Sunday, May 19, 2013

An old problem with a new treatment.

Back when I was in middle school I was diagnosed with Carpel Tunnel. For those that aren't familiar with it basically a tendon in your hand swells and causes pain and numbness in your thumb, pointer, middle and half of your ring finger. I had a brace and was taking a large dose of ibuprofen three times a day. That seemed to take care of it and once I figured out that it was the way I played my clarinet that made it worse I was able to correct my hand position and it seemed to go away.

Since I have been back in school for the last 18 months, my wrist has been acting up again. This time though I thought I'd see if there was an EO that could help, and found that a combination of lemongrass, melaleuca and deep blue is recommended  Well, knowing that melaleuca was not my friend I tried just the lemongrass and the deep blue. I also used it in conjunction with some emu oil that I found at my local Sprouts. For those that don't know my parents raise emus. Their oil can be very helpful with insect bits, sores on the skin, muscle inflammation and a variety of other ailments. If you want to try it you can find it here.

I first rubbed a drop of emu oil into my wrist followed by application of a drop of lemongrass oil. Once that was completely absorbed into my skin I went over it with my deep blue roller bottle. My wrist felt so much better instantly. The bad thing is that once the EO's wear off you know it. They work so well at making the pain go away that no ibuprofen was needed and that was an amazing thing.

Monday, May 13, 2013

New lip balm variety.

I've posted before about making coconut oil free lip balm with the peppermint and wild orange essential oils. I gave one to each of my sisters, my mom, and my sister-in-law. My sister's boyfriends both wanted to try them, even with the pink girly caps, and all have enjoyed the lip balm. I got a request to make it again so this time I thought in addition to my peppermint/wild orange blend I wanted to try another oil in the lip balm.

Since I have been enjoying the citrus bliss bath bars in my body wash, that was the first oil I turned to. I added about 1/8th tsp to 1 oz each of shea butter, cocoa butter and beeswax. I melted it on the stove like before, the difference this time was the use of actual lip balm tubes. I was able to fill 12 .15oz tubes plus 4 of the pink lidded containers that I used last time.

The feedback I got from Mister has been that the amount of beeswax makes it much harder on the lips than last time so that will probably be adjusted in the future, or this time my tube will be carried in my pocket so that my body heat has a chance to soften the balm before application.

What oil would you want to try in lip balm form? Let me know through your comments.