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Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:35 am  |
Everytime I shave my poor legs, I invariably get horrible razor burn, ingrown hairs and red bumps and I've tried just about everything to combat or alleviate the problem, but all to no avail. Recently, I started exfoliating using Bare Escentuals Escentual Body Polish before I shave and that seemed to help, but not enough. At most, it would give me an exquisitely close shave, but I'd still get the ingrowns and red bumps.
Recently, after I made the homemade TendSkin formula and while I was playing arouind with aspirin masks for my face, I had a brainstorm. Since the active ingredient of TendSkin is aspirin and the aspirin masks help gently exoliate the face, why not make a pre-shaving scrub made from crushed aspirin?
So, I did! I crushed up about 10 plain, uncoated aspirin, then added a Tbs. of honey (to "bind" the aspirin: honey is also a good skin moisturizer and humectant) and a 1/2 tsp of liquid glycerin (to give the mixture "slip" over my skin). Just for grins, I also added a drop of Tea Tree Oil and a drop of peppermint essential oil.
I mixed all these ingredients, then smoothed it onto my (clean, dry) legs and waited about 15 minutes (I based this on the typcial instructions for the aspirin facial masks) for it to "marinate," then I got into the shower and dampened my hands then vigorously rubbed/scrubbed the crushed aspirin onto my legs (the next time, for even more exfoliating power, I slipped on a pair of exfoliating gloves!). Then I rinsed my legs thoroughly and shaved my legs as normal (note: I use Zirh shave gel and a Gilette Venus razor), then followed with the homemade TendSkin. After that dried, I rubbed in my homemade body oil (mixture of Vitamin E oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil and olive oil, plus a couple of drops of my fave essential oils to give it scent because I'd heard that baby oil is NOT a good body oil/moisturizer...).
Now, I've only been using my little honey aspirin pre-shaving scrub for a couple of days, but I must say that it seems to be working. For the very first time in my life, when I shaved my legs, I didn't get any new red bumps or ingrowns and my existing bumps/ingrowns seem to be healing as well. Also, I got one of the closest shaves that I've ever experienced! Normally, I can feel stubble on my legs a mere 18 hours after shaving, but it's been 36 hours and I still feel no stubble at all!! I liked the results of this pre-shave scrub so much, that I whipped up a huge batch and put it in an old jar I'd recycled so I don't have to make it fresh each time I shave! 
Anyway, I just thought I'd share my findings in case there are others out there who suffer the same type of shaving ordeal and are looking for a little relief....
Carrie |
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