Be Your Own Apothecary: Non-Toxic Deodorant that Actually Works

Apotheca products have always been free of Parabens and synthetic chemicals and fragrances. Lately there has been a lot of well-deserved terrible press about just how bad these ingredients are. So lately a lot of my clients have been asking for my recommendations of natural products that don't contain toxic chemicals but that actually work. You see, many well-liked faux-natural lines (such as that airport favorite that looks like a twee apothecary and whose name rhymes with "Bhiel's") have gross ingredients like aluminum and artificial fragrance. And your usual health food store deodorant may not have parabens or aluminum in it, but it also leaves many lovely ladies and gentlemen feeling. . . not so fresh.

I'm sorry, Tom's. I'm looking at you.

Our own k23 skincare makes a fab-smelling, sweat-stopping, Earth-saving deodorant/antiperspirant with shea butter, French cosmetic clay, and a host of ridiculously good-smelling essential oils. A steal at $15.95, it's redolent of an enchanted valley and makes you feel like raising your hand all day long, even when you don't know the answer.

But it's dead easy to make a perfectly serviceable product yourself with stuff you probably already have on hand. So, BEHOLD- my recipe for a super-easy deodorant:

Supplies needed:

A SAUCE PAN
A MIXING BOWL

A JAR
SOMETHING TO STIR WITH (I like cocktail swizzles, but use what you've got.)

Ingredients needed:

COCONUT OIL 
ALUMINUM-FREE BAKING SODA

Optional:

ESSENTIAL OILS in a scent you like (something like this would give you a fresh scent with great antibacterial action)



To Make:

1. Melt some coconut oil in a double-broiler
2. Pour it into a jar and add enough baking soda to make a paste
3. Add a couple drops of essential oils if you like
4. The end.




Oh, you thought cosmetic formulation should be a touch more complex? Okay- here are longer directions for you, but really you are just fine doing the above. This isn't rocket surgery.
 

To Make, Complicated:

1. Make a double broiler (or bain marie, if you're feeling French and/or fancy) by putting your mixing bowl atop a sauce pan that you have filled halfway with some water.

2. Bring the water to a boil and as you do so, scoop out some coconut oil into the bowl. Eyeball it- you're talking maybe five tablespoons, depending on the size of your jar.

3. Heat the coconut oil until it is just liquified.  (Coconut oil is solid at room temperature. If it's a hot day and you happen to be starting with liquified coconut oil then you may skip this whole melting step.)

4.  Pour liquified coconut oil into your jar and add approximately 1/2 cup of baking soda to the jar. Mix well.

5. Add 5-10 drops of essential oils of your choosing if you are inclined.

Optional, 6: If you are a sensitive sort or if you have just had hair removal, the baking soda may sting a bit. If this is you, try substituting part cornstarch for part of your baking soda.

Et voila, you're done and you smell darned fine.

don't you just want to stop by an author event and start asking some questions?

Want more recipes? Check out our sister blog, SF Slow Kitchen: The Home Cooking Project, for more stuff to eat and stuff to make, for healthy beauty inside and out.

How Bugs Make You Beautiful

Think microorganisms are yucky little germs? Think again! Good "bugs" like probiotics keep the bad microbes in check, and this is crucial to maintaining a healthy body and healthy skin. The human intestinal tract is lined with bacteria – both good and bad. There is no question that intestinal health IS overall health, and you can't have one without the other. There is also no question that unhealthy digestion comes out in the skin. When intestinal flora are out of balance, we not only get constipation, bloating, and allergies,but also acne, reactive skin, and overall inflammation. Not a pretty picture.

Too many of us eat diets rich in processed carbohydrates and sugars. And too often, we think we are doing right by our bodies when we reach all too quickly for the antibiotics. I can't tell you how angry I get when I have clients with treatment-resistant acne come to see me for the first time and their medical histories show they have been on round after round of antibiotics to treat their skin. Talk about ignoring the cause and just slapping a band-aid on the problem. Only in this case, the band-aid actually makes the problem far worse. I don't blame clients for this but their dermatologists should know better.

One easy, cheap, and delicious way of restoring the balance of good to bad bacteria in the body is to eat a diet rich in natural probiotics. Probiotics are great in a supplement form (and I highly recommend them to clients with chronically poor diets and/or a history of frequent antibiotic use). But even simpler, probiotics come in some of the tastiest and easiest foods we can make.

For skin and body health, try to eat at least one serving per day of one of the following fermented foods:

• Good yogurt (whole fat, organic, preferably raw, and definitely unsweetened. Even better to make it yourself.)
• Kombucha
• Kefir
• Sauerkraut
• Fermented soy foods (and only fermented soy foods): Miso, tempeh and natto
• Kimchi
• Real buttermilk from raw cream - easy to make and so delicious! (Recipe coming soon.)

To get you started, come on over to the Home Cooking Project for my recipe for the easiest raw sauerkraut ever.

