DIY Natural Shower/Body/Hand Cleaners

Hand Sanitizer

1 part Witch Hazel

1 part Hydrogen Peroxide

1 part Aloe Juice

20 drops Rosemary oil

20 drops Peppermint oil

5 drops Lavender oil

5 drops Tea Trea oil

Place all in spray bottles and shake; this recipe filled up 2 10 oz spray bottles that I had.

Foaming Hand Soap

Foaming Hand Soap Pump

Castile Soap (see recipe here)

Water

Essential Oils

Fill your foaming pump container 1/3 of the way full with castile soap, fill up the rest with distilled water, add a couple drops of oil, shake and it’s ready!

Body Wash 

I used my recipe for my castile soap - see post HERE but used Zum Bar's Frankincense and Myrrh bar soap with 4 cups of water (link to product). I need to water it down more, but the concept of grating the bar soap and soaking it in water absolutely worked for goat's milk soap (and I imagine with any bar soap) if you want to extend the use by making it into liquid form (or even watering it down more to use in a foaming soap container)

Shaving Cream

I use my lotion base as a shaving cream too (see face recipes here. Here's my recipe (but it's basically just like the makeup remover and face/hand lotion).

2 oz. Coconut Oil

4 oz. Shea Butter
1 1/2 T Grapeseed oil
1 T. Olive Oil
5 drops Tea Tree Oil

Whip together, put into squeeze bottle and use as shaving cream – your hair follicles will thank you.

Lotion

Again, this recipe is listed in my facial care section and I use this basic recipe for makeup remover, face soap, hand soap and shaving cream; you could even use it as a hair mask (leave it on for 10-15 minutes and rinse)

4 oz. Coconut Oil

8 oz. Shea Butter
1 1/2 T Grapeseed oil
1 T. Olive Oil
Optional 1/4 t. Local Honey

Optional 10-20 Drops Essential Oil (lavender, tea tree, lemongrass, grapefruit, ylang-ylang)

You may need to melt the coconut oil if you keep your home cooler. Whip together all ingredients with mixer or whisk and put into pop top squeeze bottle (to keep sterile).

DIY Natural General Cleaning

Window Cleaner

16 oz distilled water

2 oz hydrogen peroxide (3%)

1-2 drops of liquid castile soap

When you spray this on a mirror and wipe with a cloth it will seem like it’s going to streak. Just walk away and let it dry and voila, it’s spotless! If you really feel the need to watch it dry, it’s worth the slow but exciting!

Linen Spray

1 cup distilled water

10 drops Lavender oil

10 drops Peppermint oil

1 drop Tea Tree oil

Spray on pillows, bed, couch and curtains to freshen the room.

All-Purpose Spray & Floor Spot Cleaner

2 c. distilled water

3/4 c. hydrogen peroxide

1/2 c. distilled white vinegar

1 t. castile soap

½ t. washing soda

20 drops Tea Tree oil

20 drops of Lavender oil     

Drain Cleaner/Mop Water Bomb

1 c. Baking soda

1 c. Borax

1 c. Washing Soda

Mop Bomb Directions: 

Add 1 cup vinegar to mop bucket water and 1/2 cup mop bomb powder and watch it sud! Mop the floors and feel the clean.

Drain Cleaning Directions: 

Pack 1/2 cup to 1 cup of the drain cleaning powder into the drain in question. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Pour equal parts vinegar and water over the drain and watch the bubbling unclog the drain.

Spicy Air Freshener

3 c. Water

6 Cinnamon Sticks

2 T. Whole Cloves

2 T. Fennel Seeds

Boil all in clean pot, let cool and put into spray bottles. Spray everywhere! Be careful with delicate white curtains (it is a burnt orange/brown color) and don't get it into your eye as cinnamon and clove can sting a bit. I bet this might be a great breath freshener too!

Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner
Mix this one in a SQUIRT bottle, not a SPRAY bottle.  It’s thick and almost a paste; watch out for some bubbling.

