Giving Your Bathroom the Green Clean

You might be wondering what Green Cleaning has to do with skin care so I'll start by saying that majority of overexposure cases begin or are caused by household cleaning products. There are SO many hazardous chemicals in household cleaning products and we expose ourselves to them every time we choose to purchase a product from the supermarket cleaning isle.

The worst culprits are bleach and domestos, however most of them are hazardous to varying degrees and getting them on your skin or breathing in the fumes is NOT GOOD FOR YOU.

When it comes to Green Cleaning... what does a natural skin care specialist do?

Use green products such as Enjo cleaning cloths that are washable and reusable, Nature Direct cleaning liquids made with essential oils and DIY cleaning products. The odd scrub brush and shaggy dog toothbrush.  Use cotton gloves underneath your rubber gloves and moisturise hands when finished cleaning.

To clean the basin, cabinets and mirror use an Enjo cleaning cloth with plain cold water along with an Enjo buffing cloth (dries surfaces and shines and polishes without leaving lint behind). You can clean with your household cleaning products if you like those lovely 'clean' scents.

To clean the shower use an Enjo cleaning cloth with Nature Direct Heavy Duty Cleaner (or your own DIY cleaner). For more baked on grime use a scrubbing brush and use a shaggy dog toothbrush to clean tile grout. You can make a tile cleaning paste by mixing bicarb soda and water into a paste. Add a drop or 2 of lemon or eucalyptus essential oil for a nice scent (both are safe to use on marble).

To clean the toilet again use your Enjo cleaning cloth and Enjo buffing cloth along with Heavy Duty Cleaner [yellow] for the outside parts of the toilet = seats, sides etc. A standard scrubbing brush for the inside of your loo is good... but AVOID bleaches and toilet cleaners. Firstly they're washed down our drains which is NOT good, secondly they're not good to breathe in and they're full of chemicals that are harmful (why buy into the manufacture of that??)

Nature Direct also have a Glass Cleaner [green] suitable for shower screens and mirrors.

For carpets make yourself a DIY carpet cleaner with bicarb soda and a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil. Store in an empty spice jar with holes in the top to sprinkle the powder onto your carpet.

You can see it is quite simple and easy to clean green. So DITCH all those toxic chemical cleaning products that are harming you and your family, not good for asthma and skin conditions, not good to inhale or come in contact with your skin, and not good for your pets to breathe in either! Choose to clean green and look after your skin, your body, your loved ones and the environment.

  

Apple Sable with Caramel Sauce

Apple Sable is French though I'm not sure what it means. What I do know is this recipe is yummy and because it uses apples it's practically, almost, nearly good for you ;)

You will need:

• whole apples, one for each person
• 6 cloves
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 cup sweet white wine
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup brown sugar
• dollop of butter
• 300ml cream
• ice cream [optional]

Core and peel the apples leaving them whole. Pore 1 cup of sweet wine and 1 cup of water into a pot large enough to sit all the apples in (standing upright). Add the cloves, peppercorns and apples. Put the lid on the pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until apples are tender all the way through.

To make the caramel sauce place the fry pan on the heat until you can feel the heat coming off it. Add the sugar and let it melt. Make sure it doesn't get too hot and burn. When fully melted remove from heat and allow to cool a little. Add a dollop of butter, pore in around 1/4 cup of cream carefully as the toffee will bubble and spit if still too hot. Stir well. Add more cream or butter if necessary. You're looking for a caramel coloured running sauce that doesn't set at room temp.

To serve strain the apples and make sure there are no cloves or peppercorns sticking to the apples. Place apples upright in separate bowls and pore the caramel sauce around the sides. Pore extra cream in the center of the apples allowing it to over flow down the sides and into the caramel sauce.

Serve with a scoop of ice cream and a glass of white wine (for he adults) [optional]

  

Media Watch For Savvy Consumers

One thing my son and I enjoy is watching commercials or infomercials and picking apart what they present.  I mean lets face it their claims can be pretty far fetched, if not bold faced lies, and they're allowed to tell all sorts of non-truths in order to sell a product.  There is no governing body holding them accountable to keep it real.

