Yellow for Yellowing Teeth?

yellow smileAunty’s blog friend Kay of Musings recently posted about whitening her teeth with Crest Whitestrips.  It worked beautifully – Kay’s teeth became movie star white – but had a few cautionary issues with sensitivity and erosion.

Aunty used to use whitening strips, or the “trays” that are formed as troughs to fit and soak uppers and lowers in bleach solutions, but has recently opted for a cheaper, possibly safer and more natural solution that really works, though not to the dazzling whiteness of movie stars.

It is a very yellow paste made with 1 TBS coconut oil, 1 tsp curcumin (also known as turmeric), and 2 drops of peppermint oil (optional).  This short video from the good folks at 7 Nutrition shows how it is done.  Aunty takes a capsule of curcumin on a daily basis, and 2 capsules = approx 1 tsp when opened and measured.  2017-05-25_17-17-21

After mixing thoroughly in a small ceramic dish, Aunty stores the paste in a cute little Chinese mustard container with a cover on her bathroom counter.  This lasts for weeks.

Use a Q-tip (rather than a toothbrush) to dip into the paste and rub or dab onto the front teeth surface.  Keep your lips open and away from your yellow teeth.  You will look wild and weird – but that’s okay.  We do what we must for looking good.  The longer you can do this, the better.  Try for at least 2 minutes.  Be aware that curcumin can stain your countertops, towels, and clothing so be neat and apply just enough.

Then, wipe off as much as possible with toilet paper or paper towel pieces, and throw in the trash.  Don’t rinse in the sink before wiping or dispose of the paper in the toilet or you will have oily yellow ringed sink bowls to clean.  Optional to brush or rinse your mouth after wiping.

Do daily for a couple of weeks, and then less often. Slowly but surely, your smile will be brighter and brighter!

mustard dish

 

Be Be Cream = mercury bummers

BB1Aunty was all excited to share her age spot busting discovery (thanks to Pal Cookie/Lee) in the inexpensive pink plastic Be Be Cream from Cambodia.  Truly, it worked!  Aunty’s age spots faded to the point of wonderful – and people who got up close and touchy (face massage, hair dresser, etc.) would tell Aunty that she had beautiful skin, woo hoo!

HOWEVER, a comment from reader Yuko on a recent post about morning stretches warned about the dangers of mercury in this Be Be Cream.  She tested it and found that it contained mercury, so Aunty ordered test strips from Home-Health-Chemistry.com;  it arrived from Israel (!) today, and with trepidation, Aunty tested 2 containers of Be Be Cream – one that was from an older shipment, and one that was from a new shipment – slight packaging differences and slightly different color.

BB2BB3Such a bummer.  Both creams tested positive for mercury in the 50 ppm range (or slightly lower since it wasn’t as dark a purple as the comparison color chart that was provided.  So sad.

FDA cosmetic regulations on mercury were as follows:  Mercury compounds. Mercury compounds are readily absorbed through the skin on topical application and tend to accumulate in the body. They may cause allergic reactions, skin irritation, or neurotoxic problems. The use of mercury compounds in cosmetics is limited to eye area products at no more than 65 parts per million (0.0065 percent) of mercury calculated as the metal and is permitted only if no other effective and safe preservative is available. All other cosmetics containing mercury are adulterated and subject to regulatory action unless it occurs in a trace amount of less than 1 part per million (0.0001 percent) calculated as the metal and its presence is unavoidable under conditions of good manufacturing practice (21 CFR 700.13)  What does that mean – eye are products are okay at 65 ppm, but all else is 1 ppm?

More about Mercury poisoning

The FDA also has a page about Mercury in skin care products.  It is easily absorbed into the body by the skin and an absolute no-no for pregnant women or children.  Signs and Symptoms of Mercury Poisoning include:

  • irritability
  • shyness
  • tremors
  • changes in vision or hearing
  • memory problems
  • depression
  • numbness and tingling in hands, feet or around mouth

An international watchdog also seized products that were being sold as skin whitening from various stores in the Philippines and some of these had shockingly high ppm numbers (parts per million) ranging in the thousands!

