It’s never too late to start a garden even though we are getting ready for fall. What am I talking about, you ask? Grow food indoors. Why not? If you have a spare room, or better yet a basement, you can grow many things indoors. How?

Get a Turbo Grow Room or a 36 Plant Dual Chamber Hydroponic Grow Cabinet!

These allow you to easily grow vegetables and herbs indoors. The latter looks like a regular cabinet so you can even put it in your living room. No one would even know there are living plants inside the cabinet. Closed, that is!

9. Whale vomit – This material called Ambergris is useful as a fixative in perfumes. It has a sweet, earthy odor and is usually found washed up on a beach in South America or Australia. It has mostly been replaced by synthetic alternatives.

8. Cochineal beetles – When you need a nice red color, you can drown a few of these buggers in some hot water, dry them out and pulverize them. The deep crimson dye is versatile enough to be used in skin creams, lipsticks and almost any other beauty product.

7. Waste cooking oil – Scientists say that a surfactant can be made from spent cooking oil that will help regenerate damaged skin. So the next time you order a burger don’t be surprised if you hear “Do you want a facial with that?”

6. Human breast milk – It could be a gimmick but some people swear by using human breast milk to make soap. Is this something you would try?

5. Bird poop – Ever heard of a Geisha Facial? It features deep cleansing, $180 price tag, and a big scoop of Nightingale bird poop. Supposedly the uric acid is supposed to be great for your face. Perhaps it is but you certainly don’t need to smear bird droppings on yourself to get it.

4. Bull semen - Want shiny hair? Then a few salons in Europe think they have exactly what you need. Protein from bull semen is supposed to give amazing results. I’m skeptical it will give you anything more than a stiff hair cut.

3. Snake venom - One of the most ridiculous new ingredients for keeping wrinkles at bay is snake venom. Cosmetic makers who use this stuff hope that you’ll connect the Botox poison with snake poison and figure both must work wonders on wrinkles. Despite what Jamie Pressly might think, snake venom hasn’t been shown to have any positive improvement in wrinkle creams.

2. Chicken bone marrow – Supposed to be a good source of glucosamine but how that helps your cosmetic remains a mystery. But people still use chicken bone marrow but they rarely advertise it as such.

1. Cow dung – It turns out you can make an incredibly pleasant smelling vanilla fragrance from extracts of cow dung. It’s not just a fertilizer any more.

[from the beautybrains]

The 24-Hour Pharmacist- is the perfect pill for anyone seeking enlightenment on overall health from a resource that is thorough and fun to read. With chapter titles such as “Frazzled, Frustrated and Freaked Out: Coping with Anxiety and Stress” to “More Jiggle, Less Joint Pain: What You Can Do About Arthritis” you get the sense that the author well knows what course to recommend but also truly enjoys educating others. One feature I found especially enlightening were the sections in each chapter entitled “Suzy’s Secrets From Behind The Counter”. Here is where she (Suzy) offers great little insights to live by with a perspective that only a pharmacist can give. One good example of this is in the chapter about weight loss where she explains that some drugs can make you hungry. Included in her list are sedatives and tranquilizers, antidepressants, allergy pills, female hormones and diuretics. Wow, who knew?

Read more about it here: The 24-Hour Pharmacist

1. Keys Soap Solar Rx Therapeutic Sunblock, SPF 30
2. Trukid Sunny Days Facestick Mineral Sunscreen UVA/UVB Broad Spectrum, SPF 30+
3. California Baby Sunblock Stick No Fragrance, SPF 30+
4. Badger Sunscreen, SPF 30
5. Marie Veronique Skin Therapy Sun Serum
6. Lavera Sunscreen Neutral, SPF 40
7. Vanicream Sunscreen, SPF 35
8. UV Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+
9. Sun Science Sport Formula, SPF 30
10. Soleo Organics Sunscreen all natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+ 

To read the source article, which lists 143 products in total, go here. 

As much as I love Thanksgiving and Christmas, my absolute favorite time of the year is Black Friday! Waking up at 3 A.M. to get a good parking spot at the mall; even better, camping outside of Best Buy for days to get the season’s greatest deals! Once inside your select stores, you literally have to shield yourself from claws and hair pulling, and that’s just from your best friend. But, if you’d rather stay home and miss the crazy retail madness, there are many retailers that offer Black Friday deals specifically for online shoppers. Check out sites like blackfriday.com and blackfriday.gottadeal.com. They list top retailers’ advertisements with the best deals. Also, for even more savings they provide you with some online coupon codes. Awesome, right? It gets even better, some companies offer free shipping with a minimum purchase. For example, Target.com offers free shipping for all orders over $50 and Nordstrom.com offers free shipping on orders over $100 (piece of cake!) So relax in the comfort of your warm home, perhaps with a glass of eggnog (don’t forget the rum, haha!) in front of your computer. Black friday isn’t that bad, right?