Skincare: Salicylic Acid

In a long-term SHTF situation (I don't believe it will happen but it's an interesting thought problem), I suspect beauty and health will be strongly valued. Our culture has lost a lot of beauty knowledge. So I'm looking a the products I buy and how to completely DIY/SS them.

It looks like I could replace my 2% salicylic acid product - which is propylene glycol carrier and 2% salicylic acid - with willow water. My neighbor cut down his willow tree and wild rabbits ate my willow shrub to death. I'm adding a willow tree to my to-do list.

White willow (Salix alba) or wintergreen. I didn't know about wintergreen; it doesn't grow here.

I have never seen any but I think that wintergreen can grow in our zones, I think.

Trying2keepitReal said:

I have never seen any but I think that wintergreen can grow in our zones, I think.

Click to expand...

You are right! There is a native wintergreen that grows in zone 3! I'm shocked! Thank you for sharing!


Now... where do I find one...

wintergreen is common to our area if you can find a sandy higher area where the wild lowbush blueberries grow next to the swampy spots you can sometimes find the wintergreen there too. or near some oak trees where the birds have been dropping doodoos.

sometimes when i've had a bad case of fungal infection between a few toes (two that are too close together that i've had trouble with most of my life) i've used the corn/wart/callous remover to get a few layers of the dead surface skin off so that further anti-fungal treatments aren't taking so long to work. tea tree oil at least four times a week for that area then will keep the problem from coming back. also when clipping toenails i put the tea tree oil on where i've just cut which prevents nail fungus from setting up shop.

tortoise said:

You are right! There is a native wintergreen that grows in zone 3! I'm shocked! Thank you for sharing!


Now... where do I find one...

Click to expand...

Among other places, Burpee

flowerbug said:

sometimes when i've had a bad case of fungal infection between a few toes (two that are too close together that i've had trouble with most of my life) i've used the corn/wart/callous remover to get a few layers of the dead surface skin off so that further anti-fungal treatments aren't taking so long to work. tea tree oil at least four times a week for that area then will keep the problem from coming back. also when clipping toenails i put the tea tree oil on where i've just cut which prevents nail fungus from setting up shop.

Click to expand...

I've found that phosphoric acid (sometimes sold as callus remover) works great on foot fungus.

tortoise said:

I've found that phosphoric acid (sometimes sold as callus remover) works great on foot fungus.

Click to expand...

i can get rid of it, but eventually it will come back just because of how my toes are jammed together so i have to keep up the tea tree oil treatments to prevent a new case from getting going. i did note above about the callous remover. the important thing is to get rid of the dead skin layers because that is where the fungus lives and feeds. sometimes after a shower i soak my feet in some warm water with added distilled vinegar which will soften up all the dead skin so i can scrape it off. amazing how much dead skin is there. it takes some time to soak them and then remove the dead skin but it seems to be helping.

the hard part is being consistent enough that i can keep it from coming back. in the summer it is more likely i get my feet wet and that can cause problems so i need to be more on top of getting my feet dried and treated again asap.