Day 44.

   Sorry I have been really busy with work and clinical for school so I haven't had much time to write. Not to much has changed with my face, it's not as nice as it once was but I am still in that second outbreak period so I hope once this is over, it's over for good. My face isn't nearly as red but I do still get some breakouts but not nearly as bad. I have been feeling the creepy little suckers move again so they are definitely hatching and making a return, then dying hence the breakouts. As long as they keep dying that is all that matters. I am still using just the tea tree/argan oil mixture on my face and nothing else. My skin is finally getting over being dry again and is soft and smooth once more. That is really nice, I think I hate the dry flaky skin more than the break out. So that is about all right now. Starting August 2nd I will be doing a juice fast and then returning to my mostly plant based diet and I am hoping it will have a positive effect on not just my body and health but also my skin. Ok now I will shut up and post some pictures.

Day 44

Day 35. Getting better

   Sorry it has been a busy few days. My face is getting better, I did have a few pustules pop back up but they are already going away. The hives from the nu-stock are going away too which is awesome. My face doesn't itch anymore which is the biggest relief. My face is still a little sunburned looking but that is getting better and I can cover it with makeup but I am hoping it will go away like it did eventually after I used it the first time. Right now I am back in lizard mode with the flaky scaly skin. It is really annoying because it feels like a coat of armor that nothing can penetrate and no matter what I put in it never feels hydrated and when I do have makeup on to cover the redness you can literally see dry scales on my face. I am hoping like along with the redness this to shall go away like it did the last time I used nu-stock.

   Other than that my face looks pretty decent. I have a few little blemishes but even those are healing and going away. Crossing my fingers that my face goes back to how it was a week ago soon. It was so nice. I really have no reason to think that it won't especially since I KNOW it is possible. Okay on to the pictures. Sorry for the dead look, I had just woken up and was running late. I swear I really need to take a decent picture of me one of these days and post it.

Day 35

Day 31, All good things must come to an end

   So my face was beautiful and it was really nice but all good things must come to an end. Actually it's not bad, I did develop a few p&p today but nothing bad. I knew it was coming so I am not freaking out....Yet. I went back and looked at the time line and it said

Week 2-3:During this period, you’ll experience the most severe breakout of the entire treatment. Your skin will become more dry and clusters of bumps similar to a mosquito bite might surface in affected areas. Don’t become alarmed or disgruntled during this difficult time. If you experience a breakout, it’s due to the dead demodex mites under your skin. As their bodies decay, the demodex produces bacteria inside the follicles of your skin. Once the bacteria is gone, the bumps will disappear and healthy skin will be revealed.  ( Yep, This is pretty much what happened. They could have warned how bad this would be)

Week 4:Noticeable improvements to your skin will become apparent. (Yep, my skin has been beautiful as you have seen)

Week 5-7:You’ll experience a series of light rashes and breakouts during this period. It won’t be nearly as bad as the initial “die-off” stage during weeks 2 and 3, but it might seem like a setback (it’s not). These breakouts are caused by the decaying demodex mites that recently hatched from the eggs of the demodex parents killed weeks prior. After this group of offspring are eliminated, you’ll begin enjoying clear and healthy skin.  (This is me now, it better not be as bad as before!) 

   So I have reached week 5 and now I am having some more die off which in return means p&p. My face isn't red and there is not as many in the usual areas, they are more on my temples and sides of my face where before they were mostly on my chin and cheeks. I have reached week 5, I'm not calling it a setback just part of the process. Like I said I just hope it doesn't get AS bad as before. 

   I decided to go ahead and do the nu-stock tonight. I might do it every few days through these next weeks but not everyday, it's just too strong. I forgot to take pictures until after I had applied it already so sorry about looking greasy and kinda gross, also it's night time so I didn't get good natural light pictures but you get the idea. Not bad, but not as good as it was. Also sorry I look a little crazy, I have been sick and feel like crap. 