Let the Buyer Beware

Aunty remembers playing with liquid mercury as a child in science class.  The silver colored element was fascinating, breaking into little balls that could be joined together into a bigger blob that gleamed and rolled around in our hands.  Aunty also eats a LOT of raw fish and has a silver filling that is covered with a gold crown that will be soon replaced.  Flu vaccines for adults supposedly have a form of mercury used as a preservative.

Some readers have decided to purchase Be Be Cream online and have loved the results.  Aunty also loves the results and is now in a dilemma.  Stop using and get back the age spots on her face?  Or, continue to use and do heavy metal elimination every so often?  What do you think?

How to detox mercury

Reader Yuko did a natural detox method over a period of 40 days of morning shakes.

Aunty will do EDTA chelation at her doctor’s office (Dr. Takemoto-Gentile), though not solely because of the Be Be Cream.

Google searching health websites about mercury detoxification mentioned cilantro as a natural agent (also known as Chinese parsley).  Here is a rather good article about what to do:  How to Detox from Heavy Metals and Mercury.

Ah, the things we do for beauty

Yuko’s comment was a wake up call that Aunty really didn’t want.  Apologies to readers that got as excited as Aunty and purchased this wonder cream.  and Mahalo to Yuko.

The price we pay for beauty can be very high.  It’s just too bad that old faces with splotchy age spots aren’t “in”.  Aunty has some thinking to do.

 

Out, out, dang spots!

darkarmspot(Warning!  This product contains mercury.  Aunty did an update on this issue.)

Ever since Aunty turned 50, brown spots started showing up on her face, arms, and legs.  These are sometimes called liver spots.  Whatever they are called, they are unwanted and unsightly, and they started getting bigger and darker on Aunty’s cheeks and arm.  Very visually irritating, you know?

Aunty tried all kinds of products, some expensive, some highly recommended, some experimental.  Laser zapping worked but only if the dermatologist gets every part and dot, and it was very very painful during and after.   Nerium AD seemed to help a little, but not enough to take them away.  The last resort would have been Obaji – which was very very expensive, with mixed reviews from absolutely great to permanent pigment problems if one was not careful to stay out of the sun while it was “raw”.

One day, pal Cookie mentioned Lee Sueoka, her Kauai buddy who always looked perfectly coiffed, dressed, and beautified, and her quest to get rid of her freckles.  Lee discovered a Cambodian Be Be cream that she testified took away her freckles!  The ingredients were simple and natural – Lee said that they were so simple, you could eat it.  AND, it was cheap ($12 on ebay)!

Good old pal Cookie gave Aunty a couple of pink cream jars to try.  After about 2 weeks of applying the Be Be cream, Aunty thought that her spots were fading, and they were!  And they did!

Pictures tell are worth a thousand words, so here are some before and after pictures of Aunty’s age spots over a 5 month period.   The redder pictures were taken indoors in March, and the bottom pictures were taken outdoors in August.

Pretty good results, for an inconspicuous looking pink plastic container of cream, don’tcha think?  Aunty was applying the cream to her spots after her evening bath, and then again in the morning – but actually the instructions say to only apply at night (oops!).

The ingredients in this Be Be Special Cream made in Cambodia are:  milk, honey, saffron, wheat flour, turmeric, avocado, and Vitamins C & E.  It does not contain perfume, is easy to use, and Aunty is eternally grateful to pals Cookie and Lee for the best age spot remover, hands down!

Need more proof?  Remember the picture at the top of the dark round spot on Aunty’s forearm?  Here it is now.  Pretty amazing, huh?!?

goodarmspot

The results are great for dark spots BUT I would not recommend this treatment because of its high mercury content. Since I have stopped using it, my brown spots did return. I did a mercury cleanse (chelation therapy) and am learning to live with the fact that I am getting older. One of the benefits of Covid has been the mandatory wearing of masks. These not only cover up my lower face, they also protect my skin from the sun – thus brown spots are not growing or as evident.

