also a wonderful Brooklyn based company called Sprout. The owner sells completely all natural skin care products. I have yet to be able to purchase any of them (long story involving me waiting till I went to NYC and then never actually making it up there), but there was a recipe for a sugar scrub included in the Goop article that I was excited to try.

I bought the ingredients at the Whole Foods trip I mentioned before.

• 1 cup organic demerara sugar (or any other coarse sugar will work)
• 1-2 tsp organic unrefined coconut oil
• 2 tsp organic shredded coconut

Then I followed the recipe directions: Mix shredded coconut and sugar in a small bowl, stir until blended. Heat coconut oil in a small pot just until melted. Pour coconut oil over sugar and shredded coconut, you'll notice it liquefies some of the sugar. With a fork or spoon, stir oil into the sugar mixture. It will start to spread. Continue until the sugar is all one consistency.

And you already know what container I used to store the scrub... ;)

I tried it out the other day on my face while I took a shower. It felt nice, but I think it would be a better bath body scrub. It was not liquid-y enough to use easily for my face.

Love,

Jem

The Oil Cleansing Method

Dear Familia,

It's always up and down with my skin. Sometimes it's clear and smooth and sometimes it's a mess. While I was home in AZ I managed to get it back on track, but I was using Cetaphil and with the new "clean" beauty regimen I'm trying to get on, that wasn't going to fly. This articleexplains why even though there are only a few ingredients, they are pretty bad. When I got to DC I went ahead and started using Dr. Bronner's. Although it's "clean," I think maybe it's too much for my skin b/c I've been breaking out all summer. My friend Cali talked to me about the oil cleansing method a while back. I had read about it through some of the blogs I follow, but it seemed very counterintuitive to do something like slather oil on your face to get it clear. I have heard the saying "like dissolves like" though so since I do have some major events coming up in the near future involving lots of picture taking I thought I would give it a try.

I did some light reading on this site and then picked up a couple of bottles of oil on my recent trip to Whole Foods. I mixed 3/4 cup (75%) Sunflower Oil and 1/4 cup (25%) Castor Oil and did my first treatment yesterday. I massaged about a tablespoon in for a good twenty minutes, laid a hot washcloth over my face, let it get cool, and wiped (in an upward motion...I heard this is better than dragging down) the oil off my face. My skin did feel both clean and moisturized when I was done and looked pretty dewy. I'll probably do it three times a week. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I am going to give it a few weeks or so.

Oh, AND I'm using one of my Goodwill/Ikea spice jars to store my oil mixture. Nice, right? My trip to whole foods also produced the ingredients for an all natural sugar scrub that I'll post about tomorrow.

Love,

Jem

The Shampoo Conditioner Saga

Dear Familia,

I've always had pretty healthy hair mostly due to the fact that I don't really "do" anything to it. Alysha bought me a Chi straightener for my UA graduation and that is literally the only hair styling tool I own (other than the brushes and combs she gave me as well!). I keep my hair long even though I end up pulling it back in a pony-tail or a bun 99.9% of the time. However, again during Peace Corps, I decided to look into the "no-poo" (as in shampoo, not feces ;) method. My brain is the most important part of me and I wanted to see if I could avoid putting chemicals on the skin that sits closest to it. Haha. Now there are a hundred million different blogs and online communities that can give you the low down on this method, but here are the basics: a baking soda/water "shampoo" and apple cider vinegar/water rinse "conditioner."

Like my deodorant experiment, it was really easy to try out while I was in Guatemala and worked really well. I mixed about a tablespoon of baking soda and a cup of water and scrubbed that into my scalp then I rinsed with water. After that, I poured a mixture of ACV and water over my head and let it sit for a minute then rinsed that out as well. I probably did that 2x a week. My hair was clean and shiny and just as manageable as with normal shampoo and conditioner. I will say that I did use Bumble and Bumble leave in conditioner once a week that Steven had so kindly brought for me from the States.

If you are interested check these pages out:

One Green Generation

Online Community

Trouble Shooting

More links

THEN I got back to AZ and after about 2 months my hair was in super sorry shape. I went back through all of those blogs and then discovered that this method is very tricky if you have hard water. So I googled "hard water in the US" and was thrilled to discover Mesa sits in a super crappy part of the US as far as hard water goes.

Image via this site.