Day 31

Day 16 I feel like my face is f*cking with me

   Seriously, I feel like it is playing with my emotions. Like it does well and then BAM bad day just to fuck with me and then goes back to doing well. So, ready for my theory? I did the nu-stock with the coconut oil on Thursday night and was fine, I think that did a MASSIVE extermination. Friday I was fine because my body wasn't reacting to the dead mites yet, I tried to mix the nu-stock with the argan oil but the argan oil isn't a strong enough oil to counteract how strong the nu-stock is and that is why it started to burn and I took it off. Also the argan absorbs quicker and better than coconut oil so I think it drew it deeper into my skin and more of it than the coconut oil. Just glad I took it off. But yesterday all of the mites started to breakdown and that is what our body reacts to so that is why my face looked like hell. It was reacting to the overload of hundreds of dead mites.

   So last night I diluted the nu-stock even further with coconut oil and applied it to my entire face and below and behind my ears because I had been itchy there too lately, like they are making a run for it. I figured my face was already beet red and broke out, why stop now, just push through it.

   Today I woke up and I didn't have a single pustule. Not one. My face is still redish but not like yesterday and my forehead is COVERED in bumps (well now my whole face is) but no pustule. Now let me explain what I define as pustule, a pustule to me is a raised lesion with a white head on it that looks like it needs so be popped, there are shallower than pimples and usually go away once they have been popped. They usually show up and leave withing 24 hours. It's like it's a toxin that is expelled through my skin and when it's expelled it's gone, unlike a pimple which is a clogged pore that likes to get big and hang around.

   So my forehead has hundreds of these tiny bumps all over it and I can't decide if they are dead mites or an allergic reaction to the nu-stock. I am going to do a test patch on my forearm to see how my sink reacts to the mixture I used last night. I have to say my face does itch like crazy. But if the nu-stock can kill off that many mites at once, I will keep using it at least once a week to knock these suckers out. Also I am going to do a borax bath later to treat the rest of my body. Okay I have a lot of pictures today, full face, close ups and a comparison with yesterday so you can see how insane my skin is. The forehead ones you can't really see how many bumps there are. Right now the texture of my skin is fucked.  P.S. Sorry for the serial killer eyes.

Day 16

   

End of the day rant.

   So, today sucked. I am just really bummed out and depressed and just wanted to lay in bed and cry but I didn't get to do that. I had to go drop a placenta off to a client (I do placenta encapsulation) and she had a house full of people. I just wanted to hide my face but she wanted to invite me in to see the baby and meet everyone. It was really nice of her but did she not see my strawberry face and that I needed to be hidden from public! On my way home I remembered I need to go to Walmart to pick up my meds. Shit, there is no way to walk into a Walmart anywhere in the country and not see someone you know. I could go to one in Alaska and see someone I know. It's ridiculous. Of course when I get there its not ready so I have to sit and wait. I try to sink and disappear but it doesn't happen. For some reason the other people there wanted to engage me in conversation. People! Again, can you not see my strawberry face and the slouching and wanting to disappear! LEAVE ME ALONE. So I finally get home and my mother, aunt, gmaw and niece show up..... Can I PLEASE just go bury my head under a pillow and hide people! Apparently not. So by this point I am upset, stressed, and at my breaking point when my mother wants computer lessons and my niece wants to watch a movie that I can't find. And then because I am snapping I am the mean, bitchy person. Also for all of the people that asked me today (and there were more than a few) If your face looked like this do you THINK it would hurt?! YES! Yes, if fucking hurts. It BURNS! Just a slight change in temperature BURNS and I am living in the swamp where it is 70 or below in a building and about 100 outside with 100% humidity. You LOOKING at...that hurts. Yes I have been to a doctor, no it is not contagious, yes I think I should put something on it. Thank god you were here for those suggestions because I would have never thought of that. Oh and the "If you think your face hurts, well it's killing me jokes" are old. Try something new. Goodnight.

