The Great Oil Experiment (with DIYs)

Don't forget to label your bottles with old publicity stickers! Or, you know, actual labels.

The concept of washing your face with oil sounds very strange, but it makes sense - the basic idea is that the oil dissolves the excess grease and grime on your face, without stripping it and drying out your skin the way soapy cleansers do. Moisturizing with oils seems similarly frightening, but most people report a decrease in breakouts rather than the expected increase- apparently not all oils are as comedogenic as our own delightful skin oil.

As a fan of skin oils in general, I've been meaning to try oil cleansing for awhile now. I'll admit my usual face-washing routine is pretty lax (I usually just splash some hot water on there in the shower, and occasionally use some Dr Hauschka's Cleansing Cream which I buy entirely because it smells AMAZING and for no other real reason.) I occasionally use coconut oil to remove make-up, but that's not quiiiite the same (though this method will remove make-up very well.) Likewise, I'll occasionally use coconut oil in lieu of lotion for moisturizing, but I've never tried actual "face oil."

Now, if you go out and buy face oils, for cleansing or (especially) moisturizing, they will run you into the realm of ridiculou$$. The ingredients are usually obscenely simple (sometimes, it's just a tiny fancy bottle of a pure oil that they're charging $50 for, when you could get twice as much for a third of the price at a hippie grocery store- looking at you, argan oil.)

Anyway, that makes them natural candidates for DIYing! Here are my very simple recipes for both- I recommend putting them in a little eyedropper bottle (which you can usually find at the sorts of hippie grocery stores that carry the oils- I got everything necessary at Whole Foods.)

Cleansing oil:

2 parts Grapeseed oil
1 part Jojoba oil
A few drops grapefruit essential oil (or EO of your choice)

Many people like to use castor oil for cleansing- apparently it works a little better than other sorts, but it can also be drying and since my skin veers towards dry, I went with gentler grapeseed (which is also good for balancing oily skin.) Jojoba is more moisturizing, but also usually pretty safe for oily skin. Depending on your skin, you can tweak the ratios of lighter and heavier oils (some Googling will give you waaaay more info about what different oils are good for than you ever wanted or needed.)

As far as EO's are concerned, you'll be washing it off so it's mostly about whatever you like. I love the smell of grapefruit EO but it's not one I necessarily want to leave on my skin all day, so this is a good chance to use it.

To use a cleansing oil, take a few drops and massage them thoroughly into your face (if you're wearing make-up, be sure to give those areas some extra attention). Grab a washcloth, run the tap water nice and hot (not burning, obviously, but good and cozy), soak the cloth, and press onto your face for a few seconds. Rinse the cloth, repeat. Try not to rub too hard- the hot water well melt the oils off, taking the dirt, grime, and skin oil with it.

Moisturizing Oil:

4 parts Jojoba oil
1 part Grapeseed oil
A few drops lavendar essential oil (or EO of your choice)

You'll notice I used the same oils- that is called "not spending a freaking insane amount of money at Whole Foods." I went heavier on the jojoba because I want this one to be more moisturizing than the cleansing oil was, but again, you can tweak this using whatever oils you need to for your skin type.

As for EOs, here's a quick and dirty guide*:

For dry/aging skin: Geranium, Lavendar, Neroli, Rose, Birch, Rosewood
For normal/combination skin: Lavendar, Rose, Sandalwood

For oily skin: Pachouli, Myrrh, Rosemary, Ylang Ylang

For acne-prone skin: Lavendar, Violet, Rosewood, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Chamomile
For sensitive/irritated skin: Lavendar, Chamomile, Ylang Ylang

Bergamot and some other citrus oils are useful for oily or acne-prone skin, but they can make your skin more sensitive to UV light, so I wouldn't recommend them for anything you're going to leave on your skin. Neroli is apparently an exception, and sweet orange and grapefruit may or may not be okay...but might as well play it safe. On the flip side, apparently some EOs like lavendar, Roman chamomile, and myrrh as well as sesame, coconut, and olive oil actually offer some UV protection.

Another note on EOs: Go easy!! A little goes a long way. 

