Benefits of Coconut Oil - Homemade Skin Care and More

Coconuts are solid, oval shaped, fruits produced by the palm tree. Palm trees are found in more than eighty-six countries around the world, mostly located in the tropics. Some people refer to the coconut tree as the "tree of life" because of the rich vitamins and minerals found in coconuts. Coconut oil is extracted from coconuts. This natural oil is a solid fat, white in color, appears crystalline and offers a multitude of benefits. The benefits of coconut oil include:

Prevents pre-mature aging of skin
Repairs damaged skin tissue
Wards off sun damage
Helps bring back youthful appearance
Helps prevent yeast infection in skin
Aids in removing dead skin cells
Helps eliminate plantar warts / athlete's foot (when mixed with garlic)
Helps keep connective skin tissue strong and supple
Protects against liver spots on skin
Helps reduce chronic skin inflammation
Soothing for wounds
Combats wrinkles, skin discoloration, wrinkles
Assist in treating psoriasis, eczema, and dermatitis
Reduces roughness or dry skin scaling
Soothing for chapped or irritated lips
Firms, softens, smoothes and moisturizes skin
Helps prevent acne, herpes and warts
Softens hair
Conditions scalp
Helps get rid of dandruff
Has an antiseptic, antifungal and anti-bacterial property
High in anti-oxidants
Contains health promoting nutrients
Protects against arthritis, heart disease, cancer and diabetes
Aids in digestion
Strengthens immune system
Stimulates metabolism
Helps yield a fluffy lather in soap
Improves thyroid function
Escalates energy levels
Has an anti-viral property
Has stress relieving aroma

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Many commercial skin care products such as soap, lotion, and cream, are made with cheap refined vegetable oils. Sometimes chemical solvents are used during this refining process. During this refining process, anti-oxidants are stripped away allowing skin to be vulnerable for free-radical generation, causing skin to age faster. Instead, coconut oil is high in anti-oxidants penetrating the underlying skin tissues preventing and protecting against the formation of free radicals. Virgin coconut oil is non-hydrogenated containing a lauric acid, a natural anti-microbial proven to fight viruses and bacteria.

Some commercial body care products tend not to, even, use cheap refined vegetable oils. Instead, they use something worse such as mineral oil and byproducts of refined oil. Also, foaming agents and surfactants are often added to commercial soap to generate lather. These chemicals are known to cause allergy and skin sensitization.

Many commercial soaps are now including chemically produced, unnatural, anti-bacterial agents, like Triclosan, in order to claim the soap has anti-bacterial properties. Triclosan is an environmental toxin in its own right and is still completely legal to add to commercial soap! Now that is a skin care concern!

How is coconut oil used? It is found in a variety of bath and body products. It is found in many foods and used for cooking or frying. It is used as massage oil for relieving stress, tension or anxiety. It is used in a variety of ways.

There is natural homemade goat milk lotion, handcrafted with virgin coconut oil and other natural ingredients. This homemade lotion comes in a variety of natural fragrances including: lavender, juicy orange and peppy citrus. It also comes, Au natural, unscented with no added fragrance. This natural homemade lotion is extremely mild and gentle. It soothes and moisturizes dry skin, dry itchy skin, sensitive skin, dry flaky skin and more.

Natural homemade goat milk soap, containing coconut oil, is available in bar and liquid varieties. This homemade soap comes in natural fragrances such as: orange tree, peppy citrus, peppermint coffee, lavender, aloe and oats and, even, a unique alpaca wool felted soap! It also comes au natural, unscented, with no added fragrance.

Natural goat milk soap is extremely healthful for many different skin types. People with psoriasis, eczema, dry flaky skin, acne and more notice the difference between using natural goat milk soap and regular commercial soap the very time they use it! Goat milk soap is extremely mild and gentle with healthful skin care properties. This natural homemade soap, made with coconut oil, offers nice bubbly lather compared to commercial soap using foaming agents and cheap mineral oil.

