My kombucha is happy. Very happy. My starter has been busily making babies, and today I realized that almost half my jar was filled with SCOBY*! That’s a little too much of a good thing, so I lifted it out and separated each layer, leaving only one in the jar.
Despite repeated offers, I haven’t gotten any takers for free starter. I hate to waste a perfectly good organism (O-R-G-A-N-I-S-M). What should I do with this bowl of rubbery rounds? (It’s not getting any better, is it? You guys have gutter minds. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, well, then I didn’t mention anything. At all.)
In earlier research, I’d read that SCOBY makes a reasonable calamari substitute. So I took a little experimental bite. Yeah, no. But another purported use was as a face masque. That sounded more promising, so I tried it.
Not bad, huh?
Here’s my recipe:
- Take the SCOBY.
- Put it on your face. (Yep. Just slap it on. I had a lot, so I covered my face AND my neck.)
- Wait 15-30 minutes. (I rinsed mine before using it, to lower the residual acidity.)
- Remove.
That’s it. I didn’t look in the mirror while wearing it, because I’m sure I would have screamed. Instead, I laid back on my bed and enjoyed a TED talk. Then I removed the SCOBY, and ran to the mirror.
Holy cow! My skin looked GREAT! Plump, peachy, plus my ever-present pores were almost invisible. That’s a win. It turns out, SCOBY increases circulation on the surface of the skin, which rejuvenates the cells. Because it’s acidic, it also works as a mild peel, sloughing dead cells. FYI, I followed this up with a 15 minute honey mask to soothe my skin.
I also noticed it had a marked tightening effect. Women *of a certain age* start to suffer from slight skin sag. This treatment tightened my face and neck right up! Now if I could only apply it to my memory…
PS: I experimented with my kombucha recipe today. I used Earl Grey tea, then added a little coconut and fresh strawberry to the boiling mixture. I strained it all out when I put the cooled concoction into the jar. I’ll be eager to see how it tastes next week. I hope it’s good. Fingers crossed!
* SCOBY – an acronym for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast. AKA ‘culture’, ‘mother’, ‘starter’
Seeking My Best Self 
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