*Disclaimer: I haven't used all, or even most of these. Please research whatever oil you want to use before committing, in case my ten minutes of Google research was mistaken.

To use the moisturizing oil, put a few drops (like, two) in your hands, rub them together, and then pat all over your still-damp face, aftershave style.

So how's it work?

One day later...
My face felt really soft when I went to bed last night. Skin looks pretty decent today- hard to tell after just one use though. One thing to note, if you're not extremely careful, the oil does tend to work it's way into your hair, especially if you have bangs- no big deal (it's probably really good for your hair) but you'll want to make sure you can shower before going out the next day.

Several days later...
So far so good! My face tends to get more or less moody depending on the time of month, but the oil doesn't seem to have made anything worse, and it's at least as moisturized as with the lotion I was using before. My pores seem cleaner than they did with normal facewash, possibly because I use the oil more often (I didn't want to overdry my skin with soap.) The biggest downside? The required washcloths. Normally I just wash my face in the shower and splash some water on there to rinse, but that doesn't work as well with the oil (I tried it, but it was much harder to get the oil off without a cloth.) I'll just have to be diligent about laundry and maybe buy a few extras.

In conclusion...

Totally worth a try. The ingredients aren't that pricey if you think of how far they go- the EOs are the priciest part, but they last a long time and have many applications... and honestly you could probably skip them if you wanted to, but they make the process rather nice. Keep your other oils in the fridge unless you're using one with a long shelf life- that way they'll stay good longer.

Would love to hear your guys's recipes and results- I'm a sucker for DIY skincare/beauty stuff!

12 Ways to Party with Mr. Coconut Oil

Today I'd like to talk to you about a very good friend of mine: Mr. Coconut Oil. Coconut oil is moisturizing, naturally antibacterial/antiviral/antifungal, very affordable, packing lots of vitamin A, C, and E, and a buttload of antioxidants.... plus, it's delicious. Unless you are one of those people who can't stand the scent or is wildly allergic to it, I strongly recommend you arrange a meeting.

Specifically, I've been relying on the good Doctor:



....but I'm sure any nice organic virgin oil is fine. I'm actually slightly less enamored with this one now that it's almost gone and I can't fit my hand in the jar to get the last of it out. Needs a bigger opening, darnit!

1. Moisturize.....everything.
This stuff works as lotion, massage oil, cuticle and nail oil, lip "balm" (y'know, except the part where it's liquid and not a balm)... I've even heard it's great for dry noses in the winter, just grease up a finger and jam it on up there. Hope you like the smell of coconuts! As oils go, coconut is on the lighter side and absorbs easily, though it's easy to go overboard, so start with just a dab. You can also drop some in the tub and have a nice moisturizing soak (just beware of slippery tubs.) Apparently it's safe for use on pets, too (though I'd do a little more research before using it on them or giving it to them, just in case.) It could be great for cracked winter paws, provided my dogs don't decide to lick it off immediately. Already moisturized your entire body (and your pet's?) Try conditioning wood or leather with it.

2. Oil-cleansing (and make-up removal)
Have you heard of oil cleansing? That site talks about it at length (and uses a different sort of oil) but the basic premise is this: rub oil into your face, let it dissolve the gunk in your pores, wash it off. I go a step further and let it sink in overnight, which I figure means it's doubling as a night time moisturizer. Then when I shower in the morning, the skin-gunk is nice and ready to rinse away. Coconut oil is also great for removing make-up, though you will be left greasy so it's definitely more of an end-of-the-night remover, not a "oops I messed up" remover.

3. Hair Treatment
Coconut oil apparently rocks for hair. According to an article in the Journal of Cosmetic Science:

"The findings clearly indicate the strong impact that coconut oil application has to hair as compared to application of both sunflower and mineral oils. ...

Both sunflower and mineral oils do not help at all in reducing the protein loss from hair. This difference in results could arise from the composition of each of these oils. Coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (principal fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins and, because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain, is able to penetrate inside the hair shaft.

