Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Aspirin for ACNE! & FreeKindling in Action!

It is absolutely appalling to me what is in makeup and skin-care products.  If you don't know - just look up the things that you use on this website:  http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/
It'll tell you which mascaras contain MERCURY and other terrible horrible things!

I make alot of stuff myself (if you can't tell) - and one of the things that I make is my own facewash.  I learned it by reading this awesome blog called Little House in the Suburbs!  Here's the link to their blog post on this Clear Skin Toner: http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2009/06/quick-clear-skin-toner.html

Ingredients/Recipe:
1) Uncoated Aspirin
2) Aloe leaves (or aloe gel/ or aloe juice)
3) Witch Hazel
4) Essential Oils (i used tea tree & eucalyptus)

(tea tree and eucalyptus oils are both anti-bacterial oils, so they're good for this project.)

of course, it always helps to have former Detective Adrian Monk watching over everything.  even if drives you crazy.

Here is the basic lil' recipe that I got from Lil' House in the Suburbs:


Today I doubled this recipe.  I actually doubled it twice, because I made two "servings" - I wanted some that I could use as soon as it was ready, but I also wanted some that will be potent for when I break out more heavily.  And - my measurements are totally not precise.  

(IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO ASPIRIN, DO NOT USE THIS RECIPE!)
(which should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway)
For the lucky people who AREN'T allergic, here's how it goes:

Grind the uncoated aspirin:
(OR Skip This Step and just use packets of BC Powder...)

Cut open your Aloe clippings and Scrape the gel off:
(I use a blunt butter knife)

Add the other 2 Ingredients:
(essential oils & witch hazel)
Mix everything together and Just Add Water - 
add approximately the same about as you have of your other ingredients (half ingredients and half water)
Use hot or luke warm water to help everything dissolve a bit better.

WAIT FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS
Set the Jar out somewhere you will see it,
and SHAKE IT as often as you remember.


OKAY ----
SO now it's been 24 HOURS!
(Wow! That was Fast! It's a time traveling blog!)
I pull out my glass measuring cup, silly-band, and flour-sack rag
(you can use paper towels for this)
I pour the mixture through the rag and then I squeeze out the excess, and it leaves me with a much less cloudy liquid.  You can use it right away, or keep straining as many times as you wish!  Personally I like to keep a little aspirin silt at the bottom of the bottle.

It smells wonderful and feels so good on the skin.  Depending on how much aloe you use, it can feel a bit slimy at first, but that goes away pretty quickly.


So I love the stuff, and my friend swears by it now (rather than expensive Proactiv);
I use it as a daily astringent, but she likes to mix it with a facial scrub and let it sit on her face for several minutes to get the full effect of the salicylic acid from the aspirin.  (The same thing from willow bark that cure headaches also fights acne apparently!  Go Willow Tree!  Thanks!)


SO - I promised to post pictures once I burned cardboard with my FREE Dryer Lint Kindling and I am a woman of my word (AND I didn't forget!):

It worked out pretty well, I used too many pieces of kindling at the beginning, thinking that I'd need a good number to get the fire really burning, but the dryer lint kindling was so good, i didn't need to use so many at once (like in this picture):

It was FREE, took SECONDS to construct, and I highly recommend it!

In fact, a few friends came by and brought their cardboard....

And we've decided to save our dryer lint and newspapers then get together for bi-weekly
cardboard-burning fires (and dog party).
I love pictures of fire.  I see so many different things.

5 comments:

  1. I totally want to try this! Does it really work on your skin? Do you leave it on or rinse it off?
    I went shampoo-free several weeks ago, have been washing the hair only with baking soda and doing periodic cider vinegar rinses. Still normalizing out but I think I'm starting to like it. It'd be great to do the same with my skincare..... I make homemade sugar scrub for the arms, elbows, knees, but it's too rich for my face.
    got a recipe for a good facial scrub?

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  2. this Does really work on my skin! my mom always mentions how good my skin looks when i remember to use this stuff! i actually use it as an astringent (and sometimes i abuse the measurements for witch hazel for this reason), and i use it with cotton balls to help clean my skin at night and in the morning. it's so quick and easy and feels so good!
    and i've been wanting to go shampoo-free! you can be my inspiration to finally try it!

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  3. Dude, remember Sue from the Rep? She went shampoo-free sometime last year and I asked her about it, she sent me to this site:
    http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html
    Took me forever to get around to really trying it, and it's gross at first until your hair normals out, but I think I'm finally getting to the normal part. Yeah!

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  4. how long has it taken you to start normaling out?
    the only facial scrub i've made is one with sugar and olive oil, so it's really rich and it feels like you can't get it off your face, until you realize that it is actually NOT oil on your face but your face is just REALLY soft. it's kinda weird, but i liked it.

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  5. I think I'm in week 5 now of the "no-poo" regimen. Still figuring out the balance: turns out if I do the baking soda too often without using any vinegar, my hair starts to feel gross and waxy... the acid vinegar clears out any remnants of the alkaline baking soda. Apparently people with hard water have to adjust for this kind of thing too, although I don't think my neighborhood has hard water. I'm going to start expirimenting with a rosemary-infusion for a rinse periodically in-between soda washes, cause I heard it helps balance oiliness (which is my main problem). And it would smell nice!

    The sugar scrub I use for my body is similar to your recipe: some coconut oil, sweet almond oil (as for massage), white sugar, lavendar & eucalyptus essential oils. Smells gorgeous. Very oily in the shower but then I get out, pat dry, and it soaks in and feels great. It's so oily, though, that I don't get it near my face since I've been paranoid about oil-related breakouts since high school. Maybe the olive oil would be a little lighter than the coconut oil, and if I scrubbed it off well enough... might be worth a try.

    I always figure, if it's good for the inside of the body, it's probably good for the outside too....

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