P.S. My forehead, that never, ever gets bumps is covered in them. I wish you could see how bad in the picture but oh well

Day 15, this is really bad

   So I knew it would get worse, I never thought it would get this bad. My face possible looks the worst it ever has, EVER. I don't know if it was the nu-stock or a big die off of mites or what but it is super bad. My face looks like a strawberry, it's slightly swollen, it hurts and I woke up to about 100 tiny pustules, to many to count. I was in shock when I looked in the mirror this morning. I mean I guess it's a good thing that I managed to kill off that many mites but damn, I am not leaving my house unless I HAVE to. I usually on show the close ups but today I am going to show close ups and my full face so you can get the full effect. That's all I can say right now. I am going to go cry now. Warning you may not want to look at these pictures.

*Update to original. Please do a test patch to see how you react to Nu-Stock before using it, I do end up having an unpleasant response to it (as you can see here) and I'm not sure if it was an allergic reaction or if my skin is just really sensitive. I would recommend putting a tiny bit either on your forearm or under your jawline first and waiting at least 2 days to see how you react before putting it on your entire face.**

Day 15

Nu-stock update

   Okay, so I woke up to my face feeling flushed. Not sure what that is about, but it is warm to the touch and it is flushed in areas I don't usually flush. Alright let me back up to last night. So last night I tried the nu-stock for the first time, scroll back a post and read my first thoughts on texture, smell etc.. So after I put it on I could tell it was working because I could feel the little buggers trying to make a run for it. My face kept itching, but not in a I think I am breaking out in hives way, like the mites are dying way. Also I think this stuff gets into your bloodstream cause it was like I could taste is a little in the back of my throat. The itching did drive me a bit nuts and made it hard to sleep and actually I am a bit itchy right now.

   So when I woke up this morning I had about 20 tiny little pustules, and one bigger one. I think the bigger ones are maybe like little nest of them. You can't even see where the ones I had yesterday were, they come and go so quick. So that is a good and bad thing, it feels like a setback, but I think it's just the new ones hatching and being killed off, and it is following that timeline pretty well so I am just going to go with it and call it progress. Its still mentally and emotionally hard to look in the mirror and see your face covered in tiny little bumps and flushing and think of it as progress when 2 days ago you were just slightly pink and had one bump. I am trying really hard to not let it get me down.

   So on the nu-stock bottle is says apply every 3 days, so I think I will use it every 3 days and use the tto in between. I don't want to over do it with the nu-stock. Okay picture time.

**Update to original post. Please do a test patch to see how you react to Nu-Stock before using it, I do end up having an unpleasant response to it and I'm not sure if it was an allergic reaction or if my skin is just really sensitive. I would recommend putting a tiny bit either on your forearm or under your jawline first and waiting at least 2 days to see how you react before putting it on your entire face.**

Day 14

Day 13...I knew this would happen.

   So I didn't come to the demodex conclusion or treatment out of the blue, I did a lot of read and a lot of research most of it here on a rosacea forum. While reading and researching I pretty much self diagnosed demodex mites as being my main culprit. I had all of the signs, the pustules, the redness, the itching, acne medicine not working a lot of different things. So when I figured out that was my problem next was to see what treatment options I had and see how they worked for different people. Some people had used borax, some had used sulfur, some had used a cream you order from over seas called ZZ cream or Zhongzhou Zinc Oxide and last some had used tea tree oil.

   While trying to chose which treatment to follow I read a couple of threads that people wrote chronicling their treatments and their ups and downs, (like I am doing here but without many pictures) to help decided which treatment I would follow. On one of the threads someone posted this from I believe the ZZ cream website called demodex solutions which tells you what you can expect week to week with treatment which I will put at the end of this post. Actually they have a lot of good info on their site so check it out here.

