Following up on my first article article, Men’s Skin and Hair Care: Going “GQ Smooth” The Natural Way……
….I wanted to do Part 2, since I am have incorporated additional homemade skin and bodycare into my regiment, and to make mention of a great body care product I found on the web.
As I mentioned in Part 1, these formulas are not just for men of color, though we do have our own particular needs, especially in the shaving area.
But, natural ingredients can work for anyone.
Homemade Shaving Cream, if it ain't broke………………..
You can go back to Part 1 for pre shave facial mask and my shaving cream formula recipes.
Just wanted to add great new thing I am doing, in that a final up run over the beard area with a razor and Olive Oil, really gets a close smooth shave, and a simple after shave rub of coconut oil heals any little nicks, and cools the beard down real quick.
You have pretty teeth……
Is the comment I get from perhaps 30 to 50 percent of the women I meet. When they ask how I got them , first comes my stale joke "They came with the body", then I break down my two part oral health strategy.
Part 1 is my simple 3 ingredient homemade tooth powder. Just three ingredients: Pink Himalayan Salt (and abrasive "scrubbing agent"), Birch Tree Xylitol (starves harmful bacteria), and Simple Baking Soda (a cleaning and whitening agent).
Next Level Oral Health, with the greatest invention ever !!!!
Part 2 of my oral health care is, to me, the most amazing bodycare invention ever, the oral irrigator. I am insanely crazy about this machine.
It uses bursts of pulsating water to literally pull food particles out of the mouth, reverses peri0dontal disease and bleeding gums, promotes fresh breath……AMAZING!!!
"Oil Pulling" for the Teeth (…to the East, my Brotha', to the East)
Part 3 of my oral care is a shamefully unknown, but simple and effective technique for bight teeth and overall oral health, a technique from the East, mainly from the Ayurvedic Holistic practices in Asia.
It's called "Oil Pulling", you simply swish sesame oil around the mouth first thing in the morning for 10-15 minutes, the oil whitens teeth, and actually helps heal the whole body, as the enzymes from the oil pull toxins from the mouth, which are the source of many of the body's ailments.
my Oil Pulling Article here.
Scented Soaps (a.k.a. "Love Potion Number 9")
OK fellas can we talk here or what? I'll keep it clean, but here is the short version of the story. A few years back when living in Connecticut, girl says she is coming by, we know we are about to "go at it".
I'm taking my "pre-game" shower. Although I had ran out of cologne, fortunately, I had previously bought a $7 bar of fragrant but manly scented soap from a farmer's market, I think it was oatmeal and some kind of berry (I remember it smelled like butter pecan ice cream)……………..
Girl comes by, closes door, attacks me…….
right inside my door, she has my shirt off in 20 seconds, she's outta control, kissing my neck, chest, abdominals….. (damn, she was always so quiet and conservative at work, what's up with that?).
Anyhoo, she says these words that til this day I can't get out of my head (I think they call it "memory burn"), she says….."you smell just like a banana split, and I'm gonna just eat you up"
…..and I haven't bought a bottle of cologne ever since
Macy's? Guys don't shop at no Macy's………………
We all love and respect ladies right to shop, but unless we are trying to get next to you for the first time, we aren't spending our Saturdays walking from Macy's to Neiman Marcus, and everywhere in between, to shop for a bar of soap…too much sports on TV on Saturdays.
I doubt if I will be making my own soaps anytime soon.
Enter Babylonian Soap Company, further down the coast from me, down in Cali.
Go Online, select your favorite scented soap, click mouse, punch in card number……Badda Boom Badda Bing!!!!! Amazing scented soaps in your mailbox a few days later.
……and back to the ballgame and buffalo wings on Saturday (buffalo wings in healthy sauce that is).
Babylonian Soap Company has some great products with great scents, and my girl Traci, I call her "The Devil in the Red Dress" (said as a compliment, Traci in that red dress here. but let's stay focused fellas), she said of of one of their unisex scents:
"it is made with Lemongrass ground up fresh from the garden….both men and women go into some sort of trance when they stand in the store smelling this bar"
……well Traci, I'm all ready hooked on these soaps, you don't have to threaten me with a good time 🙂
______________________________________________________
Babylonian Soap Company makes their soaps from many of the nutrients I write about all over my blog, such as:
Organic Grapeseed, Organic Coconut, Organic Unrefined Shea Butter, Organic Unrefined Hemp, Lavender, Lemongrass, and the "Cancer Killing" Apricot Seeds that I harp on endlessly in my blog
Remember, the skin eats everything we put on it just like the mouth eats food…..
So far as "Machismo Scents" go, my girl Traci at Babylonian recommends a few great scents:
Sensual Musk: It is a deep, yet fresh scent and entirely masculine. This is Babylonian's most requested and best selling bar to date with ground loofah and apricot seeds to boost
The Exfoliating Man Bar: a blend of evergreen woods, moss, patchouli, vanilla, heliotrope, dry wood, and grapefruit.
Bay Rum and Pine: another highly requested scent. Bay rum like your grandfathers old cologne popular in the 1950's with a bit of pine and musk.
Halston Z14 Cologne looked cool on my dresser, but………….
Looking back on it, that $85 dollar bottle of Halston Cologne had a decent, but overpowering, unnatural smell. Furthermore, the smell was sometimes irritating to eyes and nose, and only worked for formal attire.
With scented soaps, you can have a diversity of everyday, full body, earthy, naturally smooth and pleasant scents. Plus, I read the female sense of smell is two times stronger than the male's…
……..trust me, women notice
So what happened that night with that girl back in Connecticut?
Come on gentlemen, I'm a true gentlemen, I never kiss and tell. I'll just say that night I was a quintessential "Smooth Operator"
……..and that scented soap was the best $7 I ever spent in my life
I know it seems stupid, but Olive Oil for the Body
I have been using Olive Oil to address my cracked heels, which seems to happen mostly in the winter time. Lately, I have been using olive oil as a face and body skin rub in the evening before shower, AMAZING!!!
Since I live alone, I can get away with it, for you married guys, I don't know if you can pull this one off
…..unless you want to retaliate for her walking around in hair curlers
Homemade Deodorant, finally making some progress
I said in part one that my homemade deodorants were not really working, I ran across a recipe that worked for me.
We're in the dead of summer, so I think I'm good, this formula will probably evolve and I may add more to it, I look at it as a good baseline homemade deodorant starter recipe.
Homemade Deodorant Recipe
1/4 Cup Baking Soda
1/4 Cup Cornstarch (or Arrowroot)
4 to 6 tablespoons of Coconut Oil
5-10 drops to Tree Tea Oil
Mix ingredients and put in container. You may need to play around with amounts of Coconut Oil to adjust stiffness of mixture.
Might need to initially leave in fridge overnight so coconut oil will solidify and fuse with other ingredients. Can also add a litter lavender essential oil for scent
______________________________________________________
GQ Smooth From the Inside Out
In conclusion, remember that I wrote in My Ayurvedic Skin Care article, healthy skin starts from the inside out.
It may seem like common sense to health nuts, but for others, remember that good skin, hair, and all the rest is dependent on healthy diet, and everything you put into your body.
So that's it, go forth men and be "GQ Smooth"………………………
SADE: "Smooth Operator"
Yawl know how I sling it in my blog by now, any excuse to post one of my favorite songs…..
Hey Sade, you been "killing me softly" for 30 years now 🙂
~stay healthy~
you might also like….
Click here or the photo below for
all my articles in "Men's Health"
Leave Your Response