All Eyes On Her

Our kitty, Trumpet, is an adorable sweet feline — but he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He often uses his litterbox, forgets to cover up his own kitty-products, and then refuses to go in it if there’s exposed kitty-product the next time around. So he goes on the floor in front of the box.

We purchased a special rubberized mat that goes in front of the box to help remedy this problem. It has little grooved tracks to help remove excess litter from his paws when he steps out of the box. And usually when he gets confused and goes in the wrong place, it all goes on the mat, which makes it a pretty simple thing to clean up. We just rinse out the mat in our spare shower, and then suds it up with some soap.

That’s where the lavender comes in. The soap I always use for this task is just our lavender-infused hand soap, because it’s naturally antibacterial and deodorizing. But after several months of doing this off and on, I now can’t smell lavender without thinking of cat piss.

Way to go, kitty. You ruined an entire genre of skincare items for me! I’m hoping my love of lavender will return to me someday, but it kind of amuses me how strong this association is. We’re DEFINITELY switching hand soaps when this stuff runs out, though — I feel like I’m washing my hands in… well you know.

Thanks a lot, kitty!

I recently caught wind of the Rare Minerals acne-fighting mineral powder concealer by Bare Escentuals, and now I see that it’s been voted a Sephora best-of.

I’ve always wanted to avoid anything by BE, since they are notorious for including the chemical bismuth oxychloride in their formulations.  (Many people are quite allergic to bismuth, and it causes a rash-like reaction that takes ages to clear up.  I’m not eager to find out whether I should count myself in those ranks or not!)  And bismuth aside, this stuff definitely has some other ingredients (like dimethicone) that would aggravate my breakouts.

However, the idea of making a powder concealer that contains acne-fighting ingredients definitely intrigues me.  I’ve been trying to figure out a good BHA solution for ages and ages, and concealers that help dry up and bust blemishes definitely appeal to me.  And since my problem with salicylic acid was always figuring out how to get it to dissolve in a liquid base, the idea of being able to leave it in its powdered form is a definite bonus!

I’m going to try this out with my Everyday Minerals concealer set.  I’ll mix the shades that best match my skin for covering blemishes, and I’ll add a few drops of manuka essential oil (gentler than BE’s tea tree oil, and less stinky), and a bit of powdered salicylic acid.  I may also try adding some powdered zinc oxide, both for extra sun protection and for its soothing properties.  (I just have to make sure it doesn’t lighten the mix too much.)

If I can track some down, I might also add powdered sulphur, since that’s the acne-fighting ingredient that always shows me great results on individual blemishes.  However, sulphur’s smell really turns my stomach, so it may be worth while to leave that out of the mix.  It looks like I’ll be making up to four different batches to test this idea out, so I’ll post updates soon.  Thanks for the great idea, BE!

Turns out, tagetes is STINKY! My package from Nature’s Gift arrived recently, and I mixed up a little vial of tagetes essential oil in a neem and avocado oil base. I started anointing dear Grant’s toes with it, and I was wowed by how smelly it is. Not like anything else I’ve smelled, and certainly not as offensive as neem, but very… strong.  It’s also a very bright yellow color, kind of like turmeric or saffron, and it does kinda stain the skin/nail bed.

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of results we get. I specifically designed this toenail fungus treatment for Grant, because he can’t stand the smell of vinegar. So the normal vinegar bath method was kinda out of the question, if I wanted him to be a willing participant. Here’s hoping this vinegar-free method makes all the stink worth it!

I’ve always considered myself fairly savvy with essential oils, but I’m learning more and more as I go. I had the basics down, but now I’m delving into some lesser-known oils, like manuka (below) and, this time, tagetes.

Tagetes is the oil from a type of marigold, and it has powerful anti-fungal properties. I’ve been trying to come up with an effective essential oil blend for toenail fungus for a while now, so that people can avoid taking those awful and side-effect-riddled oral medications. I had a mix of neem and tea tree, which is great for some other fungus-type problems, but which never seemed to do the trick for toenails.

But I was turned on to tagetes oil thanks to a couple of EDS members, and I started looking into it more. This stuff is renowned for killing fungi! Bye-bye, sad toenails. (Not my own, thankfully, but those of a certain someone close to me who was reluctant to wear sandals all last summer.) I’m hoping by this summer, that certain someone’s tootsies will be good to go, thanks to tagetes.

I’ve been working on my homemade deodorant for several months now, and I think I finally hit the jackpot with today’s batch. I made a couple of targeted adjustments that really improved the overall product.

I cut out the neem oil entirely, because even though neem is great for antibacterial and antifungal purposes, it’s too stinky! I also switched from tea tree to manuka oil, which has a slightly less over-the-top smell. And lastly, I added a lovely fragrant EO blend that doesn’t have any beneficial purpose in a deodorant, but that helps it smell nice (and masks the smell of other ingredients).

Combine that with better ratios of ingredients, a more finely-milled version of an herb powder I wanted to use, and a general better hand at blending all this stuff in the right order, and presto! I’m very excited by my new recipe, and I think it’s going to become my standard. Never again will I have to suffer underarm irritation, not to mention the potential risks of Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. I’m so pleased!

I’ve been hearing more and more about “manuka” lately, and I finally figured out what’s going on. The Wikipedia entry claims that manuka is the same plant species as tea tree, which I’ve since learned isn’t the case. (When I know more I’ll go back and update that!)

Manuka is a very *similar* plant to tea tree, but it’s more common in New Zealand, whereas tea tree is native to Australia. And while tea tree smells very strong and medicinal and a bit eucalyptus-y, manuka smells like… honey. Sweet, delicious, benign honey. A MUCH nicer fragrance!

This is great news for me, because I’ve been working on a natural deodorant formula that uses antibacterial essential oils as the main funk-busting agent. The most effective oils I’ve tried to date have been tea tree and neem, but the problem is that these are both kind of stinky. Tea tree I can handle, as I enjoy weirdly medicinal cough-drop-like scents. But neem is BAAAD — the smell of neem is almost worse than the smell of BO, so it’s kind of counter-productive.

But now that I’m getting my manuka info straightened out, I think I’m going to try a manuka-only version of my deodorant, and see how it holds up to the funk test (of moving furniture). I have high hopes for this stuff — I may finally be able to perfect my natural, homemade, absorbent, funk-busting, non-irritating, and above all else, pleasant-smelling deodorant. Now THAT’S a good product!