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olive oil

The Green Beauty Guide

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If you like beauty products but are made nervous by applying products containing gunk like formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane to your skin, you (or your lady friend, for those of the male persuasion) will be very interested in Julie Gabriel‘s comprehensive encyclopedia of DIY and commercially available nontoxic creams, perfumes, nostrums, and make-up. My friend KJG shared a copy the other day. It’s called simply The Green Beauty Guide.

This woman has compiled an incredible amount of research on synthetic, “natural,” and “organic” ingredients in make-up, body, hair, and aromatherapeutic products of all kinds. The book is largely free of the kind of gullible credulity that you find in much of this sort of thinking—Gabriel is not shy about cluing readers to the risks inherent to the many “green” products out there, just as she is frank about the industrial ingredients that render many drugstore and department-store products toxic.

I would add one caveat, though: Gabriel seems to be very fond of Bare Escentuals products. You should be aware that the line does contain bismuth oxychloride, as do most mineral powder make-ups. If you are at all sensitive to this chemical, it can cause severe redness, itching, and long-term irritation to your skin. Check the ingredients of all beauty products; just because they’re labeled “organic” or “natural” does not mean they’re free of potentially unpleasant ingredients.

The fun aspect of this book, though, is its wonderful collection of make-it-yourself beauty nostrums, from nail creams to acne nostrums. Did you know you can make your own self-tanning oil, right in your kitchen? You can whip up your own shampoo, conditioner, lip balm, face creams, depilatory wax, and even hair coloring. Lots and lots of things to experiment with here, some of them very simple to make!  Try, for example, this enhanced version of olive oil as cleanser, something Funny reported on some time back.

To two ounces of organic extra-virgin olive oil, add 1 ampoule of vitamin E and one drop of essential oil of chamomile. Shake well. You can dispense this from a pump bottle, where it will keep for a long time in a cool, dry place.

The other very positive aspect of this guide is that Gabriel names names. In discussing commercially made green products, she gives brand names and in many cases critiques products. She also tells you specifically what’s wrong with which conventional products, and she provides an appendix listing common ingredients in over-the-counter beauty products and cleansers explaining what those ingredients will do to you. Another appendix provides online resources for less-toxic beauty products.

You can have a lot of fun with the many recipes Gabriel provides for beauty nostrums of all varieties. Or, if you prefer to buy your products instead of making your own, her advice on which low-toxicity products to buy can help you feel more comfortable about what you put on your face, hair, and body.

Highly recommended!

Also check out these pages at FaM:

Olive Oil: The Ultimate Hair Conditioner
Olive Oil: The Miracle Skin Cleanser
Sunscreens: Be Scared, Be Very Scared
Frugal Cosmetics: Lemons for Your Beauty Routine
Lemon and Vinegar Highlight Your Hair

Olive oil soothes sore, cracked heels and callused feet

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At the risk of promoting olive oil as some kind of miracle elixir, I’d like to tell you about another small discovery. If you wear sandals a lot, you’ve probably experienced the cracked heels that come when dry summer weather takes after the calluses you get from barefoot or sandaled walking. The other day one of my dainty little paws developed a crack so deep it bled. Did that hurt! Every step made that sore heel yelp in pain.

Ouch!
Ouch!

{sigh} I’ve tried sooo many nostrums to deal with dry, cracked heels that I’ve about given up. Hand creams, cow teat ointment, horse hoof ointment, special cracked heel creams, Vaseline, callus scrapers, even prescription gunk. Not a one did any good. Usually when this happens I have to plaster on a giant bandage over a blob of antibiotic ointment and limp around until the split heals.

So I’m sitting there studying yet another brutalized heel when it occurs to me that if olive oil works on your face and works on your hair, maybe it would work on your feet. So, I hauled out some gear and went to work.

Feet & gear
Feet & gear

First, I added a little scented bubble bath to a bucketful of warm water and, after removing the raggedy toenail polish, soaked the victimized feet until I could scrub off all the dirt and dead hide  with a nail brush and pumice stone.

Luxury foot bath
Luxury foot bath

This felt pretty good, though I had to be careful not to cause another squawk of protest from the injured heel. After everything was as clean and smooth as I could make it, I applied about a tablespoon of olive oil to one foot and massaged it in, paying special attention to the calluses around the heel and on the sole and toes. Quickly put on a ped-sized socklet, to keep the oil on my foot and off the floor and furniture. Repeated the same with the other foot.

The next morning, my foot felt a lot better. It wasn’t fully healed, but at least I didn’t have to wear a bandage to walk around.

The following evening, I rubbed more olive oil into each foot, especially around the heels, and covered up with small, light socks again. Each night I wore the socks to bed, mostly to keep any oil from rubbing off on the sheets but also to protect the feet. Truth to tell, by the time I went to bed the olive oil had soaked into the skin (or the socks) enough that it probably wouldn’t have stained the sheets. But who can afford to buy a new set of cotton sheets just because her feet hurt, eh?