Mineral oil, being a hydrocarbon, has no affinity for proteins and therefore is not able to penetrate and yield better results. In the case of sunflower oil, although it is a triglyceride of linoleic acid, because of its bulky structure due to the presence of double bonds, it does not penetrate the fiber, consequently resulting in no favorable impact on protein loss."

So that seems like a good thing. It will of course, make your hair greasy, so this is another thing to do before you wash, or possibly overnight. I always end up getting it all over my hair when I'm doing the nighttime moisturizing thing anyway.

4. Deodorant
Please allow me to direct your attention back to this tutorial. True, I will probably try pure shea butter next time, but the coconut oil has worked well and I've enjoyed having armpits that smell like delicious desserts.

5. Perfume?
Ok this one's kind of cheating, because pretty much any one of these things will leave you smelling coconutty anyway. But provided you get an oil that hasn't be refined beyond the point of smelling, it does linger. Bad if you don't like coconut-smell, good if you do (I will say that I really dislike fake coconut smell- this is a breed apart.) I quite enjoy waking up in the morning and realizing that my feet and legs still smell edible from the oil I slathered on last night. So even if you didn't use coconut oil for anything else, you could totally dab a little on for the scent.

6. Hairspray
Mostly water + blob coconut oil + blob aloe + small blob hair gel + generous pour of sea salt + spritzer bottle = really nice, nourishing hair texturizer. I use this almost every day now and it actually seems to have made my hair softer, plus it gives it that nice scruffy-beachy-look. Totally smells like a beach, too.

7. Temporary tattoo removal
Ok I realize this isn't a problem that most adults have. But I recently went to a circus-themed party as the "Temporarily Tattooed Lady" and believe me when I tell you I know a thing or two about fake tat removal.

Step 1: Slather some coconut oil on that sweet ink. Let it soak in.

Step 2: Rub it a little. If you're lucky, it'll totally dissolve at this point and come right off. Maybe 1/6th of the tats in that picture did that. If not, proceed to...

Step 3: Get in a very hot shower (or bath if bathing with little tattoo bits doesn't squick you out) and hang out there awhile til you're feeling all good and steamy. Don't wash the oil off, but don't be afraid to get it wet either. Scrub the the tattoos enthusiastically with a rough washcloth. Pretty much all of them came off this way, though some required more elbow grease than others. Afterwards, regular ole soap should help rinse away the sticky scumblobs. Be prepared to clean the tub if you're removing them in great quantity.

Sup?

8. Tattoo aftercare (and healing in general)
Speaking of tattoos, I recently got a little ink test done (a tiny dot of a tattoo to see if my skin would react negatively to the ink) and used coconut oil during the healing process with success. (Don't tell my tattoo artist, who wanted me to use crap-laden Lubriderm. Ew.) The key is to put it on really, really thinly- like wipe some on, then dab gently it with a clean paper towel (never fabric- you want something borderline sterile) until it's no longer shiny. You want it to breathe. Now, obviously this was just a little dot, and I'll report back after I use it for the actual tattoo...but from my googling, it sounds like I'm definitely not the first, and I feel much better putting something natural and food-grade on my mashed-up flesh than something full of nasty chemicals. It also sounds like it's great for just about any skin-healing you need to do. I regularly put it on my constantly-irritated legs and it does seem to soothe the beasts. Folks with skin conditions like eczema have reported some success as well.

9. Lube
Family members look away! I have not actually tried this, but from what I've read, coconut oil is a fine, ah, "personal lubricant." Obviously you're not going to want to mix it up with latex (oil melts latex or something. Not sure if that includes vegetable oils or just mineral/petroleum but I don't think you want to be the one to try it, amirite?) Now, I would've thought that having something edible up in your lady business was an invitation for trouble, but apparently you can actually use it to TREAT yeast infections and other nasties. Hot damn. (Plus, it's legitimately safe to eat and doesn't taste bad. That's probably handy.)

10. Make soap
I haven't yet delved into the world of proper soapmaking (lye, scary,) but coconut oil is a super useful ingredient for folks who do! Lends lather and hardness, two fine qualities for soap to have.

