Hello everybody! I am not sure if you know this but it's Valentine's Day - the perfect time to sit with your sweetie and read about homemade stuff! ;)
I jest, I jest. I am thankful for all of you who have kept reading and for those who are just beginning to read this! I love seeing that the hard work is worth it. So keep reading and keep spreading the word and keep giving me input - I love hearing what works, what doesn't, what you like, what you don't like, etc. :)
We have continued to stay really busy here, which is why it has been so long since my last entry. My work schedule has pretty much doubled the past week and for the upcoming couple of weeks. I am thankful for the hours but I hate not having my quiet time to research and blog like I used to. I am committed to keeping up with this for as long as y'all will keep reading though!
Today I wanted to update all of you on the products I've made so far and the results of using them. Let us begin!
Simple Soap
My first batch of soap is officially cured! It has been 3 1/2 weeks since I made it and I couldn't wait any longer. A normal cure is 3 - 6 weeks, for this soap she recommended a 3 - 4 week cure. It actually turned out better than I thought it would, it is slightly over-saponified but it reminds me of Ivory soap with the consistency and texture. The smell has faded quite a bit but it still smells wonderful to me. I used to to make dish detergent last night and have used it to wash our dog. It grates into a fine powder which makes it even more fabulous for making laundry, hand washing, and dish washing soaps.
Laundry Detergent
I have talked about laundry detergent a couple of times and for redundancy's sake, I am not going to go into a lot of details about it. It was easy, fast, and cheap. I am anxious to see what a batch with our soap will look like.
Results: Fabulous. This detergent is amazing. 1 tablespoon will remove the toughest stains and odors. We have washed dirty clothes, linens, the dog's bed, her blankets, our couch blankets, coats, and towels with cat pee on them. 1 tbsp. is all that it took for things to come out clean, bright, white, and odorless. We have also been using apple cider vinegar as a fabric softener and it has also been amazing. Our clothes don't come out smelling like vinegar. They have less static and feel softer. An added bonus - we are now spending pennies per load to wash our clothes. Hooray! Cost for this batch ended up being around $8, but in the future, using my homemade soap, it should be $3.
Tea Tree Products
Tea Tree Oil (or Melaleuca Oil) is an amazing product, my mom used to put it on everything. Scrapes, burns, whatever ailed you, tea tree oil cleared it up fast. It has a very strong smell and is really powerful, so a little goes a long way. It can be used on athlete's foot, acne, dandruff, cold sores, for colds, migraines, warts, ringworm, chicken pox, insect bites, teeth/gum care, to fight pests, for detox, and for cleaning. It is important to remember to not take the oil orally, but you can use it in your mouth if you be sure to spit it all out. It has also been found that tea tree may be feminizing in young boys as it mimics estrogen, but in adults it has not been found to have those effects. It should also be noted that tea tree oil can be sensitizing to some, if you find that it is too harsh for you straight, dilute it in a carrier oil. I used the oil in several small projects this past week. I made an acne "zapper" - 5% tea tree oil to water, dabbed on once or twice a day - that works as well as the benzoyl peroxide cream I was using. I also made a pest control/disinfecting spray for our home - 2 tsp. tea tree oil + 30 mL eucalyptus to 2 cups of water. I have used it in our bathrooms and they look wonderful, it removed soap scum better than the cleaner we were using. Plus, tea tree and eucalyptus oils are antiseptic and anti-fungal, so they fight grout mildew. I am thrilled at this cheap and healthy answer to cleaning our home and keeping away pests! Both of these products cost pennies to make.
Toothpaste
I made our first batch of toothpaste last week using a recipe I found here. In her article, Tammy (I presume) raises questions about using baking soda as a toothpaste, being that it is so abrasive. I do have some concerns about long term use of baking soda but I also see it as a tried and true "remedy". I plan to alternate between bentonite clay and baking soda with each batch I make, just to be safe. I don't really like to follow recipes exactly, the exception being with soap where exact measurements are so important, so here is my tweaked version of toothpaste:
1 tbsp. coconut oil
2 tbsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
15 drops tea tree essential oil
Mix it all together, put it in a jar, use it and smile.
Coconut oil remains a solid until 76 degrees Fahrenheit. I was in a rush so I melted the oil in the microwave for a few seconds which was not the best idea, it solidified into a hard cake that we have to dig into to use.
Results: Despite the inconvenience of mining for toothpaste, this recipe is amazing. It leaves very little taste in your mouth so you can eat something after using it. It leaves your teeth feeling clean and I have noticed that my breath is less nasty in the morning. My hunny loves the taste and feel of it as well. The only thing to be careful of is swallowing it - it contains tea tree which should not be eaten. So if you were thinking of making some for kids, use spearmint, peppermint or cinnamon alone, omit the tea tree.
