Tea Tree Oil Zit Zapper

As great as coconut oil is for oh so many things, it's not perfect. For people with oil/acne prone skin, it can mean a nasty break out. After I used coconut oil to remove my eye makeup (and carelessly getting some on my cheek) I woke up to this bad boy:

Yikes! I used to be uber self-conscious about my enormous pores, but I don't even think about them anymore. I wouldn't mind finding a natural way to shrink them a bit... but that's another post for another day.

Forget the big pores. This angry zit is all I can see when I look in the mirror! So I applied a few drops of tea tree oil via Q-tip and this evil monster healed pretty quickly with no squeezing/picking/drying out/flaking. Day two was hard only because I REALLY wanted to pop this guy, but I refrained.

And today, day 3, I'm much more comfortable with this... and thrilled I didn't follow the same pattern of destroying my skin with drying agents and picking and squeezing.

Kinda just looks like one of my freckles! I can't believe how well tea tree oil worked to hasten the healing of this enormous zit!!

There's Vodka in My Diffuser

It's true.

But don't worry... it wasn't the good stuff. It was just some cheap brand I've never heard of left over from who knows what.

I had a reed diffuser in my bathroom that smelled fantastic, but of course dried up in no time. My $8.99 impulse buy was a bust. No telling what kind of scary chemicals were in that stuff, anyway.

Rather than throw away the glass bottle and little wooden sticks, why not make my own yummy smelling concoction?

INGREDIENTS:

12 Drops of essential oils (I mixed lavender and tea tree this time around)
1/4 cup of a carrier oil (mineral, safflower, almond)
splash of vodka

Coconut Oil Hair Mask

You can't log onto Pinterest without seeing the gazillion amazing uses for coconut oil. Weeeellll... I'm a total CO junkie, so I kinda buy into it all. Like the Dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding & his Windex.

Total cure-all.

My mask is simple: Coconut oil, Lavender, and Tea Tree Oils

If you don't do your research, you can end up with a mess. Here are some tips that I think a lot of the DIY hair mask posts are missing:

1. Use organic (duh)
2. Don't nuke it! Your body heat will be enough to melt it, so just use your hands.
3. Apply to dry hair (refer to oil vs water)
4. Cover your head to trap some heat. This will open your hair shaft and your hair will drink up the goodness!
5. To rinse out, DON'T GET YOUR HAIR WET before applying your cleansing conditioner (or shampoo if you aren't on the bandwagon yet). 
6. Also, don't use cool water because the coconut oil will become solid in a hurry.
7. Use warm water and cleanse, hydrate, and style as usual.
8. I do this weekly, but just experiment & see what works for you!

Essential Oils

Before nursing school, I was a spa coordinator. I LOVED it. I had a nutty boss, but I never got stressed out. How is that possible? The essential oils, I tell you.

I miss the atmosphere of that place, so I often try to recreate it in my little loft apartment. The concrete floors and exposed brick are a far cry from the soft and inviting decor of the spa world, but I have my serenity Pandora station, candles, and essential oils to make up for it.

Recently I've been really interested in the use of essential oils in a more clinical setting. I did a science project in 4th grade where I tested the antibacterial properties of tea tree oil, so it really just made sense for me to kind of dig a little deeper into this idea that essential oils aren't just for massages and aromatherapy.

I am especially interested because I've taken care of countless patients with all kinds of so called superbugs (thank you antibiotic mania) and aside from gowning up head to toe every time you enter the hospital room like you're on your way to some chemical spill, I just don't see that we as a health care community are doing enough to address the issue. Yes, stopping the spread of the superbugs is paramount. But maybe we ought to be looking into destroying the little critters with something other than heavy duty poisons.

Not only can essential oils aid in healing, but they can benefit the staff. Talk to anyone who works in a hospital. The stress factor is off the charts.

I'm all for it! Going to hit up some peer reviewed data and learn more about this trend. Evidenced-based practice is the cornerstone of nursing, and I am off to find out what studies are out there about essential oils in the hospital setting.

