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TKC: Natural Skin Care Part 1: Skin Issues & Cleansing the Body

TKC: Natural Skin Care Part 1: Skin Issues & Cleansing the Body

Skin issues are commonly dealt with as just that – skin issues; and whilst the creams and ointments applied do appear help the symptoms experienced, we never really get to grips with the underlying cause.  As long as we don’t actually look like we’re experiencing skin issues, we’re ok.  Or are we?

We can suffer our whole lives with our skin issues and never really find out the true cause.  What we don’t always think of, or care about, is that the true cause may be a lot deeper than we first thought.

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One Cause?

All ailments and illnesses are caused by what we put in our bodies, minds and on our skin.  This has to be true as our bodies can only react to what they are exposed to.  So we naturally conclude that we should ensure that what we expose ourselves to, eat and drink as well as the creams and ointments that we use should affect us in the most positive way.

This leads me to my first and best rule for Skin Care:  If you can’t consume it, DO NOT put it on your skin.

The wrong cream, ointment and make-up can cause allergic reactions and irritate pre-existing conditions.  These products are absorbed by the body and is alerted to if the body does not agree with the product and thus an allergic reaction occurs.

My second rule for Skin Care: Eat and Drink Consciously

The diet section below, highlights how foods affect our blood and therefore our skin.

The third rule: Positive, Healthy and Edifying Environments are Best.

Other factors that affect our bodies are: environment, household and lifestyle.

Other things that pollute the blood include negative thoughts, stress and worry, and other negative emotion.  Stress can easily cause skin issues, hair loss and ailments.  The best thing to do for this is to remove the stressor or remove yourself from the stressful environment.  To cleanse your mind and environment from the very problem.  I turn to God as He can bear all my burdens.  When I cast my cares on Him, my stress no longer has the power it seemed to have at the beginning.  Cleanse and remove all things from your household that are not affecting you in positive way.  Make positive changes to your lifestyle – go for walks and get some fresh air when you feel you are most down, do not seclude yourself.  Vitamin D is most beneficial for a good healthy attitude.  Allow your skin to breathe and blood to circulate.  Find someone that you can trust and talk about it.  Holding your problems in can be very bad for your health.

We can then determine that manifestations on the skin and in the body are signs that there is something that needs to be addressed internally.  Always.  The signs and symptoms tell us that that our bodies are vulnerable, lacking or sensitive and therefore, not as strong or as resistant as we could be.

(Note that not all contributing factors, whether in, around, or on the body produce the same effect at the same level.  Different people are prone to different types of reactions and symptoms at different rates.  Many people experience what they feel are not important aliments and symptoms on a day-today basis and have learned to just live with them as if they are a semi-normal part of every-day life.  These symptoms are just as important and also need just as much care and attention.)

What can I do?

The first thing you have to do is a must.  You would not try to clean yourself in a dirty bath and you would not wash your dishes in a dirty sink.  You would clean and disinfect the bath or sink to make sure that the soap, disinfectant, bleach or other cleaning material is as effective need be. The same applies to the body.

To allow treatments and remedies to be effective, you would start with a fresh, cleansed environment.  An optimum starting point is the best point, otherwise the results, as with washing up, will not be optimum.

Skin manifestations are a result of toxins in the body and body either has too much to be able to deal with it at one time or the body’s coping mechanisms are not functioning as they should due to overload, overwork or fatigue.

Where do I start?

These are areas to look at when cleansing internally:

1.  The Liver

The liver has more than 500 functions, but some main functions are:

  • processing digested food from the intestine
  • controlling levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood
  • combating infections in the body
  • clearing the blood of particles and infections including bacteria
  • neutralising and destroying drugs and toxins
  • manufacturing bile
  • storing iron, vitamins and other essential chemicals
  • breaking down food and turning it into energy
  • manufacturing, breaking down and regulating numerous hormones including sex hormones
  • making enzymes and proteins which are responsible for most chemical reactions in the body, for example those involved in blood clotting and repair of damaged tissues.

Skin manifestations can arise from not being able to destroy toxins, clear the blood of bacteria and combat infections in the body among others.

