Here is a natural alternative to harsh acne treatments. It’s cheap, effective, and you probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry. This mask uses the egg white, egg yolk, and optionally witch hazel, and lemon juice and is a real treat to the skin. This mask works best after exfoliating with baking soda and/or a mud mask.

Step 1

Separate an egg yolk from the white. Beat egg white until stiff in a small bowl.

Add a few drops of witch hazel and a few drops of lemon juice to the egg whites. Stir and apply to the face.

Relax for about 15 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with warm water. Your skin should feel nice and tight.

• This mask is great for those with very oily skin.
• This mask is not for those who suffer from dry skin.
• Don’t use this mask if you are allergic to eggs or if your skin is easily irritated.

Step 2

Stir the yolk a little bit to break it up.

If your skin is naturally dry, add some olive oil and some warmed honey to the egg yolk.

Use your fingers or to apply it to your face and neck. Do not apply it on your eyes. Wait approximately 20 minutes and rinse it off using cool water.

These egg yolk face masks are great because egg yolks contain vitamin A, which the skin needs. It works well if you want a clear complexion.

Another version of an egg yolk mask uses a few more ingredients. Mix 1 tbsp. of honey, ½ tsp. of almond oil and 1 tbsp. of yogurt with 1 egg yolk. Honey works at smoothing out the skin and the egg yolk and almond oil will moisturize your skin. The yogurt is great for refining the tightening the skin.

For skin that needs extra moisture in a hurry, try this recipe for an all in one face mask. Moisturize your skin with an egg yolk, avocado and mud facial mask. Simply mix 1 tbsp. of dry clay with 1 egg yolk and about ¼ cup of mashed avocado. You may also add witch hazel (use your own judgment on how much) for a smooth mixture. You will find that mud soaks up excess sebum, the avocado and egg yolk serve as moisturizers and the witch hazel will tone your skin.

Keeping your skin clean is important to keeping it healthy and it doesn’t have to be expensive. One way to keep your skin healthy is to exfoliate, or use a facial scrub to remove dirt and dead cells. There are lots of facial scrubs that exfoliate, but few are as gentle yet affective and economical as baking soda. Here’s how you can use alkalizing baking soda to clean and exfoliate your skin. (Don’t forget, guys, you can do this too!)

Step1

Sprinkle some baking soda onto your hand. About a tablespoon sized amount will be enough to exfoliate your face.

Step2

Add little amounts of water to your hand. Mix the baking soda and water together. Keep adding water until you have formed a paste that is slightly less thick than toothpaste. Cetaphil is also a good medium to mix baking soda with.

Step3

Use your fingertips to rub the paste onto your skin. Move the paste over small areas of skin in a circular pattern. The longer your rub, the more the paste will exfoliate and clean your skin.

Step4

Rinse off the paste using a washrag or by cupping water into your hands. Continue rinsing until the baking soda paste can no longer be seen on your skin.

• If you have acne on your back and chest, you can use baking soda here too. To make enough exfoliant scrub for these larger areas of skin, do this: Measure 1/4 of a cup of baking soda into a bowl. Add 1/4 of a cup of water to the bowl. Stir, and continue adding water until you’ve formed a thick paste.
• Make sure you rub gently as you exfoliate with your baking soda paste. This will prevent you from hurting your skin by scrubbing too hard. Remember, you’re only trying to remove oils and dead skin cells on the very surface.
• It is possible to over exfoliate your skin. Once or twice a week is usually enough to keep your skin looking fresh and bright.
• For extra gentle skin clearing next steps, use Mint Julip Mud Masque (Walgreen’s or local drug store for $3) to soak up the additional dirt and oil followed by a hydrating mask of egg yolk.

After updating my iPhone 3G with the new 3.0 firmware I discovered that all my applications crash. Upon touching the icons, there is a black screen and then a return to the home screen.
I called Apple tech support and after 2 hours on the phone, scouring the internet for help, and multiple restores of my phone, I have the solution to the crashing apps but lost every single contact. So in a effort to not make this experience a complete loss, I am posting the solution here hoping that it helps someone.

Here’s whatcha do…
Go to Settings > Store > Sign Out
Return to your home screen
Go to App Store > Download any free game app > Log In using Existing Account > Enter User Name & Password
Return to your home screen
Go to newly installed game app > launch game > close out game app
Return to your home screen
All apps should now be working and you can delete the game app

According to the Apple Specialist I was referred to, the black screen is an authorization screen for the app. By signing out and back in with a new app it authenticates the rest of the apps. Not sure how they get messed up in the first place but with the new firmware every time I sync this happens. *shrugs* At least there is a fix.

Lesson learned through this experience? Back up your contacts (Windows Address Book, Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook) in case the trouble shooting tech doesn’t know what they are doing and wants to do a hard restore.

I’m gonna go eat a pint of ice cream now to comfort myself while re-entering all my contacts…bah!