You do not need to use commercial skin products that use cheap refined vegetable oils, cheap mineral oils, foaming agents, surfactants, unnatural, chemically produced, anti-bacterial agents and more. Instead you can find homemade skin care products using natural coconut oil and other natural skin care ingredients. The coconut oil benefits are multiple and healthful!

Benefits of Coconut Oil - Homemade Skin Care and More

Find benefits of coconut oil and homemade skin care products at: http://www.natural-goat-milk-soap.com/benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies With A Homemade Fruit Fly Trap

Anyone who has ever left a few bananas sitting out or forgotten to change their garbage knows all too well the problem with fruit flies. It seems that once they've invaded your kitchen, you can't get rid of them. You can scrub, clean, remove tempting fruit and spray the garbage can with disinfectants, but they always come back. You can't help but cringe just looking at them.

We have always had problems with fruit flies, with one of the main reasons being that we live in an apartment and by law - must recycle. Because of where we live, we have to keep our recycling containers inside until they can be disposed of once a week. If the recyclables aren't cleaned well enough after being used, they make a perfect breeding ground for fruit flies. They love bits of rotting food remnants and seem to thrive in even the smallest amount. When fruit flies move in, they just don't want to leave and will lay eggs in and on anything they can find - fruits & vegetables left on the counter, sink drains, garbage disposals, empty bottles & cans, garbage bags, and even mops and rags.

Dry Skin

A Few Fun Facts About Fruit Flies:

- Can lay up to 500 eggs at a time

- Their entire lifecycle is complete in about a week

- While considered mainly a pest, they have the potential to contaminate food with dangerous bacteria

We all know that removing the food, getting rid of the garbage & cleaning up plays a big role, but we also know what it's like to move a piece of fruit and have a swarm of fruit flies fill the air only to escape your attempts at killing them. Where are they gonna go? Obviously the ones flying around can't be easily captured or killed, so they'll linger about until they find some other place to lay eggs and the whole cycle starts again.

In all my attempts, I found the best way to capture and remove the ones that escape is to create a simple trap using a jar, plastic wrap and a piece of food. Here's how it works:

1. Get a small jar you don't plan on using again ( like a baby food jar or something similar ) and wash it out well. Make sure it is not a jar with a funky smell such as a used pickle jar or anything that use to have strong spices. You want a clean, odorless jar.

2. Take a chunk of banana and place inside the jar. This is why you want a clean, odorless jar - so that the banana smell won't be overpowered by other not-so-tempting smells. Banana seems to work the best, but you can experiment.

3. Fit a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the jar, making sure that it fits tight and well sealed around the edges. Then take a pen or pencil and poke 4 to 5 holes in the plastic, just big enough for a fruit fly to fit into. Once a fruit fly crawls in, it can't get out. You would think they would just fly back out through the holes, but they won't!

4. Place the jar in an area where you have seen the most fruit flies. Depending on the amount of fruit flies you have, you can expect to start seeing the jar fill up within just a few hours. After 24 hours, you will discover just how bad your fruit fly problem is!

This simple, inexpensive & safe method works perfectly and if you don't want the jar on public display, you can always slip it behind the garbage can, in the cupboard or even under the sink (Just don't forget about it!). You will want to empty the jar every 3-4 days before any eggs have a chance to hatch. While adult fruit flies can't easily escape through the holes, their maggots can very easily, and besides that - they are disgusting to see crawling around in the jar. You don't want to see these things crawling on your counter!

Cleaning out the jar shouldn't be a problem. If you have a kind heart, you can choose to let them go outside. Personally, I spray the little buggers with bug spray, wash out the jar and start the whole process over again if I think there are still some fruit flies left to capture.

For bad fruit fly problems, you will want to use this method for a good two weeks to make sure you've captured the majority of fruit flies. You might even want to use a few jars in different places. Before long, your kitchen will be back to normal.

How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies With A Homemade Fruit Fly Trap

Carole Nickerson has been a web developer and internet marketer since 1998. Visit http://www.thenetter.com for more free articles, tips and software.