Mango Butter -- not much for eating but great for skincare

Mango butter – another really rich oil/butter from the tropics.  It’s pressed from the seeds of the Mango tree. The mango's popularity is not especially new -- they've been cultivated for over 6,000 years.  Mango butter is a triple whammy in skin care:  has fatty acids to help protect the skin and retain moisture, emollients to soften and soothe the skin, and moisturizing properties to help make skin softer and suppler.  The only down side to it’s perfectness is that there is no associated wonderful, mango-ey, tropical scent.  Ok, so it doesn’t have much of a scent at all.  But it is still a wonderful buttery nut butter that is so much more fun to use than your average dry skin cream.

Neem Oil - stinky but effective

I had read that neem oil really smells bad -- somewhere between rotting garlic and sulfur.  But it's also supposed to be great for your skin and an effective bug repellent.  So I bought some.  It really does smell somewhere between rotting garlic and sulfur.  But it also really does repel mosquitoes.  You dilute it down quite a bit when you make the repellent and you can add essential oils like lemon eucalyptus and citronella to help drown out that lingering rotten garlic smell.  But when you watch mosquitoes still bite after you've sprayed yourself with deet, of all things, and then watch them just fly around but NOT bite you after you've slathered yourself with a neem repellent, the somewhat odorous smell seems not so bad afterall.

Lavender, mosquitoes, and sanity

So you forgot to put on the bug spray and now you've got two dozen mosquito bites all over (ok, so it was me who has the two dozen bites -- and, yes, I did count).  Lavender essential oil directly on the bite really does take the edge off that I'm-going-to-go-crazy-from-this-ITCHING feeling.  And you can just re-apply it as needed.  Lavender:  helps to keep you sane -- even in mosquito season.

Mosquitos and Martha Stewart

so if you're not Martha Stewart and into artful potpourris nor especially knowledgable in homeopathic medicine, what can you do with essential oils?  Make some quick, easy, and cheap bug spray is one thing:  mix 1/2 teaspoon citronella essential oil and/or 1/2 teaspoon lemon eucalyptus essential oil with 1/4 cup witch hazel in a spritz bottle.  Shake and apply often and liberally to skin to repel mosqutoes.  Citronella is not my absolute favorite scent but it's better than who-knows-what goes into Walmart's bug spray...