the last couple of weeks i've discovered some new favorite things, some of which include bath and body works "rainkissed leaves" body wash (i love smelling like grass in the summer), anna maria horner fabrics, and baking soda.
baking soda?? yep. i'll tell you why.
it all began with an experiment. every once in awhile i decide to take my fence-walking naturalness to the next level. sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. for example, last year i tried the master cleanse. i lasted exactly 1.5 days. something about maple syrup and cayenne just doesn't do it for me. last fall i decided to try my friend mary's cranberry cleansing drink, and despite the fact that i despise vinegar i started to love it. i lost 2 inches off my waist in one month just from drinking a glass or two a day. not a bad way to lose some weight if i do say so myself.
and then, just recently i decided to go "poo free" for a week. no, that doesn't mean i was constipated, it means i stopped using shampoo and conditioner. as per the general info available on the process via the internet i began to wash my head with baking soda and rinse with apple cider vinegar. my husband got on board, too. well, for him it works great but for me...not so much. i've got fine, straight hair and i ended up with dog-fur-esque hair for a week. yuck. granted, i've read that it can take up to a half a year for the hair to "normalize" on this routine, but i'm just too vain to walk around with dog fur on my head for six months waiting for gorgeous natural hair to appear. just being honest.
however, i did notice that baking soda really does work great for other things. like a face wash. i, like most other females i know, have tried a million different kinds of face wash in pursuit of that perfect skin. well after three weeks of soda-only scrubbing my skin feels amazing. it's soft, it glows, and not a zit in sight! and for less than a dollar a box baking soda is an awesomely cheap alternative to expensive soaps.
we also started using baking soda as deodorant. last year i gave up on antiperspirants permanently--mostly because as imperfect as they are, i'd like to keep my breasts and there is just too much info out there citing aluminum antiperspirants as a big cause of all this breast cancer floating around. so i just started wearing deodorant. man deodorant, actually, because they don't seem to make any for women. well my husband decided to try rubbing a little baking soda on his armpits (we really are weird with the experiments, i know) and he doesn't smell anymore. ever. it's weird. now i'm on board and not looking back!
of course there are tons of other applications for this little powder (toothpaste, cleaning your sink, etc.) but i'm just so oddly excited about my cheap new face wash and deodorant that i can't keep quiet about it. yes, i know this is not an original idea (are there any left, really?) but still, maybe you've never heard of it.
and i'm really not a dirty hippie. i swear.
