18 mar 2024
If you phonetically digested this title correctly, you read ‘jojoba’, the oil we so love in skin care. The sturdy desert ‘jojoba’ shrub lives 100-200 years! Found in Arizona, down through Baja, California, into northwestern Mexico. jojoba oil (it is actually a liquid wax pressed from the seed, but we generally call it an oil), is a fairly recent find in the skincare discovery. For us, that is....
25 fév 2024
  ‘14 out of 16 ingredients in sunscreen are not safe' So admits the FDA. We are inundated with this relentless media mantra: ‘Don’t forget your sunscreen! Summer. Winter. Wherever. Whenever you are outside.' We know too much sun can cause burning, aging, cancer. But being led to believe dousing in sunscreen as the best prevention is questionable. Most of the chemical sunscreen ingredients have...
20 jan 2024
cold water shower
We often tout the benefits of a cold shower, cold water. Years ago I wrote about the cold in   ‘Go Cold so no Cold’.  It’s winter. It’s flu season.  It’s time to remember cold can be good. Be 2, or 3 or 4 years old in Siberia. Have your parents take you outside and rub you down with snow.You do not get the cold or flu. Or live in Sweden. Have your parents pour very cold water on your head.This is...
04 jan 2024
Shake hands with a gardener, a mechanic, a landscaper and you may feel a roughness of their hard work. Admirable.  But perhaps, for them, uncomfortable at times. The answer might be using pumice sand to exfoliate away the dead skin cells, returning the skin to a more normal texture. Our hands are our tools and they work best in good condition.  Pumice is a light-coloured sand of volcanic rock, or...
12 déc 2023
Raw honey or fake honey? A good question. Raw is good. Fake is not. Chances are, even if you buy a honey that says honey, pure honey, looks like honey, tastes like honey and the price is right, it may not be real honey. It may be the fake version that is crowding 22% of the Canadian market. The price is one good indicator.  Real honey costs more. How can you tell the difference? Fake honey is...
26 nov 2023
In 1918, Proctor and Gamble introduced the first liquid Ivory soap to the market.  The above ad reads… Ivory Soap cleans the hair and scalp thoroughly. Its copious lasting lather absorbs the dirt, and then rinses out easily and completely. Containing no uncombined alkali, it does not burn the hair or make it brittle,and it does not destroy the scalp’s natural secretions.The hair dries soft, silky...
08 nov 2023
You like to be clean.  You need to be moisturized. The tone part is the icing on the cake. The cosmetic counter specialists offer mega information. The day cream, the night cream, this cream, the that cream. For day. For night. Aging skin? Acne prone or overly dry? Oily or combination?  Male?  Female??  Light, dark?  Perfect solutions for perfect skin are offered. Informative for sure. But what...
01 nov 2023
When I was a little girl and busy playing chef in the kitchen, my mom used to let me stuff the clove buds into the scored back rind of the ham. The ham itself scared me a bit, but I felt the power poke of the clove and all was OK with my duty. The smell was intoxicating.  Today, if ham is on the menu, we always prepare it with cloves. I look at them a little differently now and appreciative the...
09 oct 2023
He entered the shop, looked around and shrugged.  “My scalp needs help.”  he sighed.  ‘Got anything for psoriasis?” “Possibly.” I smiled. “People do love our clean and pure skin care. We do not sell anything claiming psoriasis however. May I ask what you have you tried and did you ever find anything that helped?” “I’m Mike by the way.” He grinned. “I heard from a friend who uses your shampoo bars...
02 oct 2023
Falling off his skateboard was not a fun ride, nor was limping the block home. Jas didn’t cry on the way back, but when he saw his mom, the tears flowed. She hugged him, propped up his ankle and iced it well. He then watched her prepare a castor oil pack. She poured the oil into a Pyrex container for later storage and worked a flannel cloth into the oil until soaked. Jas relaxed against the couch...

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