SPECIAL FROM Grandparents.com

Women spend about $426 billion on beauty products each year. You can forgo the expensive products and still look and feel fabulous with just one do-it-all tool – and it only costs about a dollar. Find out how to use plain old baking soda to get great hair, skin, nails, and more.

Help Your Hair
Drugstores and beauty supply stores sell expensive shampoos, serums, and dry shampoo formulas to combat product buildup, chlorine damage, and oily hair. All you need to solve all three hair woes is a cheap box of baking soda. Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to your usual handful of shampoo to remove buildup, rinse hair with about half a teaspoon dissolved in water to fight chlorine discoloration, or sprinkle a small amount on your scalp and brush for a quick and easy dry shampoo. Baking soda is a great cleaning agent, and easily lifts oils, discolorations, and buildup on your scalp from hairsprays, conditioners, and other products.

Whiten Teeth

Several studies published in the Journal of Clinical Dentistry found that not only were toothpastes with baking soda more effective at removing plaque, but baking soda also is more effective at whitening teeth than other products. Want a make-at-home whitener? To banish coffee and wine stains from your smile, many dentists recommend brushing with a powerhouse combination of baking soda and strawberries, which contain malic acid, another natural stain-fighter. Mash a ripe strawberry and combine with baking soda to form a paste. Brush onto teeth for a few minutes, rinse, and then brush with regular toothpaste to remove residue. A word of caution: Don’t use this treatment more than two or three times a month, since too much malic acid could damage your tooth enamel.

Soothe a Sunburn
When aloe just isn’t cutting it for soothing sunburnt skin, try baking soda for calming relief. Combine baking soda and water and use a washcloth or soaked cotton balls to apply to your skin, says Hadley C. King, MD, a clinical instructor of dermatology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in an article on Womansday.com. A baking soda and water paste also helps calm itchy bug bites, bee stings, and poison ivy rashes, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. The alkaline nature of baking soda neutralizes irritants and restores skin’s pH, soothing burning and itching in the process.

Polish Jewelry

If your silver jewelry looks old and tarnished, try cleaning it with this simple trick. You just need some baking soda, very hot (almost boiling) water, and aluminum foil. Pour the water into a small bowl and submerge your jewelry. Then add about a tablespoon of baking soda and a sheet of aluminum foil. The combination of the water and baking soda helps lift the tarnish from your jewelry and sticks it to the aluminum. Move the pieces around, making sure that all of your jewelry touches the aluminum. Afterwards, just rinse and polish with a soft cloth. Avoid using this method on jewelry with gemstones or organic material like pearls (which are easily damaged), says the Gemological Institute of America.

Remove Splinters
There’s an easier way to remove those tiny, pesky splinters than trying to dig around with a tweezer. The baking soda helps swell the skin and draw the splinter to the surface. Simply make a paste of baking soda and water, apply to the area, and cover with a bandage. After about 24 hours, the splinter should be sticking out enough that you can pull it out with tweezers. If not, repeat the process.

Smell Better

You can even use baking soda in place of your deodorant. A pinch of baking soda mixed with water provides a paste that doubles as a natural deodorant. If you’re having trouble making it stick, try applying a little cornstarch first. But if you aren’t ready to part with your antiperspirant, just sprinkle some baking soda in your shoes for an easy, cheap deodorizer.

Get Cleaner Nails
Yellowing, stained nails can make your hands look older. Nail experts recommend making a paste with equal parts hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, and using a nail scrub brush to scrub underneath and on top of your nails. Let it sit for a few minutes and rinse off. Persistently yellow nails, however, could be a sign of a fungal infection. See a doctor if your nails don’t lighten up.

Exfoliate Rough Skin

Baking soda is also great as an exfoliator. Use three parts baking soda to one part water and rub onto rough elbows, feet, hands, or other spots to exfoliate dry, scaly skin. Do not use on cracked or broken skin, however.

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7 tricks for better looking eyebrows
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The world has gone a bit overboard with ramen. The trendy Japanese noodle has made its way into burgers, pizza and corn dogs. None of this makes much sense (noodles to complement an already carb-laden Italian dish? Why?)

Ramen has even noodled its way into Mexican cuisine (cue the Ramenrrito).

But none of these compare to the catastrophe that is ramen pudding. It’s a new trend that’s allegedly taken Taiwan by soupy storm. The dish calls for instant ramen and a store-bought Japanese pudding that’s closer to flan than the Snack Pack that stole the show in your childhood brown bag.

Photo: Youtube/Cai Aga

“What kind of pudding complements chicken bouillon?” is a question no one should have to ask. But we asked exactly that, and found that the answer (spoiler!) is a resounding “none.”

Requesting a few brave taste-testers proved to be a stimulating task of its own. “I mean, I’ll do it, but it does NOT sound good,” said one honest reviewer.

To prepare the fare, we started with the average styrofoam container of Cup Noodles that can be purchased virtually anywhere.

(Note: While we purchased “Chicken,” “Beef,” “Shrimp,” and “Chicken Vegetable” flavors, only the first two were used in this taste test. Participants agreed there was no need to defile the remaining two soups.)

While the container instructs to pour boiling water to the cup’s inside line, we left a bit more room to accommodate the additional volume of the pudding.

Next came the flan-esque pudding.

This gelatanous stuff was transferred straight from its plastic cup into the Cup Noodles, once the noodles were fully softened by the boiling water (about three minutes).

Then we attempted to mix.

In a hopeful, unrealistic expectation, we crossed our fingers that the pudding would meld with the soup’s bouillon broth and transform the dish into a cream-based broth delicacy. That is not what happened. Instead, the pudding broke into what one tester deemed “globs” of unenjoyable sweetness that tainted the noodle soup.

The appearance of the soup made testers want to retreat.

“I’m so terrified.”

“Who invented this? Why would you do that?”

“It looks like unmelted butter.”

And, at last, when tasters put plastic spoon to mouth, the results were unsavory.

“I don’t like it.”

“It’s more the consistency than the taste that is bad.”

“The pudding does not belong in the ramen.”

“Everything tastes just like normal ramen until you have a clump of that.“

“Can I be done?”

“I’m gonna set this down.”

“This would be acceptable prison food. And efficient.”

One hopeful tester thought the pudding might add a tofu-like consistency to the soup. But the dream was made in vain. “It wasn’t as firm as I was telling myself it was going to be in my head,” she reported. In truth, eaters just wanted their noodles back. And would happily go to bed without dessert.

“It’s not terrible, but I would choose not to put the pudding in the soup.”

“I keep digging around to find NOT-pudding.”

For now, let’s agree to leave one of our planet’s most glorious convenience foods untouched. Dried noodles, salty, evaporated broth and a carefully poured cup of boiling water. That’s it. If your soup has you craving a post-dinner flan, why not enjoy it as a post-meal nightcap?

Find a much more action-packed and seemingly positive ramen pudding experience below:

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