Lavender Triple Milled Soap

I have gone through a few bars of Dr. Bronner's soap, and have enjoyed them very much.  I have also been using Dr. Bronner's liquid soap for the bathroom sink.  I ran out of my smaller bottle, and needed to purchase some more.  Trader Joe's has a very good deal on a large bottle of Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid soap.

As I was looking, I found another bar of soap that I have been very interested in trying as I was researching on natural soaps.  Bisous De Provence Lavender Triple Milled Soap Enriched with Shea Butter.

It has lavender in it, and it smells AMAZING!  

I cannot find a list of the ingredients- but here is a list of what I know is in it:

All pure, natural ingredients enriched with shea butter and pure essential oils.

 Free of parabens, ethyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol and DEA. 8.8oz/250g

I plan on trying out some of their other "flavors".

The soap does leave pieces of lavender in your wash cloth, but it smells amazing, and it comes in an extra large bar.  It's also the same price at Trader Joe's as Dr. Bronner's bar soap.

I will let you know how long it lasts, but it appears not to melt fast, and again, it smells wonderful!

Thank you again for reading.  Any and all comments are welcome.  

Organic Shampoo for dry or damaged hair

So, I have still be trying to find a slightly cheaper version of the soap nut shampoo, and I am still using the natural shampoo I purchased from Cheryl's Herbs, but after a while, my hair still gets a little greasy.

I was out of town about two months ago visiting my fiance and I found an organic shampoo at Walgreens.  I was stunned to find this, so I purchased it(it was 10 dollars).  I washed my hair, and used my conditioner, but, and it came out greasy.  So I thought to myself, oh well, another fail.  This past month I decided to try it again, but to not use the conditioner and VIOLA!  My hair was happy, and not greasy.

The product is made for people who have very dry hair(the reason why I don't need to use conditioner with this product, I don't have dry hair).  It's made by Shea Moisture, called Moisture Retention Shampoo.



Here are the ingredients:

Deionized Water, Decyl Glucoside (Sugar Beets), African Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*, Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Argan Oil, Panthenol (Pro‐Vitamin B‐5, Rosemary Extract, Sea Kelp Extract, Vitamin E, Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) Flower (and) Lonicera Japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle) Flower Extract. *Denotes Certified Organic Ingredient.

Ingredient Attributes: silicone free, sulfate free, paraben free, organic, glycerin free

It's a great shampoo.  I am still using what I have left from Cheryl's herbs, so I will be purchasing this next for my home.  I love the list of ingredients.

This again is just a journey to see which products work best, and I will keep you posted on what I find or try next.

Thank you again for reading!  :)

Summer Heat

As you have noticed, the posts are not coming out once a week as they have been.  Summer has been SUPER busy, and with the heat, feeling driven into trying new stuff hasn't been happening (and I haven't had to replace anything as of yet).



I was working on a garden made in pots in the backyard, however, with the drought my state is facing, I am having a difficult time keeping what I am growing alive.  Hoping the fall with be a better time to plant.

Starting in August I will post one a week again.  But I wanted to make sure everyone knows I haven't gone anywhere, except out of town to avoiding the heat!

Hope everyone is having a great summer, and I'll talk to you soon.

Thank you again for reading.

Herbal Shampoo

I have returned from a wonderful family trip and had a great holiday week.  I hope everyone else enjoyed their festivities and didn't get too over heated.

I wanted to share a product that I purchased between running out of the Soap Nut shampoo and waiting to make my DIY Soap Nut shampoo.

Cheryl's Herbs, which has a complete online store, also happens to be located only 15 minutes away from my house.  They have ALL sorts of products, and are very eager to help you with any questions you have.  Here is a link to their website:  http://www.cherylsherbs.com/




They make their own shampoo and I thought I would give it a try.  I do like this shampoo, but not as much as my beloved online purchase of the Soap Nut shampoo.



Here is a list of the ingredients in this shampoo(my hair is a darker blonde, so I went for he blond highlighting shampoo brand).