Super quick and easy hair coloring trick

Aunty met Pam Chambers at a Patsy Mink Center for Business and Leadership event, the first of 4 Personal Pathways at the Richards Street YWCA.   Pam’s subject was about business etiquette.  It was terrific!  Aunty plans to sign up for at least 2 more in the series, the next one will teach Aunty how to be intriguing…. (auwe, Aunty can’t go – too busy putting in a kitchen.  Maybe Aunty will wear sunglasses during construction – doesn’t that sound intriguing?)

One of the tips that Pam gave was to arrive 30 minutes before an event to network and meet with 1) the most important person in the room, 2) the most intimidating person in the room, and 3) the most interesting (or cutest) person in the room.

After Pam’s excellent presentation ended, Aunty wanted to meet 1) the most important person in the room – Pam Chambers.  It took awhile to get to where she was, and it looked like she was ready to leave, surrounded by her fans and friends.  So Aunty wriggled in and as she ended a story about accepting and enjoying her silver grey hair, Aunty piped in, “Me too!”

One of the woman there pointed out what her hair looks like before she goes to see her hairdresser, the clash of new growth and old color.  Aunty shared her tip about fast color, passed out her HonoluluAunty.com business cards, and promised an update on her blog, and here it is.

Aunty fighting grey

It is a pain to color hair roots.  Unfortunately it is a necessary chore because it looks terrible when the white new growth shows in stark contrast to the old colored parts, kinda like a skunk stripe.  About once a month, the tedious task of applying color with gloves, waiting, rinsing, and conditioning would be done.

One day, Aunty started thinking of how to fix her part of white in her sea of dark hair because she had to go out and did not have the time or energy to color her roots.  Aunty went into her craft room and grabbed a stamp pad of brownish copper since it was close to Aunty’s current hair color dye.

With gentle strokes of the pad, being careful not to get the color on skin, grey hair began to disappear like brushstrokes.

It worked!

This is a great temporary fix – not perfect but great for a one night stand when you really need to look like your hair is  one color instead of in need of a trip to L’Oreal.

Tacky with room for improvement

Aunty used ColorBox chalks in the video below.  The shape of the stamp pad is easy to hold and apply with precision.  It wipes/washes out easily with water but feels a bit sticky and tacky with a tendency to rub off so use sparingly and wipe away when you get home to prevent rubbing color where you do not want (i.e. your pillow case).   Do not use permanent ink stamp pads – those are not good on your skin or hair.

Aunty will do a bit more research on other types of stamp inks and types later when time allows a trip to our local Ben Franklin craft store.  If you have success or disaster with other brands, please leave a comment below so others can learn and share.

And now, for the ladies at the YWCA, Here’s Aunty!

Lipstick, lipstick on the lips

Korean dramas on DramaFever.com now have a LOT of commercials nowadays unless one subscribes to their Premium service for $9.95/month.  No thank you, since Aunty uses those commercial breaks to get water to drink or restack a pile of papers that needs attention.

Anywho, one of the commercials was about long lasting lipstick by Revlon.

Okay, guys, this really isn’t a post for you.  However, it reminds me of an incident at my favorite Bank of Hawaii branch (favorite banker Iz) while making a deposit and talking to a female teller.  We were talking about men and how they still looked good if they gained weight, or when their hair becomes grey.  It is a bit unfair, we agreed.  “But,” Aunty said, “they envy us our underwear.”

That was like an AHAAA moment, don’tcha think?  So now this has become a 2 parter for the beauty tips.

The first tip is to go out and treat yourself to some nice undies.  Lacy, frilly, sexy, luxurious – and use it rather than put it in a drawer for “one of these days”.  Nobody (or maybe not) will know how pretty you are under your clothes, but you will know, so enjoy!