11. Get rid of those upper arm bumpies
Y'know, the "chicken skin", aka Keratosis Pilaris. Turns out coconut oil helps with that! Some people recommend eating it for this purpose but I'm not sure how that's supposed to help, besides just being generally good for your health. But I stumbled across this article the other day and when I looked down at my own arms I realized, hey, mine are almost totally gone! Cool! I've had those stupid bumps forever and totally got rid of them by accident. Maybe it's the same idea as the oil-cleansing, and it dissolves away whatever skin and oil and gunk causes the bumps. Don't much care as long as it works. Woohoo!

12. Eat it, duh

Ostensible nutritional benefits of coconut oil:
- Rich in vitamins and antioxidents (ie shit that keeps you from aging and is generally great for you)
- Knocks out h.pylori and treats stomach ulcers
- Helps prevent Alzheimers
- Balances blood sugar
- Balances cholesterol
- Increased metabolism and weight loss (that one looks a bit dubious)
- Magical tropical unicorns will fly out your ass playing rainbow steel drums
- A whole bunch of other stuff you can read about here

Now, I'm sure the research is still out on some of those, notably weight loss and unicorns. But eating this stuff is probably not bad for you, in any case. On its own, it has a pretty mild, neutral taste (unexpectedly so, with such a strong sweet smell.) It apparently has the same number of calories as olive oil (even though it's white and frothy and looks like lard. Don't be fooled! It IS a saturated fat, but it's not as evil as the others.)

I asked Travis for a coconut oil recipe, but apparently he usually uses the milk, so this is all he had:

Homemade "Magic Shell"
(Remember? That weird chocolate syrup that hardens when it hits your ice cream and then you crack it with a spoon?) This stuff is fun. It's also great when you're making homemade ice cream- just pour it in the ice cream maker and you have those delicious flaky chocolate "chips".

Anyway- put 1/3 cup coconut oil and 12 oz of whatever chocolate you want in a pan, preferably a double boiler. Heat it up til the chocolate melts, stirring all the while. Remove from heat. Booyah. This stuff will be liquidy at room temperature and then harden when it hits something cold.

But if that doesn't suit you, here's like, a thousand recipes using coconut oil. You can also toss it in smoothies and stuff, or fry other things up in it.


Bonus, sort of: Sunscreen?
Some sources say this stuff is useful as sunblock. Others say not so much. One source noted that while coconut oil only blocked 20% of shitty-rays, cod liver oil blocked 90%. So if you're cool with smelling like fish, that's an option, I guess. That said, I bet that mixing coconut oil up with some zinc oxide and titanium dioxide would make a pretty sweet mineral sunscreen.

Any other suggestions for the wundernuss? Please do tell!

Something Different Friday: Everything in your life is poisoning you

When I was in high school, one of my teachers introduced the concept of "Something Different Fridays." On Friday, instead of teaching math, he'd teach us something else he thought was worthwhile, like how to play the stock market, or Piaget's theories of development. I am stealing this concept here to indulge my occasional urges to blog about something unrelated to crafting- not every Friday, but once in awhile. Sometimes they'll be silly, sometimes serious. I hope you'll find them an enjoyable diversion!

So this is a new thing I'm trying! And we're going to start off with something that's been on my mind a bit lately.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have what I would call a "passionate interest" in not feeling shitty, getting cancer, and otherwise dying horribly. To this end I've become a bit obsessed with trying not to poison myself. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, since pretty much everything around us is poisoning us at all times.

I want to take this time to recommend two books:*

It's My Ovaries, Stupid!

I know, it's a stupid name. And it appears to be out of print, though there are some used copies. But I genuinely believe that anybody who has or has ever had ovaries should read this book. It's way too complicated and indepth to go into here, but let me summarize in one sentence:

Pesticides, household chemicals, and nasty food additives are fucking the hell out of your hormones and making you feel awful.

Remember DDT and how it ruined all those bird eggs and generally crapped on everything it touched? Did you know that we still use very chemically similar products, and that we still manufacture DDT and send it to other countries where it's still allowed? And then, of course, those countries send their produce back to us, and we eat it, and it sits in our bodies for upwards of THIRTY YEARS. And that's just one chemical, there are plenty more that are still legal here and just about as dangerous. When it comes right down to it... if it's going to kill bugs and small rodents, it's not going to be good for you either.