   So the reason I went with tea tree oil is simple really. First, I already had some, second I didn't have to order it from overseas and it kinda creeped me out that they won't tell you ALL the ingredients in the ZZ cream, they say ancient Chinese secret or some crap like that. (but the ZZ cream has good reviews!) I didn't want to do the borax because it just seemed so harsh, like using ajax on my face or something. And I did order the sulfur in the form of nu-stock. It is really hard to find a product that has a high enough sulfur content that it would actually be beneficial. My nu-stock comes today but I didn't want to wait that long to get it to start treatment so I went ahead with the tea tree oil and here we are today. I might bust out the nu-stock for the next two weeks....maybe.

  So with that being said, I KNEW that there would be setbacks, I knew I would break out again, I knew it was coming. That doesn't mean I have to like it! Yesterday my skin almost looked pretty! Almost. It was the best it had looked since I got back from California. And then I woke up today. Now don't get me wrong, it still looks way better, but it's a step back from yesterday. I am trying to think if I ate something, or was around something that might have triggered it but I can't think of anything. I really need to start keeping a food/face journal. But even so usually if I eat something my face doesn't agree with, it lets me know right away.

  Anyways, today I woke up and it really isn't bad, just not as good as yesterday so it made me blah. But my face was a little more red, and I had two BIG pustules and I have a big pimple under my lip on the right and another on the left half way between my lip and chin that are just being persistent for some reason. (that is one of the ways I can tell the difference in pustule and pimple, pimple is deeper under the skin and stays around a lot longer). I am not calling it a set back, but my face would react like this on a day where I have to go meet a bunch of new people. BTW I just had sushi and I don't think my face likes soy sauce, I can feel the flush coming! At least I don't eat it often. Okay so here is the week by week that I saw posted for the ZZ cream that I am guessing will apply to my face also and after that I will post today's pictures.

Week 1:

Itching begins to subside and your skin becomes calmer. In addition, preexisting pimples and bumps begin to shrink and dry.

Week 2-3:During this period, you’ll experience the most severe breakout of the entire treatment. Your skin will become more dry and clusters of bumps similar to a mosquito bite might surface in affected areas. Don’t become alarmed or disgruntled during this difficult time. If you experience a breakout, it’s due to the dead demodex mites under your skin. As their bodies decay, the demodex produces bacteria inside the follicles of your skin. Once the bacteria is gone, the bumps will disappear and healthy skin will be revealed.

Week 4:Noticeable improvements to your skin will become apparent.

Week 5-7:You’ll experience a series of light rashes and breakouts during this period. It won’t be nearly as bad as the initial “die-off” stage during weeks 2 and 3, but it might seem like a setback (it’s not). These breakouts are caused by the decaying demodex mites that recently hatched from the eggs of the demodex parents killed weeks prior. After this group of offspring are eliminated, you’ll begin enjoying clear and healthy skin.

Week 8:A treatment of 90 days is recommended for total elimination of the demodex mites, but after 60 days, you’ll begin reaping the rewards of your treatment. You’ll start receiving compliments from family and friends on account of your bright and healthy new skin. This is when you know you’re rounding the final stretch.

Week 9-12:Even though your skin looks and feels completely cured, continue the treatment for 12 weeks.

Week 13 & Beyond:Although a 90 day course is recommended, it’s important to complete maintenance by applying the demodex treatment 2 times per month. This ensures no new overgrowth of demodex mites and it keeps your skin in optimal condition so you can continue enjoying bright and healthy skin.

So I must confess I have an addiction....

   So when I was on the oracea I could eat and drink anything basically and not have an issue, this has now changed. I have an addiction to coke, not the white powdery stuff but the liquid sugar kind that comes in a red can. I KNOW its bad for me in so many ways but I love it. LOVE IT. I have tried to cut back to a can a day and most days I follow that but I have been breaking that rule a lot lately. If I don't drink a can I can get a headache and I become a bit of a bitch. It's an addiction.