The second tip is to go to Longs and look through the colors of Revlon’s Color Stay Ultimate Suede lipstick and see.  Aunty bought #065 – Catwalk, a medium dark bright brownish burgundy color.  It was $9.99 and not on sale.  To Aunty, this was cheap because other long lasting lipsticks from Mac cost twice that amount and have 2 part applicators that are hard to control.  Those also tend to dry up the lips and cake or flake after awhile (yuck when it does).

Aunty used the Revlon Color Stay last night before going to play some friendly hands of Texas Hold ’em poker with friends, using a lip liner pencil to outline.  The color was less intense than what Aunty usually uses – but Aunty liked it!  Easy to apply, not drying, one step, just like regular lipstick.

Aunty ate a plateful of ono food provided by poker pals (mahalo poker pals!), played 2 games of poker (one humiliating, one victorious), and came home to bocha (bathe) and sleep.  The color was still on Aunty’s lips!  That was a nice surprise!

IMG_1238This next morning, Aunty’s lips still had color, and lips felt nice – not all dried up the way those 2 applicator long lasting lipsticks feel after a few hours.  (see picture on left of Aunty’s morning lips.)

Using makeup remover, Aunty removed all vestiges of the lipstick, just because.  I don’t know if it is a lipstick to use every day, but for those special occasions when Aunty wants her lips to look nice with color, Revlon Color Stay will be Aunty’s choice.

Apologies in advance to the male audience – this was girl talk.   Aunty feels rather smug now.  Aunty is also wondering, do guys envy our underwear AND our makeup?   Life is as fair and wonderful as we think it to be.

 

Just for Aunties

2013-04-01_16-20-38As we get older, it shows.  I really like the wisdom part and the being comfortable in my own skin as I age.  Unfortunately, my skin, face, hair and body seem to be running away from what I used to look like faster and faster.  At some point Aunty will just give up, but for now, Aunty will invest time, effort and money to slow the process down.

Here are a few pointers along the way:

Kapiolani Women’s Center often has classes on beauty and health.  Aunty’s favorite is TaiChi.  I have been in the beginners class for about 3 years now.  I am learning this wonderful exercise VERY slowly.  It has given me very good balance.

Currently, Aunty takes 4 supplements for maintenance of good health.  Two are the must takes.  Intestinal Correctional Formula #1 (I know Wanda, too much information) and Protandim.  Super Food and Strontium are taken when and if I remember.  So far, Aunty feels pretty good and healthy which equals a very wonderful life.

Learn something new.  Eat at different places.  Try a new hair style.  Wear pretty earrings.  Wear lipstick.  Simple things like these make you feel better, and look better.

The PACE exercises (see Exercise tab under Health and Wellness) are good for building lung capacity.  It is good to be able to have strong lungs and endurance.

Currently, Aunty uses NeriumAD every night on her face, arms, and neck.  Because it is so easy to use (spread on clean damp skin at night and rinse off in the morning), Aunty never misses a night of applying it.  The results are really good – or maybe people are really nice when they say that I don’t look my age.  My skin looks nice and my lipstick doesn’t “bleed” outside my lip line anymore!

Dress up. Sometimes Aunty over dresses.  We used to enjoy playing dress up when we were little girls.  Now that we are older “girls”, enjoy and dress up!  You will look faahbulous, dahling.

 

Beauty tips

2013-04-01_15-35-37This is a page dedicated to all of us non-beauty queens who just want to look a bit better than usual with the least amount of effort.

First of all, smile.  Nothing makes your face look better than a genuine smile.

I also firmly believe in brushing my teeth with toothpaste after I drink my morning coffee.  Keeps my teeth white rather than brown and yellow.  I know this is hard if you work in an office but do what you can to get the coffee off your teeth.

To prevent those sun spots and skin discolorations in the first place, use a good sunscreen (I use Neutrogena spf 70 that I get at the Nordstrom Rack or Costco) and wear a hat or visor whenever you go out in the sun.  For some reason, young folk don’t have this problem, but one day, all of a sudden, they will have the sun spots too – take it from Aunty.  At that time they will wish they wore hats and sunscreen.

