Gelatin for Beauty

My New Year's resolution to cut down on prepackaged items, while starting with food, is meant to extend into all areas of my life. I'd like to become more self-reliant by being able to make my own food and household items. So when I stumbled on some do-it-yourself pore strips, I was stoked. I have used Biore pore strips in the past, and I absolutely love them. They work wonderfully and, unlike so many products today, actually live up to their claims. Unfortunately, they're SOOO expensive. Now don't get me wrong, I normally do not mind paying good money for a product that works, but times are tight, and nice pores aren't really a necessity in my line of work, so I can't really justify $8-$10 for a box of 14 strips. Considering I need three strips to do all my problem spots, that's a $1.71 every time I use them, and if I use them once a week (which is recommended), that adds up to about $89 a year. Yikes!

Anyway, on to the doing it ourselves! I found the how-to here: http://petitelefant.com/how-to-pore-strips/. All you do is mix a packet of unflavored gelatin with a couple of tablespoons of milk, microwave it for a few seconds, then slather on your face, and let it dry. When it's all dry, peel it off and behold your new, unclogged pores! No, it's not too good to be true, it really does work. However, after trying this per her instructions, I found a few helpful hints that I want to pass on for you:

• You may not need the whole packet of gelatin. I slathered this on nice and thick over my entire face, and I still had some left over. I will probably only use half a pack next time, maybe even less, because I only have a few problem spots and really don't need a whole face mask.
• Give this stuff a couple of seconds to cool off. I know the how-to says not to wait because it sets up fast, and she's right, but if you put it on too quickly, you might just burn the piss out of yourself. Use common sense and be careful.
• Don't spread this on too thick. If you do, it will take ages to dry. I was trying to use up everything because I hate waste, but in doing so I found that it took 30 min. + for this to dry, and even then, some spots were still gummy. Gummy spots are no good because they don't grab onto the blackheads as well. That being said, you also don't want to spread it on too thin, because it won't peel off very well. I figure after a couple of tries, you'll have the desired thickness down to an art.
• You will look like you starred in a porno while you're doing this treatment. You probably shouldn't answer the door while this stuff is on your face. (Or maybe you should, depending on your sense of humor.) Also, if your husband is like mine, a never-ending string of dirty jokes is in your future if he sees you like that. Fair warning.
• For the love of God, whatever you do, do NOT get this on your eyebrows or up your nose. Personal experience speaking here: this stuff could easily double as a bikini wax, so if you peel off a piece that has come in contact with these hairs - well, let's just say that childbirth is less painful.

Now for the math. I said before that it was roughly $89 a year for me to use the Biore strips. A box of 32 packets of gelatin costs me $7 dollars, or 22 cents a packet. Add in the cost of the milk, which where I live is about $4 a gallon, and there are 256 tablespoons of milk in a gallon, so that means the two tablespoons you'd use for this would cost you 4 cents. That makes our grand total per use 26 cents, which adds up to $13.52 a year. Wow.