2/3 Cup baking soda
1/2 Cup castile soap
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1/2 Cup water
A few drops of Tea Tree oil

Dish Soap

2 cups water

1/4 cup castile soap (see recipe here)

5 drops lemongrass oil

5 drops grapefruit oil

DIY Castile Soap: the base for most home cleaners

I made my own castile soap, sort of. I didn't really want to buy KOH (or lye), and let my soap sit for 4-6 weeks before I used it. I found this tutorial and thought it was an amazing short cut for liquid castile. Here's the link: http://gfbff.com/tips-and-tricks/diy-100-olive-oil-castile-soap

I used my blender to grate the olive oil soap, added the water, let it sit for a while, used it for other home cleaning recipes and put the rest into a 1 gallon washed and sterilized white vinegar container. To get the vinegar smell out of the container, put a squirt of any mustard in the container, fill 1/4 way full with warm water and shake. I'm not sure why mustard removes smells, but it does - with any container and any smell. It's pretty incredible!

Back to the castile soap: I also wanted to tell whomever is reading this that the castile soap doesn't magically turn out like Dr. Bronners. It's thick, opaque, and a green tint. The thickness to me just means that I can add more distilled water and make it go further - BONUS. I'm not interested in having clear soap necessarily so it doesn't bother me. I use this castile as the base for my all purpose cleaner, floor spot cleaner, dish soap, foaming hand soap, body wash and shampoo (if you're into the sudsy shampoos).

Castile deserves a post to itself, and it can take 24-48 hours to emulsify. Have some patience, it's worth the wait! Here's the breakdown of cost:

2 bars Kiss My Face Olive Oil Soap             $2.99/ea       = $5.98

1 gallon Distilled Water                                 $0.85/ea        = $0.85

With tax it equaled about $7.50 for a GALLON (or more) of castile soap (compare to $20ish of Dr. Bronners). Not only that, you know what's in it, which is seriously important as our skin absorbs what we put on it!

Here's the recipe:

Liquid Castile Soap

large bowl

gallon of distilled water

blender

cutting board and sharp knife

8 ounce bar Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Soap

Measure and pour 4 cups of the distilled water in the bowl.

Using a sharp knife, cut the soap into smaller pieces

Place the soap shavings in the blender and grate/shred, then put into bowl and stir the shavings and the water together.

Place a lid or a towel over the bowl to prevent dust, air, pet hair from getting in.

Original Directions:

Let sit for 24 hours then stir again.

Let sit for another 24 hours if necessary. The liquid soap should be smooth and emulsified. (If it’s not, give it a stir and another 24 hours. If you find the liquid is still too thick, add another 1/2 cup distilled water until it is the consistency you desire.)

When complete, put the liquid soap into your desired container.

Lazy Directions:

I have to be honest with you, I let mine sit for a couple hours, used the thick concentrate for a bunch of other recipes and poured the rest of it into my gallon container and figured I could shake it today if it needed it. It’s thick so I added a couple cups of water to it, shook it and it’s going to sit again until tomorrow. It seemed completely emulsified before I started using it in recipes, perhaps that was due to me using a blender to grate it. Make sure your blender is crazy and completely dry before you grate it. I also used this technique for a goats milk soap that Matt LOVES, but I wanted to make the $5 bar go farther so I turned it into liquid body wash and it worked well! It's still too thick so I'm going to continue adding more water to that one too!

Enjoy!

DIY Inexpensive Milk Alternative - Coconut Milk

Found this video online, made it yesterday and I LOVE it. I love having milk with cinnamon, nutmeg and stevia in it the evenings; here's the link: http://www.thehealthyteacher.com/2010/10/04/how-to-make-your-own-coconut-milk/ 

Note: I couldn't find unsweetened coconut flakes anywhere except Whole Foods and I felt like I looked EVERYWHERE. I just wanted to save you the time and trouble. At Whole Foods, I found it in the bulk section and bought a couple lbs.

