Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Lighten Up side note

One of the side effects of making the herb bed was working with cement. All concretes have cement in them, so we went through 300+ pounds of various mixes containing it. And that stuff will suck the moisture right out of your skin. Even with gloves, masks and some amount of carefulness, V and I were pretty dry by the end of the project. But I remembered the wise words of the lovely PL.

She is using an olive oil/sugar scrub these days. As you all know from my adventures in face wash, I have learned that oil does work to remove oil from the skin. Adding sugar to exfoliate just makes it that much cooler. AND the oil locks moisture in even after the shower. Bonus!

I mixed up a batch for yesterday's post-herb-bed showers. And, you know me - I had to fiddle with it a bit. I had some leftover macadamia nut oil that is infused with vanilla. So I made a little test size batch. I filled the jar to the top with the sugar/oil mix, so I was planning to put some vitamin E oil in after V and I both used some of it for our showers. But I've decided not to bother. Because OH.MY.WORD! This stuff won't last the week. It is decadence in a little glass jar! I may never go back to soap again.

My point here is this. I often hear the message that "going green" or "lightening up" or simply boycotting some of the commercial folderol that gets thrown at us every day means leading a lesser life somehow - restricted, deprived, or just generally yucky. I understand that there are a lot of other issues behind these ideas - and no small amount of cultural and social cues involved. I really do. And I'm generally less blunt in my response to those concerns, but seriously? The only way that lightening up can "lessen" your life is if you're doing it wrong!

2 comments:

Madelyn said...

Macadamia, vanilla, sugar - mmm. You could just do like a kitty - lick yourself clean!!

Angela said...

It's a little too oily for that, I think. But if you want to try that when you make a batch, feel free! Lemme know how it works out for ya... ;)