Thursday, January 4, 2018

Winter Skin #OurAuthorGang

My secret to prevent dry and itchy winter skin

I studied Natural Healing and my philosophy as a Naturopath is that “If you can’t eat or drink it safely, don’t put it on your skin either”. 

Unfortunately what I do for my skin doesn't make me this beautiful, but it keeps my skin well nourished, supple, and I don't suffer from constant itching in the winter.

I USE THIS EXFOLIATING WEEKLY FACIAL MASK:

To remove dead skin, refresh the deeper layers of the skin and promote cell turnover, mix:
2 tsp of oatmeal flour.
1-2 tsp water or yogurt.
1 tsp of honey to make a thin, but not watery consistency paste.
You can add one or two of the following according to your skin type for increased vitamin and mineral intake:

Skin types:
Normal skin: smooth and supple, clear in appearance, firm.
Use banana, watermelon, egg yolk.
Dry skin: dull textured, dehydrated, tends to tighten up in wind or cold temperature.
Use avocado, banana, pear, peach, raspberry, watermelon, apricot, egg yolk.
Oily skin: shiny with large pores, tendency for blemishes.
Use whipped egg white, cucumber juice, tomato, grapefruit, lemon or white grape.
Mature skin: expression lines, slackness around the eyes, less elasticity.
Use egg yolk, banana, cucumber juice, apple, watermelon, apricot.

Apply to your face except around your eyes.
Leave it on for 10-15 minutes.
Rub the mask off gently with your fingertips, rinse with warm water.
Moisturize your skin.

BI-MONTHLY FACIAL PEEL WITH NATURAL INGREDIENTS:

Base mix:
2 teaspoon oatmeal flour
1 teaspoon yogurt
1 teaspoon honey to make medium consistency paste

Alpha hydroxy acids reduce wrinkles, spots and other signs of aging but using them in our moisturizers every day in synthetic form is not without danger. Using them daily leaves the skin vulnerable to sun damage and infections. By adding natural alpha hydroxy acid containing fruits or vegetables to your every third-week face mask ensures the removal of dead cells without the side effects of the synthetic acids.

You can add any of the following to your base mix:
Lactic acids: buttermilk, yogurt, powdered milk, sour cream, blackberries, tomato.
Citric acids: lemon, grapefruit, orange.
Malic acids: apple.
Glycolic acids: brown sugar from sugarcane.

For stronger peeling effect you can use papain by adding papaya or bromelain by adding crushed pineapple to the mix. These are not recommended for sensitive skin, a patch test should be done before using them.
Apply the mixture to your face and neck, except around your eyes.
Leave it on for 15-20 minutes.
Rinse with warm water, moisturize.

THE CHEAPEST & BEST SKIN SCRUB:

Very messy, so I recommend using it weekly before you clean your shower.
Mix:
½ cup sugar, pour almond, pure olive or coconut oil on it to make a thick honey consistency paste. You can add 4-5 drops essential oils from the list mentioned above, according to your skin’s needs. Shower with your usual soap, rinse and then rub the sugar-oil mixture on your body with a circular motion. Rinse it off and pat-dry your skin.

What do you use to moisturize your skin?

Let’s just talk about creams and lotions a little bit:
When you try to read and understand the long list of the ingredients on creams and lotions, I bet you give up after reading the second line.
We’re so careful nowadays with what we’re putting into our stomachs. What about our skin? Everything that we apply to our skin goes right into our body as well. The long list of chemicals can affect not only your skin but also your organs by creating yet unknown chemical bonds and reactions as well as hormonal changes. Nobody would suspect an innocent looking moisturizer 15 years from now as a cause of some of your health or autoimmune problems.

They say, don’t put oil on your skin, but the truth is that in order to make a cream, you need base oil, stabilizer, and preservative to cook it into a cream. So, you have been putting oils on your skin, just not the right ones. The chemists today are doing a wonderful job of replacing natural ingredients with unpronounceable chemicals in order to make the creams and lotions presentable and acceptable. The truth is that all most creams and lotions do is just strip the natural sebum and dead skin from the top layer of your skin and add a thin layer that gives you the feeling of soft and moisturized skin. However, as soon as you wash it off or just stay in a dry room for some time, your skin becomes dry and thirsty for moisture, because below the top layer, your skin is dry.

Next time I will tell you about the natural ingredients I use as moisturizer.

For now, take a few minutes and take a look at my books:


COMMENTS

Erika M Szabo via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
My secret to prevent dry and itchy winter skin
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Erika M Szabo via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Winter Skin #OurAuthorGang
My secret to prevent dry and itchy winter skin Erika M Szabo I studied Natural Healing and my philosophy as a Naturopath is that “If you can’t eat or drink it safely, don’t put it on your skin either”.  Unfortunately what I do for my skin doesn't make me th...
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Nikki McDonagh

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I use cruelty free and mainly just coconut oil. Great post
 
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Mary Anne Yarde

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Fabulous!
 
