Is your facial scrub polluting the environment?

Daily Mail ^ | 2/11/14 | Daily Mail Reporter

[CatherineofAragon]

You’re right! Sugar scrubs are great.

I tried that St. Ives apricot scrub once....good grief, how painful.

[Ramius]

Coated with toxins like PCBs, the beads are often eaten by fish and other marine life.

Uh... Why are they coated with PCBs? And why are fish eating them?

[Black Agnes]

I used the St. Ives stuff for years. I never could get rid of the ‘moisturizer’ after effect. No matter how much I rinsed it was still oogy feeling. And my foundation never seemed to ‘stick’ as well.

I got the brown sugar idea from a friend who is a facialist. She blends it with a teeny smidge of olive oil and uses it on elbows, heels, etc. It’s great for that too.

[ZinGirl]

Stop calling me Shirley

geez...nobody said it yet?

>:)

[CatherineofAragon]

Yes, the St. Ives did leave a residue, as I recall.

I keep a small bottle of olive oil under the sink for just such uses. :) I use it as a hair treatment, too.

[Black Agnes]

I haven’t thought of using olive oil in my hair. I put a smidge of coconut oil in there sometimes if we’ve had really dry weather.

[FrdmLvr]

You can also mix the sugar with coconut oil too.

[Black Agnes]

I usually moisturize with the coconut oil at night.

I mix a tbsp of that with an open capsule of alpha lipoic acid. If I’m feeling especially adventurous I will mix vitamin C crystals with a 1/2 tsp of water and smooth that in troublesome areas (upper lip, forehead) being careful not to get that in my eyes.

I use the vitamin c stuff on the backs of my hands and my knees too.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Lava - Best hand cleaner ever invented!

[CatherineofAragon]

I’ve tried coconut oil, but it doesn’t do much for my hair....too light, I think. I have lots of curly, thick hair, so the heaviness of the olive oil works better. Slather it on, put on a plastic cap for a while, and it does wonders.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“I used the St. Ives stuff for years. I never could get rid of the ‘moisturizer’ after effect. No matter how much I rinsed it was still oogy feeling. And my foundation never seemed to ‘stick’ as well.”

Good grief! why would you ‘use it for years’ if it caused all the problems you say in your post?!

[Black Agnes]

Oh, like an intense conditioner. I’ll have to try that.

When I get out of the shower, I put a dab of coconut oil in my palm, melt it around and then smoothe it on the last 6” or so of my hair and then wet comb it. It’s more of a leave in. I color my hair and it’s still down to the bottom of my shoulder blades so the ends get pretty beat up.

[Black Agnes]

I restricted it to once a week, on Saturdays when I seldom wore makeup.

I used it to get rid of dead, dry skin. It works great for that. Once a week was fine for that.

Not using it was out of the question, especially when I was younger and had more of that flaky skin stuff going on. If I didn’t scrub, my makeup just flaked off with the dead dry skin flakes. That was much more of an ‘Ew’ than the slightly tacky feeling of the St. Ives stuff once a week. Trust me.

[CatherineofAragon]

Mine, too. And it’s about the same length as yours. I always have to do a leave-in conditioner, and I limit shampooing to every three or four days. The rest of the time I “co-wash” with conditioner. If I shampooed daily, my hair would be so dry. But that’s the nature of curly hair.

[kdot]

Agreed. Baking soda works great. Make a paste of 50% coconut oil and 50% other oils/butter. Add baking soda and put in a jar. Since there is no water in the paste, you don’t need a preservative. While the shower is warming up, massage this into your face. Rinse thoroughly in the shower, then wash with your regular face soap. This will keep for about 4-6 months. Safe, cheap, easy.

[smokingfrog]

I don’t know. I think enviros believe that anything made of petroleum products automatically has PCBs in it.

[Roses0508]

Salt and sugar scrubs are easy, inexpensive to make and work better.

[FrdmLvr]

Speaking of vitamin C, this is the best: Dry your orange peels until they are completely dried out, a few days to several days. Grind them in a coffee grinder until they are a fine powder. Use a couple of teaspoons mixed in a protein shake or in juice, but not in hot beverages. Keep it stored in air tight glass container out of light. This stuff works great, it really knocks out colds. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now.

[stylecouncilor]

Thanks, I can’t wait to try it.

[FrdmLvr]

I'm going to try your moisturizer recipe. It sounds great. I like the idea of using ALA.

I was told by a aesthetician to use rose hip oil or carrot seed oil, a few drops mixed with moisturizer at night. They're loaded with Retin A. I've only used the rose hip oil.