Would You Like the Most Luscious Balm in the World?

 That's quite a promise! I do believe in my "Bee Balm." I've been making this thick lotion for over ten years now. I use it twice a day as my facial moisturizer; it's also amazing on any dry skin -- elbows, feet, fingers -- anything that suffers in dry, winter weather. 

My latest Youtube video is about this Bee Balm.

Beau makes a lovely appearance, as you can see. We chat about the value of natural ingredients in skin care and you learn a bit about my grandmother.

I hope you enjoy! Please do gather ingredients and make this balm at home. You will not regret it. And if you don't have grapefruit essential oil, another oil will do -- lavender is fine. Tea tree would be good too, although not as nice-smelling.

Love to all! Don't forget to "like" and subscribe, if you feel inclined.

The V-Go Insulin Pump

At the farmers' market this morning I spoke with a customer who had something unusual on her bare arm. I asked her what it was. "A V-Go," she replied. "It's insulin."

I was immediately interested. My father is diabetic, as are many friends of mine. The V-Go is fairly new technology for administering insulin into the patient's body.

You can see it is a plastic rectangle stuck to her upper arm. She prefers it to the old pumps that were in the abdomen and were uncomfortable when sitting or bending over. The V-Go patch is removed, refilled, and reapplied each day. She switches it from arm to arm, adjusting the spots to give the skin a few days to recover.

The V-Go does not test your blood sugar levels for you; you still have to do a finger prick. But this lady has been diabetic for twenty years. She's only 57 now. She was giving herself insulin injections 4 to 5 times daily.

She's been using the V-Go for two years. She's very pleased. She knows how much insulin it injects (via a little needle on the underside, activated by a spring), and she can do the dosage as she wants. In order for the needle to inject, she has to push one button, and then push another button, so the chance of someone bumping your arm and accidentally injecting you with insulin is very slim, if not impossible. She did confess that it made her nervous the first month or so she used it. She's wearing enough insulin on her arm to kill her, with a needle in her skin. But she's never had any trouble with it, and is very pleased with its performance.

I wanted to share this info with anybody out there who hasn't seen this new device, or wanted to hear a report from a user. I'm so glad they're making advances in fighting diabetes!

Deodorant Inequality

On Friday, I went to WalMart and had a serious pow-wow with the deodorant aisle. The time had come to determine what to do with my underarms. (I do wish there were a more elegant word for them.) Let me begin at the beginning ....
A few years ago, I read that aluminum was not a good thing to spread on your skin once or twice each day. There've been no definitive studies linking aluminum with cancer or Alzheimer's, but many people are worried that we just haven't found those links yet. For me, that wasn't the point. I began to realize that I really didn't need antiperspirant anymore. I don't sweat. A little deodorant in the morning is adequate now that I'm older. So I don't need aluminum -- the ingredient that makes it an "antiperspirant." If I don't need the aluminum, why slather it on for the rest of my life?
So I looked for alternatives.
Which brings me to these:

Starting on the left: I'd used Suave or Secret antiperspirant/deodorant for years. An aluminum compound is the active ingredient. I went looking for a simple deodorant. They don't make many, but I did find the Arm & Hammer. They make a nice version, not the one in the photo above, which is blue and powerfully scented for men.
That's when I first discovered that my armpits are a bit sensitive. The UltraMax Arm&Hammer seemed to irritate the skin. So I jumped over to Tom's deodorant. See the pleasant one I picked? It was pricey, over $4.00, but scented with lavender.
And within days, my armpits were itchy, red, and unsightly. I showed them to Adam. One of the perks of a good marriage is that you have someone to show your itchy armpits to! He said, "Oh, I've had that before, remember? When you bought me the green deodorant? You're allergic. You'd better stop using that stuff." So I discontinued the Tom's.
And I returned to Suave, which didn't make me happy. But my underarms were content.
Then last year I found a recipe for homemade deodorant, and I joyfully made a batch and began to sell it, receiving good reviews from my customers. And I used it myself.
And my armpits became itchy and irritated ... again! Argh!
I read online and found that a small percentage of people have a skin reaction to the baking soda found in homemade deodorant. Baking soda is highly alkaline, and it can unbalance the pH in the skin. One online writer recommended compensating with an acid like apple cider vinegar. So for about a week I dutifully applied a sponge dampened with water/apple cider vinegar to my armpits 1/2 hour before applying the deodorant. But it didn't seem to work well.
Sigh. Can you believe I'm making a product that I can't use myself? Thankfully I haven't yet had a customer come to me with the same complaint.
This predicament led me to the deodorant aisle at WalMart last Friday. And I discovered an odd fact: there are many more simple deodorants made for men, than for women. Yes, you heard that right. Women (apparently) are more concerned about not sweating than men are. Old Spice alone makes about half its underarm products as simple deodorants, leaving out the aluminum. The Speed Stick product you see above is also aluminum-free deodorant. But women's brands have no such allowances. I was really surprised! Why? Don't we think of men as sweating more? Don't you think men would want all their products to be antiperspirant? I'm bemused.
In the end, I was left with only these options: 1) buy a men's product, 2) buy a product I'm allergic to, or 3) use aluminum. So I bought myself the least-stinky Old Spice deodorant I could find. I apologized to Adam for smelling like a man. It's hard. Why doesn't Old Spice make a ladies deodorant? I wish I knew. It seems a bit discriminatory to me, but I'm sure they've done their studies and worked their demographics, and they know that women want antiperspirant.
Do you, ladies? What say you?