Sizzle with that fizzle in ways you never knew.

Is it just me, or is Coca-Cola always hanging around – either leftover from a party, in the back of the fridge, in the corner of the garage, or just chilling in the pantry waiting for another barbecue and Aunt Sue who prefers it over any other drink. But now, maybe all that extra Coke is a good thing, because there’s more to the fizzy drink than you could ever imagine. In fact, even if you don’t drink it, it’s actually quite the handyman.

One of the ingredients in Coke is sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, which is an alkaline substance that can help take care of your body and clean your belongings. Here are 20 new ways to look at the drink.

Rust Buster

Soak rusted material in Coke overnight and scrub in the morning. The rust will weaken and come off more easily, fading t0 a shine.

Window Cleaner

Wipe down windows with Coke to remove grease and dirt without overusing chemical and toxin-ridden household cleaners.

Bolt Loosener

Because Coke is so useful in dissolving rust, it can help to loosen bolts that have rusted into a position that makes it nearly impossible to remove.

Meat Caramelizer

Marinade chicken or beef in Coke along with spices and other condiments. The Coke will give the meat a browned appearance, and when cooked, the sugar from the Coke will caramelize and offer the dish an added depth in taste.

Windshield Defroster

Awaken to a cold Winter’s morning with a layer of ice on your windshield? Save yourself the extra morning-time muscle and pour a bottle of Coke over the windshield. Wait a few minutes and then witness how much more easily the ice comes off when scraped.

Skunk Odor Killer

If you are ever in the unfortunate position of having been sprayed by a skunk, hop into the shower with a bottle of Coke and pour the soda over the sprayed area. The Coke helps to eliminate the odor.

Hiccups Ridder

Gargle a mouthful of Coke in the back of your throat, and word on the street is that your hiccups will disappear.

Hair Curler

Gaga was onto something when she used Coca-Cola cans as curlers. Massaging the beverage into your hair can also help to curl it. While it dries, crunch your hair with your hands to help facilitate the process.

Pain Reducer

Stung by a bee? Bitten by a mosquito? Attacked by a jelly fish? Nothing Coke can’t relieve. Dab affected area with the beverage to relieve the burn.

Hair Gum Remover

There can never be enough ways to remove gum from the hair, because let’s face it – it’s often the difference between a pixie cut and long luscious locks, so there’s no playing around. Pour Coke over the area tangled in gum, let it sit for a few minutes, and then begin to pull out.

Pot Cleaner

The bottom of household pots often become blackened. Pour Coke into your pots, letting it sit for a bit, and then washing the pots as normal with special attention to the discolored areas. The Coke will remove the grime and release the shine!

Toilet Cleaner

For the rusty and moldy nooks and crannies, add a can of Coke into the mix to help hasten the cleaning process. No one wants to spend more than the minimum cleaning the toilet, so consider Coke your new best cleaning mate.

Clothing Stain Remover

Pour Coke right on top of a stain and let it soak. The stain will slightly discolor, but after you throw the apparel into the wash, it will come out clean.

Lawn Improvement

Flat Coca-Cola is an effective gardening tool. Simply add one can per week to a compost bin to give microorganisms a boost. They will feed on the Coke, improving their strength and health.

Stomach Soother

Balance the pH levels in the stomach. Coke will temporarily relieve indigestion, heartburn, and other stomach-related pain.

Bugs and Wasps Deterrent

Distract outdoor bugs and wasps from the party by isolating a few topless cups of Coke away from the main event. The bugs are attracted to the Coke’s sweet aroma.

Bug Killer

Even though bugs are drawn to Coke, once they venture into the liquid, they meet their demise. If you want to get rid of an ant hill destroying your patio or rid roaches from cabinets and nooks in the attic or basement, spray bugs with Coke.

Hair Dye Fader

Wash your hair with Coke to help fade a dye that may have been layered on too thick or dark for your liking.

Paper Ager

If you want to give documents a more authentic look, soak them in coke for 10 minutes, remove them carefully, and allow them to dry. The papers’ browned look will fool anyone into thinking their antiquated.

Explosion Maker

Mentos + Coke = Explosion. See for yourself. And play safely, kids.

Image: Coca-Cola Art, Gary Huston, Power Plant Op, Sam Chills, Isolino

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post 20 Unusual Uses for Coca-Cola appeared first on EcoSalon.