   I know that certain foods or drink can cause flushing but I have been in denial of this well known fact wanting to believe that it didn't apply to me. Well it does, and I am now coming to terms with that and starting to acknowledge this fact. It sucks, but for the last few days I have been noticing my face flushing when I drink a coke and the other day when I ate a slice of pizza. I didn't want to believe it (deny, deny, deny) but my face wasn't hurting at all today when I woke up then I popped open a coke had a swig and almost immediately my face started to get hot, burn and itch. There is no denying it, I have to give up the coke.

   I have been wanting to eat better and live healthier for other reason like to lose weight (the double chin in my pictures is also helping me with my denial of being overweight) and just to be healthier in general. My father died at 46 and I don't want that to be me. So it looks like my rosacea will help me get into gear with that and make sure I will stay on track. I am going to start keeping a log of what I eat and what makes me flush. I know I should have been doing this but again, I like to live in denial.

    I have been told buy countless people that I should try gluten free, that it will help with my rosacea and my PCOS but I am not sure I want to jump on that bandwagon yet. I'm stubborn, I'm a Taurus, I have to try every other way I think might help before I take the path I am told will help but I don't want to follow. So for now I will be cutting out beef, poultry and pork, I did this for a while and I felt better, looked better, and lost weight without even trying. Plus it is easier to follow I don't have to read a bunch of labels and ask a billion questions at restaurants, either something has meat in it or doesn't. If this doesn't work I guess I will give in and go gluten free. GRRR. I have one coke left, I know I shouldn't drink it but I know I will. I will savor every last drop slowly and enjoy my last coke. 

Random thoughts and a slight rant.

   So the reason I named this blog "it's just your face" isn't because I feel that your face is not important (if that was the case I wouldn't bother with a blog about mine) but because that is what I kept being told. "whats the big deal, it's just your face" Just your face? Are you kidding me!! Other than your general health, when it comes to your body, what is more important than your face? Your face is YOU. No one else has your face, other people have arms, legs, boobs, no one else has your face, it's yours alone. It's how people identify you, and how people judge you, it's the first thing people see, it's how people remember you, you can't hide it, it's right there front and center for people to stare at, judge and criticize. When something is wrong with your face people assume something is wrong with you.

   People in general tend to not think before they talk but when it comes to commenting on your face either, people tend to be more blunt. I have walked into work and people say things such as "Ohhh what happened to your face?" "Are you feeling okay? Because you are not looking okay" "Wow! You got some sun over the weekend" (I never left my house -_-)

   Today was hard day, I had to explain to a friend why I didn't go to her gallery show last night making me a lame friend. I didn't go to clinicals today because I didn't want to be seen out like this, and when my mom came home I was in tears. When she asked what was wrong I just looked at her and said "really!?" She knew. He response was "You know it probably doesn't look as bad to other people as it does to you, most people probably won't even notice. I think your making a bigger deal out of it than it really is." I asked her how would she feel if she woke up tomorrow and looked in the mirror and saw her face like this. She just got up and left. Yep, that's what I thought. It's so easy for other people to dismiss it, or be like "it's no big deal" and that is only because it's not their face. Let their face suddenly become flaming red and burn like the dickens or break out in dozens of painful pustules and let's see how long it's no big deal.

    I also don't think people understand the PHYSICAL pain and discomfort someone with rosacea deals with, I think they just think it's a red or pimpley face and that's it. They don't understand that your face feels like its on fire, the don't understand the throbbing feeling, that it feels swollen or tight and that even just splashing it with water to try to rinse it can hurt because it is so sensitive to outside stimulus. There is nothing worse than your facing feeling hot like it's on fire but you can't sit in front of a fan to cool it off because the breeze of the fan hurts your delicate skin. Rosacea is so much more than meets the eye. *Sigh*

   Well, I will end this on a funny lesson that may or may not come from personal experience. So if you happen to be walking through lets say a Whole Foods and a sales associate comes up to you and asks you if you need help the proper response might not be "Sure! See I found out that the reason my face is looking like this is I have face mites and I hear tea tree oil kills them so I am looking for everything tea tree oil!" See if you have the need to explain your condition DON'T. They might just look at you with horror, then disgust and take a few steps away from you. Or so I have heard....from a friend....who also has face mites. 

