Brine Facial Treatments

[Hope]

I had forgotten about this wonderful facial treatment I'd been using a while ago. I started it up again recently and it really seems to control acne flare-ups, as well as making my skin super-soft and evened out.

It's a brine that's made out of Himalayan salt. I purchased a package that included the big chunks (from mercola.com but it's probably available elsewhere, too: http://www.mercola.com/forms/salt.htm). It had instructions on the site of how to make the brine solution, but I can't find them at the moment. Basically, you can just put some of the chunks in a jar (I just used a canning jar), let it sit for a day or so and if those chunks dissolve readily, add more salt pieces. You just want to keep adding pieces until you're at the point where the water has reached a point of maximum salinity and so can't dissolve any more salt. This solution will pretty much keep forever.

So what I do is to wash my face (I use bronner's liquid almond soap in about a 3:1 ratio in one of those foamy bottles), don't dry it, put some of the brine in my palms and wipe it all over my face. I let it dry--how long depends on what I'm doing after that, but I usually like at least 15 or 20 min. Then I'll just rinse off with cool water and leave my face bare (no moisturizer).

That's it! Simple routine and I've had great results with reducing red acne spots and quick healing of any new ones--though those have been rare nowadays.

Hope

[shelley]

What you're doing with the brine is changing the pH of your face to something more alkaline, and the salt is also a natural antibiotic. This combination can be done quite easily with just baking soda, or a combo of good salts and baking soda.

[Hope]

That's interesting! I've used baking soda as a scrub before, but it seems to be a little too harsh on my skin. So I guess I can just dissolve some in water to get the same affect as the brine solution?

I guess I like the idea of using the himalayan salt brine mixture because it's a totally natural substance that has a ton of minerals in it (that hopefully get absorbed into the skin?). But I know that the baking soda would be a LOT cheaper to use. Maybe I'll have to experiment a little to see how the baking soda does.

What type of baking soda to water ratio would you recommend?

Thanks,
Hope

[shelley]

If you just want to change pH, then you don't need much, just a teaspoon to a small glass of water, rinse repeatedly and that's that. But if you want to have the antibiotic effect or really help to increase healing, then you would need a very salty solution, so a tablespoon dissolved in a large glass of water, add another tablespoon of whatever other salts you have, and leave it on much longer.