The only new cost we had for this product was the coconut oil (non-organic, I know, but we had to do what we could afford) - $5.98 for 31.5 oz.
Conditioner
Ok, for technicality's sake, this is a rinse, but I call it conditioner. It is also a completely different approach to hair care, one that has been a much easier adjustment than I anticipated. I consider washing and rinsing my hair to be kicking it old school, circa 1860. I wash my hair with the store bought shampoo that we still have (they seem to be the longest lasting bottles of shampoo I have ever had), making sure that I don't tangle the ends of my hair. This is the key - not tangling the hair. You learn to be more delicate with how you handle your hair because you don't have anything to detangle it anymore, you now have something to refresh your scalp and add shine to your hair. Then I rinse it with the follow recipe (I forget where I found it, this is my adjusted version):
2 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 peppermint tea bag
Put hot water into a (repurposed!) bottle. Add vinegar, rosemary and tea bag to water, let sit for 20 minutes. Shake before use.
It is strange to think of putting tea, vinegar and rosemary into your hair but...
Results: It works! Rosemary is a member of the mint and evergreen families and is wonderful for hair and skin care. It is also useful for muscle aches, arthritis, exhaustion, gout, neuralgia, poor circulation, depression, mood swings, and memory. It improves the shelf life of omega-3's and is high in iron, calcium, and B6. Rosemary got it's start as an herbal rub for meat because it was so good for preservation. Rosemary is NOT good for those who are pregnant, have epilepsy or high blood pressure. Vinegar is clarifying. Peppermint is invigorating and smells delicious. My hubby smells my hair after every shower and the only time he caught a trace of vinegar smell was the day that I rushed rinsing my hair.
Back to the new old school routine for haircare - after rinsing my hair with vinegar, I rinse it with water, again being careful to not tangle my hair. I wring my hair out and wrap it in a towel, which I leave on for several minutes. When I finally take the towel off, I don't rub my hair to dry it anymore, I now pat it and wring it carefully for a few more minutes. Now comes the fun part - I brush with a boar bristle brush - a LOT. Brushing with a boar bristle brush moves your natural oils from your scalp and roots to your ends, it can get monotonous and get static-y, but stick with it. My hair falls out a lot less and has more shine and volume. My ends stay pretty dry, so I usually dip the tip of my finger in olive oil (mixed with a few drops of peppermint oil) and spread it through the ends to smooth them.
I can't find the receipt for the exact cost of the rosemary but if I remember correctly, it was $5 - $6.
Dish Soap
We also ran out of dish detergent this week so I was finally able to make a homemade batch. It was easy! I used Hillbilly Housewife's recipe:
1/4 cup soap shavings
2 cups water
1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar
Over medium heat, melt the soap into the water. Be careful to NOT let it boil. Once soap is melted into water, remove from heat and let cool for a bit. Add lemon juice or vinegar, stir, and allow to cool completely before pouring into bottle.
The recipe took a while to cool and it stayed super liquid-y for several hours, I poured it into our old dish detergent container before it was completely cool and the next morning it was a thick gel. It reminds me of silly putty but the consistency is great! It makes it easy to not use too much and if you are really bored, it is fun to "swish" it from side to side in the container. ;) I also got to use my homemade soap to make the soap which made it that much cheaper and sweeter - we did not have to buy a single item to make it! I grated half of a small nugget of soap and it was 1/4 cup... the bars are going to last!
Results: It is so weird to use a dish soap without a lather, but it works wonderfully. Our glasses shine once they are dry and my husband has no complaints about using it either, beside the lack of bubbles being strange. In the future, I will add a few drops of essential oil to the mixture to give it a bit more of a scent, but the current smell, although mild, is wonderful.
This batch was "free", but my calculations (using my homemade soap) are $0.88/batch and (using the castile soap recipe) $10.88/batch (this looks like a lot but breaks down to $0.27/load of dishes vs. $0.37/load for store bought brands).
I feel like there has been a re-occurring theme of "oh my gosh, this works!" throughout this post but... oh my gosh. People. DIY is easy, cheap, and healthy. It is less harmful and stressful to your body and the environment. You reuse your old containers. You have to use your mind to think of new ways to work old recipes. It is fun to get inventive in the kitchen and see your results be successful. The hardest part is the research, which I am trying my hardest to do for you, to help you all get started in your journeys toward cheaper, greener, healthier lives.
I am thinking about taking orders for products, if anyone would be interested in that... let me know! I would love to discuss this aspect with potential clients to see if there is a future in this for me, if not, I am happy to just blog about it all and hopefully inspire all of you to do what you can.
I am thankful for your patience and beg all of you to stay with me. Life will slow down again and I will be able to focus on this like I would like to once that happens. As I mentioned before, I am always anxious to hear feedback and would love to hear about your experiences with all of this!
Be well, readers. You all are a blessing to me! :)
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