I used to be something of a herbalist, actually, and I knew a few home remedies for various skin problems, colds, things like that. At the moment, I can only remember a couple.

For a cold with a sore throat, hot water and lemon juice, with a bit of honey. It helps to soothe the throat. Also for a cold, eat foods with a lot of garlic in them.

For nausea, slice up gingerroot and make a ginger infusion. Add honey as a sweetener if desired.

For pain relief, chew willow bark, or make an infusion and drink it (straining out the bark, of course).

For a simple skin lotion, buy glycerine from your local drug store, and mix (I believe) two parts glycerine to one part rose water. It will be runny, but it works like love.

For a deep detoxifying mask, mix one part honey and one part plain organic yogurt. This mask is very detoxifying, bringing any oils and impurities up to the surface of your skin, so it can actually cause pimples. The idea is to keep doing it daily until the pimples are gone-- then your skin is clear of any infection or oil buildup.

For a very mild cleanser, use one part lavendar flowers, one part rose petals, and three to four parts ground oatmeal. Keep a small amount in a cotton bag in the shower, and when you use it, soak it in water and use the bag itself as a gentle exfoliator and the 'milk' that runs from it as a facial wash. This is very mild, and very good for your skin, as the lavendar and rose are soothing, and the oatmeal is excellent for problem skin. Myself, I used to add witch hazel as well, to balance out my oily skin.

I'll post a few more later, if anyone's interested. Myself, when I stopped having the time for this, I started to buy from Lush. Their recipes were very similar to mine.

Dematrah wrote:

soft cookies

Ohhh I like this. I'll try it out someday.

As for me...hrm. My big one is olive oil in the hair! Sitting around the house? Braid it up in some oil and when you wash it out you have like sex soft hair. Also, I've never been massaged with actual massage oils, but mixing olive oil in with a little aveeno lotion or something leaves my skin like unholy soft. To the point where I just sit like an idiot and paw myself. Hah!

Other than that I don't really know of any fancy home remedies. Although the honey and yogurt thing sounds like a good idea. I don't get pimples much (actually hardly ever) but there's enough oil on my skin to make fries.

My only other one is knowing that the temperature of your body can best be altered by heating or cooling your neck, so if you're feverish and want to cool down, it's  better to put the cool cloth on your neck than your forehead.

Also if you bite your lip and open it up, use Listerine like non-stop or you'll get a canker sore. I usually screw this up and spend a week miserable and pissy.

For skin infections, we tend to use a hot tea of rosemary and garlic cloves as a soak.  Use for infections on hands and feets, hotpacks for styes, that sort of thing.

For sore throats, hot rosemary tea.  Drink as hot as you can.  Will help reduce inflammation and draw the infection.

Comfrey extracts in beeswax get used around our house for really dry skin and eczema.

Lavender tea for anxiety.  (I have an organic lavender and rose tea called "La Vie En Rose" by a company called La Cour Tisane that works well for this.)

Sage essential oil helps cut down the lifespan of mouth ulcers (canker sores), and also helps with gingivitis pain when smeared on the gums.

Dong quai (Chinese angelica) works like a dream for my PMS.  It's the key ingredient in our favorite miracle tea, Women's Moon Cycle Tea by Yogi Teas, and I've also taken it in capsules.  The capsules work great, but have a tendency to just Stop my period from happening.  I have to take it *just* for the PMS, then stop.  Our local natural foods store has dong quai tea, and I really should give it a try.

Also, if you're really cold?  Try a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a small amount (like, enough to fill a shotglass) of cream or half-and-half.  Z Budapest has this in one of her books as a way to warm oneself up for outdoor ritual, and it works at other times too.

We've got a lot of herbal sorts of things just integrated in our lifestyle, so sometimes I forget them all.

One question about baby oil, how many babies does it take to make up a bottle of baby oil anyway?

Here's my very simple remedie.

WINDEX

CURES

EVERYTHING!!!!!!

I'm not even kidding.  It's amazing if you've got cuts or anything.  But don't overuse it, as it tends to dry the skin up.

Dematrah wrote:

It can't be TOO many. We still have a lot of people running around.

I wonder if they squeeze the oil out like you would juice from an orange?

Well, egg yolk is high in cholesterol and cholesterol is sold as a hair-nourishing product...

I've heard that mixing a little bit of strong coffee with your shampoo and leaving it in your hair will darken your hair a little bit. Can anyone verify this?

I've heard mayonnaise is good for your hair.

Believe it or not, a mixture of beer and eggs= a really amazing shampoo.

Giovanna wrote:

Drinking hot sauce will unclog your nose and sorta give you your sense of taste back when you have a cold.

So says me, I just did it.

Same goes for wasabi, I do believe.

Yogurt is also very good for a UTI.

Everyone tells me how wonderful garlic is for heart problems and well, everything, though garlic makes me die. I can't breathe after I eat it, I'm gone for at least a day and its oh so delicious and in everything.

I think its the acidophilus and other bacteria that make yogurt good. I think something in cranberry helps bad bacteria to not stick to the bladder or something.

Mints and ginger are supposedly good for your stomach and velerian and passion flower are good for stress and sleep. Astrogalousand  Echinacea are said to be good for your immune system. Ashwagandha is supposedly good for your immune system, memory and all sorts of good things.

Those are the only ones that are at the top of my head at the moment.