Basalay Part 1
About an hour’s drive from our village on Negros Island in the Philippines is a natural hot spring high in the mountains along the Basalay River. After driving our motorbike up a winding, rocky road, we descend a series of 100+ steps to what used to be a series of constructed ‘hot tubs’ where volcanically heated water flowed in to relax tired muscles. One could sit surrounded by green, tropical beauty and smear natural sulfur paste on your skin to clean pores and leave you feeling smooth. Although the sulfur vents did fill the air with that tell-tale ‘rotten egg’ aroma from time to time, the visit was always a unique island adventure. Unfortunately, the Hot Springs pools and path to reach them were greatly damaged when a typhoon hit the island in early December 2011.
Flashback to March 2011 when some family members visited us in the Philippines. After a long flight across the Pacific Ocean from the US (including a flight cancellation in Japan) we did some amazing scuba diving and snorkeling and unwound with a visit to Basalay Hot Springs. A nice man offered us a large rock he seemingly pulled out of a steamy sulfur vent in the mountainside along the river bank and instructed us to spread a thin layer over our skin, including our faces, but to avoid our eye area. The next morning we noticed any travel-stress-induced acne had magically cleared up over night and we were all left with smoother skin. This was no fluke. Sulpur is sometimes used as an active ingredient in acne treatment masks including one I have found particularly effective- Proactiv’s Refining Mask. This inspired me to create an all-natural spot treatment to add to the Just Coco Collection.
In August 2011, we returned to Basalay Hot Springs to harvest sulfur paste to dry out and use in a new product- Just Coco Basalay Spot Treatment. (Video soon to follow!) And just a few weeks ago we finally revisited the site to harvest more sulfur paste and view the typhoon flooding damage for ourselves. We took these photos.
Now we are in the process of drying the sulfur paste to a fine powder. It will then be added to other natural skin clarifiers including French Green Clay, Tea Tree Essential Oil, and, of course, Just Coco’s Virgin Coconut Body Oil to create Just Coco’s Basalay Spot Treatment and Facial Mask.
