Tea Tree Oil Game: Can you guess?

As you know, I've been using tea tree oil on my face to treat acne and prevent future breakouts. And it has been working well.

I originally bought a bottle of the stuff at The Body Shop (in an airport!) while on a business trip, since the mall in our town doesn't have The Body Shop.

That was back in November, and no matter how sparingly I use the tea tree oil, it inevitably began to run low. So I set about looking for another place to buy it. I figured that a couple of places in this college town would have it. My search was not exhaustive, by any means, because the first place I looked (aside from regular grocery and drug stores) had it. The local Co-op.

Just for fun, I took a picture of the bottles from the Co-op and from The Body Shop. One is 25 mL; one is 10 mL. One was $9 plus tax; one was $9.99 plus tax. Can you guess which bottle was $9 and which was $9.99?

Iron: 1 Emily: 0.5 A Minor Medical Follow Up

You may remember that I burned my hand on my iron recently. After a day or two of not paying the attention to it that I should I have, I finally realized my... stupidity, slathered it in vitamin E oil, and covered the cleaned and treated wound with a bandaid.

I've kept up the routine of thoroughly washing my hands and the wound every morning, and night, then applying the vitamin E oil, and covering with a bandaid. Of course, I wash my hands as needed throughout the day, but I don't replace the oil and bandaid every time.

Now, the burn looks like this. You can see that a blister had formed. Since I see it every day, I can tell that the redness has subsided, and that the visibly affected area has reduced. Really, it used to look angry, like, "Why didn't you treat me right away?!"

Again, I stress the importance of seeking professional medical care for serious injuries. Also, one should always take a burn seriously, and not essentially ignore it as I did initially.

Honey do Two: The Results

Last Thursday, I started using honey to wash my face. This grand experiment was born out of a rapidly diminishing Neutrogena bar, research about using honey this way (see previously linked post), and well, reluctance to spend more money on beauty products. Plus, I am trying to replace bad-for-me and bad-for-the-earth products with good-for-me-and-the-earth ones as I can. (To see how the products you use rate on a good-for-you/earth scale, check out the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. The face wash I was using is here. Here's honey.)

If this honey thing worked out, it seemed like a good way to reduce my beauty product purchasing (and the plastic that they come in), and help steer my usage towards the good-for-earth.

Since then, I've only used honey to wash my face, following it up with tea tree oil once a day, and using jojoba oil or vitamin E oil as a moisturizer. (I'll talk about those oils as moisturizers later.) I am pleased to report that my skin feels better, and not dried out after washing, and that the acne I had appears to be clearing up.

I cannot be 100% certain that this improvement in texture and acne is due to the honey or the moisturizers, since I switched both at the same time. I do know, however, that it was not the tea tree oil that single handedly defended my face from encroaching pimples, as I had been using that for a few weeks. It was helping when I was using it in conjunction with more conventional products.

So, I am quite happy with the results so far. My husband thinks it is a little odd, and only protested because of how tasty the honey is. I plan on continuing to use honey as a face-wash, and look forward to seeing how it works long-term.

Did my experience convince you to try honey to wash your face? If so, tell me about it. Or does it just prove to you that I'm touched in the head? Feel free to tell me that, too. Do the reports of bee and honey shortages impact your opinion on this at all?

Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.

That line is taken from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which I have not read. One of the many things on my to-do list.

But on to why I chose that as the title of this post. While of the 70% of the earth's surface is covered with water, and only something like 1% is potable.

I'm not even talking about that right now. I'm talking about hot water.

Now, I live in an apartment, with a small water-heater tucked under my kitchen sink. That's a far cry from the large one my parents had, or the behemoth the dorms in college must have had. It also means that running out of hot water happens more often than I care to think.

Last weekend, due to some maintenance that had been done on our sink, we were out of hot water. No showers, no dishes... It was not fun. (Turns out that the maintenance people had simply forgotten to turn something back on.) When the water came back on, I needed a shower, but waited for the tank to fill and heat.

Even after waiting, I was worried that I'd be shocked cold during my final rinse. While a cold water rinse might be good for hair and skin, a surprise like that would not be good for my mood! So, I squeezed soap onto my loofah, and put conditioner in my hair, and turned off the water. Braided the conditioner in, lathered up, and then turned the water back on, all the while thinking about how this would not only save the hot water, but conserve water in general.

Conserving water in general also means that our water bill will be lower.

So, a simple adjustment to my routine, turning off the water when I'm not actually using it will benefit me threefold: 1) ensure that I have enough hot water to meet my needs, (2) cut down my overall water usage, and therefore water bill and (3) help conserve the potable water supplies.

Last night, the unthinkable happened. I ran out of hot water in the middle of my shower. I had not been following my own advice about turning off the water, so I was standing there, conditioner braided and loosely bunned in my hair, and, well, ready to rinse off, with no hot water. So, I turned off the shower.

I tried. I really tried to rinse with cold water, but it was icy, and the ambient temperature of our apartment is around 65 degrees. Not cold, but not all that warm, either, not when you are already chilled.

I rinsed what I could in the cold (like the loofah), and waited.

After a few minutes, I tried the hot water again. Hallelujah! It wasn't as warm as I usually like, but it was warm enough, and I rinsed everything out quick!

During this whole ordeal, I remembered my revelation from the previous weekend, and kicked myself a bit for not listening to myself. But, with an eye ever-forward, I realized that I couldn't change what I had  done, but could change what I will do.

So, I'm going to try to employ this water on/water off method more regularly. Will you?

Honey do!

I have been carefully and slowly experimenting with and transitioning to more natural products. Instead of buying up the natural aisle of the grocery store and going for broke, I am simply replacing one or two products at a time with more natural alternatives. Sometimes, they work nicely; other times, I find myself on a journey.

For me, this has meant steering away from sulfates in hair care products, as well as silicone derivatives. It also means avoiding bleached flour and high fructose corn syrup in bread. Baby steps. Additionally, I try to find natural replacements for products I use on a daily basis, and multiple uses for things.

Things like honey.

I like honey. I used to make PB & honey sandwiches to take to school for lunch, loving the part of the bread where the honey pooled and started to crystallize. Honey on toast or biscuits is divine. Honey in tea is delicious and soothing for sore throats. Drambuie, whiskey with honey and spices, is a very nice way to cap an evening. Innumerable body, skin, and hair products are made with honey as a main or active ingredient.

Basically, honey is amazing, anti-bacterial, and generally pretty good for all sorts of applications. In fact, the protagonist of a book series I'm reading uses honey as an anti-bacterial agent to seal and protect wounds in pre-Revolution America. While I have never personally used honey on an open wound, this is not nearly as far fetched as it might sound.

So, can we agree that honey is awesome? Good. Now I have something else for you. Last night and this morning, I washed my face with honey. I did a modicum of research into this, first, but when it came time to wash my face, I stared at my usual cleanser, and thought... "Why not?" and took the plunge.

I padded into the kitchen, unscrewed the honey we had purchased at a farmer's market months ago, and dipped about a tablespoon or two out into a clean bowl. Rinsed my hands with warm water, and then stuck them into the honey, which had started to sugar, so I got bonus exfoliation!

Last night, I did this just before taking a shower, so rinsed it off there, and was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which it rinsed completely off. I followed up with my customary spot treatment of tea tree oil, but deviated from more traditional moisturizer.

I have a small bottle of Jojoba oil on hand, and used several drops to moisturize. It went on evenly, and my skin did not feel stretched and dried out, or overly laden with heavy moisturizers. When I woke up, it still felt good - normal. So, I followed the same steps again.