It's been a rough back and forth trying to get my hair back to what I would consider healthy. I still do the same routine as in Guatemala, but I've tried a couple of different conditioners since I ran out of the Bumble and Bumble when I got back and it was too spendy to replace. I did honey which was waaay too heavy for my hair. I bought an all natural conditioner from Walmart which I was not too impressed with. Coconut oil seems to be good to my ends, but too greasy for near my scalp.

With the start of my running regimen (can you call 2x a week a regimen??), there is added sweaty nastiness to my hair so I have started to use a couple of drops of Dr. Bronner's once every 10 days or so. I've done this twice and it made my hair supa dupa clean. I might throw that into the mix permanently. Anyway, I will give you an update when I find a happy routine for my hair. But really, I wear my hair up and tucked away 99.9% of the time so it doesn't matter too much.

Love,

Jem

Deodorant

Dear Familia,

In Guatemala I was lucky enough to have a great laboratory to try some all natural health and beauty options...the lack of funds, the one very tiny mirror in my house, and the shift of concern to much more important things than how I looked all helped me get over traditional beauty rituals. These next few post are going to be on my experiments with all natural beauty products.

As a few of you may know, I've stopped using antiperspirant and switched to all natural deodorant. I'd always been a little leery of putting gunk (chemicals) into my pores to block exits (pores) my body was using to get rid of the unwanted (toxins). In the last few years I had also been hearing more and more buzz about just how bad those chemicals were and the links they had with breast cancer or Alzheimer's (both diseases having taken women very near and dear to my heart). While the juries are still out on the true effects of ingredients in traditional deodorants and antiperspirants, the fact remains that once I get in the shower all of those nasty chemicals get washed into our water supply. Plus, logically speaking, just because they have not been able to prove a link exists does not automatically prove that a link does not exist...

So began my search for a better option. As I mentioned above, Guatemala gave me a great testing ground for alternative beauty options. Deodorant was ridiculously expensive and really, not too many in my little village used it so I didn't feel like spending a few months experimenting with other options would be that bad. In early 2010, I googled my way to this blog post with a recipe for homemade deodorant . I just did the baking soda and cornstarch option for the first couple of months. I put the mix in a small plastic travel container I had from the States and used a make-up brush to apply. Luckily, my good friend Alana came back to visit us in Tikal for Semana Santa and she brought me some tee tree oil which definitely increased the effectiveness of the mix. I used that for though the end of my service with great results. Lifestyle and climate wise, there wasn't a lot of sweating going on to begin with and anywhere in town I was 5 minutes away from my house if I needed to go home and reapply my powder mix.

When I got home I transfered my homemade deodorant to a mason jar my Mom had around and continued with that my first few months back home. It was fine and dandy most of the time. However, there were a few drawbacks. First, traveling with a powder/brush combination is not ideal. It's a bit of a messy application, especially if you are not home when you are applying. Second, I noticed that for whatever reason I needed to reapply more often. Probably because I was not cold 75% of the time like I was in Guatemala. When I decided to start substitute teaching, I knew I had to look for a better option.

Enter Soapwalla Deodorant Cream. Aka, best deodorant ever. "This all-natural yet powerful deodorant cream utilizes superfine vegetable powders, clays, and lavender, peppermint and tea tree essential oils to absorb moisture, inhibit bacteria, and ensure a long-lasting and highly effective experience." I ordered my first jar in late January and started using it at the beginning of February. I still have a bit of my first jar and just ordered my second jar with a credit I had to Spirit Beauty Lounge. I was a bit nervous about the cream, but it's pretty easy to use and absorbs right away. From February through mid-April I would apply in the morning and be good to go all day. If I was running around there was some sweat (duh!), but never any smell. When it's hot (and humid...oh, DC), I need to reapply at mid-day, but that is easy as pie** with the cream application. I'm a huge fan.

There are a few downsides: #1 Price. It's only $10 a jar which is worth it for 4 months of regular use. But when you add $4 shipping, it gets a little on the pricey side. I know she's at farmer's markets in the Brooklyn area, but that is not super helpful to me ;) #2 It comes in plastic containers. She did offer to use a glass jar of mine though and she will reuse my containers if I send them back in...with the two I have now I should be good for a long while.

So ya, that's my looong deodorant story. Up next? Let's talk shampoo/conditioner.

Love,

Jem

**I don't really understand this saying...pie is so not easy to make!