From sunblock to liver cleansing, we celebrate 20 uses of green tea you may never have known about.

Green tea is hailed as an antioxidant-rich, anti-aging phenomenon. With reports that regular green tea consumption can lower the risk of heart disease and certain cancers, it’s a popular drink among the health conscious. However, green tea is more than just a cup of tea. Here are 20 unusual, thrifty and eco-friendly uses for green tea that will surprise, challenge, and excite you.

Dark Circles and Puffy Eye Relief

After you’ve enjoyed a cup of green tea – or two – let the tea bags cool and place one over each closed eye. Tea contains polyphenol particles known as tannins. Tannins are an astringent and are able to shrink living tissue, including human skin. Green tea bags can reduce swelling and tighten the skin around the eyes by reducing the dilation of the blood vessels under the eyes.

Irritation and Redness Alleviation

Green tea has anti-inflammatory properties that help to reduce redness and irritation. Steep a few bags in boiling water. Allow the water to cool and soak a washcloth in the water. Wring the washcloth of excess water and use the rag to pat irritated or red skin.

Facial Scrub

Take advantage of green tea’s skin-tightening ability and use it in a facial scrub. With the addition of water and white sugar, you are not only infusing the skin with the benefits of green tea, but also exfoliating it to a smooth finish.

Teeth Health Boost

According to a research study published by Preventive Medicine, drinking one cup of unsweetened green tea could increase teeth health. People between the ages of 40 and 64 who drank one cup of green tea per day were less likely to lose their teeth. According to the study, antimicrobial molecules called catechins are the reason for this effect. Grab a green tea infused toothpaste off pharmacy shelves or be sure to get your daily dose of tea.

Weight Loss Aid

According to a 2009 study by the Department of Human Biology, Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht, the catechins in green tea proved to significantly decrease body weight an as well as maintain body weight after a period of weight loss. This is good news to those looking to shed a few pounds.

Bleeding Reduction

The tannins found in green tea help stop bleeding by coagulating the blood. Steep a tea bag in hot water, remove it after one minute, and then let it cool. Place the tea bag on top of the bleeding area or dip gauze into the tea water and apply the gauze to the gash. You could also use a green tea extract for application.

Sunburn Treatment

While green tea does not block UV light, it protects exposed skin cells from damage. Studies have shown that when green tea is directly applied to the skin, it helps to protect the skin from sunburn and skin cancer. You could apply a green tea extract to the skin or a cooled cloth that was soaked in brewed green tea. Drinking green tea regularly a few weeks prior to sun exposure can also reduce the possibility of skin damage, due to the tea’s powerful antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate.

Fridge Odor Elimination

Sometimes things can get a bit stinky in the refrigerator. To counteract an odor that just doesn’t seem to budge, take a handful of green tea leaves and place them in a thin cloth bag or cheese cloth. Place in the refrigerator. The leaves will absorb the odor and render your fridge fragrance-free.

Humidity Reduction

Much like it reduces odor, green tea also diminishes ambient humidity. Take a thin cloth bag full of green tea leaves and hang it in a room or area of your house that collects too much humidity. The leaves absorb the moisture.

Silk Worms Fodder

Got silkworms hanging around? Feed the harmless little creatures leftover green tea leaves. Apparently, what goes around comes around – it is said that silkworm extract is a natural aphrodisiac.

Wrinkle Reduction

The potent antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate found in green tea prevents the activation of collagen-digesting enzymes called matrix metalloproteinase. These enzymes are what causes wrinkling of the skin. Green tea also has anti-inflammatory properties that assist in preventing wrinkles and fine lines. By applying lotions and creams with green tea extract or drinking the tea on the regular, you can steer clear of premature aging and the onset of wrinkles.

Carpet Cleaning

Take a handful of moist, but not wet, green tea leaves and scatter them across the carpet. The tea leaves attract dust, so vacuuming is twice as effective.

Foot Bath

Soak your feet in a strong green tea brew to get rid of foot odors. Green tea is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. It also helps to get rid of bad smells.

Plant Water

Green tea is packed with antioxidants and is a great way to improve the health of plants. Soak tea leaves in water for a few days, remove the leaves, and then use the water to fertilize plants.

