life & style // no. 17 issue 5 // volume 44 Natural remedies for acne > Turning to the natural world for healthier skin Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor o matter where you go, or what you do, your skin is always with you— which makes it all the more problematic if said skin isn’t behaving itself! I’ve never suffered from severe acne, or even consistent break-outs, but I do tend to get pimples when I’m stressed-out. As I am a very anxious person about to face some major life changes in the future, this has been happening quite a bit. Unfortunately, I can’t use the majority of the acne/ pimple products available in stores. I have very sensitive skin, so the majority of them give me chemical burns—which is not a good look, in case you were wondering. Due to this I have looked into a few all natural remedies to help reduce or control break-outs and acne. Diet This seems like such a simple option, and one that everyone knows about. If you suffer from acne, eat healthy! Easy for some to say, as they are probably giving that advice from the comfort of their own home with a fully-stocked fridge. As a student you are constantly commuting, not to mention racing between classes and work—there isn’t time to pay attention to your own eating habits! Luckily there’s a couple tricks you can make use of: Avoid drinking milk. Milk might be good for you bones, but it’s very bad for your skin. Eat fish. Fish contains essential fatty acids and oils that are good for your heart and your skin. Salmon is the best, but even tuna will help maintain, or clear up a complexion. Honey Now you may be asking why this isn’t in with the diet portion—and that’s because using honey to help your skin doesn't involve eating it! Honey is one of nature’s best antiseptics, meaning it will help reduce the bacteria on your face, preventing the spread of your acne. It’s also very moisturizing and will help heal and repair the skin so you're not left with scars or red patches. Tea tree oil This seems to be one that everyone knows about, so much so that even cosmetic companies have started putting tea tree oil in their products. To this I say: Keep it simple. You don't need products that include this, and you shouldn't be using it to maintain your skin—it’s incredibly corrosive. Use the oil as a spot treatment to treat large or painful pimples. It will dry them out so they will reduce in size. You can also use diluted tea tree oil to break up scar tissue. Witch hazel Using witch hazel as a toner is a great way to unclog pores while avoiding the burn of alcohol. If your skin is sensitive, you probably can’t use most cleansers and toners because they contain rubbing alcohol. However, alcohol-free toners just don’t do as good a job, and ones that are RPG hook: Moving mountains > How to make your mountains breathe Davie Wong Sports Editor e often hear the saying, “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.” But why? Well as the Game Master, you can! In all seriousness, mountains are wonderful things to add to any world. The first thing you should figure out is how prevalent are they in your world. A neat lore aspect might be to describe the creation of mountains in your world, at least to yourself—the players can figure that out on their own. Did the primordial gods of Land and Sea clash to create great peaks where they came to blows? Or perhaps the mountains are the spine of a great world-eater laid to rest by the Gods themselves? If you want to take it a step further, you could tie the creation of mountains to the origin of races. Perhaps the God of Dwarves created the Dwarves but found that the surface of the planet was too hostile for his creations. So he moulded the dirt and hardened it so his creations could live below, protected from those above. Once you figure out the creation of mountains, you get to dictate location. Where are these mountains? Figuring out where to place your mountain ranges can be tricky. But there’s really no rule of thumb for them so you can’t go wrong there. Generally, mountains are grouped together, but if you want to havea lone mountain with its own story, that could be something for your players to investigate. The wonderful thing about mountains is that they're big. In fact, they’re huge. The size works in the favour of Game Masters. If you're running a one- shot, a mountain can be a focal point. If you're running a campaign, mountains serve as a diverse setting. Which leads me to the next point—its inhabitants! This is where you can get a bit picky with your mountain ranges. Perhaps some mountains belong to the Dwarves, but others belong to a race of giant birds of prey, or other insidious creatures with scales and wings. There are plenty of creatures that could inhabit mountains, and as a game master, you get to decide what those creatures are. A twist that could be interesting is if the mountains themselves were the creatures. Sentient mountains aren't all that uncommon in the fantasy genre, but it can still be surprising enough if set up correctly. Perhaps they are representatives of a god? Or maybe the life blood of a primordial seeped into the stone of the mountains granting it life? Another nitty gritty detail is why the party is there in the first place. Are the mountains just an obstacle the party : oil-based can cause more break-outs in people who are acne-prone. Witch hazel can act as a toner—evening out skin tone, unclogging pores, and softening skin—but it smells really weird. If you can get past that then it can act as a great alternative to more traditional skincare. This is a fad that is catching on more and more because of witch hazel’s prevalence in Korean skincare, so you can find it more and more in products that advertise themselves as all-natural or organic. I say skip all the hubbub and go straight to the source! Witch hazel is available in the first-aid sections of most drug stores. > we) x o 2 2 c 2 yp o o 5 a 2 needs pass through, or is their objective in the mountain? If so, how do they gain access to the mountains? Mountains are really wonderful things. Just because they don’t move, doesn’t mean they can’t be interactive— and who says they can’t move, anyway?