To make matters worse, that shit is *everywhere*. It runs off of fields and into water supplies, it's in the air, it's in the soil, it's in the rain. In small amounts, it's in the grass that your all-organic-grassfed-hamburger-to-be is munching on, and therefore in the meat, eggs, and milk we eat, even when we do our best to avoid it (though it's still a far sight better than the cows that might as well have cyanide mainlined into their veins for all the crap they're given.) Not to mention the stuff that's in our cleaning products, beauty products, and food. They get all up into your body and start pretending that they're hormones and clogging up your receptors and generally being total dicks. (Another fun fact: the manufacturers of these chemicals are only required to test for cancer-causing effects- they don't have to look for ANY other toxic effects on the body. If it doesn't immediately give a mouse cancer, it's good to go! At least, as of 2003 when the book was published.)

These guys know what I'm talking about.

Hormones are important. When they're out of whack, your whole body starts sucking. Migraines, fatigue, digestive problems, skin problems, period problems, mood disorders, PCOS, infertility- even major things like autoimmune disorders and cancer. Your hormones want to work properly and be your friend, but it's a very delicate system and they've been under attack since the day you were conceived. This book is aimed at women (who are lucky enough to have an insanely complicated hormonal system. Woo) but this crap messes with male hormones too. For some reason, doctors never want to deal with this stuff (as I learned when I was trying to sort out my crazy hormonal migraines and was prescribed baby aspirin. No thanks, I'd rather, y'know, fix the problem.) As this book explains, reproductive hormones aren't really the domain of any of the medical specialities- gynos are only focused on what's going on with your immediate reproductive system, endocrinologists focus more on thyroid hormones, etc etc. Hormones are rarely checked unless you're being treated for infertility, despite the fact that they affect so much more. This book will talk you through (in AGONIZING DETAIL) the many affronts on your ovaries, the problems they cause, and what you can possibly do about it - starting with avoiding as many of those poisons as possible, which brings us to the second book, which is a bit more fun.

No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics

This book (and the blog that goes with it) are a little bit hippy-dippy and a little bit "OH MY GOD $20 FOR THAT TINY BOTTLE OF LOTION??" but nonetheless, a super invaluable resource when it comes to eliminating nasty toxic shit from your body and cosmetic products (you know how people are always complaining about headaches from people wearing strong perfume? There is a very good reason for that.) A lot of the stuff they recommend is a little pricey, but there are some good cheaper alternatives and they give you a very handy list of ingredients to avoid. As a bonus, a lot of the yicky chemicals in body products are actually just cheap filler, so when you switch to the good stuff, it works a lot better too (nothing has ever helped my dry hands as much as that stupid $20 bottle of lotion... and it goes a pretty long way, I swear!) Plus, when you treat your skin more kindly it rewards you with fewer breakouts and irritations, and my hair looks better than it has in a lonnng time- did you know that the ingredient in most conditioners that helps your hair feel silky (silicones and other "-cones") actually locks the moisture out of your hair and dries it out in the long run? Which, of course, causes you to buy more conditioner. Which dries your hair out....you see where I'm going. Companies want to keep you coming back and they don't always do it ethically. Silicones show up in a lot of lotions, too, btw. Ahem.

Anyway, that's my soapbox. Some other Friday I'll do a run down of the reasonably-affordable products I've found and recommend. It IS possible to detoxify your products without having to sacrifice any anal-retentive cleanliness, by the way (most of them, anyway.) A lot of people recommend no-soap or "no-'poo" routines, and there are a lot of super non-toxic products that frankly don't work for shit. That's great for people who don't mind it (it's better for your hair and skin anyway), but that stuff doesn't fly with me, I want to feel just as squeaky clean as I did when I was using drugstore crap :-P Luckily the hippies have evolved, and they're putting out some pretty awesome things now.




(*BTW, these are affiliate links so if you use them to purchase things, I get like, a few cents. Feel free not to use 'em, but I figured as long as I'm recommending books anyway...)