Comments joelle has made

  • caramel leg wax recipe

    This is more of a thing to pass on mother to daughter, as my mom did to me, but I'll try to use modern technology to explain my waxing regime - very similar to the "sugar wax" recipe.

    Here goes:

    Put 12 tablespoons of sugar and 6 tablespoons of lemon juice (from real lemons) in a medium saucepan on high heat. DON"T STIR, but 'swoosh' by moving the saucepan by the handle in a circular motion.

    Prepare a glass or ceramic baking pan and spread some lemon juice on it.

    Allow the caramel to get to a dark caramel/ amber color, but not too dark - not to the point of seeming like burnt caramel (may have to practice a few times to get this right).

    As soon as the color is right, pour the caramel onto the baking pan - keeping it gathered in one part. Put some lemon juice on a spoon and bunch up the caramel in one corner with this. Put a little lemon juice on your hands. Let the caramel cool until you can pick it up.

    What you should get is a clump of tan caramel that you can hold in one piece in your hand. You can knead the caramel to soften it a bit. If the consistency isn't right even after kneading -it is under or over cooked and you need to try again.

    You should use this glob of caramel right away to wax by slopping it on a higher part of your leg and pushing it down in a strip pressed against your leg. Push down and pull up fast on the bottom edge of the caramel mass stuck to your leg and pull the whole strip up towards you as fast as possible. Repeat for the rest of the area. This is enough for your whole body when you get good at it (my Aunts do arms, armpits, bikini - you name it).

    The best way is to spread the caramel very thin at the end.

    AND the real trick is spit, yes, spit -- the caramel will start to harden and if you spit in it and knead it it will soften.

    This is a great method - I really recommend it. I love the fact that it is all natural -- even compostable! and these are ingredients you can find in any corner store. It may seem messy, but it washes away very easily under warm water & soap - just put some old newspaper down under where you are sitting to wax - oh, and don't try to answer the phone!
    On Umbra on shaving, part two posted 4 years, 5 months ago 5 Responses

  • filtered veggie oil and engine life

     I want my next car to be a better environmental alternative than my current car.

     I am interested in getting a newer Diesel car (hopefully with better emission technology than an older diesel engine), a biodiesel converter "kit" to add a second fuel compartment and to filter cooking oil waste to fuel my car. The comments that I am reading, though, have increased my skepticism about buying a diesel engine car and running it on used cooking oil.

    I have some practical concerns - such as engine life and, also, if I resort to regular Diesel once in a while, if that would outweigh the benefits of used cooking oil the rest of the time.

    Does anyone have any ideas on oil/ biodiesel and how 'safe' this is on engines? Is Diesel that much more horrible than regular petrol for once in a while use?

    I'm looking for some field stories from folks who have been running newer diesel engines on used cooking oil.

    The other option would be to go hybrid, but I also recently heard a good point -  there are non-hybrid vehicles out there with comparable gas mileage and hybrids have battery waste on top of emissions. Any thoughts?On Biodiversivist posted 4 years, 5 months ago 24 Responses