What I looked like until June 5th

   So just in case anyone was wondering what my skin looked like prior to this here is a few pictures taken on May 23, 2013. We were outside swimming so I obviously have no makeup on just sunscreen. I had previously had p&p with some redness but it has been over a year and never as bad as now. May of 2012 I had 3 laser treatments to zap spider veins in my cheeks and I had been on oracea for over a year. Like I said my skin wasn't perfect but I could live with it, now.....well look at my pictures from this morning. I still wonder if me coming back to New Orleans or something in my house isn't a contributing factor. I had run out of Oracea for over a week in California and my skin still looked good but the day after I came home, it went to shit. Anyways, just thought I would share what my skin was like previously. 

                                                    My boyfriend, I miss him so much!

Just some random info

   So I went into my bathroom closet to see if any of the products I currently own have sulfur in them (they don't) and then just look at the ingredients of all the crap I have tried and failed with on my face and realized I have a lot of skin care items. About a 6 months ago I went through it and threw away about half of it and only kept "the good stuff" and I still have 37 items in my closet. That is a lot of creams, lotions and cleansers. I have from expensive Oscar de la Renta lotion and expensive creams from overseas to cheap Bag Balm from the drug store and everything in between. I wonder how much damage this has done to my face and how much money I have spent? That doesn't even count the prescription stuff. I must have spent a fortune and I have ended up no better off. Well hopefully the cheap, natural, less is more way will work. That's all. 

Crap

So I woke up this morning and first thought was, well my face FEELS good....then I looked in the mirror. Crap. My face might FEEL good but it looks like SHIT. I don't know if it is because I used a wash cloth to wash it last night (that's my thought since it burned) or if it is just more mites dying off. Supposedly each p&p is a dead mite which means they are dying off and I should be happy, but having your face look like this makes it really hard to be happy.  Oh and I found a way to take pictures that shows my skin more accurately.
Day 6

I think I made a mistake.

   So tonight my face (mostly chin) was extra scabby feeling and crusty feeling so I decided to use a wash cloth to kind of exfoliate it...big mistake. My face started stinging right away and I knew I shouldn't have done that. I usually don't use a wash cloth on my face, I just use my fingers lightly. WHY DID I CHOSE TO DO THIS!! Anyways I got of the shower and my face was RED and you could see where every little p&p is at and I must have about 40 of them. There was a spot that I though was a pimple but apon closer inspection it is just a cluster of p&p.

   So tonight I am putting on the wash and let it soak for about 30 minutes and then I will slather on the argan & tto before bed. During the beginning of the day my face feels good, no burning or flushing and the p&ps don't have pressure but by the end of the day I get more flushing, and the p&ps feel like a zit that needs to be popped (gross sorry). So I think when I wake up I am going to slather on more argan/tto mix or do a coconut/tto mix to see if it helps during the day. I wish I could figure out how to take pictures that shows how bad it is IRL.
 

I should have kept my mouth shut

I should have never said anything about my face not burning because all of a sudden its on FIRE. I haven't ate, drank anything or done anything. I don't know what has set it off but it BURNS. I might go dunk my head in cold water. 

Day 5

      So last night I took a shower with all of my new tto products, they all have that same tto smell which is strong but I am getting use to it. After my shower I put on the wash and didn't rinse. After about an hour all of the oils had absorbed but the honey left my face feeling kind of sticky so I went ahead and just splashed some warm water on my face to get rid of it. Also almost immediately my eyes started getting gritty, dry and itchy. If you look up close you can see the white dots along the lash line but you can only see it if you look really close.  Also my eyes were kind of dry so I put in some eye drops to help. When I was in the shower I used the soap on my lashes and sat for a few minutes with my eyes closed. Right before bed I covered my face and neck with the argan /tto mixture and then used just what was left on my fingers and ran it across my eyes and lashes. It didn't burn or anything just felt kind of menthol like but it wasn't painful or anything. For the record I am not suggesting that any one else should do this I am just telling you what I am doing. 