Skin rashes, Itchy skin (pruritus) Dark circles under the eyes, Red, swollen itchy eyes (allergic eyes,) Acne Rosacea (red pimples around the nose, cheeks and chin,) Brownish spots and blemishes on the skin (liver spots,) Red palms and soles which may also be itchy and inflamed. Flushed facial appearance or excessive facial blood vessels (capillaries/ veins).

For a flushing program, click here or go the www.theoriginalplan.org for more information.  The website is run by my brother, Curtis who will help you with all you need to know.

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2.  The Kidneys

The kidneys are sophisticated reprocessing machines. Every day, a person’s kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood to sift out about approx. 2 litres of waste products and extra water. The wastes and extra water become urine, which flows to the bladder.  The bladder stores urine until releasing it through urination.

The kidneys remove wastes and water from the blood to form urine. Urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder.

Wastes in the blood come from the normal breakdown of active tissues, such as muscles, and from food. The body uses food for energy and self-repairs. After the body has taken what it needs from food, wastes are sent to the blood. If the kidneys did not remove them, these wastes would build up in the blood and damage the body.

In addition to removing wastes, the kidneys release three important hormones:

  • erythropoietin, or EPO, which stimulates the bone marrow to make red blood cells
  • renin, which regulates blood pressure
  • calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D, which helps maintain calcium for bones and for normal chemical balance in the body

When the body cannot rid itself of the waste and reaches a certain level, the body will let you know, skin manifestations can occur in forms such as itchy skin, darkened, dry and flaking skin.

There are quite a few ways and herbs to help with cleansing the kidneys, but the best thing to do is to flush the kidneys first.  This is in case you have built up kidney stones.  Kidney stones occur when there is a build-up of calcium.  Acidity dissolves the calcium and so you would start by drinking the juice of 25 lemons (undiluted) once a week, for one month.  There are those who upgrade to drinking the lemon twice a week, but to do this, you must be sure that you are ready to handle the strength of the lemon.

Tonics can be made with parsely, uva ursi, horseradish, mustard seeds and cranberry juice (not necessarily together!)

please click here to contact me or Curtis at info@theoriginalplan.org

3. The Bowels

The bowel is considered to be a part of the digestive or gastrointestinal system. It s designed to help the body absorb nutrients and fluids from the foods we eat and drink.  After taking out everything the body needs, the bowel then expels the leftover waste.  The beginning of the bowel is the small intestine, sometimes referred to as the small bowel. This is where the useful nutrients are absorbed from what you eat.  The small bowel delivers the waste to the colon, or large bowel. As the stool moves through the colon, the fluids are removed and absorbed into the body. The small bowel is more than 20 feet long and the
large bowel is 5-6 feet long.

When excess waste products are not eliminated from your body regularly, they flood toxins into your body. The toxins have no where to go, so they build up in your system. Since your skin is also responsible for elimination, it will try to assist your body by trying to eliminate the accumulating toxins. You can break out with spots and have unexplained skin rashes when you don’t have regular bowel movements.

Having regular bowel movements is your first line of defence against dangerous toxins. If you are constipated or not having regular movements, your skin will look naturally unhealthy. No rosy cheeks for you!

When waste putrefies in the colon, it releases toxins that can reabsorb into your bloodstream and cause damage to other parts of your body. Auto-intoxication affects your liver – and so the circle begins.

Cleansing the bowels flushes out impacted faecal matter, toxins, bad bacteria and parasites.  Manifestations on the chest, lower back, rashes, itching, skin conditions and ACNE among others.

For information on how to cleanse the bowels, click here or go to www.theoriginalplan.org  and look up the ‘7 day cleanse.’

4.  The Blood

So we have established that waste and toxin build-up is released into the bloodstream causing toxic and ‘dirty blood.’  This is the simplest to explain in that all organs require blood cells to function and therefore, hampered blood cells equals hampered function. 

