Words for Wednesday : Carmex

I love Carmex.

I used to strictly use the pot of Carmex only.  I would rub my lips in the pot, instead of rubbing my finger in it to rub on my lips.  Reasoning - why do I want a greasy substance on my fingers after it has been applied?  People said it was weird, and that it looked like I was making out with the container.  What evs people. Mind yer business.

It's a true story. And I am not ashamed.

I have loved Carmex for as long as I could remember.  There is something about the menthol/cool feeling that I LOVE.  Well, that, and when my lips are really chapped, it only takes like half a day for them to feel normal again.

I was at work today, and I put some Carmex on, and did that little >POP< after putting it on, and someone just happened to be walking by and saw/heard me do it.  And we also just happened to make eye contact.  A little embarrassing, but nothing out of the ordinary really.

But I was recanting the story, and they said that Carmex is horrible for your lips, that there was fiberglass in the Carmex. WHAT!?!! No way! 

I decide to take a look at the ingredient list..

Active ingredients - Camphor, Menthol and Phenol. Same as always, maybe fiber glass is not considered an 'active' ingredient. 

Let's scroll lower.. 

Inactive: Petrolatum, lanolin, cetyl esters, theobroma cocoa (cocoa) seed butter, mineral oil, beeswax, flavor, salicylic acid.  The only thing that sort of caught my attention was the salicylic acid - well that and 'flavor'. Who knew that Carmex had 'flavor'?

See, salicylic acid is in facial cleansers and acne medications and what nots to slough off dead skin cells, to help your fresh skin show faster.  They use it in those facial peels.  Higher percentage of the acid, the deeper it sloughs off/burns down to.

Which at least let's me know why you would only want to use Carmex a few times a day.

So of course I had to research it.  I pulled up Snopes.com, and read what they had to say.  Basically what they had to say was a lot of blah blah blah, 'no fiberglass'.  But I am never happy with just the skim of the surface information.  So I continued on my quest for more knowledge.

I came across this Museum of Hoaxes website. They say the same thing, but they also offer up a link to the Lip Balm Anonymous website. They have some light hearted 'letters to the editor' on there, also a page about 'Are Balms Addicting'.  But still I wasn't satisfied. 

I clicked on over to the Wikipedia link, and read up on Carmex there. They go in to some more detail, referencing people's concern over the fiberglass content, and how it is not in the Carmex.  But they do bring up, "The use of phenol in cosmetics is prohibited in the European Union".  Which then intrigued me. 

What is wrong with 'phenol'? And also, what is it?

So I had to click and dive deeper into Wikipedia for the article on Phenol.  Turns out that 'phenol' is also an acid.  But it is used in stuff like Chloraseptic spray, and from how I am interpreting it, it helps to numb, and kill bacteria and other stuff, as it is an antiseptic. And if used improperly, (or properly I guess) it can kill a man.  (Not a women, they are too darn smart. *maybe not the most accurate*)

When I looked at the Carmex Website, I found they had 'The Little Lip Book' available for download. I did.  It says in there that salicylic acid loosens the keratin layer and allows the chaps to fall off.  Which totally makes sense when you think of what it does in other cosmetics/facial cleansers.

So, at the end of this rambling.  Carmex is not bad, only use it a few times a day (you won't need to use it more), and there is no fiberglass present in their lip balms.

I personally think there is something wrong with waxy Chapstick. Only good thing for them, is if you wanted to coat your lips to protect them from something, like a spray tan. But that's my opinion.

Manicure Monday : Metallic Blue

My nails have not been growing very long, and splitting and peeling and cracking and breaking lately.  It is a big bummer.  My mother always had really pretty nails, and I like to have nice nails too.

But instead of being a whiny baby.  I am working with them.  I rubbed oil all over them after I took off last week's polish, and then put lotion on them in hopes to help them get stronger/less dry.  I have been taking a multi vitamin, but that apparently hasn't been helping.  Or maybe it is making them grow too fast?

At any rate, this week I went with a Metallic Blue from my massive collection.  I wanted to go black, but I just thought it might be a little too dark, I mean, I really want Spring to show up sometime soon.. Hopefully we hit 50 outside this week, that would be nice.

Do you have any suggestions of what to do/try?  I am listening!

