Of all the surfaces to clean in my house, there is one that takes the cake in difficulty- my ceramic stove top. This puppy is the black diamond of housekeeping. I didn’t realize how nearly impossible these are to maintain until I moved into my house and bought an electric stove. My parents had a gas stove top, where you spill something and you clean it up in normal fashion with a little basic kitchen cleaner and a cotton cloth. If it was a REAL bad spill, burnt and crusted over, a little brillow pad and elbow grease could get the job done with relative ease.

Not the case with a ceramic stove top. God forbid you spill anything short of water on the heated surface. Instant concrete. I dead seriously told my husband recently that he was no longer allowed to cook on the stove if he couldn’t do so without spilling food on it. Psycho wife, I know. But it’s THAT hard to clean!

If you have a ceramic stove top, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you don’t, I envy you. Kitchen cleaner is a joke. Comet doesn’t make a dent. “Ceramic Stove Top Cleaner” barely cuts the mustard. It will EVENTUALLY take 15% of the staining off after elbow grease turns to tennis elbow.

About a month ago I got an email from my aunt. Short and sweet, her message was this: “I’ve learned that Barkeeper’s Friend works great for cleaning ceramic stove tops.” Hmm, I’ve heard that name before. And I remembered, about 6 months earlier my mom was laughing telling me how her sister (my aunt on the OTHER side of the family), was going crazy cleaning every surface of her house with this unbelievable cleaning product she came across: Barkeeper’s Friend. Two legitimate referrals. I have to try this stuff.

Of course, I forgot to pick it up each and every time I hit up the supermarket in the last month. But low and behold, I came across it in my mother’s linen closet this past week and “borrowed” it from her. Quotes are completely necessary here because I simply do not plan on giving it back.

The bottle says “Once Tried, Always Used.” There could not be a better tag line for this stuff. It is UNBELIEVABLE. And it’s been around since 1882. One-hundred-and-thirty-one years. Seriously? Where has this stuff been and WHY are people not screaming from the rooftops about it?

The proof is in the pudding. I tried almost every surface it claims to clean on front of the bottle, starting with my precious little ceramic stove top. I sprinkled the magic fairy dust onto the stove top, took a wet paper towel, did a couple of scrubs back and forth and I was in cleaning ecstasy. Good as new!

I then moved on to my copper tea kettle. Five black paper towels later, I was plucking my eyebrows in it. Next up: my stainless steel range hood. Cleaner than the day I bought it.

I then started searching for some brass to try it on. AH-HA: the fireplace tools that we inherited when we bought the house appear to be brass. I took the Barkeeper’s Friend to the shovel head. It polished it so good it came out looking silver. Either that is some cheap ass brass, or this stuff literally just polished the brass of the shovel. Either way, I like it.

I then moved upstairs to my bathroom. I used it to clean my tile, another winner. Finally, I took it to my porcelain tub. The detachable shower head had left dark gray scratch marks on the side of my tub that I could not get out with anything. I even tried Goof-off (which due to its smell I consider highly toxic and therefore effective). One swipe of the cloth the scratch marks faded….a second swipe I could barely see them… a third swipe and they never existed.

Screw diamonds… this stuff is a girl’s best friend. I am going to stop here and let the photos below speak for themselves. Wait, one last thing. Amazon carries all variations of this super product for around $5. Worth every penny!

Take note of the shining ceramic stove top…

I’m really not one to seek out new products or switch up the old morning routine. What I do seems to work, for the most part, and I’m lucky enough to not really be sensitive to all that much. In reality, I probably settle for what I am currently using because I don’t have an interest in researching ingredients and Googling their chemical compositions. Personally, I’d rather Google who wore what to the Oscars. Productive, I know.

My sister, however, is the complete opposite. She is always coming across new products for her hair, skin, and face. The more organic, the better.

Being the younger sister, I do what younger sisters do best. I sit back and reap the benefits of her hard work. In the last year she has turned me on to a couple products I absolutely love and can’t live without. The latest and greatest: Coconut Oil.

My introduction to coconut oil came earlier this winter when my sister looked at me with brutal honesty and said “You’re face is SO dry, I can see your makeup caked on.” Rough. But honest, and although slightly insulting, appreciated. I’m glad SOMEONE told me in no uncertain terms that I was walking around looking like my face had been antiqued. And really, only your sister can say something like that and get away with it.

She then inquired what I was using for moisturizer. I named my off-the-shelf Walgreens moisturizer. She advised that I use STRAIGHT OIL. Seriously? The only thing worse than being dry as a bone is looking like you just stepped off an oil rig. No thanks.

“You should use coconut oil, I rub it all over my body.” All over your body? A little weird, but ok, I DO like the smell of coconut so I was willing to try it. And I was sold.

If you are hesitant like I was, let me just start by clarifying- OIL does not necessarily imply GREASE. Coconut oil is a very dry oil. At room temperature it is a solid, and liquefies into an almost watery oil when heated (by rubbing it in your palms- no microwaves or stove tops needed).

If you like the smell of coconut, you will eat this stuff up. My husband told me I smelled like our honeymoon when I got in bed the first night. Evoking memories of your honeymoon can’t be bad for the marriage, right? I’m getting a little off topic. BUT if you don’t love the smell of coconut, you will likely be able to tolerate the scent of it’s oil because it is very subtle.

It’s attractive too that its 100% organic and natural. I always feel a little guilty smearing products on my face that are riddled with unknown chemicals. It has to get into the blood stream, and although I have no idea what the effects could be, it just doesn’t seem like the thing to do.

In her research, my sister found that coconut oil can actually kill bacteria. Let’s face it, anything with potential to ward off pimples is worth its weight in gold. I’ve always struggled with break outs, and I can honestly say that I’ve had one, yes ONE, pimple since I started using coconut oil a couple months ago.

And my dry face? It’s fabulously dewy. Yes dewy, not shiny. Dewy skin is healthy, glowing skin. My concealer goes on smoother in the morning and comes off easier at the end of the day.

So where can you get this precious slice of heaven on earth? Trader Joe’s has it stocked. But like anything else, I’m sure Amazon carries it if TJ’s is not in your immediate area.

Thanks to my big sis Ang for turning me on to coconut oil and bringing my face back to life! : )