As far as governments and officials are concerned it is up to us savvy parents to protect our children from these ploys and we're meant to be smart enough to know a fraud when we see one.

We often hear things like:
If you don't want your children watching it turn it off.
If you don't want retailers selling sexy clothing to children don't buy it.
If you don't want your children to eat unhealthy don't buy fast food.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Vote with your money.

It seems easier said than done... because for the most part parents/adults are NOT making these important stands with their money by not buying this stuff.

Here are some of the commercials for example.

Detol - it's the little thing we do that make up our mission for health.
Sounds good enough.  Yet what Detol don't mention is that their products are anything but healthy.  They contain so many harmful chemical ingredients it's not funny!  These ingredients kill off our bodies natural defense systems and can cause contact dermatitis (aka overexposure).

Sensodyne - have an ad where the 'creator and developer' professes to people 'coming up to me' to thank him for inventing the toothpaste.  Really?  How the heck would anyone know who Sensodyne's developer is let along being able to recognise him on the street to say thanks.  If they're lying to me about that how can I trust them?

Neutrogena 'naturals' - again are anything but natural.  Neutrogena used harsh chemicals in their products and are tested on animals.  There is nothing 'natural' about that.

Age perfect extraordinary oil by L'Oreal.  Well I don't even know what the heck that means let along what extraordinary oil is but apparently it's going to make me 'age perfect'.  Hmmmmm?

Cornflakes - have a new ad where they tell us Cornflakes are high in iron, and with calcium (milk) "Imagine what Kelogs Cornflakes can do".  They neglect to mention their cereal is high in sugar and no amount of iron will counteract the damage all that sugar does to your children's (and your) bodies.

Colgate Total toothpaste commercial where a man and woman are approached and asked how clean their teeth are.  They're asked to go away brushing their teeth as normal except the lady it to use Colgate Total and they'll note the difference.  The following day their teeth are scanned and her teeth show less plaque.  The silly thing is when they show his and her teeth in the scanned pics they are exactly the same set of teeth.

Easy Off BAM - an interview with a woman starts off with her talking about how her children draw on the bath with soap and it's really hard to clean, spray on Easy Off BAM on the shower screen, love how it foams up with a wide spray, and just wipe off.  Hang on!  Thought she was talking about how the bath is hard to clean and now she's talking about how well the product cleans the shower.  Did it clean the bath or not?

Consider also the new free to air channels we now have.  All of them are about being 'better than you are' such as; a domestic goddess (vacuums, steam mops etc), beautiful (hair care products, skin care products), looking glamours (jewellery, clothing) and being FIT (exercise machines designed to sell to those who sit at home gaining weight watching infomercials).

Sarah & Jess are the same person, with one side altered to look like saggy boob.

Feeling crap about yourself yet?  Because that is what these ads are designed for.

It's all lies and manipulation designed to have you believing you're not good enough and all these gimmicks will have you looking GREAT in no time.  Take the Soup Diet man for example.  The picture of him before his soup diet is exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) the same and his after picture except for a computer generated gut drawn on to his body.  His arms are exactly the same fatness (in fact they're lean and muscular), as are his head, neck and legs.  Yet we're meant to believe (tricked) he lost all that weight from eating yummy soups day in day out for a week.

I would LOVE (with capitals) for more and more people to start voting with their money. 

So I ask you, how savvy are you as a parent or as an individual?  Do you buy into the bogus false ads?  Or do you see right through them and see them for what they truly are (lies and deception)?

That being said my son and I love these ads because it gives us something to chuckle over together and I'm teaching him how to be a savvy consumer.

  

Spelt Flour Pancakes with Toffeed Apple and Fresh Bananas

Ingredients

1 cup wholemeal spelt flour (plain)
1 cup milk (any type - I like to use coconut milk)
1 egg
1 apple
1 banana
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 lemon

Directions

1) Mix flour, milk and egg together in a medium bowl to make a smooth batter. Add a dash more milk if batter is too thick.

2) Peel and core apple, dice into approx 1cm pieces.

