Friday, July 29, 2011

Honey Challenge Revisited


So straight honey didn't work for me as a facial cleanser, but after I use plain water to slough off dead skin and use soap on my acne spots, I think it works well. I just tried it today but I will write about it as I learn more.

ta ta for now!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Guppies!

This is a wild guppy. You know, the original guppy, before all the inbreeding causing wacky colors and tails that are too long. This was the species of fish I started my aquarium hobby with when I was about seven or eight. Today they're not too hard to find if you know where to look. They're often kept in poor conditions and sold for maybe 10-15 cents a piece as feeder fish and if you're willing to nurse them back to health (probably loosing a few on the way) then they are a fascinating and easy to keep fish. I bought 20 of these little guys a few days ago for 3 dollars and I have maybe half that now. I have 5 adult fish and one fish had about 5-7 fry. all of the female adults are pregnant though so I'll easily come out of this with more guppies than I purchased. The most likely disease a guppy will get is fin rot, a fungal disease. this is easily cured with medicine and can be avoided by adding a little salt (uniodized!) to the aquarium.  As a bonus the salt will also make your guppies fins grow. You may be asking, why get the feeder fish when the fancy ones are so much prettier? I'll tell you why, the ones that are prettier are not only more expensive, they are delicate as hell and don't breed well (the wild ones breed constantly and produce large amount of fry where the fancy ones have trouble breeding and only produce 1-2 fry). I hope you think about getting some because I love them!

Aquariums Rock!

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Crunchy Betty Honey Challenge: Day 8

This method is not for me. While my skin is generally in good shape I constantly have mild acne all over my chin. I'll be scrapping this method and going back to soap.

#1 Best Thing:
Soft radiant moisturized skin with no blackheads and small pores

#1 Worst Thing:
Acne never fully went away, persisted mildly on chin (my trouble spot)

Verdict:
This method is not for me. My acne benefits from dryer skin and the honey keeps it moisturized. I guess with my skin, the negative effects of moisture beat out the antibacterial properties of honey. For all those with very mild acne this will probably do wonders for you, but for people with severe or moderate acne this probably won't make you clear.

Looking For Cheap All Natural Shampoo?

Today I found an interesting thing. If you go to the pet section of a store, natural shampoos are in abundance (even color enhancing ones) and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it. Today I bought a 355ml color enhancing shampoo for blond hair (haha for golden retrievers and such) for only 12 dollars!

Happy Shopping!


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Crunchy Betty Honey Challenge: Day 3

I've been using honey to wash my face once or twice a day since monday and I have to say I'm not hooked but I like it a bit. My skin looks lovely and soft and my complexion is radiant. But as I thought it would, my acne has increased a bit due to the moisture. But all the acne that has shown up has been mild and by today it is fading or dissapearing. I hope this trend continues and my acne goes away and stays away. If it does I'll be in love with this method!!!

#1 best thing about it so far:
My skin looks nice, and is soft, moisturized, and radiant

#1 worst thing so far:
My acne increased a bit for a couple days but nothing serious, it is now subsiding. My honey has crystalized and drags the skin on my face uncomfortably when I use it. I'm going to try to soften it first next time I use it

Verdict so far:
While my skin is loving the honey wash the acne flared up mildly it is now subsiding. If  my skin becomes clear and stays clear I will keep this routine going.

 Good luck everyone!

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Crunchy Betty Honey Challenge: Day 1

So today was the first day of Crunchy Betty's honey challenge. So far, my face looks nice. My skin is soft and moisturized. I'm kinda waiting for my acne to go nuts though to be honest....let's hope it doesn't!

#1 best thing about it so far:
My skin looks nice, and is soft and moisturized

#1 worst thing so far:
Nothing yet

Verdict so far:
While my skin is loving the honey wash, I'm not sure how my acne is going to react to it. Hopefully it dies instead of thrives.

Good luck everyone!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

I'm Taking The Honey Challenge! Will you?


