Personal Beauty Care

The long awaited manicure and hand care post. With a bonus.

The jar on the left is a jam jar. A jam jar that matches my 1950's bathroom. The object on the right is a crystal and silver powder shaker.

This is the crystal and silver plate jam jar that sits in the kitchen. I got them all from eBay for under 10 dollars apiece. The current "manicure in a minute" type stuff I got from Sephora was made by Loccitane and was close to 20 bucks for a small jar. And it was the only one I could find. Then I heard about making your own. So I bought the jam jars, some fine salt, fine sugar and Vitamin E oil from Trader Joe's and made my own. You can use either salt or sugar, and any oil. I might try grape seed oil next. You can add drops of fragrance oils, I did not. So here is how you do it. Pour about half the container full of either the salt or the sugar. Add oil and stir-you are looking for a consistency of thick but all wet. When you get there continue adding oil until you get loose oatmeal. Now you are good to go.

This is not to clean your hands, so start with relatively clean dry hands. Put a scoop from the spoon in your palm and rub in just like you are washing your hands. Pay attention to the cuticles. Rub at least one minute. Rinse well in warm water and now you will feel all slithery and oily and will be cursing me for this stupid idea. Dry your hands well with a fluffy terry cloth towel-paying special attention to between the fingers. When you are done you will have the softest and nicest hands you have felt since your last paraffin treatment. And it is so cheap you can do it a couple times a day if you need to. I wash my hands with industrial soap all day and it is really drying, and I cannot use hand cream at work.

The bonus, the powder shaker is full of baking soda. This is what I use to exfoliate my face a few times a week. It is cheap, now looks luxe and does the job.

Okay done with the girly stuff, but I will tell you Big Daddy uses the hand stuff and loves it. But he also used the olive oil in the bathrooms in Italy. He is that guy.

Went to Car City today and I think it will be okay if I can find more bathrooms. Engineers are the same as ever, disorganized and kinda strange. This launch has a bunch of parts and some are not so good.

So tonight it is once again cold and a predicted 3 to 6 inches. Hurray.

Me and Ebay go way back

I love Ebay. I can spend money without really spending a lot and still get some interesting things. Here is my strategy, I find something I like, figure out how much I am willing to pay for it and then I make my bid. That is it, if I don't get it-fine. If I think people are waiting around to get something on the cheap I will publish the entire bid and make them put in a real bid. This is for mostly trinket jewelry shopping although years ago I bought a lovely pair of 18 karat gold rose cut diamond earrings. They were not huge and the price was right. I also bought quite a bit of vintage fur before it became popular. Yes, I have the heads and the tails.

Lately I am obsessed with "One minute manicure" type product as my hands take a beating during the day. I cannot always wear gloves in the cold, I wash my hands frequently with cheap or industrial soap and constant hand cream at work is not an option. My hands feel so wonderful after this treatment I searched and searched for the product. The only place I could find it was Sephora and it was mighty pricey in my book. So I investigated Internet recipes and found that it is nothing more than an oil and either sugar or salt. You can add other stuff if you want but that is just your choice, not a necessary item.

Well, I said to myself, just where would I store this stuff so that it looked nice, was easily available and easy to use. Goodness gracious---what about jam jars. You know, the kind with the spoon. Well, I received my first one today. I paid $5.99 plus shipping. It is green and peach to match my 1950's bathroom.  I plan on using grape seed oil and sea salt or maybe just Kosher salt. I will take pictures and let you know.

Just in case you are intrigued, you put a glop on dry (as in not just washed) (but not dirty) hands and massage into your hands rubbing well and paying attention to the cuticles. When you are finished just rinse off and dry your hands and they are the softest, non-greasy, nicest hands ever. I promise. And if we can do it on the cheap, well-why the hell not.  I also got a cut glass powder shaker for under ten bucks to hold the baking soda that I use for my face exfoliation. Another cheap but useful item.

Tomorrow making Buckeyes for the plant Christmas lunch.