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Toi Thomas

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I love these all natural skin tips. I may try them, but with sensetive skin, I'll have to be extra careful. Awesome post!
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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Erika Szabo shares tips for keeping your skin beautiful - even in dry winter air.
 
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Ruth de Jauregui

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Thank you! I'm cursed with very sensitive combination skin so either I'm breaking out or oozing oil or sporting red blotches from the latest "but it won't hurt your skin" moisturizer. Ugh. And stinkum makes me wheeze.

I am looking forward to your next post!!!
 
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Rebecca Tran

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Erika Szabo shares her tips to great skin.
 
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Rebecca Tran

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
What great tips
 
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Joe Bonadonna

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Great tips, Erika! My skin needs all the help it can get in winter.
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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Today on A Small Gang of Authors, Erika M. Szabo​ gives us her secret to preventing dry and itchy winter skin.
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Rich Feitelberg

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Good info. Winter is the time when my skin dries out the most.
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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

What does Tolkien and King Arthur have in common? #Folklore #OurAuthorGang


What does Tolkien and King Arthur have in common?

By Mary Anne

"Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know..."
J.J.R.Tolkien, Lord of the Rings



Imagine you have been mysteriously transported to Tolkien's Middle-earth. What do you see? Hobbits, elves, dwarfs... a ring? Rolling valleys, a tiny borough, huge impossible mountains, an all-seeing eye? Whatever you see it is foreign to what you know. It is an imagined kingdom, sweet in the telling, but it has no substance. It is a world apart. So impossibly brilliant that it could never be true.


But I know of a place that has rolling valleys, tiny boroughs and huge impossible mountains. A places where the rivers hide secrets and the caves do not give up their treasures. There is no Gondor, but there is a Camelot. There is no Aragorn, but there is an Arthur. There is no Gandalf, but there is a Merlin.



There is not ring, but there is a grail. There is not Middle-earth...

Or is there...?

Did Tolkien know something that we did not? You see the island of Britain has an inner story. A story you will not find in a history book. And yet, this story is so compelling that for over a thousand years we have been telling it in one form or another.



This story has sparked pilgrimages. It has encouraged fearful soldiers to be brave. And it has convinced a nation that she will never fall to an aggressor. It is, of course, the story of Arthur and his Knights.

In folklore, we find Arthur, not in some dusty old history book. It is at the hearth where his name was first heard, spoken in whispered tones of awe and then later as someone to imitate. Now we read his story in books or watch it on the big screen. Arthur is everything that is good. A worthy hero. The perfect Knights. A Just King. But who was he really?



It is a simple question, but one that is so difficult to answer. Could he be a shadowy Celtic deity? Or perhaps a Roman general? Maybe he is not one man, but several — for there have been many possible Arthur's. Perhaps he is nothing but an invention of a bard's overactive imagination. Is there any truth to him at all?

Over the next couple of posts, I am going to be exploring the possible Arthur's and the land in which he ruled over...


In the meantime ~  why not head over to the 6th Century and find out what happened after the death of King Arthur.

War is coming...








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Tuesday, January 2, 2018

The Art of Individual Beauty

by Grace Augustine

photo courtesy of istock

2017 ended with a major snow event for those of us in the Midwest. It started snowing at 9 am Dec. 29th and continued off and on throughout the weekend, bringing with it 6 inches of snow. 

As I sit inside looking out at the stillness of the snowfall, I'm reminded of an article I read recently about a photographer who took pictures of snowflakes.  I did a bit of research and below are my findings.

According to an article written by Stella Ko from CNN, Wilson Bentley (an American farmer) was the first to photograph a snowflake.  In 1885, Bentley attached his camera to a microscope and voila...the first snowflake photo was born. The full article may be read at http://www.cnn.com/style/article/evolution-of-snowflake-photography/index.html

In 1885, American farmer Wilson Bentley attached a camera to his microscope and took what is believed to be the very first photo of a snowflake.
photo courtesy of CNN Style

Since Mr. Bentley's beautiful discovery, our tech savvy world has gone viral recently with the snowflake photographs of Russian photographer, Alexey Kljatov. He fashioned a device from a camera lens, wood, screws, and old camera parts. This has produced some of the most fabulous photographs to date of our unique crystalline beauties. Full article and photos at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/alexey-kljatov_n_4373888.html



photos courtesy of Pinterest

Just as each snowflake has its own beauty, its own unique appearance, its own voice...we all do, too. As humans, we think we want to look just like so and so, or be just like so and so, when in reality, we need to look at our uniqueness and embrace WHO. WE. ARE.

Writing is our art. It is a beautiful expression of our uniqueness. Just as each snowflake is individual and corporate, we are, too. Each of us writes what we know, what is unique to us--yet we are all a part of a beautiful literary world that offers readers great joy in many different genres.

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