Coconut Milk

Supplies

8”-8” piece of cheesecloth

Blender

Measuring Cups

Storage container with lid (I use an old gallon jug from used distilled water)

Ingredients

½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (medium or large)

1 cup of water (warm or boiled)

Instructions

Measure one cup of water and ½ cup of coconut flakes

Place both ingredients in a blender

Mix for 2-5 seconds

Pour contents of blender through cheesecloth and into storage container

Be sure to squeeze all the liquid out of the cheesecloth

Take remaining coconut flakes from cheesecloth and place back in the blender

Repeat the cycle over again while reusing the coconut flakes and adding new water each time

You can repeat this cycle up to 5 times, producing close to 5 cups of coconut milk for the cost of a ½ cup of coconut flakes!

Storage Considerations

Store coconut milk in the fridge

Make sure your storage container has a tight lid

Try to consume coconut milk in the next 7 days

DIY Natural Laundry

I've received requests for more recipes! Note: if you begin this "making it" phase of your life, be prepared - you will end up spending a great deal of time figuring out how to make everything that you consume! It's lovely and wonderful and I'm happy to say that it's my favorite hobby, making things.

Laundry Soap

All items were found in the laundry isle.  Use ½ oz/1 T. per load

1 bar of Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap (may use any bar soap that you like/trust)

1 cup of 20 Mule Team® Borax

1 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

I used my blender to grate/shred the bar soap. Put all into bowl and stir; it seems to never look evenly distributed, which is fine. Thoroughly stir together for 5 minutes and enjoy the results!

Each batch fits into a quart mason jar perfectly. I made 3 quarts but I will probably be using a bar soap next time that has a list of ingredients that I can pronounce and I know what they are, now that I've investigated it.

Note on Fels-Naptha

I didn't expect it to be so fragrant and the label lacks a proper ingredient list but I found one online:  

Soap (sodium tallowate*, sodium cocoate* (or) sodium palmate kernelate*, and sodium palmate*), water, talc, cocnut acid*, palm acid*, tallow acid*, PEG-6 methyl ether, glycerin, sorbitol, sodium chloride, pentasodium pentetate and/or tetrasodium etidronate, titatium dioxide, fragrance, Acid Orange (CI 20170), Acid yellow 73 (ci43350)

Regarding High Efficiency (HE) Front-Load Washers

HE front-load washers require “special soap” for one reason alone – low suds. Because they use less water, they require soap that is less sudsy. The good news is, this homemade detergent is VERY low suds. The ”special” HE detergent is just another advertising mechanism to push consumers to buy “special soap” for unnecessarily high prices.

Vinegar Laundry Softener

1 gallon White Vinegar

20 drops of Lavender Oil

Wool Dryer Balls

To eliminate static and to "fluff" your clothes. There are tons of tutorials on the subject and I had plenty of yarn stashed to make some. Here's the link.

That's my laundry routine, if I have a trouble spot, I just take a pinch of the laundry soap and rub it in the stain with my hands or an old toothbrush and let it sit overnight (sometimes spraying the stain with water before rubbing the soap in helps).

DIY Natural Face Time!

Ok, so I've been reading more about what ingredients are in the products we use in the shower, put on our face and skin and I honestly, it sounds scary and toxic so I'm taking the bull by the horns and diving into making my own. I don't like creating more waste and more things I have to recycle, so hopefully making my own shampoo, conditioner, body wash, shaving cream, face stuff and lotion will help reduce the packaging consumption for us!

I've mastered what works for my face, and I happened to run into a lovely couple at whole foods that was in the soap isle looking for coconut oil. I knew where it was so I said I'd help them find it, and the gentleman said he wanted to use it (and vitamin E) on his face. I told him that I use coconut oil as lotion and promised them I would email them my recipes. Since they're all typed out nice and neat, I wanted to share them with you too! This has been a long time coming and I'm so excited to have all of these things made and they make my face feel really healthy.