All skin disorders (or so-called disease(s)) are blood disorders. Whetever the particular adverse skin challenge may be, whether it’s genital herpes (HSV2), shingles (herpes zoster), eczema, psoriasis, Raynaud’s disease, scleroderma, ringworm, dermatitis, rosacea, acne, skin blemish, whiteheads, blackheads, urticaria, lichen nitidus, chicken pox, measles, mumps, boils, hives, scabies infection, impetigo, lice infection, genital warts, tinea, keratosis pilaris, Kaposi sarcoma, vitiligo, or echtima just to name a few, the underlying physical problem lies with the blood – toxic blood.

DIET

Without a doubt the diet must change.  Unfortunately, most people cannot make the connection between food and diseases or what they eat and why they are sick. This would have to account for the biggest block in the healing and prevention of disease. What you eat, bad or good, is going to affect the blood and thus affect the skin. Again, the skin is a manifestation of the condition of the blood. You can’t heal the skin without addressing the blood!

Acidic blood is going to create adverse skin conditions; therefore you must become a conscious eater and watch what you eat.

Meat products, eggs, dairy products, refined grains and refined starches all help to make toxic and polluted acidic blood. Therefore, to heal from any adverse skin condition, there must be a dietary change. One should abstain from consuming all acid-forming and inducing foods and beverages and consume mostly live/living organic raw vegan foods (fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts).

WATER

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The best drinking water for healing all adverse skin conditions is ALKALINE WATER.  Alkaline water causes the tissues to get rid off toxins when consumed. The more water you drink on a daily basis, the more you will flush out old toxins as well as bust up hardened and stubborn mucus.

You should drink half your body weight in water. Whatever your weight is, cut it or divide it in half and change the pounds to ounces and drink that number in water daily. For example, if you weigh 150lbs, half of 150lbs is 75lbs. Now remove the lbs and replace the lbs with oz; so 75lbs becomes 75oz. Therefore, you should be drinking 75oz of water per day or 2.13 litres.

If alkaline water is not available or cannot be found in your supermarket or health food store, simply opt for distilled water (for cleansing purposes). However, spring water may also be drunk if it is your choice or alkaline and/or distilled water is not available.

JUICING

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Juicing is major in cleansing and purifying the blood. Vegetable juice nourishes, builds, strengthens, cleanses and purifies the blood and lymph fluid.

The best vegetable juices are those that are GREEN and RED in colour. Anything green will greatly cleanse the blood and anything red will greatly cleanse the blood.

Green veg includes: spinach, parsley, kale, spring greens, basil, cucumber, celery, and artichoke to name a few; but you can juice whatever your favourite green veg may be. The same applies for fruits.

Red veggies include: beetroot, red pepper, and radishes. Again, you can juice whatever your favourite veg may be.

Red-coloured fruits are great for blood cleansing: strawberries, cherries, lycii berries, goji berries, and tomatoes to name a few.

Wheat grass and barley grass are excellent blood purifiers and builders and can be drunk daily. Two to four ounces daily of these grass juices are ideal. You can even add them to your vegetable juice cocktail.

Look out for more information on juicing in my next blog.

HERBS

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Herbs that are good and effective for cleansing and purifying the blood include: Burdock Root, Dandelion Root, Echinacea Root, Goldenseal Root, Oregon Grape, Cleavers, Nettle, Pau D’ Arco, Celedine, Sarsaparilla, Yellow Dock Root, Manjistha, Cat’s Claw, Barberry, Devil’s Claw, Chickweed, Sassafras, Chaparral, Amla Fruit, Strawberry Leaf, and Cerasee to name a few.

For more information on how to use these herbs, please click here to contact me or Curtis at info@theoriginalplan.org

Hope you enjoyed this one.  Email me if you have any questions…

Sources: http://dherbs.com/articles/skin-disorder-252.html#ixzz1ksQ2k7Yf

Information provided here is for educational purposes only.  If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, please do not attempt any of these cleanses as they may be harmful to you and your baby. Please consult your doctor before undertaking any of the methods or programs detailed here or from www.theoriginalplan.org

Coming up:  Juicing, Balancing the body, Regimes and tools,  Recipes, Make up and Manual Microdermabrasion

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2012 in Health, Kelly

 

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TKC: Honey – For Hair and Skin with Recipes

TKC-Logo_thumb10

By Kelly

I Hope you enjoyed the last post about ‘Honey for health and Healing.’  I shared just a few recipes.  There are so many out there to try out.  Honey is fantastic.

