Makin' It From Scratch: Toiletries Update

I've come across some new homemade toiletries blog posts and recipes that I thought I'd share.

Natural Beauty: Clean Skin, Teeth, and Lips (see recipe below)

The Oil Cleansing Method

How to Clean Your Hair Without Using Shampoo

Homemade Soaps and Body Care

Basic Homemade Toothpaste

2 Tablespoons of coconut oil

2 to 3 Tablespoons of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of Stevia powder

a few drops of pure peppermint extract

Mix it all together until it resembles toothpaste.

Coconut oil has a melting point of 76 degrees Fahrenheit, which means this toothpaste feels more liquidy during warmer weather. It doesn’t change its effectiveness, though.

The Stevia provides a bit of natural sweetness, making the toothpaste palatable, as does the pure peppermint extract. You could try a variety of flavors to your liking.

Right now, I’ve got this toothpaste in a small lidded jar, and I scoop out a tiny bit with a tea spoon onto my toothbrush. But you can also get empty squeeze tubes, often found among camping supplies at stores.

No-Poo Update

Just a quick update on going no-shampoo. Things have been going much better than I expected. For the first couple weeks my hair was totally normal and felt and looked clean. In fact, a friend of mine, after finding out I was only washing my hair with baking soda, looked at my hair and said, "Your hair looks clean to me!" haha! These past couple weeks my hair has been a little more greasy than usual, but that just may be because I'm not washing it as often and so it's just adjusting.

A big thing that I noticed is that with my thick hair I have to be very liberal with dousing my hair with the baking soda/water solution. I have to make sure my hair is sopping wet with it, that it's getting to my scalp and everything. I scrub it around and then rinse it out and then do the vinegar rinse. One time I did not thoroughly douse my hair with the baking soda/water and my hair wasn't that clean.

My scalp has also been a little itchy, so I've been making sure to rub some of the vinegar mixture on my scalp. If that doesn't help, I'll try honey next. Honey is a lot more moisturizing than vinegar, but if you tend to have oilier hair, vinegar would work better.

I'd say the biggest downside is that the baking soda/water is stinkin' COLD when I pour it on my head in my nice hot shower. Not very nice, but maybe having it sit in the hot shower with me on the floor of the tub for awhile before I use it will help solve that problem.

So in the end - Things are still going strong and I have the cheapest shampoo ever! Woohoo!

No-Poo, Take 2

Thanks to Tsh over at Simplemom.net I am giving no shampoo a try again. She's been using baking soda and vinegar to clean her hair for 2 years! Here are her articles that I read:

http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/
http://simplemom.net/the-oh-so-important-hair-update/

After reading her blog posts, I realized what I think I did wrong before. I was measuring out the baking soda and mixing it with water right before I washed my hair. This didn't give the soda enough time to dissolve in the water, so it was just ending up on my scalp. She uses a recipe where you mix it up in advance, shake it up before you use it and she applies it differently than I did. Those were enough differences to get me to want to give it another go!

So, I just washed my hair, incorporating the changes, and just with this first wash I noticed a difference! I am excited to try this long term and will keep you updated. I'm worried about itchy scalp, but one commenter left on her blog the suggestion of rubbing in a little cocoa butter or coconut oil?

I've been using apple cider vinegar instead of conditioner for quite a few months and I love it. (I use Bragg's raw, unfiltered ACV.) My left-over conditioner has been consigned to be used as shaving cream in the shower. Way to be thrifty, eh? It actually works pretty well!

We'll see how this adventure goes!

Volunteering & A Soap Box

I just spent a couple hours at the Days End Horse Rescue farm this morning. Today I curried a beautiful chestnut horse and learned how to push him around (to get to his other side), and I mucked out two stalls. I really enjoyed these chores, lost in my own thoughts and enjoying the feel of my hand running across the horse's coarse hair as I brushed him. I even enjoyed the heft of the shovel, heavy with wet sawdust and dumped it into my cart. It's a good exercise, living in suburbia, to get a taste of outdoor work and taking care of animals. It gives me a glimpse into what I might want on our own homestead in the near future.