     When I woke today I had a bunch of tiny  p&p but nothing big and new. I know from what I have read that it gets worse before it gets better and not to expect big improvements any time soon that I have to wait for a couple of life cycles before they are really under control, still sucks. My face isn't as red as it was  and the burning, fire face feeling has diminished greatly. I do notice that about half way through the day it will start to creep back so I might carry some oil with me to put on when that happens. The areas of my face that are not affected are really soft and smooth, I really hope that one day all of my face will look and feel that way. So for now I'm just going to keep with it and taking pictures of the journey. 

Day 4

     Okay so my face has been really dry and flaky so I have decided to not do the ACV anymore, also it was stinging when I applied it so, no more of that. I also made a few other changes last night, I put on the wash  that I made but I didn't rinse it off I just let it soak in. Also I have been using argan oil for a few months and it has really helped with my dry, scaly skin and my skin sucks up like crazy so I added some TTO oil to it and hopefully the argan oil will pull the TTO into my skin with it when it absorbs.

    So back to the regime, slathered my face with the wash but I didn't rinse and watched tv for a little to see how it would absorb and it absorbed better than I thought it would. Right before I went to bed I covered my face in the argan and tto because I know that absorbs pretty quick. Not long after I got to bed I knew it was working because I could FEEL them and it really freaked me out. Okay now on to the pictures.

Day 4

Okay so redness is getting better, p&ps are getting better and drying up, I did wake up with one really big throbbing zit under my lip that you can see in the last picture. Nice right. Anyways one big difference I had this morning is my eyes were super itchy and crusty and watery and my scalp has been itching like crazy all day. So with that being said I am pretty positive it is the mites. From what I have read from other people doing the treatments they will run to these areas that don't have the TTO and look for safety. You could actually see the little white dots on my eye lashes like in this picture (it's pretty gross) I tried to get a picture but it's really tiny (still really gross). So with that discovery I have decided it's game on, all out war time! Me vs demodex rosacea. So today I went to the store and bought an arsenal of products to combat this and try to get my skin back! I would like to also include that along with these products I plan on trying to maintain a beef, pork and poultry free diet. I already know I am not perfect and I will occasionally eat one of those products so don't bash me for it later but for the most part I will be cutting that out of my diet. I did this before and not only did I feel better and lose weight really easily but my skin looked better.  So this is what I bought today

Tea Tree Oil Shampoo
Tea Tree Oil Conditioner
Tea Tree Oil
Tea Tree Oil soap for face and body
Probiotics
Shea Butter

So tonight I will start my full body eradication and I will keep this updated. Wish me luck!

What I am using on my face.

Okay so I got the original recipe here, but I modified it a little bit and this is what I ended up making

¼ cup castor oil

1 cup olive oil

1 ½ tsp tea tree oil

¼ cup coconut oil

¼ cup honey

Mix everything together. I had a hard time trying to mix the honey, even using a blender it just kind of sinks and sits at the bottom. After I mixed it all together I put it in a amber glass bottle. Since the coconut oil is solid at room temperature it turns into a solid at the top so before I use it I set it in a sink of warm water and this seems to help melt the coconut oil and the honey so it mixes a lot better but still not 100%. The original instructions said to wash it on and use a warm cloth to wash it off and the first few times I did this and now I am just letting it absorb into my skin and not washing it all off. I am doing this at night before I go to bed since that is when the mites are most active. 

For a moisturizer I use argan oil and I put a little bit of TTO in it hoping the argan oil will pull in the TTO when it absorbs. I slather this on pretty good in the morning and whenever I feel like I really need it. I also bought some shea butter to spot treat on those really dry chapped spots. 

Also everything I use is 100% natural and organic and cruelty free.