I'm a huge fan of Crunchy Betty, a fellow blogger who blogs about alternatives to the icky cosmetics they sell in the stores (mostly with things in your kitchen). She's made a challenge for all her readers and beyond, use honey to wash your face for two weeks. Her challenge is below:

Put Pure, Raw (Unpasteurized) Honey on Your Shopping List

You don’t need a whole bunch.
In fact, each time you wash your face, you use maybe half a teaspoon. Probably not even that.
You just need to make sure your honey is raw and pure (and if you can, make it local!). If you needed an excuse to visit your local farmer’s market this weekend, here it is.
Otherwise, you should be able to find raw (unpasteurized) local honey at the supermarket (our King Soopers carries raw Colorado honey). It’s just right there in the honey section. Check it out.
(If you can’t find local, no biggie. Just go for the good stuff.)

Challenge Schedule

People can come and go throughout this challenge as they’d like, but let’s try to get as many people to start with us as we can.
Here’s the schedule of events:
  • Monday, July 18th – An introduction into how to wash your face with honey and why you’ll do it. On this day, you can also “sign up” for the challenge in the comments.
  • Friday, July 22nd – I’ll send out emails to everyone who’s participating in the challenge just to check up on you and see how it’s going (however, there will be a thread on it in the Crunchy Community, so you guys can chit chat about your experiences).
  • Monday, July 25th – There will be a post about the Honey Challenge on this day talking about ways to modify it for easier makeup-washing, as well as a chance for you guys to talk about what you think so far.
  • Monday, August 1st - We’ll do a wrap-up post, which will include a super deluxe linky-party where everyone who blogs about their experience with the challenge can link up, and we can go around and read from all the other crunchistas blogs! In addition, on this day, I’ll choose one person to receive some raw Colorado honey from one of my local farmer’s markets. (THIS fun giveaway comes courtesy of the 10 AMAZING ladies who have sent financial support to Crunchy Betty over the last week; if it weren’t for that, this wouldn’t be a fun perk. AND, if more people want to donate over the next week, I’ll TOTALLY buy more honey to give away.)
AND, OF COURSE:
The best part of all of it?
YOUR FACE IS GOING TO BE SO SOFT, CLEAR, AND BEAUTIFUL WHEN WE’RE DONE!
Are you excited?
Yeah?
Tell me about it!
Here's a link to her challenge page which will be up MondayCrunchy Betty's Honey Challenge I'll be writing about my experiences starting Monday.
Good luck and let's take the challenge!!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Interesting Tea Tree Oil Use

I've come to really like tea tree oil for use on my hair. I had a sunburn on my scalp last week and I'd researched sunburn remedies and came across tea tree oil. I wasn't sure what it'd do to my hair but I figured, what the heck and put it on my sunburned scalp before bed, figuring if it made my hair gross I'd just wash it out in the morning. What I didn't expect was how shiny my hair was in the morning! It looked really, really shiny so I've put more in my hair again tonight so I have shiny hair tomorrow. I've also found that it soothes itchy scalp which I get often. I would say it is only a night thing though because until the tea tree oil dries it looks shiny and greasy, not exactly a daytime hairstyle.

PS: I've tried putting a few drops in my hair after the shower and it also aids in natural curls and waves!

Tea tree oil rocks in your hair!!

Honey, Oatmeal, and Apple Cider Vinegar Acne Cure: A Bust

This is the fourth day of using this regiment as a treatment for acne and I'm calling it quits. The reason it's a bust? My face is beginning to break out where there is almost never any acne. I'm going to blame the oatmeal on that one. There might be something to the apple cider vinegar though. It did seem to calm down already inflamed acne, but it made my existing acne itchy, which unfortunately makes me more likely to pick my acne. If you can withstand the itch it may be a good remedy for calming your inflamed acne.  If this solution works for you then that's great! But for those with severe acne (red bumps and cystic acne), this regiment probably isn't for you.