Aunty latest and greatest find is NeriumAD.  This is a night cream that is amazing in its science, results, and business opportunity.  After the first 2 weeks, Uncle said my face was glowing – and so was his!  I have Elaine of the Green Valley Ranch Spa keeping tabs on my rather dark sun spots since I see her about once every month or two.  At my last treatment, she said the spots are beginning to break up – which is great!  Aunty has tried almost everything and was about to try Obagi – the very complex (5 step process 2x a day for 2 months), very invasive (your skin actually peels off and leaves skin looking raw), very scary (some people have permanent sunburn damage if they do not take care during the treatment) through a dermatologist since this is a prescription based product and treatment.  Aunty is very glad to be introduced to NeriumAD – the product and the company, and Aunty is now a distributor of this excellent age defying night cream at aunty.nerium.com, and did a review of the business on a Review page.

Although facials could be classified as doodads, they become a worthwhile expense because of the benefits and how good it makes Aunty feel (and look)!  I make it a point to get a facial whenever I travel to Vegas (Elaine at the Green Valley Ranch Spa) because of how Aunty feels like her skin shrivels up and dries over there.

To have beautiful clean hair, use Neuma shampoos and conditioners.  I buy mine at BOSS Beauty Outlet Supply on Nimitz next to the AAA Hawaii store.  I love the Neuma Volume products – it has the added bonus of smelling wonderful!  [Update – now Aunty uses Aveda’s Volumizing Shampoo with its Conditioner thanks to pal Patricia.  It almost seems to make my hair feel tangled when shampooing, and really does give volume and boost to Aunty’s locks.]

Master Hong says to eat 7 dates a day to maintain beauty.  I got the big tub from Costco, and ate 4 a day until I ran out.  Not sure if it made a difference, but it was quite nice and delicious to eat with my morning cereal.

Eat a good diet, exercise, and get your sleep.  Simple and real.  If you don’t eat that well, make sure you take supplements.  I take one or two capsules of Super Food 100 daily from the American Botanical Company. I also take a capsule of Intestinal Correctional #1 (from American Botanical) every evening with dinner.  A potty a day is good for you.

For the last 10 months, Aunty has taken Protandim by LifeVantage.  Aunty’s review of it in on a Review Page of the products and the company.  Protandim is a wonderful daily supplement and has helped my energy levels, joint strength, and brain fog.  I feel less stressed in general, and I will take this little yellow tablet forever.

Facial yoga for double chins:  Put your fist under your chin with your mouth closed.  Giving slight resistance with your fist, open and close your mouth slowly.  I suppose you could do this while standing in line at the bank, but you might look a bit strange.  Aunty just got the PY Neckline Slimmer for herself.  Possibly working, easy to use.  Buy it from Amazon.com or eBay.com, sometimes you get free shipping.  Also, when no one is looking, do “EEEEE”s to help jowls look less saggy.  If you do those in public, you will look scary.

While standing in line, do your kegels.  This is when you squeeze or contract your pelvic muscle.  Makes your butt firmer, and has other benefits.  Five seconds at a time should do it.

Master Hong says that the perineum muscle (area between anus and the other stuff) is the base of your body pyramid.  He teaches several exercises on a slant board for health and beauty benefits.  One of the easiest to describe and do is to stand straight with arms to your side, and place both feet together on a slant board (with your toes higher than your heels).  Contract your perineum as you inhale through your nose.  As you contract and inhale, let the energy from the perineum rise up your back through your spinal cord, up to the top of your head, and then release your breath through your mouth, relax your contraction, and let the energy go down through the front side of your body.  The higher the slant of the board, the more your body will respond and need correction (i.e. crooked stance or head tilted to one side).  Although this exercise works best on the slant board, it also works just standing in the bank line.

