Aijuswhanakno

I’m sorry.  I’m really really sorry.  I know my posting schedule is horrible.  You won’t believe what happened to me. …………..I broke my Macbook :(  The poor baby wasn’t even 4 months old, and I hurt her.   I hadn’t even named her yet.  I always take her to work with me, and immediately set her up.  Well, on this particular day, I was dead-dog-tired.  I opened up an energy drink, and set it down next to the laptop.  About 5 minutes later I reached for something, and tipped my still untouched drink over.  JUST enough to spill  the TINIEST about of liquid ever onto exactly the right spot to damage my laptop.  It flickered and shut itself off.  Me, in my infinite wisdom, turned it back on after a few minutes of freaking.  I probably shorted it.  STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!  My only saving grace is that my husband insisted on purchasing the after-market warranty.  Liquid damage IS covered, it’s just a matter of how they want to take care of it.  I think what is going to end up happening is that we will send them the damaged laptop (poor girl), and they will give us the money to buy a new macbook.  While I don’t want to lose my laptop w/ all my stuff on it, at least I’m getting her replaced.   What really really sucks even more is that I had been procrastinating on backing up everything on my hard drive.  :(  Oh well, we’re going to try to hook it up to the desktop and transfer my files that way.  In the mean time, I can’t work on too many of my backlogged posts.  I still have the image files for the half-finished ones on their memory cards, but the finished versions reside on my laptop.  If it takes too long (or God forbid, something else happens), I will have to start from square 1 again with those posts.  In the mean time, I will work on some of the ideas I’ve been keeping stored in my head.

To the meat of this post.  I know I have not done an official review of “1 Hand Washes The Other” yet, but I just HAD to tell you about this absolutely wonderful product.  Okay I lied. pause for a second.  Does the phrase “1 hand washes the other” remind you of Silence of the Lambs?  “It puts the lotion on it’s skin.  IT PUTS THE LOTION ON IT’S F*CKING SKIN!” ……I’m just saying!  Lol okay anyways.    1 Hand Washes The Other (hereby referred to as “OHWTO”) sells this awesome soap called “Black Magic soap bar”.  Some of you might know it’s name as “Deep Black” bar.  Well, when Becca (the owner) opened up a shop on Artfire (which she prefers, btw), she changed the name of it.  ”Deep Black” just sounded NSFW.  Personally, it just always made me giggle ^_~

I first got the chance to try the Black Magic formula in creme form.  Quite a few months back now, Becca tweeted that she was looking for a few people to try out her creme formula.  I’ll admit, I’m scared to try B&B products that are home made.  I’ve got HORRIBLE facial skin, and my body skin has become quite sensitive from living in Okinawa (there is a lot of mold here, since it is so humid.)  However, I had heard a lot about OHWTHO from fellow bloggers that I trust, and you can’t beat the low low price of FREE.  Even if it means being a Guinea Pig.  Becca sent me the jar (1oz sample), and said that she herself liked to use the bar form twice a day.  Once in the morning and once at night.  So, I followed that recommendation.  I could notice the soap’s effect on my skin immediately. I can honestly say that I have never noticed such CLEAN results on my skin, from just a soap.  I wash my face as I should, but have never seen a visible difference.  My skin looked more toned, slightly firmer (not that I have a loose face), and it was actually CLEAN.  No residue, no left over “dirt”.  After I went through the sample jar, I placed my first order with OHWTO.  I ordered a Black Magic bar, and a whipped bathing creme (which is quite nice, by the way.)  Here is how Black Magic is described (taken from the listing I purchased on Etsy, and these are my images):

“Deep Black is my current facial soap of choice. I haven’t used anything else for months now and my face is loving it! It’s absolutely LOADED with ingredients long used for toning and clarifying the skin: Tea Tree oil, Peppermint Essential Oil, Grapefruit Essential Oil, Lemongrass Essential Oil, Rosemary Essential Oil, Vitamin E, Glycerin, French Green Clay, and Activated Charcoal. In addition, the soap is made after I HAND INFUSE the base (and then filter it) with heaps and heaps of healing Calendula petals, as can be seen in my “Baby Face” soap listing.