Contains: Mullein Flower Verbascum thapsus, org/wild, Marshmallow Root Althaea officinalis, org., Rhubarb Root Rheum palmatum, Chamomile Flower (German) Matricaria recutita (M. chamomilla), org. and the essential oils of Lavender Lavandula angustifolia, wild and Lemon Citrus limon blended into a soap base of the most simple ingredients: Purified Water, Decyl Polyglucose, Vegetable Glycerin, Apple Cider Vinegar and Xanthan Gum.

With continual use, it should bring out the highlights.  I have started to notice it.  The only problem I have with this type of shampoo, is after a few weeks, my hair becomes greasy.  Not right away, but over time, so I have to use another shampoo to get rid of the grease(just like a couple of drops), but my hair does feel good after I wash with this. Also, their shampoo doesn't have the greatest smell.  I might add a couple of drops of essential oil to fix the smell, but with the oil problem, I have been hesitant to do so.

I'm still working with my DIY Soap Nut shampoo also, after a few uses, my hair started to turn greasy with that as well, (I added too much oil).  I will end up going back to my NaturOli Soap Nut shampoo, but for the time(and price- less than 8 dollars for the smaller bottle) I will continue to use what I have purchased here.

Cheryl's Herbs has EVERYTHING you could possibly imagine.  And it's just one store(not a chain), so I do highly recommend that anyone getting into DIY products to please check out their web page.  Even though I am not in love with their shampoo, I still love their store, and their Vast amount of essential oils.  If you can think of it, they will most likely have it!

Thank you again for reading.  Any and all comments are welcome.

DIY Deodorant

I absolutely loved the deodorant that I bought, but once things started to "warm up", it started failing me.  Not near as bad as the regular ones, but it still was failing.  I did a couple of experiments.  Since I travel between my fiances place in Seattle and St. Louis, I have two bottles of Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal, Spray Mist.



I heard that Tea Tree oil was a good way to stop the smell, and I have also heard that baking soda was also helpful.  The bottle in Seattle I doctored with some baking soda, and it really helped!  But then again, when I am in Seattle, it doesn't get very hot there, so the baking soda trick worked there.(about a table spoon added to the deodorant- be careful when adding, it will foam over if too much is added).



Here in St. Louis, I added tea tree oil, and that also helped, but it gets much, much hotter in St. Louis.  So it would somewhat fail towards the end of the day. (I added about 10 drops to a full bottle)



I decided to start from scratch once I ran out of my first bottle in St. Louis.  I had already went out and purchased the Crystal Body Deodorant Rock for 3 bucks.  I was been told by a good friend of mine that these last MUCH longer. You set next to your shower, and wet when you are done showering, and rub your arm pits with it.



I took a small bowl of water and let the rock sit in it for a couple of hours(about a cup- cup and a half of water).  I ran some errands and when I got back, some of it had dissolved, then I put this back in my empty spray bottle and added about 10 drops of tea tree oil and about a table spoon of baking soda.

It has been reaching the 90's here in St. Louis, and I only need to use it once in the morning.  It totally rocks(get it)!    I have been using this for a few weeks, and I am completely happy with it.  It works so much better than any deodorant I have ever used.  Yes, I sweat some, but you sweat in St. Louis.  It's just a fact!

Again, I hope you enjoyed reading .Any and all comments are encouraged.  I love sharing my information and hope it helps others.

Thank you again!!

DIY Shampoo

I loved, loved, loved my shampoo purchase(which is my first product post on this blog), and it worked very well on my hair.  I purchased this bottle of shampoo back on January 31st, 2012, and it was delivered to me on February 2nd, 2012.  I used the last of drop of it on June 10th, 2012.  I used it every other day(but sometimes would wash a couple days in a row- just cause), and my son even used it a couple times a week, and it survived that long!  So a little over 4 months, I paid $23.93 (that included shipping) for it, and my hair loved me for it!  So it cost me about 19 cents a day to have that shampoo.  Not terrible.  But I thought, hey, why not try to make my own version!

I ordered just the "trial size" from NaturOli of Soap Nuts(cost about 3 dollars with shipping), and made a small batch last night.

First you boil about 2-3 cups of water, and then put the soap nuts(also called soap berries- with out the nut, just the shells), in a bag(they come with a cloth bag), and put it in the pot and let it boil for 15 minutes.

Remove the pot off the stove and let the whole thing cool before you remove the bag.