This time round, we’ll cover Honey for Hair and Skin – recipes included.

HAIR

Frequent-use Shampoo

4 teabags Chamomile Tea or 1 Handful Chamomile Flowers

350ml/ 1 1/2 cups Boiling Water

60ml/ 4 tbsp Soap Flakes

30ml/ 2 tbsp Honey

1. Steep the teabags or flowers in the water for 10 minutes

2.  Strain the liquid into a bowl and stir in the soap flakes and honey.  Cool.

3.  Wet the hair, then massage half of the mixture into the scalp and hair.  Rinse.

Note: Chamomile flowers can lighten blonde hair.

Anti-Dandruff Shampoo

5ml/1 tsp Dried Rosemary

5ml/ 1 tsp Dried Thyme

150ml/ 2/3 cups Boiling Water

15ml/ tbsp Honey

150ml/ 2/3 cups Cider Vinegar

1.  Place the herbs in a bowl and pour over the boiling water

2.  Add the honey and mix until it is melted.  Cover and allow to steep for 20 mins.

3.  Strain the mixture into a bottle or jar

4.  Add the cider Vinegar and shake well to mix. 

5.  Wet the hair and massage in some of the shampoo.  Rinse.  Store the remaining shampoo in a cool,dry place.

Conditioner

5ml/ 1 tsp Honey

1 Egg

10 ml/ 2 tsp Coconut or Olive Oil

1.  In a plastic bowl or jug, mix together all the ingredients until blended.

2.  Massage over the whole of the scalp.  Wrap the head in a warm towel and leave for 30 minutes.  Rinse. 

Honey and Vinegar Rinse

5ml/ 1 tsp Honey

1 litre/ 4 cups Hot Water

5ml/ 1 tsp Cider Vinegar

1.  Mix the ingredients together

2.  Pour over hair as the final rinse

SKIN

Cleanser

12g/ 1/3 oz Beeswax

15g/ 1/2oz Emulsifying Wax

15ml/ 1 tbsp Coconut Oil

100ml/1/2 cup Olive Oil

1.5ml/ 1/4 tsp Borax

30ml/ 2 tbsp Warm Water

7.5ml/ 1/2 tbsp Rosewater

5 drops Rosemary Essential Oil

1. Melt the Beeswax, Emulsifying wax, coconut oil, and olive oil in a double boiler.

2.  In a separate bowl, dissolve the borax in the warm water

3.  Slowly add the melted oils to the first bowl, stirring constantly.  When Lukewarm, add the essential oil and rosewater,  When cool, refrigerate.

Excellent for removing makeup and mascara and suitable for most skin types

Facial Scrub

120ml/1/2 cup Oatmeal or Sugar Granules

30ml/ 2 tbsp Honey

1 Ripe Banana

1.  Mix all ingredients together to form a thick paste

2.  Massage over the face, focussing on areas that need attention and avoiding the eyes.  Leave on for a few minutes before washing off with a soft cloth and warm water, followed by a splash of astringent (I recommend Witch Hazel)

The honey and banana are rich hydrators to counteract the abrasiveness of the scrub and will also give a scrumptious fragrance to the mix.

Skin Tonic

1/2 Cucumber, cut into chunks

30ml/ 2 tbsp Pollen Granules

30ml/ 2 tbsp Natural (plain) Yoghurt (optional)

1. Add cucumber to pollen granules and mash together or whizz in a liquidiser.

2.  Strain before use.

3.  If you want a thicker preparation, add the natural yoghurt

4.  Decant into a previously sterilised container and when cold, refrigerate until ready to use.

Cucumber contains vitamin C which improves circulation, clarity and texture, leaving the skin luminous.  Pollen promotes healing to damaged skin.