Here's to good health and beautiful skin!

~Kirsten

Number One on Yelp.com

Out of 1,428 massage and skincare places reviewed on Yelp.com in San Francisco, Apotheca Skin Body Wellness is ranked number 1 again this week.

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your positive experiences at Apotheca on Yelp, Citysearch, wherever. We truly appreciate your vote of confidence.

Practitioner: David Lesseps, Tui Na Massage Therapist

Update: Hooray! David has joined Apotheca to bring his fantastic Tui Na work to our menu!

I've been David's acupuncture patient for the better part of a year and my frequent sessions with him have played a bigger part in helping my physical and spiritual health than any other medical of therapeutic work I have done. I recommend him wholeheartedly to all my friends and massage and skincare clients who are interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine. So when he told me he was taking his Tui Na practice to the Mission I jumped at the chance to schedule a session with him. I'm so glad I did. My session was wonderfully thorough and effective, and the tight shoulders and creaky back I walked in with were loose and fluid when I left his table and went out into the world an hour later. The work is energizing as well as deeply relaxing, and his office is airy, light and calming. I'm eagerly looking forward to my next session. I'm so glad to have David in the cadre of practitioners I visit regularly to keep me feeling well and happy.

(This entry was originally a Yelp.com review.)

Giving: Addicted to Kiva

This past week I made another donation on Apotheca's behalf. Kiva is seriously addictive!! Where I used to enjoy shopping for books and music and vintage housewares online, now I can't get enough of finding small business to fund. I love supporting various people in developing countries in their endeavors to start businesses to feed and house their families.

Why is Kiva so compelling? For one thing, I like the idea of using globalization in a positive way. I look at Kiva as the anti-Walmart, an entity made up of thousands of people who want to build up rather than destroy mom-and-pop shops around the world. That resonates with me, being part of a small-fry practice myself. But what it really comes down to is that I live in a place I love doing work I adore. I never forget how lucky I am, and I want to share my good fortune wherever I can.

So this time, we are supporting Nicholas Matata Mukosi in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a 39-year old father of four who requested a loan to buy stock for his small grocery store. We are also lending to Kim-heak Chhim in Kean Svay district, Cambodia. She is a mother of three who sells flowers in the local village. Her husband hires himself out to do freelance tractor work in the local farms. The couple has requested the loan to put toward repairing their house.

For anyone looking for a wonderful way to give back to the global community, I wholeheartedly endorse kiva.org. Check them out. But be careful...it's addictive!

Music: "The underground is in the living room"

I'm so excited to have received my big order of new music from my friends at Dynamophone Records this morning. Those of you who have come in for massage and facial treatments have probably experienced some of this wonderful little local label's beautiful indy offerings in the studio. I was inspired to visit their web site and do some shopping after live listening party put on by Dynamophone's music community resource, Ixmae. The event was at Poleng Lounge, and it featured some of the prettiest and most inventive music I have heard in a long time. The highlight for me was Zoe Keating, a "one-woman string quartet" who uses live electronic samples as she plays to create a lush ensemble sound that really must be experienced to be believed.

Heavenly music. The next time you are in for a visit, listen up and you will likely hear some lovely Dynamophone tunes. I am glad as ever to live in a community full of creative people doing such interesting projects. It's a pleasure to support this local label. And now I'm off to open that box and have a listen.

Products and Ingredients: Sea Turtles and Sun in Oahu

Aloha Apotheca people! I had the great pleasure of visiting the North Shore of Oahu at the beginning of the month. The white sand and the blue water, the scent of plumeria flowers and the warm tropical sun (especially wonderful to this fogged-in San Francisco girl) were every bit as dreamy a tropical paradise as I would have hoped. As a skincare professional I was of course obsessive about sun protection while away, but despite my best efforts at staying safe while hiking and body surfing and hanging out with a mai tai in the shade, the sun got to me after a while. So I decided to check out Turtle Bay Resorts' fancy-schmancy spa for some pampering post-sun skincare.

The spa uses Epicuren products exclusively. The highlight of my treatment was the Chai Soy Mud mask, used to help purify my poor sunscreen-clogged pores and give my skin some plump and firmness. It felt and smelled terrific, but reading the ingredients afterward I saw that the product was not as safe and natural as I would have hoped, and that the third ingredient in it is. . . talc. Yuck! Didn't we stop using talc a long time ago? It's a known irritant and it's a proven carcinogen. Not a product I would choose or use on my self or my clients. While I enjoyed the treatment tremendously (who doesn't love being primped to nirvana in front of a window overlooking the Pacific?) I was made more confident in my choice of product lines and treatment procedures when all was said and done.

The other nice thing that happened while I was gone is that I rekindled my love of kukui and coconut oils. I love a good coconut oil massage, especially for the scalp, as in the Ayurvedic tradition. So I am working on some lovely services to offer in the fall and winter, when we can all use a bit more tropical warmth in our lives.