DIY Body & Feet Scrubs to try during quarantine

Bored during covid quarantine? Here's a couple scrubs you can make with things in your kitchen right now- don't even have to go to the store.

Here's a face mask recipe I've been dying to try: half avocado, 1 egg yolk, 4 tbs honey, 1 carrot. Boil & smash carrot, mix with other ingredients, let sit on face 10-15min,rinse.

Whenever I come across a recipe in a magazine or webpage, I text it to myself- then I try it out and adjust ingredients. Here are a few 🙂 

Use these anywhere on your body:

Strawberries & Sugar

3 strawberries, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp apricot oil

Brown Sugar 
1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup virgin coconut or olive oil, and (optional) 1/4 cup honey

*My #1 scrub I use most: decolletage, elbows, legs, everywhere .

Honey & Sugar 
1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup sugar or salt, 1/4 cup olive oil

Coffee 
1/2 cup coffee granules that have been soaked in hot water, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup table salt, splash of olive/almond/avocado/coconut oil

*If using on my feet I use sea salt instead of table salt

Orange Zest

1/4 cup sugar, 1 orange finely zested, 1/2 cup coconut oil

*When I'm bored eating oranges, haha!

Oatmeal 
1/2 cup ground up oatmeal, 1/4 cup water or milk

Banana 
2 tsp banana, 2 tsp ground up oatmeal, 1 tsp milk, 1 tsp honey 

Pineapple & Papaya 
2 tbsp juiceless pineapple, 2 tbsp juiceless papaya, 2 tbsp ground upoatmeal, 1 tbsp honey

*This is a gentle acid scrub not a physically exfoliating scrub

---------------------------------------------------------

Use these extra abrasive ones on FEET ONLY:

Avacado & Banana 
1 avacado pit hammered into fine powder, 1 tbsp avocado (I ate the rest haha), 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp olive oil

Baking Soda pinch baking soda, pinch salt, pinch sugar, 1 tbsp ground up oatmeal, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup warm water

*This one is for only really rough feet, I normally won't touch baking soda for anything. I tried it on my face once and it burned!! lol no good!

Aspirin Foot Mask: crush up a few aspirin tablets, add a splash of lemon juice, a squirt of lotion to help it stick

Testing TCA peels after Rosacea

I have type 2 rosacea and it took about 4 years to get under control. I used 100% tea tree oil on my face for over a year, then TTO with Tazoret, and then a mix (50% tea tree oil/50% macadamia nut oil) everyday and the pustules have stopped (5 months now). I still should be using Tazoret but I'm just so tired of the struggle, and Covid makes going to the pharmacy extra hard, so I haven't lately. Oh well I don't look too bad.

But the rosacea war has left me with ice pick scars all over my face ☹️ I don't know how to fix them- tca peels? 🤷 it's been a long time... Let's do one just to see if it's safe and if it brings back any more pustules...

I did 20% tca, a lot of my face frosted.Remember that it's better to do layers of low % than just using a stronger %.

And important: I'm still using my tea tree oil mix everyday!

Results: some extra small cyst acne did bubble up on my chin. The dead skin sitting there blocks pores before the skin peels off- I've had this issue every time I TCA peel. This is regular acne and not rosacea nightmare acne ♥️ thank goodness!! No pustules 🙂That's good because I'll need about a thousand more tca peels to get rids of these scars. (In the pics the scars are on the lower left of my mouth, on my cheeks and nose, and by my right eyebrow in the center of my face 🤦)

Update: I did another TCA peel and no pustules this time either 🙂 yay! BUT I did notice that it didn't burn when applied over the ice pick scars ☹️ I felt nothing. No pain.

I think that's a really bad sign.

* * * * * *

Try #3: I'm really good at taking unflattering photos, so here's some more! Haha 😄

I don't think I'll ever get rid of these ice-pik rosacea scars. It's so sad. My skin used to look nice

Look at these eye wrinkles 😲 

when I get OLD this is what I'll look like ☹️

(review) BEE VENOM Face Mask by Lanocreme

Who wouldn't want to get stung by bees? 😂

 Tighten, brighten, and rejuvenate my skin!

I don't torture myself nearly enough lately 😊

Marshalls/TJ Maxx for $5.99!

Lots of great ingredients like: avocado, almond, rosehip oils; collagen, elastin, lanolin, manuka honey, cocoa butter; royal jelly and of course bee venom! 🐝

Instructions say to apply the creme SPARINGLY and leave on 15minutes... Or leave on overnight. OK, cool.

So I applied a thin layer before bed, and WOW! yes this stings! LOL the pain goes away after 2min

 but the tingle remains long after.

I did not wash it off my face, here's my face 30min after application, looks the same.My skin feels softer 🙂 or maybe just more tender??

Day 3: I'm not looking much better, huh?

Day 5: 🤷 I think this is all marketing  hype 🐝

(review) Serious Skincare C Extreme Results

Serious Skincare is a brand sold on HSN. The "face"/mascot is Jennifer Flavin Stallone (Sylvester's wife) and she's obviously had a lot of plastic surgery... So why should we trust her? LMAO 😂 Hey, I gave this crap a chance, I blindly tested it, and NO! 

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!

C Extreme Results is a 2-step exfoliating kit.