Recipe : Almond Biscotti

Have you ever had a biscotti before? 

Well, usually when people bring these in and lay them out to share, I will avoid them. They are dry, and  crusty. 

I tried a scone once, that was gross.  And they look similar to a biscotti - dry, crusty.  My niece ate a scone once, she said it was good.  She is a kid, what does she know anyways?

At any rate, a lady at work brought in some Almond Biscotti back in December, and she came to my desk and said, "Please have one, I made these to share for Christmas."  I mean, what was I going to say? No?  Yeah right, so I took one.

Eventually I had some down time for some mindless eating.  Which would probably be why I am a chubster.  And I ate it.  It was mighty tasty!!

So tasty, that I asked her for the recipe.  And she sent it over.  I have been holding on to it ever since.

Until today! 

I made them.  They are just as delicious as I remembered.  Never you mind that I *might* have dropped a loaf on the floor.  Good thing I swept and cleaned the kitchen prior to starting any baking today.  I think I might make this a habit, for instances such as this.

The thing about biscotti, is you have to bake (and cool) them twice.  Once to firm them up, and once after cutting, to dry them out.

The recipe is pretty simple, the only really special things you need are the extracts.  Almond and orange extracts.  Oh, and the almonds, in the event you didn't have sliced almonds on hand.

Almond Biscotti

So basically what you do is you whip the eggs and sugar together, while this is happening, combine all the dry ingredients (including finely chopped almonds) in a separate bowl.  Once the eggs are a light/pale yellow color - trust me it does get there after about 5 minutes - then you start adding the flour mixture, slowly so it does not create a HUGE flour cloud.

After you get it all together, you plop it down on a flat floured surface and knead a little extra flour into it, and throw it in a couple of loaf pans, bake it, let it cool on a rack, and then cut it into slices, put it on a baking tray, cook for another 12 minutes, let them cool completely, and then BAM! You have biscotti that is perfect to enjoy while you are drinking coffee on a lazy morning.  You can find the recipe here, or check out my recipe page and see the other tasty morsels I have on there.

If you wanted to be real fancy, you could melt some chocolate and dip an end into it and let it cool, and enjoy with that little bit of fun too!

If you have tried the Biscotti Mocha at your local Caribou Coffee house, this tastes just like the crumbled biscotti they have on top.  I swear.  Super delish!

I am planning on bringing them to the nursing home. I am visiting the Hubster's Grandma B back in his hometown.  Taking a little mini-road trip, his buddy owns an Auto Shop, and is going to do an alignment on my car, and some other miscellaneous work, so I figured I could visit her while I wait.  When I was growing up, that's what you did.  When you happened to be in town, you stopped by and visit.

Generally you didn't call before you stopped in, and well, Grandma B doesn't really go out, so the chances of her being there are high, but I wanted her to invite me to eat lunch. So I called, and asked what time lunch was, she said 'dinner' was at 12, I said I would stop by around 1, she said, well you could come by at 12:30, I said sure not a problem (sad face).  Then she said, well would you like to have lunch here? I said, "If there is space at tehe table, I would be more than happy to join you." (SCORE!!)   She said she would let the staff know, that she would have a guest!

Hopefully it isn't gruel serving day.

***

Side note, I was at the gym for 2 hours today.  Yeah, for realz.  I did week 2 day 2 (W2D2) of the Couch to 5K program (C25K), a Body Works + Abs class, and some more treadmill and some shooting some B-Ball.  With the estimated calories burned on my LiveStrong.com Daily Plate, I burned approximately 864 calories.

And based on what I shoved in my face for the rest of the day, I still have 837 calories I *could* consume, and still stay under 1,134 for the day.

So basically a super win! :)

***

Manicure Monday : Easter Pastels

We are coming down to the last few days before Easter, and I decided I would jump on the trend wagon and sport a pastel mani this week.  Apparently I have an affinity for Revlon's Pastels.  Perhaps because they are affordable?  At any rate, these are all Revlon colors.  My toes are colored to match, but they are not the most beautiful feet to be eye ballin'. 

Do you have an Easter inspired Mani? I was going to put a bunny rabbit, or try to stripe a nail up like an egg, but just ran out of time.