Now, you can go ahead and google these skin-loving additives and see for yourself what their benefits are and how people use them (and please- I encourage EVERYONE to do their own research and come to their own educated conclusions), but I’ve compiled a small list of snippets found via google here for your convenience:
-Tea Tree Oil is antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, fungicide, antiseptic; it’s believed to heal wounds quicker and protect them from infections, as well as help neutralize the scar marks and after spots left by eruptions, boils, pox, acne etc.
-Peppermint Essential Oil contains Menthol, which gives a cooling effect. It nourishes dull skin and improves oily skin.
-Grapefruit Essential Oil is antioxidant, antiseptic, disinfectant; it’s said it keeps the skin clean and is particularly good for treating oily skin and acne.
-French Green Clay is very absorbent, and literally “drinks” oils, toxic substances, and impurities from your skin. Its toning action stimulates the skin by bringing fresh blood to damaged skin cells, revitalizing the complexion, and tightening pores.
-Calendula has a long history of use as a wound-healing and skin-soothing botanical. It has impressive healing powers, and can clear up many different types of skin problems.
-Vitamin E helps skin look younger by reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
-Activated Charcoal has the ability to attract other substances to its surface and hold them there. This is called “adsorption” (not absorption). Charcoal can adsorb thousands of times its own weight in harmful substances.
-Glycerin aids in preventing breakouts and keeping pores clear. It also can speed healing of present acne lesions. It is not inflammatory and will not irritate skin like many other products with harsh chemical ingredients.

Now, this is what these ingredients are traditionally used for and believed to do for your skin; I’m not making any claims here, other than that my soap will clean your face, or whichever body parts you choose to wash with it. Technically, I can’t, unless I have this soap lab tested for all of those properties, and I’m just not in a position to do that. I can tell you, however, that I use this soap on my face twice a day and it works great. Not too oily, not too drying, it leave my skin feeling clean and refreshed.

I use a gentle, SLS and SLES-free vegan soap base to create these soaps. There have been no colorants added to this soap; everything I’ve added to it adds up to create the green/black coloration of it. Additionally, I have left out any fragrancing, so this soap smells very medicinal- not unpleasant, but it’s not a “bouquet of flowers” type scent, either. Think, “herbal” or “apothecary” and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect- the lemongrass oil really helps to tone down the typically medicinal scent of the tea tree oil. The lather is super thick and creamy, and because of all the goodies I put in it, it can take a little bit of coaxing to get it out of the bar (depending on the water you have at your house); it almost has the consistency of a shaving cream (A few times a week I like to spread it on my face and let it sit for a minute or two before rinsing, it acts as a light facial mask!) This soap is absolutely wonderful as a facial soap, but can be used on the rest of the body as well- I’d advise you to keep it away from the, well, private areas, to avoid irritation- peppermint oil can cause tingling and tea tree oil can cause burning and you don’t really want to mix those 2 sensations together on sensitive areas. These rectangular bars weigh about 4 oz, you will get 1 bar with this listing.

As will all of my soapy stuff, test first on a small area and discontinue use if irritation occurs. Keep out of eyes and mucous membranes. Don’t eat it, it’s soap and is for external use only. This product contains LOTS of essential oils and can cause a reaction in persons sensitive to them (pregnant, on medications, weakened immune systems, etc), so please don’t buy it if you fall into this category or think you may or even if you’re not sure because I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt :(“

Now, the soap does smell slightly medicine-y.  I suspect that is from the Tea Tree Oil, although I could be very wrong.  It is not overpowering, though.  Honestly if it was, I would just grin and bear it.  To me, the product is just that wonderful.  It is excellent for calming down any kind of breakout I get anywhere on my body.  If “that time of the month” gives me lovely pimples, I just wash my face and the breakout is immediately subdued.  Now granted it doesn’t all miraculously dissipate, but I don’t look anywhere near as horrid.  I mentioned before that I have bad reactions to the mold here on the island.  If I start suffering a painful breakout anywhere on my body, I just wash with this for a minute.  I like to just lather it up in my hands and apply it to dry skin.  I’ll let it sit for a minute, and then I’ll rinse it off.  It usually cuts my suffering in half, and really tones down the redness.  This is really good, because I have my breakouts in places like the bend of my arm, or on my shoulders.  Very visible places.  If I have a really bad breakout, I may have to wash 2 or 3 times over a few hours, but it provides me a relief that NONE of my doctor-prescribed medicines or creams have, outside of steroids.  Seeing as how I refuse to call my doctor, just to be put on steroids again (even if only a week long), this is a very necessary and affordable treatment for me.

All in all, I really cannot recommend these bars (or the creme version) enough.  What you see in these pictures (which you can make bigger, by the way), is my 2nd order of bars.  I am just now getting on to using my 2nd one, and plan on purchasing a few tubes of the creme to get me through my travels.  No matter what the condition of your skin is, including perfection, you can benefit from these bars.  Unless of course, you’re allergic to one of it’s ingredients.  Then you should stay very far away. (^_~)

Tags: black magic, holy grail, OHWTO, review

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 20th, 2010 at 4:32 pm and is filed under review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.