Glorious Gelatine Mask

Like you all know, I'm over my eczema. It absolutely sucks, and I'm trying every sort of natural remedy to get rid of it. The only one that I SHOULD really be doing is stressing less, which is the reason behind my eczema anyway. But, nevertheless, I like smothering my sore skin with stuff that I just hope will make it go away. The hope is always there. And yesterday, that wishful thinking actually did something!

The funny mask was a recipe from the lovely Wellness Mama, but she didn't add much detail so I really wasn't prepared for what I was doing. Here's what I think would be the best way to go about this mask:
- Mix the warm water and the lemon juice together
- Slowly add them to the gelatine, stirring/whisking as you do so
- Once you've got a smooth(ish) paste, paint it on with a brush of some kind. Preferably not the same brush you use for basting a raw chicken with. But you have to do this step IMMEDIATELY and as quickly as possible. And if you're too lazy to use a brush, I'm sure lathering it on with joined fingertips will be sufficient (it was for me).
- Let it dry. I don't care how long that takes, let it harden. Meanwhile, don't move a muscle, because if it's wet, it'll take longer, and if it's dry, it'll crack and hurt your skin.
- Waddle over to the shower and use a nice, warm, damp face towel to wetten the gelatine back up again. Start wiping it off if you can, otherwise take a shower. It's pretty hard to get off with just a little towel.

And the results of yet another eczema-go-away treatment?

Day 2: I put it on in the morning yesterday, and my skin is STILL oily. Not oily oily, but it's not dry! It's incredible. Of course, it's not the entire area that is like skin that is better than the rest of me, but the bits that are, MAN are they awesome! A few flakes have started to appear since yesterday, but apart from that, it's still going great.

Day 3: Still looking good! Even more flaky bits have arisen now, but it's still making it's own oils. I haven't stopped putting avocado oil on it like I always have, but it's much less drier than it normally is.

Day 4: I had a massive stressful day yesterday, followed by four hours of running around following my stressful and logically, impossible, demands for myself. At least I know now to eat carbs and sleep in when that happens, because I feel great today. Anyway, my eczema today is starting to come back to normal, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. There's still a few patches of normal-skin-ness. And I've been eating a lot of gelatine (bone broths) too, so that would probably be helping it. I'm overall so surprised at how well this stuff worked.

Day 5: Another stressful night and next to no quality sleep, but my eczema patch is still patchy. Unsurprisingly, there's more eczema than there's not (and where there's oil-producing, smooth skin) but HELLO: I've gone nearly a week with a lot of stress and my skin has basically REPAIRED italics itself from one skin mask. Edit How crazy is that?!

Day 6: I'd say it's time to stop including updates here. There's definitely eczema on my arm again, and I can't comment on the severity in one word, but it's not as bad in some spots. It's improved, I must say. But it helped me come to a bit of a revelation: maybe I'm not absorbing everything as well as I could or should be. Eczema is a gut problem, and if I have a problem with my gut flora (which I do - I have a heavy reliance on sauerkraut) then I have to fix THAT to clear my eczema.

My little experiment also proved how absorbent skin is. Obviously I absorb more gelatine through my skin than my intestine (very thin skin at that), and my body likes gelatine. But it hardened! My mind just doesn't comprehend how I suck nutrients out of something that's rock solid!! I'll get it one day.

Marshmallows

I suppose I'm not going to model for the hair show in the June long weekend so I get to go camping again! Yay! So I've compiled my list of things I want to eat while I'm down there (forget that they're all going to make me fat), including marshmallows because that's just a given. We have a fireplace and we all toast marshmallows, so I decided to have a crack at making my own marshmallows because I don't want to eat the crap you get in the shop.

Following Mommypotamous' recipe, I made a half batch of fluffy sticky clouds of goodness. Basically, you mix a honey caramel with dissolved gelatine, beat it until it's fluffy, then let it sit overnight. It's a basic concept but it's not so basic seeing as you have to make a CARAMEL.

First, you dissolve the gelatine with the water. You'll wonder how the hell the hard gel goo is gonna result in something fluffy, but be prepared to be amazed.

Then you put water, flavour (I put vanilla), salt and a beehive of honey into a pot and 'keep on medium high heat until it reaches 240 degrees'. Big problem. a. My stove is ultra strong and it's really hard to tell what's medium and what's high and b. I haven't got a candy thermometer. So I put it on what would've been high heat and let it go. I knew it would take a while so I left for thirty seconds and...

When I came back, it had volcanoed and there was honey caramel all over the stove and everywhere! I turned the heat down but I had to keep turning it up for the caramel to do something.

So after vigorously stirring a pot of bubbling candy (I know, French chefs, sue me for touching my caramel) it eventually reached soft ball stage. I dropped a bit in cold water and it makes a soft little ball in your hand. And once I realised it was done, I think I overcooked it. The second before I took it off, it was fine, but when I stopped mixing it it took on a funny smell.

Regardless, I called James to help pour it into the funny gelatine stuff which would be easy enough for me to do by myself next time. I whipped it up, and that only took five minutes. Then it went into my prelined baking tin with some arrowroot on top. Next time that lining will be done so much better.

Then I had to lick everything clean, which was a lot of marshmallow cream. But I put the semi clean beaters and spatula and stuff in hot water for five minutes and it all dissolved. Urgh. Next time I know I don't have to clean it with my mouth.

And then you just let it sit for four hours. I cut it at four hours and the other half after overnight, and there wasn't too much difference in firmness. And I toasted a bit and it kinda melts. Oh well. I'll try toasting it when it gets older. James liked it, so guess who's making marshmallows more often? :)

Experiments - or Lots of Posts I've Put Off

For some reason I just don't get around to blogging about some things. I think I'm just a little overwhelmed with study. I've tried a few new things, so I thought instead of writing separate posts for them all, I could just put it all under one post and call it a day.

1. I tried brushing my teeth with charcoal. Activated charcoal, not wood from a fire, silly. I read up and found that it adsorbs all the tannins in your teeth, so I decided to give it a go. I took a 'during' photo to show you how pretty I look:
                                        
but the result was next to nothing. My theories are that my teeth are stained with something that isn't tannins, or I didn't do it right. After I read up on it a bit more or something, I'll try it again, because I really hate normal toothpaste.

2. I dragged dad out to Harris farm markets and make him buy a $12 spaghetti squash. I've idolised it ever since I saw it on the internet, but I'd never been able to get it. So when I found it I battered my puppy dog eyes and got what I wanted :)