I read that the smell isn't that great, so I used my old shampoo bottle, and put about 9-10 drops of essential oil in the bottle(pick your favorite).  I also put a couple of drops of Jojoba Oil and about a tea spoon of olive oil and about a half a tea spoon of witch hazel extract.  The essential oils and witch hazel will help it last longer, and the oil will help soften your hair.









After that I used a small funnel and pored the Saponin liquid(what is released into the water from boiling the soap nuts), into the same bottle.  I shook it up, and it was done!

It will be watery, but you don't need much to clean your hair.  I just use a little, wash my scalp and rinse, then a little again to wash my hair.

My hair is still soft, and doesn't feel oily.  I still use just a "tiny" bit of conditioner to fight fly away hair.

I'm very pleased with soap nuts, and I hope you take time to try to make it yourself.

Any and all comments are welcome, and I hope you enjoyed reading my path to living a healthier life style.

DIY Laundry Detergent

For most of my life, I used Tide laundry detergent.  I grew up on it, my mom still uses it. I never questioned it because of this.  I have used powder and liquid, and they both worked just fine.  I had to change to unscented once I had our son, so he wouldn't break out in a rash.



Here is the list of ingredients in Tide liquid detergent:


water
alcoholethoxy sulfate
linear alkylbenzene sulfonate
propylene glycol
citric acid
sodium hydroxide
borax
ethanolamine
ethanol
alcohol sulfate
polyethyleneimine ethoxylate
sodium fatty acids
diquaternium ethoxysulfate
protease
diethylene glycol
laureth-9
alkyldimethylamine oxide
fragrance
amylase
disodium diaminostilbene disulfonate
DTPA
sodium formate
calcium formate
polyethylene glycol 4000
mannanase
Liquitint™ Blue
dimethicone

Then I switched to Purex.  Actually, my fiance has used this as long as he can remember(what his mother still uses), and I did notice it was much cheaper than Tide.  So I have used it for the past three years.  I have only used the liquid version.



Here are some of the ingredients in Purex liquid detergent.

Water

Sodium Laureth Sulfate

Ethoxylated Alcohol

Sodium Carbonate

Sodium Dodecybenzenesulfonate

Sodium Chloride

Polymer

Fragrance

Sodium Edta

Brightener

Preservative

I ran out of Purex and decided to make my own detergent.  I opted to make the powder detergent since I had most of the ingredients already.  The recipe listed below is pretty standard and you can find this all over the Internet.  I have used it for over a month and it works great!  It smells nice too.

1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
1 Bar of Fels-Naptha- grated







Mix and put into a jar or a plastic container with a lid.  Put between 1 to 2 tablespoons in every wash.

Fels-Naptha you will find in your laundry aisle.  It's bar laundry soap.

There are certain ingredients in Fels-Naptha that I'm not super happy with, and I might try another soap, but I'm still on my first batch, and it works great.

It was very difficult to find ingredients for the other detergents, so that is why I am posting them here.  I hope this information was helpful and look forward to all comments?

DIY Dishwasher Detergent and Rinse

I will get back to the bathroom products, as I need to make some adjustments, so I will now talk about homemade dishwasher detergent!

I have never been in love with doing dishes by hand.  I grew up with a dishwasher, and when I haven't had one, my dishes don't get washed very often. Right now I have one of those dishwashers that rolls around so I can hide it in my pantry when company is over

Once I started my organic trend, I decided that every time one of my products was empty, I would look for a more natural, less toxic product.  I started to read about Homemade Dishwasher Detergents, and the recipe is hit and miss when dealing with where your water source comes from. If you have hard water, dishes may come out cloudy.  My dishwasher is old, and they were slightly cloudy when I used the store bought stuff(I do plan on buying a new one in the future).  So I thought, what do I have to lose?

Here are the ingredients to what I would normally buy at the store:

Aqua 
Sodium Laureth Sulfate 
Sodium chloride 
Cocamide DEA 
Triclosan 
Aloe barbadensis 
Cocamidopropyl betaine 
Glycerine 
Parfum 
Citric acid 
Benzoic acid 
Benzyl alcohol 
Benzyl salicylate 
Butylphenyl methylpropional 
Methyparaben 
Methylchloroisothiazolinone 
Methylisothiazolinone 
Magnesium nitrate 
Magnesium chloride 
Propylene glycol 
Triethylene glycol 
Cl 42090 
Cl 19140
AAlu OOH2pCO2
Pks

There are only 4 ingredients to the Dishwasher Detergent.