On the second day after the initial treatment, the cracked heel seemed to be fixed. As I did the preceding day, I wore shoes with socks (ugh, in 110-degree heat!!) instead of sandals. Again that evening, I massaged in some more olive oil.

By the third morning, the difference was noticable. Far from perfect (oh, to be 20 again!), but improved enough that it doesn’t hurt. At least.

After another olive oil massage and overnight rest, the feet looked pretty good, and the split in the heel was all gone. Given a toenail repaint, the effect is not bad, for an old bat:

DCP_2608

Note that this is absolutely, positively not an instant fix! For three full days, I didn’t even think about repainting the toenails. It took that long for the olive oil to soften and soothe the dry, callused skin.

Also take note that it does, yes indeed it does make you smell like a walking tossed salad. It’s probably not appropriate if you have a lover in the house, unless he or she doesn’t mind having you spend a few nights in the guest bedroom. 😉

Funny’s other uses for olive oil

Hair conditioner
Facial cleanser
Update on skin conditioning

Olive Oil: The miracle skin cleanser

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Here’s a little discovery I recently blundered upon: plain old olive oil makes a great facial cleanser and skin conditioner.

I know…it’s counterintuitive. Olive oil should make your skin greasy. But it doesn’t. Not at all. In fact, as I write this my skin could use a little face cream. Some people say it’s safe to use on naturally oily skin prone to acne, because your own skin’s native oiliness has nothing to do with what you put on it and everything to do with your hormones. So many people buy into this theory that there’s actually a coterie of folks who have developed an “Oil Cleansing Method”(OCM), which they recommend for acne sufferers.

The other day I stumbled on this when I opened a freebie sample packet of expensive skin cream from L’Occitane. Thinking it was rather nice, I glanced at the ingredients and discovered the stuff is mostly water and olive oil.

Olive oil? I’ve got that in the kitchen, and it sure doesn’t cost what a bottle of fancy goop from L’Occitane costs.

Meanwhile, there’s a backstory here you should know about: Over the past two or three years, I’ve developed a maddeningly itchy spot on my face. It runs along the sides of my nose, especially around the creases where the nose joins the face. One dermatologist decided it was seborrheic dermatitis and prescribed a high-octane cortisone cream. Another dermatologist said it certainly was not that, because there was no visible reddening or rash, but she didn’t know what it is and thought I should leave it alone.

Well, cortisone cream does nothing. After I’d faithfully followed the first specialist’s instructions for about ten days, I learned that cortisone creams can cause your skin to atrophy. That’s just what I need: atrophied skin on my face! Thanks, doc!

Moving on, I tried dandruff shampoo (briefly soothing…for about ten minutes), calamine lotion, insect itch stuff, face creams, Vaseline, witch hazel, Bactine, antibiotic ointments, Myconazole, special soaps, Benadryl cream, oral antihistamines, swearing off caffeine, swearing off alcohol, and on and on and on. NOTHING helped to make it heal up, and only two things would stop the itch for longer than about five or ten minutes: salacylic acid (in Scalpicin) and benzyl alcohol plus pramoxine HCL (in Itchex gel). Both of these sting like the dickens when you apply them—as in hurt so much it makes your eyes water—but they would stop the itching for three to five hours, which was better than anything else did. Meanwhile, I continued to unconsciously paw at my face, because nothing would bring the itch to an end.

When I realized the L’Occitane cream was mostly olive oil, the Still Small Voice whispered, “Olive oil? Try it!”

Why not? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The OCM enthusiasts are hot to add stuff like castor oil and aloe, but I decided I would restrain myself from running to the drugstore and just use the Costco olive oil I had in the house. Here’s the strategy:

You need

• a small amount of olive oil
• small dish
• warm water
• washcloth
• a few minutes of undisturbed time

Pour a tablespoon or two of olive into a little dish. Using your fingers, dip up oil and spread it over your face. Rub the oil gently around and into the skin.

Dampen the washcloth well with very warm but NOT scaldingly hot water. Lay the warm washcloth over your well-oiled face and let it set. Relax while allowing the steamy warmth to work on your skin. As the cloth cools, repeat this several times.

Then gently wipe the excess oil from your skin. Rinse and wring out the washcloth, and you’re done! If you like, splash some cold water on your face as an astringent.

Amazingly, as soon as I applied olive oil to the itchy area around my nose, it started to sooth the discomfort! And it didn’t hurt.

After I finished wiping the oil off my face, I dabbed a light film of olive oil onto the itchy area. It worked! It didn’t 100% cure the itching, but it soothed enough that I could keep my hands off my face all day long.

I’ve been using olive oil on my face for several days now, and it’s making a huge difference. Maybe over time the years-old irritation will settle down and go away. BTW, the oil also works really well to remove make-up. It even takes off mascara. It leaves your skin feeling clean, with no trace of greasiness. The olive oil scent dissipates quickly or washes off in the warm water, so you don’t end up smelling like a walking bowl of salad.

Isn’t that the darnedest thing? I can’t imagine why this would work on a stubborn itch. And I’m not asking! I’m just gunna keep using it.