For a long time, it's been hard to look at houses for sale. It's this tortuous thing that my husband and I do every now and then. It's like we can't even help ourselves. After awhile I would get sick of that longing ache and tell my husband we had to stop. It's so hard to look at something that you can't have!

Well, the other day something changed in my thinking. Instead of focusing on what we don't have, what we can't do, I realized that right now is the time to be doing the research, to be finding out what we do and do not want in a home and land. At the Mother Earth News fair, I talked to one of the workshop teachers and her husband after her class ("Why Homegrown and Homemade"), and they warned me to be careful about buying land in the "country". Her husband said that a lot of times, farmers sell off bits of their farmland in parcels of 5 acres or so to people who want to live in "the country". But what you need to know is that a lot of these farmers have sprayed their fields with who knows what for who knows how long and when you buy that parcel of land neighboring a used field, who knows what they will continue to spray on it! I had never thought of that before and I am so glad they told me that. It's one more thing to add to our list of what to look out for as we're looking for a place to settle.

This morning on the radio I heard this advertisement for Monsanto (a big {evil} agricultural company) and
 it said "Monsanto - working with farmers in the U.S. and internationally towards sustainability". I yelled at the radio, "Yeah, RIGHT!" Monsanto is one of those big bullying ag companies that created the GMO crops out there - crops that aren't reliable, crops that cannot be planted from their own seed, crops that spread their contaminated pollen into unsuspecting farmer's fields that have saved their seeds for generations. I am all for GMO foods required by law to be labeled. Do you know why there's such a big fight against it? I think it's because 80% of what's in the stores would need to put "contains GMO food products" on their packaging. It's so scary and it is so sad that it's getting harder and harder to have pure foods. - Another reason to look for land away from farmer's fields so that my own plants won't be affected.

Okay... I'm off my soap box now.

Chamomile Shampoo Update

Okay, so I just used the shampoo and the "foam poo" is a no go! It took a lot just to feel like it was doing something. I doubt that it was. Another few notes:

- I was slightly suspicious of having bar soap in my shampoo. I was right, because it left this funky, unpleasant sticky feel to my hair. I had to immediately follow shampooing with my apple cider vinegar rinse just to get my hair feeling somewhat normal again.
-Also, even after all that beating with the whisk, there were still soap shavings in the bottom of the shampoo bottle.
- The yellow food coloring is totally pointless, so why bother? We're trying to get away from dyes in our stuff anyway, right?

So, here is my own updated version of the recipe that makes a lot more sense - at least to me. I might just dump out what I have and start all over again. Such a bummer, especially after that beautiful tutorial I gave you! :-)

Chamomile Shampoo

1 handful fresh or dried chamomile
1 1/4 cup boiling water
3 Tbsp. Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap (I think either the rose or lavender would go well with chamomile...)
1 Tbsp. glycerin

1. Steep the chamomile flowers in the boiling water for 15 minutes.
2. Add the castille soap and glycerin and stir (for goodness sakes, don't BEAT it! haha!) until well combined.
3. Pour into a clean reused shampoo bottle.

I'll let you know when I make my new batch and how the useage goes. It's got to be better than the last one.

Chamomile Shampoo Tutorial

I've had this recipe for Chamomile Shampoo that I've been wanting to try for a long time. The recipe is from the Homemade book that I've reviewed in the past. I finally decided to buckle down and make it. It's not as fast to make as other shampoos I've made, but it wasn't bad. It smelled lovely as I was making it too.

Here's the recipe:

Chamomile Shampoo

1 handful fresh or dried chamomile flowers

1 1/4 cups boiling water

3 Tbsp. pure soap flakes or leftover slivers of soap

1 Tbsp. glycerin

5 drops yellow food coloring (opt.)

I got the chamomile flowers and glycerin from the health food store, but you can grow your own chamomile! :-)

1. Place the flowers in a heatproof bowl and add the boiling water. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

You're essentially making a tea. Mmmm! Smell that wonderful chamomile!