Good luck till next time!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Honey, Oatmeal, and Apple Cider Vinegar Acne Cure: Day 3

My face is looking and feeling basically the same. My face also doesn't feel as soft as it did the first day. My acne is starting to get smaller and size and isn't as red, but it's still definitely there and now it's itchy, although I've heard that itch in acne is a sign that it's healing. So far I'm not going to call it a bust but it's not a miracle either.

#1 best thing about it so far:
acne isn't as apparent and my face doesn't seem to need moisturizer after washing

#1 worst thing about it so far:
my skin isn't soft like the first day and my acne has gotten itchy

Verdict so far:
the full two weeks will tell if it works or not, so far i'm not really pleased with it but it hasn't made anything worse

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Honey, Oatmeal, and Apple Cider Vinegar Acne Cure: Day 1

I can't get over how baby soft my face feels... I keep stroking my cheeks. Acne is less red I think and my face doesn't seem to need moisturizer.

#1 best thing about it so far:
How soft my skin is.

#1 worst thing about it so far:
I don't like the smell of apple cider vinegar when it's wet and it burns my skin a bit where my acne is. Also if you get enough of it on your skin, the apple cider vinegar fumes may sting your eyes a bit. The smell and fumes go away quick though.

Verdict so far:
Promising.


Oatmeal and Honey Facial Scrub (Or Mask)

So as I've said in the previous post, I'm trying a new treatment to get rid of my acne. It calls for an oatmeal and honey scrub and while there are a lot of online recipes, they unfortunately either had no measurements at all, weird measurements (one cup of oatmeal to two tablespoons honey? For serious?), or other ingredients and cooking. I decided to make an oatmeal honey scrub of my own:

Ingredients:
Honey
Oatmeal (not instant or flavored)
Water
A very small water tight lidded container

So what I did was I filled a small plastic container I had (think like an individual dip container) and filled it almost to the top with oatmeal. Then I added enough tap water to saturate it (maybe a little on the runnier side). I then added a tablespoon of honey and stirred that in. It's best to take the honey off of the tablespoon yourself after stirring a bit as it will stay there for basically ever. I then put on the lid tightly and gave it a good shake. And voila! Oatmeal and honey facial scrub. To use, just scoop some out with your hand and rub it all over your face (make sure your hair is tied back or you might get oatmeal bits in your hair...). Rub it in a bit, then rinse with cold water and pat dry. If you wanted to use it as a mask you could leave it on for a while. I'm thinking you can store this with the lid on tight somewhere cool and dark like under a bathroom sink and use it till it's gone. Store in the fridge if you can just to be safe.

I found this worked very well. It was almost slimy from the oatmeal doing it's thing in the water but it felt nice. I suggest using a face cloth to aid in the rinsing.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!!

Honey, Oatmeal, and Apple Cider Vinegar Acne Cure

So I found this great site I'd like to share with everyone. It's called http://www.myhomeremedies.com/ and has an extensive page on acne remedies submitted by users. I thought hell, I'll try them one by one (not the stupid ones like using rubbing alcohol....OUCH) and put up a review.

For the next two weeks I'll be trying this one:
Make a scrub out of honey and oatmeal (or buy one, organic and toxic free please!) and use that every night. rinse with cold water and pat dry. Then apply apple cider vinegar on trouble spots with a cotton ball without rinsing and go to sleep. Wash you face again with the oatmeal scrub in the morning. 

The person who submitted it claimed their acne improved within a few days. It's worth a try! If it works on my stubborn acne then maybe it will work for you. If you feel like trying it with me please let me know how it works for you too and maybe even what ratios of honey to oatmeal you used, and if you buy a scrub what one you used.

Stay happy and healthy!

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Jobs?

Hello all!

I'm currently looking for jobs, either part time or full time in my career of social service work. I'm finding it hard! All the good jobs in my field tend to be either too far away or asking for qualifications I don't have (like 5 or more years experience, I'm a new graduate!). I'm wondering what job sites my viewers use. I currently rely mostly on www.simplyhired.ca but have checked out many other sites to no avail. Please help me out? It's embarrassing that my little sister makes more money than me (I'm 20 she's 16).

Thanks for any advice in advance!