Here's my email to her:
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I've got a couple of things I use for my face. These recipes for the following skin care items are below: Makeup Remover, Soap/Cleanser, Face Scrub, Lotion and Invigorating Clay Mask. Witch hazel is an excellent astringent too, if you feel like you need or want one (I just squirt some witch hazel from the bottle onto a cotton ball and apply).

Makeup Remover:

The lotion and the makeup remover I use are basically the same recipe. In the makeup remover, it's

Makeup Remover
2 oz. Coconut Oil

4 oz. Shea Butter
1 T Grapeseed oil
1/2 T. Olive Oil
Optional 1/4 t. Local Honey

You may need to melt the coconut oil if you keep your home cooler. Whip together all ingredients with mixer or whisk and put into pop top squeeze bottle (to keep sterile).

Directions: put some on a cotton ball or onto clean fingertips and gentle remove makeup from your face.

For a soap, I make my own castile soap (follow the recipe here: http://gfbff.com/tips-and-tricks/diy-100-olive-oil-castile-soap if you want to make your own); otherwise, you can purchase dr. bronner's castile soap at whole foods.

Exfoliating Face Scrub:

Put some dry powder onto wet hands and lightly exfoliate your face in circular motions, paying more time to problem areas (for my around my nose and chin). Repeat until you’ve exfoliated your whole face (gentle around the eyes!). Rinse with warm water.

Exfoliating Face Scrub

Blend or Grind: (I used our coffee grinder to make them as fine as possible – the finer the better).

1 C. Epsom Salt

½ C. Oatmeal

½ C. Dried Organic Lavender

Place in jar (I used a 16 oz mason jar)

Lotion:

This is my lotion recipe, I use it for my face, hands, and I just read that it’s good for stretch marks so I think I’ll give that a shot! I use this lotion for my hands and face so it’s double the makeup remover recipe (but you can experiment with batch sizes, depending on how much you use). The oils choice is up to you, I use a love of lavender and tea tree is all of the things I make for myself and our home because they’re reasonably prices, antibacterial and antimicrobial – both fantastic for your skin too.

Lotion
4 oz. Coconut Oil

8 oz. Shea Butter
1 1/2 T Grapeseed oil
1 T. Olive Oil
Optional 1/4 t. Local Honey

Optional 10-20 Drops Essential Oil (lavender, tea tree, lemongrass, grapefruit, ylang-ylang)

You may need to melt the coconut oil if you keep your home cooler. Whip together all ingredients with mixer or whisk and put into pop top squeeze bottle (to keep sterile).

Directions: rub in!

Invigorating Clay Mask:

For softening, drawing out toxins, just as a pick-me-up or a wake-me-up, put onto face avoiding the eyes, and leave for 15 minutes, wash off with warm water. Remember to moisturize afterward.

Invigorating Clay Mask

I know this is going to sound crazy, but one of the ingredients in this is clay pellets, and natural clay cat litter is the least expensive form of it. I picked up a 7 lb bag for 98 cents and plan on making this clay mask for everyone I know for Christmas so that I can use up the bag!

Store in 16 oz Glass Container:

Grind 1 1/2 cups clay pellets in coffee grinder until they are powder like; pour warm distilled water in just enough to make a thick paste. Add 10 drops lavender oil. Stir completely making a gritty paste. This will last a while and if it’s dried up a bit by the next time you use it, just put a little more warm water in.

I love this mask, it makes my face feel alive!

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So, that's it, that's what I've been doing lately. Today I spent 6 hours making Matt part of his birthday present which is all natural (all hand-made) home cleaning products (and some stuff for the bathroom). I made: laundry soap, fabric softener, shampoo, conditioner, linen/bed/pillow spray, floor cleaner, surface cleaner/all purpose, bath/sink/tile scrub, mop bombs, air freshener, fruit/vegetable wash, dish soap, window cleaner and hand sanitizer. Now that I type it out, it sounds like I was on speed today, but it really went by quickly; I was glad to get it all made and now my task is to come up with some cool apothecary labels for them and put the recipe right on the bottle so I will always have the recipe to make more when the bottle is getting low.

Enjoy!