Oil Cleansing Recipe for the Face

There are many advantages to using clean, healthy oils to cleanse your face rather than soaps.  Soaps are designed to strip the oil off of your skin, leaving you needing to add an artificial oil to keep it moisturized. Our skin already makes a nice protective barrier of natural oil to protect our skin.
If you have oily skin, you likely have overactive oil glands from hormone imbalance, or your skin is simply trying to compensate for the drying it receives from your face products. This is a great method of cleansing to help calm your oil glands.  How it works, is the oil softens and gently lifts excess oil from your face.  With it, bad bacteria, grime and dead cells go with it, leaving you naturally cleansed, with fresh skin.

Here is how you can make it:
1 part Castor Oil
1 part Jojoba oil
Optional, several drops of essential oils, like tea tree, lavender or lemon
Use in conjunction with, but do mix in, Microderm abrasion crystals or baking soda.

Mix it together. I like to dispense mine in a glass dropper bottle. It only takes a dime- nickel sized amount. and then I use a tiny amount of abrasive, microderm crystals or baking soda, in whatever amount you prefer.  

How to use your new facial cleanser:
Begin with a dime size amount of cleanser in your hands, gently scrub your entire face focusing on your trouble zones and avoiding your eyes.

Prepare a fresh, clean wash cloth and get your hot tap water going so it will be HOT for later.

 Use oil cleanser without abrasives to remove eye makeup. You will want to keep those out of your eyes.

When you are done with this, heat the cloth in the hot water, and gently wipe, blot and rub the oil off of your face.  You will need to re-wet the cloth several times.  This will remove all of the excess oil, with out stripping your face.

You can hold the hot cloth over trouble areas for a minute to help eliminate breakouts.  At first, your face may need a transition period.  If you are using conventional cleansers your face may be very dry and producing excess oil to compensate.  You can deal with this by using arrowroot to dust on your face to absorb excess oil through the day, until your skin adjusts to the new regimen.  If you scrub gently, you can wash your face with this wash twice a day.

Also if the baking soda is too harsh for your skin, you can omit it from the recipe.  If your skin is oily after, then perhaps you need a hotter rag to pull the oil off of your skin.  If your face it too dry you may have it too hot.  I like to follow up with a spritz of witch hazel and glycerin.


Happy Face Cleaning!
-Valerie

Natural, DIY, Easy, Deodorant Recipe

There are several health concerns with store bought deodorant. The main concern is that the antiperspirant kind contain aluminum which may cause, mostly likely, cancer and dementia   Deodorant is relatively expensive as well, considering what you are buying, which is about .5 ounce of mineral salts, fillers, oils and artificial scents.  I used to buy a popular brand of antiperspirant because it would help prevent razor rash, but this simple recipe has been more effective at doing so.  It works simply by the arrow root absorbing excess moisture and wicking it away from the body and the baking soda kills the bacteria that create the odors.  The essential oils are mostly for scent but depending on which you choose, may offer additional benefit such as additional bacterial control.  I have been very impressed with the results from this easy recipe and I think you will be too.     

It's so easy to make healthful, natural and effective deodorant. There are simply 2-3 ingredients and it will take you only minutes.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup arrow root powder or cornstarch

1/2 cup baking soda

10-20 drops of your favorite essential oil, optional

Simply mix the above ingredients together with a whisk or fork, breaking up any clumps as you go.

To apply the deodorant you can use a powder puff, a large makeup brush like a kabuki or a refillable body brush. 

I finally convinced my husband to try this deodorant. He raved about it after the first few days he tried it. He said it works with odor control better than his old deodorant. I like that it doesn't smell overwhelmingly perfume-y like store bought deodorant.