3) Add a dollop of butter to a fry pan over medium heat.  Add apple pieces and stir now and then until apples are golden and soft, lightly stewing apple.

4) When the apples are soft, add the brown sugar around the edge of the apple pieces and leave on medium heat to let the sugar melt and turn into toffee.  Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the apples and sugar (this stops the toffee becoming hard and burning).

5) Remove toffeed apples from heat and pore into a bowl.

6) Add a dollop of butter to fry pan with a dash of oil (to stop butter from burning).  Scoop pancake mix into pan and cook in batches.  Repeat until all the batter is used up. 
The good thing about spelt flour is it can take heat and takes a while to cook each side so you don't have to worry about being side tracked while cooking (which is usually what happens in my world).

7) To serve place pancakes on plate(s).  Dollop toffeed apples onto stack.  Peel and slice banana and sprinkle over pancakes.

Makes about 15 medium sized pancakes.

Create & Win YOUR own Gift Pack ~ Competition

JOLI Customers, it's PARTY Time!!

We're celebrating 5 years of online retail :-)

PRIZE
 - WIN your very own specially created Gift Pack*
- 3 x $15 vouchers for the runners up

How to Enter:
1) Have a look through our current catalog to see which products you'd love to have in your very own Gift Pack. {Make sure you check out our current Gift Packs to see whats already available.}

2) SUBMIT your Gift Pack idea(s) to JOLI.

3) You can submit up to 3 gift pack ideas.

NOTE: you also have the chance to have YOUR winning Gift Pack listed on the JOLI website.

Conditions:
1) Open to JOLI Customers only. If you wish to enter this competition you can become a customer HERE.

2) *Gift Packs must be a maximum of $80.

3) Submissions start Friday 1st August until Friday 15th August.  Plenty of time to research and get your pack ideas together. Feel free to ask me questions (you've got my email).

4) Gift Pack ideas will be posted on the bottom of this blog as they come in and guests are invited to vote on which pack they like the most on this blog (leaving their initials).  Just write the word VOTE on the pack you like best.

4) Voting starts Saturday 16th August, until Friday 22nd August.

5) Entrants will be asked to encourage votes from the public, family or friends for their Gift Pack to win!

6) Winner announced (first name only) Friday 22nd August 6pm here and on Facebook (and via email to the winner and runners up).

Some Gift Pack Ideas to get you thinking:
Gift Pack of all three Moisturising Lip Balm colours
Design you own Bath Time gift pack
Design your own For Him gift pack
Gift Pack for little boys or girls
Soothing Pack
Bub Travel Pack

Subscribe to JOLI's e-news Indulgence

AND THE WINNER IS BEC WITH HER FANTASTIC FACE GIFT BOX!!!!

  

Chocolate Cherry Marshmallow pizza recipe

What you will need:

Pita bread
Chocolate spread
A handful of marshmallows
A handful of fresh cherries

Paste the chocolate spread onto pita bread.  I used Lovingearth Raw Organic Coconut Chocolate Butter (because it's better for our health than hazelnut spread).

Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over chocolate base.

Cut the cherries in halves, remove and discard seeds and stems. Sprinkle cherries evenly over base.  You don't need too many.

Bake in 160 degree oven for around 10-15mins, until marshmallows have spread out and cherries are releasing their yummy juices.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes because the marshmallow will be too hot and sticky to eat straight away.  Slice up and serve.

  

Perioral Dermatitis part 2

treating perioral dermatitis naturally

After a week of trying natural remedies let me tell you what I tried and the results I found. [read part1 here]

For three days (Fri, Sat, Sun) I tried an application of three different creams - none of which are natural: Clearasil, cold sore cream and antibacterial cream.

The reasons I tried Clearasil is because benzyl peroxide is meant to be useful for treating PD.

The reason I tried an anti-bacterial cream is because I read that often PD can result from not cleaning your skin regularly (or using harsh cleansers).  PD can also occur after an acne/pimple breakout.  Both suggest to me an element of bacteria as a potential cause.

The reason I tried an anti-fungal cream is because I read that PD can often result from an overgrowth of candida in the body which is fungal.

