Not my will, but your's be done.



Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The 2nd installment of, DO IT YOURSELF:

I LOVED hearing all your comments after my last blog post, especially when you shared your own DIY goodies!  I have already tried some of the things you have suggested!  So far, this making my own products has been really fun.  Tinctures making is my next adventure, but since that requires alot of waaaaaiiitttinng while the tincture sits, I think continue to experiment with some of your ideas while I'm waiting.

I want to quickly update on how things have been going with my last to DIY adventures. 

Laundry Soap:  I am really liking it!  The 1/2 cup measurement seems to be working for us.  If I were to wash a really soilded load I might add more, but I haven't needed to do that yet.  When you first make the laundry soap, and it cools, it forms a thick gel.  Jello like, but a different texture.  I have found that the soap needs to be re-stirred every 5 or 6 days.  If not, you get some watery sections of soap.  In the bucket, the soap has a strong clean scent, but the clothes just come out smelling clean, not with a strong scent at all.  In fact, there is pretty much NO scent, so if you want scent you will have to add essential oils.  If you happen to not like the smell of the Fels-Naptha soap, then you can substitute ivory bar soap for the fels-naptha when you make it.

Toothpaste:  Still lovin' this!  Once my batch got low I made another one and also made a batch for the kid.  I was going to wait until their toothpast ran out, but they were excited to try it so I just went with the momentum and threw out the half empty tube they had and started them on the homemade kind.  No looking back.  Shockingly, there were NO COMPLAINTS, not even from my child that likes to complain about everything.  Score!  Another thing about the toothpaste I want to mention is that it has made my lips so soft.  Seriously.  I guess the coconut oil gets on my lips while I brush my teeth so my lips are all nourished and hydrated.  The only other time they have felt close to being this soft is when I exfoliate them with the Mary Kay lip exfoliant followed by the Mary Kay lip balm.  The awesome thing about this is though, I don't have to use a product with chemicals and my lips are getting soft while I brush my teeth! NICE!

All done with the updates, on to the new stuff!

For this edition of DIY we will be moving to the bathroom for some easy, Do-It-Yourself beauty products and tips.

Shampoo:Here is the recipie for the shampoo I tried.
1T Baking Soda
1 Cup warm water
1T Dr Bonners peppermint liquid castille soap

Massage into scalp for 1-2 minutes(2 minutes if you hair is oily), and then rinse.  You can rinse with a 1:1 mix of apple cider vinegar and water for some extra shine, if you like.

I mixed all the ingredients in an empty body wash bottle and shook vigarously.   It also needs to be re-shaken before each use.  You can make if without the castille soap, I just added that for some lather.  You can also add essential oils, if you like, if you either don't add the castille soap or use unsented castille. 

Now for my review of the shampoo....
It is hard to get used to rubbing my hair with a shampoo that doesn't lather.  Even with the castille soap there really isn't much lather.  While it did clean my hair well(and seemed to do a great job of stripping build up), I'm not sure what I think about the texture of my hair afterwards.  Jury is still out on thise one.  I'm not scrapping this particular shampoo, but I think I am going to play around with some other recipies.  To be completely fair though, I read to give your hair two weeks to get used to this shampoo.

Conditioner:  I tried conditioning my hair with 1T of apple cider vinegar mixed with an egg yolk.  I massaged in to my hair and let it sit for about 2 minutes.  When I got out of the shower I got a small bit of coconut oil on my hands a lightly rubbed it on the length of my hair, not near my scalp.

My reviewed:  Liked it, but I think my hair is malnourished right now and needs some deeper conditioning than the egg yolk/apple cider vinegar.  I plan on experimenting with some deep conditioning hair masks.  This seemed to be a great every day type conditioner.

Body Moisterizer:
After showering I rubbed a thin layer of coconut oil all over my body like lotion.  It takes a few minutes to absorb, and don't over do it or you will come out looking like a grease ball.  All I can say about this one is, SCORE.  I loved it!  It made my skin feel so soft.....for days!  I tend to have dry patches of skin, especially in the winter, but I hate putting on all that lotion because of the chemicals.  You skin is the largest organ in your body and you don't want gunk it up with chemicals.  I really recommend trying the coconut oil as a body moisterizer.  Just don't over do it because if used in excess, coconut oil can have a drying effect.