 

Face Moisturiser

10g/ 1/4 oz Beeswax

20ml/ 4tsp Almond Oil

75ml/ 5 tbsp Rosewater or Distilled Water

10ml/ 2 tsp Honey

OPTIONAL:  Few drops of Frankincense or Geranium or Rose Water Absolute

1 tsp vitamin E oil

1.  Heat together the beeswax and oil in a bain-marie (double-boiler method) until melted.

2.  Heat together the water and the honey until just under boiling.  Combine with the beeswax mixture and mix for 5 minutes.

3.  Set aside until lukewarm then add any optional ingredients.  Pour into a wide-necked jar and when cool put a lid on and store in the refrigerator.

 

All lotions and creams have three main components – water, oil and an emulsifying agent which encourages the water and oil to combine.  The cream contains rosewater and almond oil and the emulsifier is beeswax.  Honey is added for it’s moisturising and preservative abilities, and it’s ability to hold moisture.  The addition of Vitamin E oil is effective in ironing out wrinkles and fading scars on the skin.

 

Eye Cream

15ml 1 tbsp Honey

1 Egg White

3-5 drops of Frankincense Essential Oil (optional)

1.  Mix the honey with the egg white

2.  Add the essential oil, if required and mix.

 

Honey’s ability to attract and seal in moisture is put to use in this cream to leave the skin feeling soft and supple.  Make a fresh formula for each application, then gently pat the mix onto the tissue around the eyes, avoiding dragging the skin,  Remove gently by washing off with warm water. 

 

Mask

50g/ 1 Cup Oatmeal

30ml/ 2 tbsp Honey

5ml/ 1 tsp Rosewater

1.  Blend the oatmeal with the honey and add the rosewater.

2.  Mix until a smooth paste is formed.

 

Before applying the mask, wash your face in warm water to open up the pores.  Spread the mask on your face avoiding the eyes and leave for 15-30 mins.  Wash off with a soft flannel.   Using this once a week will leave you with glowing skin. 

 

Hope you enjoyed this post.

 

Try them out and let me know what you think..

 

.. Can’t wait..

 
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Posted by on August 8, 2011 in Kelly

 

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The Kitchen Cupboard by Kelly

Skincare:  Natural Works?

We can spend a huge amount time, effort and money trying to find the right set of products to address each and every skin care issue we have. We spend that much time and effort as no one product deals with every issue, so we need to spend our money on three or four products at a time.  Taking more time than you actually have in the store aisle reviewing and reading ingredients ‘..with peppermint oil..’ ‘..for sensitive skin..’ ‘…deep cleansing..’ How could you not buy a product with such gorgeous labels?  “This new one must work, the label looks too good!”  You walk to the checkout with one thing in mind..”I hope this one works”

The labels lead us to believe that the bottle of ‘moisturising cleanser with added avocado oil’ will be the next miracle worker, and it must work because the label looks expensive, like something that’s sold in a high end spa.  The price also leads you to think that they must have put really good ingredients into it this time.  But when you look at the ingredient list on most commercial skin care products, they present the same things till about 3/4 of the way down and then you will see that the magic ingredient, that has been promoted so beautifully and expertly on the front, makes up about 0.5% of the total product.

So what did you pay for?  Labelling?  Marketing?  0.5% of Avocado Oil?

Let’s look at one of the main ingredients used in skin care products:

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)

Both are commonly used in many soaps, shampoos, detergents, toothpastes and other products that we expect to “foam up”. Both chemicals are very effective foaming agents, chemically known as surfactants.

Unfortunately, both SLES and SLS are so very dangerous, highly irritating chemicals. Far from giving “healthy shining hair” and “beautiful skin”, soaps and shampoos containing SLES can lead to direct damage to the hair follicle, skin damage, permanent eye damage in children and even liver toxicity.

Although SLES is somewhat less irritating than SLS, it cannot be metabolised by the liver and its effects are therefore much longer-lasting. This not only means it stays in the body tissues for longer, but much more precious energy is used getting rid of it.

So if one of the first ingredients can do so much harm, and has been printed and included so blatantly in our products, how much care do we think has been given to the remaining products or even the two or three to follow? not including the 0.5% Avocado Oil.

So, what price are you prepared to pay to a) cleanse your skin? b) nourish your skin?  c) tone your skin? d) firm up your skin e) prevent and remove spots/ acne?