2. While you're waiting, grate 3 Tbsp. worth of soap. Use the smallest grater you have. It helps the soap shavings soften and melt faster.

3. Strain the chamomile "tea" into another bowl.

I had to strain mine twice - once with a large sieve and once with a fine sieve. There are a lot of tiny bits from the flowers that you definitely don't want to have left in your hair...

4. Add the soap flakes to the "tea". Let them stand until the soap softens - a few minutes.

5. Beat in the food coloring, if desired (I did add it just to see), and glycerin and beat until well blended. This might take a few minutes, and as you can see it turned the shampoo into a weird yellow froth.

6. Pour the mixture into a clean 14-ounce bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Keep in a cool, dark place.

(Not the shower, obviously??) Too bad. I'm keeping mine in the shower.

I'm planning on using some tonight. I'll have to report back to let you know if the foam settled into a gel or more of a liquid. Tonight I'll just have the interesting experience of shampooing with "foam poo". Heh heh. I'll let you know how it works!

Snow, Cranberries, and Shampoo

So, I guess it was our turn for a big snow. Miraculously, throughout these past few storms that have pummeled the east coast, our area of Maryland got away with only a skiff of snow. But last night we totally got dumped on! I'd say we got between 4-6". In some places the drifts are a foot deep. Snowmen, here we come!

In a week from now, I'm going to be teaching a group of women how to can cranberry sauce! I'm really excited. It's a group of ladies from my church and they all want to learn how to can. I just love being able to share my knowledge and love of cooking and preserving food. I just got a new water bath canner for Christmas from my in-laws (I've been using my humongous pressure canner this whole time.), so I am really thrilled to try it out for the first time. It's my first time canning my own cranberry sauce too. I've got a big bag of cranberries in the freezer and my mouth is already watering for that whole berry sauce. It's so simple - simpler than jam even because no pectin is required. Just cranberries, sugar, and water. I might try the jellied cranberry sauce too which requires an extra step of pureeing everything in a food processor. I hope it turns out! I'll take pictures and let you know.

Oh, and I have to tell you about a new homemade shampoo I'm trying out from a friend. Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup Dr. Bronner's castille soap (I'm using the Almond  kind because I love the smell)
1/4 cup distilled water
1 tsp. grapeseed or jojoba oil (optional - for dry or curly hair)

Pour everything into a recycled shampoo bottle. Shake before using.

That's it! I tripled the recipe to fill up my shampoo bottle. However, I should have only added 1/2 or 1 tsp. of the oil total. I've got 2 tsp. in there now. I'd say my hair is on the normal to oily side, so the extra oil isn't really needed. Also, I found that since it's so runny - it's essentially the consistancy of water, instead of pouring some into my hand, I just use the bottle to squirt it on my head where it needs to go. It soaps up great!

Just a note: when using homemade shampoos, how your hair will feel after washing will be a lot different from using those regular store-bought shampoos. It takes some getting used to, but after awhile you won't even notice. Store-bought shampoos have a lot of additives, but homemade shampoos are just clean and simple. I hope you give it a try! And at $8.99 for a large bottle of Dr. Bronner's, 99 cents for distilled water and $5 for the grapeseed oil, I have the materials to make a whole lot of shampoo really inexpensively. Woohoo!

Also, I made a discovery on accident. I had been using this interesting citrus organic shampoo. It didn't soap up a lot, but it seemed to clean my hair pretty well.  I had to use a lot of it, though, as my hair's on the thick side. Well, after I ran out I gave in and bought an old favorite shampoo of mine - Shikai Highlighting Henna Shampoo. After using it just once my hair was greasy and oily very quickly and I had to wash my hair every other day instead of the 3-4 days using the organic shampoo. I remember hearing something about sulfates not being good for your hair. So, I looked on my organic shampoo bottle and it said Sulfate Free. I looked on the Shikai bottle and one of the main ingredients was a sulfate. I'm not a chemist, but I think there's something about the sulfates that strips your hair of its natural oils and balance. All along the organic shampoo had helped my hair recover its balance and I hadn't even known it! I'm hoping my new shampoo recipe will help my hair get back to its natural self. :-)

No-Shampoo Update

Back in September I tried going shampoo free by using only baking soda and vinegar for about a month. Here is my report:

1. Baking soda did seem to clean, and it left my natural oils in my hair. The problem is, is that my hair is naturally oily, so this oil built up until it was a bit ridiculous and kinda gross. I washed my hair about every 3 days. This might have been part of the problem? Not sure.

