Sunburn Season's Coming!
We've all done it, regardless of how many warnings we get, how much sunscreen we buy with the best of intentions. We forget to apply it as religiously as we should.
We get the occasional sunburn. Ouchie.
So this blog post is about teaching you a DIY item you can make that helps you deal with the pain while you let the sunburn heal.
I don't know about you, but I firmly believe in aloe vera gel for sunburns. You can get it with or without lidocaine for added pain relief, and it just rocks. But it's always goopy and sticky and can be painful to apply with your fingers, to sensitive, burned skin.
My solution came about after a day a few years ago, when I went on a motorcycle trip...an all-day affair with around 700 other bikers; we rode en masse for an hour or so to our destination, then spent about ten hours at a park, playing games, socializing, eating, drinking, dancing...mindless (in my personal situation), of the hot sun. On the drive home, I started feeling the sunburn. By the time we got to our hometown, I looked slightly like a lobster and felt like one, too. We stopped at the pharmacy near our home, and went in looking like a bad joke, opened a bottle of aloe gel and began slathering it on, wincing the whole time...our skin was so sensitive from the sunburn that even applying the gel hurt.
Once home, I decided I needed a better delivery system for the aloe, so I took a small spray bottle and cleaned it out, then rinsed it with boiling water and finally, a spritz of rubbing alcohol. I didn't want anything to cause a skin infection. Once the alcohol evaporated, I filled the bottle 3/4 full of distilled water, and dumped in as much aloe gel as the bottle would hold.
I shook it up, and stood in front of a small fan, spraying it on my skin and almost crying with the relief I felt...the fine mist didn't hurt, and it instantly felt cool with the mist hitting my skin and being chilled by the fan. Bliss!
You can do the same thing at home, and it's easy to prepare, and keep refrigerated for those times you need it. Clean a spray bottle thoroughly. I'd recommend buying one rather than re-using something that's held other products, especially if they weren't skin products. But if you're going to reuse something, be very, very thorough about cleaning it. A sunburn makes your skin susceptible, and you really don't want to compound the problem.
So take this nice clean spray bottle, and put in your aloe gel and distilled water. Distilled water will lessen the chance of bacterial growth, if you're careful not to contaminate it. Shake, shake it again, then shake some more. Now spray it on that painful burn and let the breeze cool your poor, abused skin. Or do what I did, and stand in front of a fan after you apply it.
You're really not doing anything but using an alternative method of applying the aloe vera gel...nothing weird or outlandish here.
Let me know if you try this, and how you like it!
