Baking Soda

Yes, I’m back to reviewing products (at least that’s my intention), and I’m starting with a product you probably already have around the house:  good old baking soda.

You use it in baking.  You add 1/2 a cup to your laundry to boost the effectiveness of your detergent, and you might even have a box in your fridge to ward off odors.  If you are super-envirogirl (or boy), you even use it to clean–and probably love to watch what happens when you mix it with white vinegar in your drain.

But you can use baking soda in your beauty routine, too.  In fact, I encourage it.  I keep baking soda in a four ounce container in the shower, and I think I refill it every two or three months, and that’s using it for something three to four times each week.  A little bit goes a long way.

To exfoliate my face, I mix about a dime size amount of soda with whatever facial cleanser I’m using at the moment.  The cleanser can be a cream or a lathering cleanser.  I’ve used soda with both types and it works with either one.  Mix those up in your hand, then wash face as usual.  Don’t wash too hard, because that will leave your skin pink!  Rinse well, and when you’re done, your skin will be polished and smooth.

I also use baking soda as a hair clarifier, usually once every two weeks, but maximum once a week because it can dry out the hair.  Mix about a quarter sized amount with your shampoo in the palm of your hand, then shampoo as normal.  If you have long hair, but don’t normally wash the ends of your hair, make sure to wash the ends as well to get product and conditioner buildup off the  hair.  Rinse well, then use a really good hydrating conditioner or treatment.

You can also mix this with your shower gel to exfoliate all over your body, or use it to brush your teeth.

I usually use soda to exfoliate my face two to three days a week.  If you have dry or sensitive skin, I would use it once a week to see how your skin reacts to it, then increase the number of days if needed.  Oilier or less sensitive skin can probably get away with using it twice a week from the start.

Baking soda seems like such a humble product to use, especially now that we’re so used to high-priced, high-technology beauty products.  But we don’t need all of that when we have something so simple in our pantries that works well for so many different uses.

 

LUSH Marilyn hair treatment

Marilyn is another LUSH hair treatment, but it can also be used as a daily conditioner.  When used as a hair treatment, apply to dry hair and allow to sit for at least 15 minutes, longer if your hair needs extra conditioning, brightening, or both.  As a daily conditioner, apply to freshly washed hair and rinse, though you might want to let it sit for 1 to 3 minutes.

Marilyn smells fantastic.  It contains Roman and German chamomile, and the scent is almost pure chamomile, which is a real treat.  Because chamomile is a pretty light scent, it might not linger very long in dry hair, though it did pretty well in mine.

I think I used this once as a treatment, and it was just OK (see post on H’Suan Wen Hua for that explanation).  My hair was a little softer.  Once I rinsed and washed, I used Marilyn again as a regular conditioner.  Since that worked so well, I then used the rest of the tub as a regular conditioner, which worked well (and it lasted quite a bit longer that way too).  It detangles and conditions pretty well, better than other conditioners (I’m looking at you, American Cream.  Hmph.).

This is thinner than you might expect a hair treatment to be, but don’t let that fool you.  It really does a good job.  I also got compliments on my hair color during that time.  Between the chamomile and the lemon, my golden highlights were really showing themselves.  Lovely!

Ingredients:

Linseed Mucilage (Linum usitatissimum), Chamomile Infusion (Anthemis nobilis and Matricaria chamomilla), Saffron Infusion (Crocus sativus), Cetearyl Alcohol & Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Fresh Organic Lemon Juice (Citrus limonum), Cetearyl Alcohol, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olea europaea), Lemon Oil (Citrus limonum), Chamomile Oil (Matricaria chamomilla), Soya Lecithin, *Citral, *Limonene, Perfume, Methylparaben, Propylparaben}

*Occurs naturally in essential oils

LUSH H’Suan Wen Hua hair treatment

Hair treatments are a weird thing for me.  I always feel like I should be using one because my hair is slightly dry, but at the same time, they don’t do a lot for me because my hair is only slightly dry.  But I still like to try them since it’s so much fun to try new things.

Enter H’Suan Wen Hua, the first LUSH hair treatment I tried.  Unlike other deep conditioners that instruct you to apply to freshly washed hair, HWH is applied to dry hair.  This does make sense, truly.  When hair is wet, water gets inside the cuticle and hinders the absorption of anything else, including conditioners.  This doesn’t mean that conditioners won’t work on wet hair, because they obviously will.  But deep conditioners, in theory, should work better on dry hair, since the hair can absorb a lot.  Admittedly, I love using deep conditioners on dry hair.  It’s just fun, and feels like I’m in my own little spa.  So anyway, you apply this to dry hair and let it sit for at least 15 minutes.  You can let it sit for as long as you want though.  You can also cover your head with a towel, shower cap, or both.  I imagine you could even use a dryer on it to get maximum moisture absorption.

HWH smells wonderful, like cinnamon, though muted.  Some people smell the balsamic vinegar more than the cinnamon, and that scent does come out a bit, but I don’t think it’s offensive.  And the scent lingers too.  I think my hair still smelled like HWH after the third shampoo.

As for how it worked?  Well, it was OK.  Again, if my hair was a bit more on the dry side, I might have noticed more of a difference.  I think my hair felt a little softer and more conditioned, and it behaved a little better.  For me, it wasn’t the wonder treatment, but again, very few things are when you don’t do much beyond wash, condition, and blow dry.

This is definitely worth a try.  A caveat:  using HWH on dry hair means that the big tub will only give you about two applications, so it is a little on the expensive side, especially if your hair is shoulder length or longer.

Also, mind the expiration date on this.  It has fresh eggs, so you might also want to stick HWH in the fridge.

Ingredients:

VEGETARIAN, Fresh Bay Infusion (Pimenta acris), Fresh Watercress Infusion (Nasturtium officinale), Fresh Free Range Eggs, Cetearyl Alcohol & Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Fresh Organic Bananas (Musa paradisica), Fresh Organic Avocado (Persea gratissima), Balsamic Vinegar, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olea europaea), Lanolin, Rosemary Oil (Rosmarinus officinalis), Cinnamon Leaf Oil (Cinnamomum cassia), Soya Lecithin, *Cinnamyl Alcohol, *Cinnamal, *Eugenol, *Benzyl Benzoate, *Limonene, *Linalool, Perfume, Methylparaben, Propylparaben}

*Occurs naturally in essential oils