Check out this list of hospitals that currently use essential oils:

Alegent Health Bergan Mercy Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Aurora Healthcare System, Foxpoint, WI
Banner Health, Mesa, AZ
Benedictine Hospital, NY
Beth Israel Complementary Care Center, NY, NY
Children’s Healthcare, Roseville, MN
The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, NY, NY
Elk Regional Health Hospital, PA
Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, AK
Florida Hospital Medical Center, Orlando, FL
Goshen General Hospital, Goshen, IN
Heather Hill Hospital, Chardon, OH
Ingham Regional Medical Center, Landing, MI
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Oakland, CA
Manilaq Hospital, Kotzebue, AK
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NY, NY
Mercy Holistic Health, Cincinnati, OH
Pinnacle Health, Harrisburg, PA
St. Barnabas Healthcare System, Toms River, NJ
St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford, CT
St. John’s Riverside Medical Center, Yonkers, NY
St. Luke’s Medical Center, New Bedford, MA
Sentara Healthcare, Wilmington, DE
The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, NJ
University of Michigan Hospital, MI
Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
Sharp Chula Vista, San Diego, CA
Primary Children’s Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT

DIY Flaxseed Hair Gel

Say what?

A classmate told me about this back when I first went no poo.

Simply boil 2 cups filtered water with 1/2 cup flaxseed. When it gets frothy, strain and add your choice of essential oils if you want some fragrance.

I keep mine in the fridge in a mason jar. Super cheap, super easy....... and super crunchy.

Two thumbs up!

Who Cut the Cheese? DIY Car Freshener

Super EASY way to make a stinky car smell fantastic.

Since I started cutting out chemical fragrance, I find that now my nose is OFFENDED by the stench of faux ocean breezes and the like. Blegh. Anyone else experience this?

I am now an olfactory snob.

So my trusty Xterra is a mutt cab. There is no way around it. It's perpetually hairy because my fluffy dogs shed like mad and so do I. Not much I can do about that except vacuum it like a madwoman, so I just accept that it's always going to be at least a little furry.

However, I do not accept it constantly smelling like dog farts. I'm amazed at how long I can smell remaining dog funk after a road trip with the windows down! What's a dog loving mutt cab driver to do?

Ahhh, essential oils.

I found some leftover felt and cut/ glued it into a happy flower. You can get creative with this and make all kinds of felt art, but this happened to be something I've made before with my nieces so I just went with it. Next I tied some twine to the masterpiece and dropped a 12 drop combo of lavender and tea tree oil & voila! My car smells great!

DIY Natural Soothing Dog Shampoo

My stinky furbabies have been super itchy as of late. They are indoor pups but we love to play outside, go on road trips, visit our fur cousins, and occasionally trek through the woods and get dirty and smelly.

I recently decided to stop using traditional flea and tick prevention because I'm just not comfortable with a monthly dose of poison nor am I thrilled about the price tag of said poison. Now, my veterinarian brother doesn't know about this yet & I'm not sure what his reaction will be, but I'm hoping he will agree that I carefully weighed the benefits and risks. Do I want my young nieces exposed to pesticides by snuggling up with my pooches?

As of now, we don't have a flea/tick problem. However, we just returned from a road trip where we visited my sister in her new apartment (no telling what kind of chemicals the landlord applied to the carpet prior to her moving in) and my parents' house in SC (where the mosquitoes are already biting).

In the old days I would have gone straight to PetSmart and grabbed an assortment of shampoos, but because my crunchy heart told me to figure out how to treat the itch naturally, I did just that.

Turns out I had all the things I needed already. SCORE!

*This recipe makes enough for two Medium-Largish really fluffy dogs 
(one is a shepherd/chow mix and the other a great pyrenees)

Road Trippin... on the way home, obviously.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups oatmeal- soothes skin
2 cups baking soda- cleanser
1 Tbsp honey- antibacterial
10 drops tea tree oil -antibacterial and stink-fighter
10 drops lavendar oil -antibacterial and stink-fighter
2 1/2 cups water

DIRECTIONS:

1- Grind up that oatmeal. I just threw mine in my cheap blender.
2- Add the water, blend again.
3- Add baking soda, honey, & oils
4- Pour into a mason jar (I used an old tomato sauce jar)
5- Store leftovers in fridge

My dogs HATE baths, so it's like WWE SmackDown when I have to get them in the tub. For this reason I don't use glass when it's time to do the deed... but for storage, definitely use glass.

Anyway the shampoo came out a bit watery but for us that was necessary- too thick and the stuff would have been like paste in their fluffiness. There were little flecks of oatmeal that I couldn't really rinse completely out, but I figured I'd much rather deal with that than the toxic suds I usually can't rinse all the way out. After they were dry I just gave them a good brush and woooooow do they smell great! Also, it's only been a few hours, but there's been no itching!

Success!

Rocko thinks he smells quite nice.

Bear doesn't know what just happened.