I applied each cream in different areas so I could note each result.  The acne cream was put on the outer part of my nose (to the right of the top pic), the anti-bacterial was applied to the Philtrum, and the cold sore cream the area in between the two.

The results of each:
1 - The acne cream seemed to help the rash not spread but didn't make the rash go away.
2 - The cold sore cream did very little, if anything the skin felt more irritated and itchy.
3 - New blisters appeared on the area where the anti-bacterial cream was applied.

All up the skin was irritated and itchy and started to look more angry and was spreading into the nostril. I'd say non of those creams were beneficial for treating perioral dermatitis.  After 3 days I stopped applying the creams altogether.  Stopping the creams left me with extremely itchy red skin, in fact I'm pretty sure the rash was looking worse.
Late at night out of sheer irritation I went outside and cut a piece of aloe Vera leaf and applied natural aloe to the area.  The relief was practically instant, although it left my skin dry and flaky.

I'd been taking evening primrose oil since Saturday morning and wasn't really sure it was doing much since the creams seemed to exacerbate the rash.  On the fourth day I ditched the dreams and began the natural remedies.

The results of the natural remedies: 
1 - I stopped drinking caffeine since the rash can be stress related, my caffeine intake would have been increasing my stress levels.  Left me with a vague foggy brain and a dull head ache for days however I think this made a big difference.
2 - Evening primrose tablets - two per day.  I really have no idea what or if the tablets are doing anything because it's hard to measure an internal result.  All I know is evening primrose is good for soothing PMS symptoms, is natural and good for the skin.
3 - Washing my face regularly with a sulfate free cleanser [Facial & Body Wash].  I found the skin really cooled down and the rash eased after I cleansed my face.  As mentioned above since bacteria plays a part in the condition regular cleansing helps keep the skin clean and fresh.  Also perioral dermatitis can often appear after a bout of acne or a bad break out and regular cleansing helps keep those nasty break outs at bay.
4 - Moisturising with a natural moisturiser [Rich Cream Moisturiser] free of harsh chemicals and additives. I used this moisturiser for a cold cream application as well and found it soothed the skin and the rash for the rest of the night.
5 - Aloe Vera gel fresh from my garden applied to the area helped stop the itch and keep it at bay for a good while.  It also seemed to help heal the rash.  It did leave the skin dry and peeling yet I found I could remove the dry flaky skin and the rash was still looking better.
6 - After a couple of days I stopped applying the aloe vera and used Sothing Salve instead, mainly because I have it on hand and it's easier to apply.  Also didn't leave my skin flaky, while soothing the itch fast.  I applied the salve whenever the rash is itchy for some instant relief.
7 - Natural mineral makeup to hide the rash, with the added zinc being beneficial in helping treat the rash.  It's important to clean your brushes regularly to remove bacteria and make sure the rash doesn't spread.  NOTE: It is important to have as many makeup FREE days as you can and if you wear makeup wash it off at the end of each day.
8 - Not touching my face.  Again it's a bacteria thing touching grotty fingers to face as well as spreading the bacteria across my face.

All up, a week later I'm finding the rash is starting to simmer down.  I have no new blisters and the bumps from the previous blisters have pretty much gone away.  Now I'm left with a dull pink/red rash and I'm hoping through keeping this treatment up the rash will be gone within another week.  Fingers crossed.

The trouble with this rash is it gives a false sense of security.  It's often said that just when sufferers think they've got the rash under control... BAM... it suddenly flairs up again.

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Struggling to rid yourself of the rash?  Try the above tips and see if it makes a difference for you and let us know how you go.

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Perioral Dermatitis (PD / POD)

I have written about this condition before in my article Overexposure ~ a skin reaction that occurs when your body cannot deal with the constant chemical influx anymore, when it has reached a point of 'critical mass' and you begin to see skin reactions as a result: contact dermatitis aka overexposure.

I have had perioral dermatitis a number of times in my life, when I was 21, 26 and 31.  When I got perioral dermatitis again at 31 I realised the ingredients in the skin care products and makeup I was using were causing or exacerbating the problem.  That was when I began investigating chemicals in products and began creating my own skin care range to use on myself, my children, family and friends.  Since making the change to all natural products my skin has been better than ever.