Eye Make-Up Remover:
Here is another one that I am just in love with!  There are alot of different things you can use as a natural eye make up remover.  Several years ago I used olive oil for a while.  It worked great, but it left under my eyes greasy so my eye liner would run the next day.  I finally stopped and went back to traditional eye make up remover.  I don't like putting chemicals on that sensitive skin under my eyes though, so I went on mission again to find something natural that worked for me.  I came across a recipie for eye make up remover that called for one part olive oil and one part witch hazel.  Witch hazel is a natural astringent, so I thought that maybe it would cut the oiliness of the olive oil down.  I got a travel shampoo bottle, filled it half way up with witch hazel, and the other half up with extra virgin olive oil.  Shook vigarously, poured some on a cotton ball, and gave it a try.  LOVE.  It is working like a charm!  Underneath my eyes doesn't feel or look greasy, my make up isn't running, and I don't have to rub chemicals in to that delicate skin under my eyes!! Whooo hooo!!!

Side note: The eye make up remover needs to be shaken before every use.

I tried a couple of other things, but I've run out of blogging time, so you will just have to wait.  Hopefully, I gave you enough to get motivated to try making something of your own.  

Coming up next week:
Next week we will be moving in to the kitchen, where I tell of my dogfood making adventure!  I will also share a few of the little health habits we have here in the Carlin house.  They are simple additions to your diet that can have major health benefits.  But after next week, dooooon't think I'm done yet!  I've got everything from lip gloss to dishwashing detergent in the works!

6 comments:

Micah said...

love the post :D
I use 2T of Dr Bronner's in my shampoo. Give that a try. It lathers up nicely. My Dr. Bronner's conditioner arrived today...
I'm finding it interesting how my body is adjusting to fewer chemicals. The farther I go the less tolerant my body is when I eat something less than healthy. I know this is GOOD... but I'm finding it very "odd" how my body is more quickly rejecting food with chemicals.

Becky said...

I knew you'd love the coconut oil as a moisturizer. When I run out, I'm toying with the idea of trying to make my own; doesn't look that hard and then you get all the coconut meat to cook with, too. I just made a new conditioner (out of eggs and got wondering about the coconut oil again). I used 10parts water, 10parts apple cider vinegar, 3parts coconut oil, 2parts lemon juice. I'll let you know how it turns out. I think I'm gonna have to try the toothpaste recipe, too. That stuff gets expensive!!

Kleejo said...

So interesting! I hate chemicals, but all-organic stuff is just too expensive for me and my husband. Going to try your homemade shampoo, conditioner and body lotion ànd the eye make up remover! Is it hazel like in 'hazelnuts'? (I speak Dutch)
Greetings from Belgium, Cléo

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gloria said...

I have seen the recipes for homemade laundry soap==but alas we have no Walmart in the Philippines! but I did try the homemade fabric conditioner since conditioner here is rather expensive, our water is hard so even if I use laundry detergent WITH conditioner clothes still come out stiff. ANYWAY, I waited until the local store(Watsons) had HAIR conditioner, buy 1 take 1 and made of the laundry softener I had seen on PINTEREST:
6 cups water, 3 cups white vinegar
and 2 cups hair conditioner.
WORKS GREAT! and its about 4 times cheaper than the cheapest stuff than doesnt even smell nice and 8 times cheaper than Downy here.

Caroline Gray said...

First of all, I love the term "spicy toothpaste" from your last blog post, and my niece is an angel with Ray for whimsical. Her name is Aubrey, she has light brown hair, blue eyes and may or may not be bad in class. :)

I was talking to some girls from a new church group I joined on campus and we were talking about that same shampoo recipe! The girl who uses it (w/o the soap), who has beautiful hair, also said it took a couple weeks for the hair to get used to not using normal shampoo. She also uses apple cider vinegar in conditioner with 1 tbsp per cup of water.

We also talked about using almond oil and baking soda as a face wash. Apparently it doesn't clog your pores or make your skin oily.
Also! (I know I'm dragging this out too long) One girl's doctor told her to put a few drops of olive oil in her ears every few days because it softens up earwax to make it easier to get out (q-tips can be dangerous).