Step 1: C Resurface / vitamin c & bicarbonate 
Step 2: C Potion / vitamin c action gel

Step 1 is gently exfoliating, didn't hurt... leave it on 3 minutes and it gets a little irritating...

Step 2 "activates" and dissolves the Step 1- it makes the Step 1 foamy and hurts your face, by 1 minute it feels like you rubbed glass into your face.

After rinsing off my face feels like it's been pounded with a meat tenderizer. No good! 

NEVER USE SODIUM BICARBONATE (BAKING SODA) ON YOUR FACE!!
HOW did this crap get 4 stars on HSN.com?! I think they're deleting bad reviews!

(review) Serious Skincare EYE DEMAND glycolic eye treatment

..
I want to like Serious Skincare because I love watching their shows oh HSN, but most things I've tried have sucked.

This junk is supposed to reduce puffiness.

Ok... I put this glycolic acid cream all over my eyes, wait 5min, then wipe it off... What could possibly go wrong?

 

Yes, it is supposed to be this brown color.

So I put it on: no problem.
After a minute: feels kinda sticky.
After a couple minutes: my skin feels frozen in place
After blotting off with moist cloth: no difference

 Do you think my eye looks better or the same?

Ingredients list has fun stuff: 

 

Caffeine: dehydrates skin to reduce puffiness

Glycolic acid: helps fight wrinkles

Sodium hyaluronate: good for keeping skin moisturized

Peppermint: promotes blood flow

Coffee: caffeine reduces puffyness

Cocoa: helps with skin elasticity, reduce wrinkles

Caramel: adds brown color

(review) dermaroller & cystic acne

(SPOILER: THIS IS A GODSEND!!)
4 in 1 Micro Needle Facial Roller by Revive Beauty ($12.99 at TJ Maxx)

Microneedling is supposed to work by forcing your skin into healing-mode. People use it for scars, wrinkles, pigmentation... I guess it increases collagen production, too. This tool will poke holes into my skin, so any serum I put on afterwards will penetrate deeper. Kim Kardashian gets her ugly face Dermarolled ("vampire facial") so it has to be good, right? Haha.

 This roller is kinda painful (and I have a high pain tolerance, so beware...) I used the 1mm roller on my face, up and down all over. Everywhere, over my cystic bumps and pustules. Afterwards I applied tea tree oil to kill bacteria. It stung! Then before bed I applied my serums and creams. You know the struggle is real.

The next day my face looked 50% better! All the open sores were scabbed- I picked the scabs off and it's only red skin no more pus! YAY!! (Normally the scab-pus-scab-pus cycle lasts weeks before disappearing) So the tea tree oil penetrated deep enough 😂 my skin is smoother and I almost cried.

OK, monthly update: so I've been using this dermaroller 2-3x/week and my face doesn't seem to be getting better than 80%. But if this is the best I can get I'm happy. Sometimes when I roll over the cysts they bleed or pus lol that's gross. I've also noticed dermarolling my forehead makes me sneeze.

Final thoughts: I like this tool. Most of all I like how it allowed my skincare products to penetrate cystic bumps. I will definitely use it on cysts in the future and any skin issues that refuse to heal in a timely manner. I will also be trying it out on my stretch marks with retin-a *fingers crossed*

One month update on stretch marks: I think this is helping the Retin-A penetrate and the marks are improving slowly. No change to my cellulite tho. And now my thighs/butt stick to the toilet seat lol tmi! I try to Dermaroll my stretch marks 2-3x/week.

3month update: I'm still hopeful but not much change

WARNING: you must roll at a slow smooth pace and not drag the needles, they will slash your skin like knives! 🔪

Oregano Oil BURNED My Face

I should just rename this blog: TASHA IS A DUMBASS!

In case you're new here- I have rosacea subtype 2 which is like pus-oozing "pimples" and cysts constantly. It's caused by a demodex mite infestation. I've had to wipe my face down with tea tree oil every night for the past year to keep my skin looking somewhat-ok (I seriously look like a meth addict on a GOOD day, life is a nightmare). Anyways, I hate tea tree oil. I read online that oregano oil works to kill demodex just like tree tea oil- so I tried it! LOL omg...

WARNING: UNDILUTED OREGANO OIL WILL BURN YOUR FACE OFF!

Stupid me did not dilute the 100% oregano essential oil because I thought I didn't need to. I feel no pain with 60% glycolic acid, and 30% TCA peels are fine lol I'm invincible against a little spaghetti herb, right? NOOOOOOO!!

I've never felt so much burning pain in my life, I must have splashed water on my face 10min straight and it still hurt. The next day my face feels like it's been thru a serious tca peel, it's red and physically warm to the touch.
Day 3: starting to peel/flake
Day 5: finishing peeling

Note: if you ever burn your skin with an oil, the correct dilution method is NOT to rinse with water- you need to slather an oil (like coconut or olive oil) all over!! Water only spreads the problem.

UPDATE: I've started using a 50/50 mix of tree tea oil and macadamia nut oil-wiping my face down every night- then using Tazorac cream overnight, stopped the pustules/demodex. It took 4-5 months to get pustules to stop. I still have redness issues but 😀♥️ I have my face non-oozy! And very few cystic bumps. And a bunch of ice pick scars ☹️