Cheeky Baby Wipes Blog » Green Cleaning

Using Olive Oil as a cleanser…weird but it works!

Helen@cheekywipes — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:56:47 +0000

It seems that I’ve reached an age where make-up is now a necessity if I want to avoid looking like death warmed up. I’m not talking full-on ‘make-up counter girl’ slap but concealer, foundation, mascara and a touch of blusher mean that the effects early waking pre-schoolers aren’t majorly obvious when you look at me. Well, not THAT obvious anyway.

And with everyday make-up use there is obviously the need to remove it. My skin is super-duper sensitive, ridiculously so. And I have sneaked a clean Cheeky Wipe now and again, but don’t like scrubbing at my eyes to remove the mascara.

After a bit of googling, I came across a fabulous solution. Olive oil. You’ve got it in your kitchen cupboard, it costs pennies and it doesn’t leave your skin greasy, just supersoft and gently cleansed. Apparently oil dissolves oil (removing sebum and mascara etc) and this is actively recommended for people suffering from acne.

I know that sounds to good to be true but it really works and there’s a whole load of people who have tried it and loved it enough to blog about….Here’s how:

What you need
Clean Cheeky Wipes (I keep 5 dry ones in the bathroom and use to order)
Olive Oil
Hot Water
Few drops of mandarin or lavender & Chamomile fresh wipes oil (optional)

Method
Put a little olive oil on your hands – about the size of a 5p piece
Rub all over your face in an upwards circular motion
Wet a Cheeky Wipe with nice hot water – not scalding, just hot from the tap
Wipe the olive oil off. You might want to rinse the wipe out once or twice, again with nice hot water.
Wipe again until all trace of oil is gone.
Splash with cold water.

You’ll find your skin feels great, soft and clean with absolutely no tightness at all. And it will save you LOTS on expensive make-up removers….

Bicarbonate of Soda – wonder product!

Helen@cheekywipes — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:01:11 +0000

I know I’ve mentioned a couple of the many uses of Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda) before (home-made deodorant and cleaning soiled mattresses. But I thought you might be interested in a few more things that it can be used for…

Removing Odours and Reducing Smells
Bicarb is fantastic for removing smells, so use it anywhere you’ve got a stinky problem. I use it for washing out the little compost bin in my kitchen and my bigger bin too.

I also found that the stainless steel flask which I use for my yogurt was getting a bit manky if I left the lid on it. A good wash with some bicarb sorted that out quickly!

My wooden spoons were really starting to absorb cooking smells but washing with bicarb paste got rid of the lingering aroma of curry.

And don’t forget your dishwasher – chuck a bit into the bottom to remove smells, or give a thorough clean by running it empty with just some bicarb in the main wash area.

Last (but by no means least), sprinkle some bicarb into stinky training shoes to get rid of the potent odour of sweaty feet – yuck!

Cleaning
Bicarb can be used for a number of cleaning purposes and it particularly good for greasy surfaces, especially in conjunction with white vinegar.

I recently gave my Microwave a spring clean, heating a bowl of water with a teaspoon of bicarb in it for 5 minutes until it was boiling. The steam loosened the grease and it cleaned up a treat.

But it’s not just microwaves. Try using bicarb and white vinegar on your oven or Barbecue racks. Alternatively, sprinkle dry bicarb onto your stainless steel hob and clean with a damp cloth. Brilliant!

If you’ve got any hints and tips you’d like to share, or alternative uses for bicarb, feel free to share them…

Meat-free March – it’s the final week!

Helen@cheekywipes — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:02:28 +0000

We’re in week 5 of our ‘Meat-free March’….and I know there aren’t 5 weeks in a month, but it falls over 5 shopping weeks if you know what I mean.

Week 4 was probably the most balanced week’s menu – it wasn’t overly focused on one food group so it worked really well. We started last Friday night with big, juicy, mushroom baguettes. Fabulous, breakfast mushrooms slathered with garlic butter and fresh, crispy french bread. Perfect Friday evening food which has to be easy to make, easy to clear up and suitable for drinking with red wine!

Saturday we had falafel burgers. These were OK. Good texture but a little bit lacking in flavour. I’ve tried to make these before and I’ve never succeeded in making them well, so if anyone has any tips for me, please feel free to share.

Sunday we worked up an appetite with a trip to Bodiam Castle and then had this lovely Veggie Shepherds Pie. It was GREAT! Although the tin of lentils which has been lurking at the back for my cupboard for (cough) 4 years turned out to be french cassoulet – sort of beans and sausages. So it wasn’t exactly completely vegetarian, but was darn tasty anyway.

Monday night a friend came round to share this wonderful Greek Pie. It was really simple to prepare and coating the filo pastry with the oil from the sundried tomatoes made it really savoury. Will definitely be doing this one again.

Our Thai Noodle soup on Tuesday was great too. Again, quick to prepare, with clean, refreshing flavours. My eldest son loved this, although I made his without the chilli.

Wednesday’s Puttanesca sauce was lovely and a winner with all the children also. The lovely sweet-sour taste of capers, olives and tomatoes makes such a fantastic supper and it’s a great left-over packed lunch the next day.

We rounded off the week with a larder feast of bulghar wheat and sardines. This is a quick and easy meal and my sister in law who had never tried bulghar wheat before really enjoyed it.

So now on to our final week:

Friday – veggie pizzausing the pizza bases I froze a couple of weeks ago
Saturday – we’re out for dinner, so just fish fingers and chips for the kids!
Sunday – Butter Bean & Broccoli Salad This recipe is similar, but my recipe contains broccoli rather than olives, which soaks up all the lovely lemony dressing
Monday – Tuna Empanada
Tuesday – Salmon & Miso Noodle Soup
Wednesday – Pasta with tapenade and goats cheese – similar recipe here
Thursday – Freezer Surprise, probably Thai Fishcakes again!

I’ll post next week with a review of this week – but I have to say at this point I’m looking forward to a nice juicy steak!

Don’t throw it out! How to clean a burnt, blackened saucepan….

Helen@cheekywipes — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:01:17 +0000

I really shouldn’t try to do two things at once. I knew we were almost out of yogurt, so thought that I would put some milk on to reduce down, while I was answering my emails. I did briefly think about setting the oven timer to remind me that it was on, but completely forgot.

An hour later, I answered the door to a courier, thinking ‘What’s that smell??’ and found that my milk had not only boiled over but the remains had crusted onto the pan in a solid black lump. I’ve burnt a few saucepans in my time, but this one won the gold medal:

OMG! How burnt is this?

I did think for a split second about throwing it out, but I love this pan (and I thought you might be interested to know it’s not just you that burns saucepans….) Anyway I googled ‘clean burnt saucepans’ and came up with a myriad of ideas, but the most oft-repeated was to add some fabric washing powder (I used gel) to the saucepan and bring it to the boil for 15 mins.

This was the result after 15 mins:

Looking much better but still....

As you can see it was a LOT better. So I gave it another 20 mins with some fresh water and washing gel, then applied a little elbow grease and scouring pad to finish it off…and the result is:

A clean pan!

So, if like me you occasionally try to do too many things at once and end up burning a saucepan, don’t throw it out…just get out your washing powder and make it sparkle again.