1 Cup Washing Soda
1 Cup Borax
1/2 Cup Salt
1/2 Cup Citric Acid(or two small packets of unsweetened Lemonade- don't use another Kool Aid, or you will dye your dishes- Lemonade is colorless).



Here are the ingredients in Washing Soda- which you can find in your laundry detergent aisle.
100% Sodium Carbonate




Here is a description of Borax- which again you should be able to find in the laundry detergent aisle.
Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.

You can use Regular Salt or Kosher Salt.  Supposedly Kosher Salt works better, I have been using what I have, which is regular.



Here is the definition of Citric Acid from Wikipedia:

 a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods andsoft drinks. In biochemistry, the conjugate base of citric acid, citrate, is important as an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, and therefore occurs in the metabolism of virtually all living things.

Citric acid is a commodity chemical, and more than a million tonnes are produced every year by fermentation. It is used mainly as an acidifier, as a flavoring, and as a chelating agent.

Combine these four ingredients, the citric acid or lemonade will make your new powder dish washing detergent stick together, so it's best to shake it a couple of times the first few days so it doesn't stick together.  The lemonade (if you use that instead of Citric Acid), does make a nice fresh lemon scent.

It's best to rinse your dishes so they clean well, but again, my old dishwasher hates all food particles, so I was already doing this prior to the change.

Now you ask, but what about my rinse?  Yes, dishes do dry better when you have a rinse agent.

Replace your Jet Dry, with white vinegar.  It works great!!



And now you have it.  Your own dishwasher detergent.  And when you run out, you make another batch, and don't have to run to the store.  It's one less product you have to buy!

Again, all comments are welcome.  I hope you enjoyed this entry and look forward to hearing from you.

Mouthwash

My next post would be about lip balm or lip gloss, but I am still working on perfecting my own recipe for it.  Again, my friend Emily has her own line of lip balms at A Precious Welcome-Herbal Skincare.  She makes them in 5 great scents.

I will move on to Mouthwash!  There are tons of information about mouthwash and how they have alcohol and toxic ingredients.  For instance, Listerine is an antiseptic mouthwash, but look at the list of ingredients for it:

INGREDIENTS: Alcohol, Sorbitol, Aroma, Poloxamer 407, Benzoic acid, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium saccharin, Eucalyptol, Methyl salicylate, Thymol, Menthol, Sodium fluoride, CI 42053, CI 47005

So I started looking into a Do It Yourself version of mouthwash.  Most of what I found directed me to a a video by Sophie Uliano, and her version of how to make a non-toxic mouthwash.  I made it and it worked wonderfully.  It is made for bad breath and are also anti bacterial.  Here are the ingredients to make your own.

1/2 cup Distilled Water
1 cup Aloe Vera Juice
2 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Witch Hazel Extract
20 drops Peppermint Essential Oil

Witch Hazel does contain 14% alcohol, but you are only adding a tablespoon into this mix.  You can find it at drug stores, and I was lucky enough to find it at the dollar store, for $1!  


I was stuck on the Aloe Vera Juice, and yes, you can purchase it at Trader Joes,  or even Walmart for about 8 bucks, but I thought, hey, why can't I make my own?  So I started searching for ways to make it.  I ended up spending about 70 cents on an aloe vera leaf at my local international grocery store.  I cut up the leaf(pulling just the gel out), and put it in distilled water in my refrigerator over night.  I did read up that you can boil it and make it quicker this way, but that kills the "good stuff" in the plant, so I went for this option.  


Once you put these ingredients together(in a used empty bottle of mouthwash- or a container you can seal), store in your refrigerator and it will last since it has the witch hazel and essential oil in it.

It lasted me a month, and my fiance LOVED the fact that I didn't taste like chemically mouthwash at night.

I have posted the video on how to make this on my NEW Facebook page at
Becoming Organic- My Inner Hippie Facebook Page

If you "Like" this, go ahead and like my page.  I will update more info about information I find.

Thank you again for reading, and I look forward to any and all comments.