NATURALLY – No Small Print

Sure enough, the solution comes with four simple ingredients that do not come with side effects, high cost and ingredient lists as long as your arm.  Tried and tested, for me, they are nothing short of a miracle.

No hype, no talk-up, no marketing, just the facts.

Put them to the test and let me know how you get on.

1.  LEMON

Why?

  • Lemon is antiseptic. Bacteria grows on the skin, hence the need to cleanse thoroughly.  The body’s immune system suppresses the growth of bacteria, but when our immune system gets low, the skins pH will become unbalanced and the bacteria will grow.  This is why we end up with really ashy-type skin.  For this reason, we would need to help out the body’s immune system to neutralise the bacteria growing on the skin surface. (Have you noticed that your skin tends to be more ashy in the Autumn/ Winter months?  The same time that you’re likely to be feeling more run down or get a cold.  Your immune system is trying to tell you something.)
  • Lemon contains fatty acids that nourish the skin.
  • Lemon contains a tremendous amount of melanin which is the substance that gives skin and hair it’s colour.
  • Lemon contains astringent properties

Action: Will cleanse, nourish and restore complexion.

Directions for Use: Rub lemon on the skin.  You can use the peel and actually massage with much more force.  The key is to rub into the skin as much as possible.  It may take a few weeks to notice the benefits.  Remember, it take time to undo what has been done.

If you’re drinking the lemon first thing in mornings as Nadia’s previous posts suggest, you now have a use for the remaining lemon!

 

2.  BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES

Why?

  • Blackstrap Molasses contains vitamins and minerals that are healing agents.  The nutrients contained will give the skin cells something to feed on and tone the skin
  • Blackstrap Molasses will work with wrinkles that are developing and will firm a sagging jaw.
  • Blackstrap Molasses will remove pimples and acne.
  • Blackstrap Molasses will cleanse the skin.

Action: Will cleanse, nourish, tone, address acne and restore complexion.

Directions for Use: Apply molasses on skin every day for two weeks and leave on all night.  Work the molasses into the face as you do this, it will lose it’s stickiness.  Keep working it in.  Make sure to cover the whole face. Keep on overnight.  In the morning, the best way to remove it is with olive oil on a piece of cloth.  Splash on some cool water and pat dry your face.  The cold water will tighten up the skin.

NOTE: Honey can be used in place of Blackstrap Molasses.

 

3.  BENTONITE CLAY

Why?

  • Bentonite Clay is a powerful clay and is one of the strongest clays.
  • Bentonite Clay works similarly to charcoal in that it can absorb many times it’s own weight, thus making it able to draw out impurities from the body.
  • We have a similar chemical composition to the clay found in the earth.  The only difference is that it is an inorganic form and we are made up of organic matter.  The body can still  convert the inorganic matter to organic so it will absorb the minerals in the clay and that will serve to replenish or revive the skin.
  • Bentonite Clay has a tremendous therapeutic effect and can bring back the pH balance.  It will remove a lot of the Uric Acid and Purine Acid out of the system.  We have learned previously, restoring the pH balance to skin will remove the ashy-type complexion.
  • Bentonite Clay is able to accelerate cellular growth, helping cells to perform more effectively and healthfully.
  • Bentonite clay will tighten up the skin, encourage the removal of wrinkles and sagging skin.

Action: Will replenish, tighten, restore and purify skin.

Direction for Use: Mix 1 cup of clay and enough Olive Oil to be creamy.  The olive oil makes it softer and smoother when applying to the skin.  Stir the mixture well.  You can leave it on for 15-20 minutes or let it dry.  It will tighten up the skin.

 

4.  WITCH HAZEL

Why?

  • Witch Hazel is an astringent as lemon is. An astringent is a substance that causes contraction of tissues on application.
  • Simply, it is an agent that tightens everything up, firms and brings everything back to proper balance.

Action: Will firm the skin.

Direction for Use: Apply to the face with cotton wool and let dry.

NOTE: Distilled Witch Hazel is recommended.

 

As I mentioned before, I know it works.  I want you to try it and tell me about your results.  I can’t wait!…

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2011 in Kelly

 

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