Liver Protection

Everyone’s liver could use a little help these days. Given the toxicity of our environment and diet, even if we live as eco-conscious and healthy as possible, our lifestyles still take a toll on our livers, which processes just about everything you ingest and absorb. The antioxidants in green tea help us to prevent liver disease as well as to boost the overall health of our livers.

Lingerie Freshening

Place green tea leaves in a thin cloth bag and toss it into your lingerie drawer. The leaves will absorb any odor and leave your precious apparel fresh and ready to rock.

Anxiety Remedy

An amino acid called theanine is found in green tea leaves and it is thought to give a relaxing and tranquilizing effect on the body.

Acne Treatment

Due to its anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antioxidant, and anti-fungal properties, green tea is a powerful anti-acne treatment. Find a moisturizer or cleanser with green tea extract or take the homemade route and simply rub green tea leaves on your face and body before rinsing.

Deodorant

Dab green tea water that has cooled to your underarms and you can avoid a smelly summer afternoon. It’s a cheap and effective way to battling the effects of heat and stress.

Ice-Cream Flavor

Oh, how surprisingly delicious green tea ice cream is! Many Japanese restaurants feature a green tea ice cream on their menus. Considering all the benefits of the green tea, we have yet another excuse to indulge in dessert. Order it or try your hand at a homemade version.

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post 20 Unusual Uses for Green Tea appeared first on EcoSalon.

As someone who can’t tell a proton from a pronoun, I have endless admiration for the men and women who work in the fields of science. The chemists, engineers and inventors of this world all have my enthusiastic respect. I refer to them, reverentially, using the collective “they” as in “they can send a manned space ship to the Moon,” and “they can make delicious fat-free potato chips” (although not, regrettably, without the unpleasant and inconvenient side effect of “oily diarrhea.”) But given the leaps that science has made in recent years, I don’t understand why they can’t make a natural cosmetic product that doesn’t smell like old man’s feet.

Recently I went to Sephora, my local mall’s shrine to self-beautification, and conducted a completely unscientific sniff-test of anything labeled natural, organic or eco-friendly. I am sorry to report that the results on the whole were, meh. Some products smelled better than others and one or two were actually not bad at all. Well, not terrible anyway. Most of the products were labeled as “fragrance free,” but it would be more accurate to describe them as “perfume free” because many had a fragrance – just not one that was pleasing to the senses. In keeping with the scientific theory that smells evoke memory and emotion more than any other sense, some of the products turned out to be major buzzkills. There was a stick of “natural” moisturizer that gave off a mild and not-entirely unpleasant odor of eucalyptus – but it reminded me of the Noxzema that I washed with twice a day all through middle school, so the smell brought me instantly back to an era of cliques, gym suits, and social awkwardness.

A couple of other products had no discernible odor at all, which was somewhat off-putting. I’ve been programmed to expect makeup to smell festive – to evoke images of dressing up and going out. But the no-aroma items were far less offensive than some of the funkier organic products I would eventually inhale.

A tube of all-natural tinted moisturizer had an aroma that was eerily similar to my dentist’s office. Then there was an eye shadow that smelled like clay, with a top note of what appeared to be rancid fruit. I sampled a lipstick that hit me first with a strong odor of beeswax, followed up by something that smelled like the flesh of a decomposing gerbil. An aggressively “eco” mascara smelled like a tattered pair of bowling shoes I rented recently. And one entire line of earth-friendly products smelled like the chronically ill turtles I had as a child.

I wanted to respond favorably to the smell of natural cosmetics but it was hard going. On the whole, they just couldn’t compare with the memory of the Angel Face compact I remember from high school. Even now, decades later, I can summon up the light, clean, smell of that pressed powder. That fresh, delicate aroma lingers as the sense-memory of my first real date. Angel Face smelled like being out after curfew on a summer night. It smelled like slow-dancing with Jimmy Palladino in front of my house.

Of course that was long ago, before we knew how important it was to create paraben-free products in compostable packaging. I feel it is absolutely right and proper that cosmetic companies try to be more responsible in their approach to makeup. But I also feel a deep and genuine sadness for a generation of girls who, years from now, will get a whiff of roadkill on a summer breeze and think “Oh – that smells just like Prom night!”

Image: StephenCarlile

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