Yet... now many years later the perioral dermatitis has come back!

Looking up the causes of PD they say things like steroid creams, fluoride in toothpaste, SLES/SLS, mineral/petroleum products, heavy creams and ointments, sunscreens, chemicals/additives in skin care and hormones all play a part (though for the most part there is no known cause or cure for PD). Mainly women get perioral dermatitis which further suggests that our hormones (as appose to men's) play a part in the condition.  Apparently PD will more likely appear during winter and doesn't like hot water.

It's been a long time since I actively used any of those types of products so that can't be what is causing my current outbreak.  Although at the time the rash came back I had been using a moisturiser (for 2 weeks) a friend gave me to sample containing cetearyl alcohol, triethanolamine, diazolidinyl, urea, methyl and propyl parabens.  I stopped using that cream as soon as the rash appeared yet that didn't make it go away.  As for hormones... well... looking back it just so happens that each time I got perioral dermatitis major stressful events occurred in my life, which would equal a rise in cortisol levels (a steroid hormone) and each time I was drinking more coffee than usual.

I have also considered weather caffeine is part of the problem since I've been drinking more lately and I drank a huge amount, 12 cups of coffee a day, when I first got the rash.  Which makes sense because caffeine also increase stress levels within the body.

When I last had the rash I was prescribed a triamcinolone cream.  Applying that cream on this rash made it worse and so it would since it's a corticosteroid cream (as are Advantan, DermAid and Celestone M) and steroid creams must NOT be used on perioral dermatitis.  When I stopped using the cream the rash became worse as it states will happen - supposedly it gets worse before it gets better.  Ironically applying Clearasil previously also made the rash worse even though benzyl peroxide is the active ingredient and is meant to work well on perioral dermatitis: along with metronidazole, erythromycin, tacrolimus, clindamycin, pimecrolimus, sodium sulfacetamide. 

Some natural remedies that (supposedly*) help decrease PD symptoms are apple cider vinegar - diluted and applied to the area and drinking a shot each day, vitamin E oil applied to area, tea tree oil diluated and applied to area, evening primrose tablets, zinc (natural - without chemicals) topical and tablets, regularly cleansing the skin with a SLES/SLS free cleanser.  Some even say bicarb soda and anti-fungal creams help.  *I say supposedly because I've not tried or proven any of them myself.  I can see how evening primrose would help since it reduces stress and is good for relieving PMS symptoms (PD can occur or flare up during or prior to menstruation).  Most mineral makeup powders (the good brands) use zinc powder.  I found using a mineral makeup cream (not the loose powder) made the rash worse.  I just started using Rich Cream Moisturiser which soothes and reduces the symptoms and is natural and toxin free.  I'll use it for a couple more days and see if it keeps the rash soothed.

perioral dermatitis

At the moment the rash is just a few small red lumps near my nose that are itchy and red.  However if left untreated it has the potential to spread all around my mouth and nose and even inside my nose.  I may eventually have to bite the bullet and see a doctor to have the correct cream prescribed (maybe even antibiotics - though I hope not because I don't like taking them).  In the mean time (since I'm not a fan of non-natural remedies) I will try some natural remedies and see what happens.

What I will try:
~ Regularly cleansing with a SLES/SLS free Facial & Body Wash with moderately hot water.
~ Rich Cream Moisturiser to reduce dry skin naturally.
~ Evening primrose oil tablets to aid with dry skin and help reduce stress symptoms.
~ Zinc in my natural makeup because zinc is meant to help and I NEED to apply makeup to hide the angry red rash.
~ Clearasil: I'm going to try applying this to a specific area to see if the benzyl peroxide helps reduce the rash.  I'll  also try an application of anti fungal cream and a cold-sore cream, in specific areas and note the results. 
~ Reduce my caffeine intake (hopefully to zero).

I'll have to try/test these remedies for a number of days/weeks and note the results before knowing if any of these things are working.  I will keep you posted on the findings.
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Have you had encounters with perioral dermatitis?  Did you have success with any natural remedies? Tell us your story :-)