2. At least for me, it was a bit difficult finding the right proportions of baking soda and how often to use the vinegar rinse. I ended up using too much baking soda and it built up on my scalp. Maybe I didn't rinse well enough? This could be an issue for people with thick hair like me.

3. Using too much baking soda also left my scalp feeling itchy. I used a few drops of tea tree oil in the vinegar rinse and it seemed to help. However, using one too many drops made my hair really, really greasy. In fact, I had to go back and wash my hair again it was so gross. A better alternative for itchy scalp is a raspberry tea rinse, but I didn't have any raspberry tea at the time.

4. The apple cider vinegar rinse is awesome! I was surprised with how it left my hair feeling so soft. This is something I will be continuing to use instead of conditioner. I could only use the ACV rinse now and then, though, because it made my hair too greasy when I used it every time.

5. I did supplement my hair-washing with some organic shampoo. I used this about once every 10 days. I'm not sure if this hindered my hair "going back to its natural state", but in my case I seemed to need it.

Needless to say, I will not be continuing washing my hair using baking soda. I might try it again sometime in the future, but for now I am using the rest of my organic shampoo, and then I will be trying out a recipe for homemade shampoo using glycerin and chammomile flowers. I'll let you know when that happens and give you the recipe!

Progress Report and Other Things

I wanted to give a quick progress report of the no shampoo. The first few days my hair still felt a little greasy and limp, but by the second washing, my hair feels so soft and it looks great! I washed it yesterday, and usually by this time it is already starting to look greasy, but not today! It still looks great. Not only that, but I noticed with shampoo, I would air dry or use a hair dryer and my hair would always be frizzy and wiry on top. With the no shampoo my hair is manageable and completely calm! This is just after a week, so more time will really tell. And I'm hoping to be able to go longer than every other day between washing. When I get a better idea, I'll give you the scoop with the recipes.

In reviews of others going the no shampoo route, they do say they shampoo once or twice a month using an all-organic shampoo without all the junk in it the other commercial brands use. So, I did buy a bottle of organic shampoo with lots of lovely essential oils and used a little of that last time just to see. Once that is gone (and I'm thinking that will be in a long time), I want to try and make my own shampoo. I have a promising looking recipe using chammomile flowers and glycerin. I'll keep you posted!

On a completely unrelated note - I am finally making progress through my apples. I just finished off my second batch of applesauce (half being of the cinnamon variety YUM!) and I am very happy! I really feel like I'm preparing my family against the no fruit months in the winter. My ultimate goal is to eat seasonally as much as I can, but I'm finding that eating seasonally doesn't mean you can't have strawberries in winter. It just means you have to freeze or can them when they're in season in order to enjoy them later!

Going Shampoo Free

I've been doing a little research and am very excited to try and go (mostly) shampoo free. My hair gets really greasy really quickly, and I'm pretty sure it's because the shampoo strips all the natural oils from my hair and my hair tries to compensate. I'm planning on switching to a healthier shampoo, but I also want to use shampoo less by using a baking soda and apple cider vinegar wash and using honey to condition my hair. Won't that be exciting! Not to mention it will be really inexpensive to wash my hair - at last! (I have really thick hair and use a ton of shampoo just to get it clean.)
Well, I had to share what I've found. Here are the links:

Going Shampoo Free by Babyslime
Toss the Shampoo by Progressive Pioneer
Honey in my Hair by Progressive Pioneer

I'll let you know how it goes.