Some Honey, Honey?

As I made my daily green tea with honey and lemon drink this morning I began to think about the inevitable fact that winter is just around the corner.  Winter is a time for hot tea, coffee beverages, hot chocolate and the occasional hot toddy.  I’ve found that honey blends perfectly with all of these drinks.  But I also began to think about all the other things I use this golden delight for.  Not only do I put it to my favorite drinks, soap recipes and food recipes but I put it on my body quite often.  I never really thought about how much I use it or why I seem to always have it stocked in my pantry until today.

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What is Soap Scum?

Soap scum is a white or gray filmy layer that covers the surfaces around our showers, bathtubs, and sinks. Soap scum is actually formed thanks to minerals in your water that combine with the wonderful oil and moisturizing elements in your soaps.  Get rid of those minerals and you get rid of the scum.  Soap is getting a bad wrap.  It shouldn’t be called soap scum at all should it?  Maybe water scum is a better name.  Let’s just call it what it is.

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Benefits of Milk Soaps

There is a long history of using milk in soaps and other skin care products.  In fact milk has been used in bath products since ancient times.  Cleopatra, rumored to have had beautiful skin, was said to have taken daily milk baths.  But what, if any, benefit does your skin get from these popular products?

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Healing Your Skin After Too Much Sun

I spent my days on the beach reading or in the water.  Although I used my sun block religiously I still got a little burned.  I have to admit the one day I didn’t use it is the day I went wave running and ended up with tingling skin.  So that night I decided I had better treat myself to a little “skin healing” before I headed back into the sun.

After dinner I took a cool shower then headed into the kitchen to find something to mix up as mask for my face, neck and shoulders.  I loved it so much I have to share the recipe.

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Is it Soap? Is it a Cosmetic or a Drug?

The FDA regulates cosmetics and drugs.  What determines how a product is classified is the intended used for the product.  The way in which firms market a cosmetic can make it a drug, or how a firm markets a drug can make it a cosmetic.  So what is soap?

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Natural or NOT!

In March if this year the results of a study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a watchdog group, was released. This study assessed levels of a carcinogen in leading “natural”, “organic” and conventional brands of personal care and household cleaning products. The full press release and a copy of the follow-up testing results can be found and downloaded at: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm along with a fact sheet on petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane.

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