To combat dry hands and feet, vaseline can be your best friend.  Just before bedtime, put a good layer of vaseline on your hands and then put on a pair of old cotton gloves.  You can use latex gloves but you will get sweaty hands and the latex will start to disintegrate.  For your dry feet, slather on some vaseline, and put your feet in socks, then go to sleep.  When you wake up in the morning, your hands and feet will be soft and moisturized.

Attended a facial massage class at the Kapiolani Women’s Medical Center recently.  It is well worth the few dollars to attend, but Aunty found it to be a lot of work gently pushing on pressure points.  Much more luxurious and wonderful is to have a fantastic whole body shiatsu by Dick Murakami at Hikari Shiatsu.

For us more mature gracious ladies (i.e. older), Aunty wrote a new page Just for Aunties.  We need a bit more help than young people in order to look decent.

Please leave a comment below if you have any tips for beauty to share.  Mahalo in advance!

Supplements

IMG_0769Aunty will share what she currently takes and when Protandim comes up, it will sound like a sales pitch, so sorry in advance, but it is worth pitching, imo.

Uncle swears by Super Food from American Botanical.  It is all the best green food stuff compressed into a green tablet.  Everyday, Uncle takes about 4 of them.  I take 2 if I remember.  This is a very good nutritional supplement especially since I don’t eat enough vegetables.  Dark green leafy vegetables, spirulina, blue green wheat grass, etc. are easier for Aunty in a tablet form so it works for now.  I just wish it looked, tasted, and felt like a crispy fried piece of bacon – one of Aunty’s absolute favorite bad foods.

Strontium is more acceptable because of its properties and lack of side effects for bone building than calcium supplements.  Aunty’s once every 5 year (I know I’d better go more often) checkup revealed low bone density so this is what Aunty takes, one a day.  Good friend and nutritional UH professor Alan Titchenal sent over the info and here is the page on it.

One a day Protandim by LifeVantage is really something.  Aunty has more energy throughout the day, wakes up refreshed and clear eyed, feels mentally sharp again, and also sexier.  Fingernails are stronger, stiffness and pain in the hands have diminished drastically, and I think I am handling stress a bit better (but Uncle and the kids would know more definitely.)  Aunty has a page on Protandim for more blow by blow under the Review pages.  If you sign up as a preferred customer on monthly autoship and you continue for 6 months, you will get a FREE bottle of TrueScience Anti-Aging creme – that’s a good deal since the creme is rather expensive – $70!  If you do sign up to be a distributor (possible to make good commissions) or preferred customer, Aunty does get a nice commission the very first month.  The company provides each distributor with their own business website, and Aunty’s website is mylifevantage.com/aunty.

Another product that Aunty takes once a day forever is Dr. Schulze’s Intestinal Correctional Formula #1 from the American Botanical Company.  With it, Aunty “goes” in the morning, guarans ball barans.  That is very important for good health.  Each person needs to find the right dosage, and happily Aunty has been able to decrease her daily dosage to one a day.  Like the Dalai Lama, Aunty also smiles in the bathroom.

Of course eating a healthy gatherer/hunter diet is the ideal as well as doing daily exercise, but for now Aunty is being lazy and having supplements as I slowly (very slowly) transition to the healthier choices and lifestyle is a blessing and a regime that I can easily stick to.

Nattokinese is denatured natto (the stinky slimy stuff made from soybeans that is great for the health) and because one of the properties of natto is blasting away clots in the blood, Aunty takes it whenever she has a headache – just in case it is blockage.  It always works for Aunty, so this is one of the “must haves” in the pill arsenal that is always kept on hand.

I have recently been introduced to Kyani (yup, Aunty signed up, lol)).  Not sure how well it works yet, but will post a review when the results come in.  [note:  Uncle’s papa likes Kyani – he has diabetes and his black looking leg has gotten better, or so he says.  As for Aunty, I think the juice tastes good, especially the one in the packet, and I keep a little bottle of the Nitro Extreme in the purse and take squirts from time to time, but I really cannot say if it works or not.]

What do you use for your good health/beauty/happiness?