Trying Something New

For my birthday in September, my dad made me a wooden soap mold and my husband bought me some lye (sodium hydroxide).  I had put out a request because I had been dreaming of trying my hand at cold-process soap making.  In making lip balm, you often find recipes for other bath and body products because the ingredients work for all sorts of fun things.  I had some supplies left over from last fall's mad rush of Osmosis orders and decided making soap would be a good way to use them up.

I've made liquid soap in the past and could have done that again, but I still have a little bit of soap paste left in the fridge, so I thought I'd give bar soap a try.  Knowing a smidge about the oils I had to use, I decided to add a 25% base of coconut oil.  The rest of the recipe was made up of shea butter, jojoba oil, and cocoa butter.  I ran it through the lye calculator and ta dah, I had my recipe.  I decided not to use colorant or do anything fancy since I'd never tried this before.  After watching videos on lye safety, I gave it a whirl... using my handy dandy stick blender (a bday gift from Mom a few years back).  I poured it in the mold and wrapped it up in a towel and left my house for the weekend.

Now I have to say it's a good thing I left my house for a few days because my minimal patience would not keep me from peeking at my soap every couple hours.  As it was, it was the first thing I did when I came home!  I promptly unmolded it and sliced it up.  And yet, I had to be patient once more.  Unlike my liquid soap which is ready to use as soon as you are done making it, bar soaps need curing time... 4-6 weeks of curing time.  So. Hard. To. Wait.

Here we are 5 weeks later and I am so happy to say that I've given one of the bars a home in my shower.  There was a little learning curve with using the bar soap... It's been soooo long since I've used a bar of soap in the shower that I about forgot how to do it.  I just stood there holding the wonderful thing in my hand for a while.  Happy to report that I figured it out and the soap did its job and cleaned my skin without leaving it feeling all stretched and dry.  My definition of successful soap!





I have a plan for most of that batch of soap and it's going to be shipped off somewhere special soon.  Since I won't be keeping it all and it takes soooooo long before I can use it, I thought I'd better get started on a new batch.  This time I thought I'd get creative.  I used 50% olive oil as the base and added some coconut oil and cocoa butter (the last of last year's supply).  I decided to split the batch and do a layer of color.  I used a bit of iron oxide from my lip balm supplies (the base color for Winter).  This batch went to trace much faster than I expected and became thick too quick!  I managed to get it into the mold and then promptly left my house for two days.  Good planning on my part!

Away from my soap, I visited Dad and convinced him to throw together a soap cutter for me... since my first attempt at slicing soap wasn't so straight.  My Dad rocks at throwing together stuff made from wood.  He had me set up in no time and my new cutter was the first thing I unpacked when I got home.  I quickly unwrapped the soap and pulled it out of the mold.  (Hubby helped the cause by photo documenting my big reveal.)








The results are okay.  There are definitely signs that it was too thick when I poured the colored part into the mold.  I had also sprinkled some jojoba beads on top of the soap thinking they would be pretty sprinkles, but alas, they seemed to have melted.  I also see that I have a smidge of soda ash on the outer edges... oh well.  Next time I'll try mixing at a cooler temp and see if that goes better for me.  It smells yummy though... cherry blossom.... one of my few favorite florals.  This soap is for me.   It'll be a loooonnnnngggg time before I can try it though.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Other than the links listed above from Bramble Berry and Soap Queen TV, I have also been reading about soap making in these books:

All three are available at the library!

Closet Hippies

I have no pictures for this post... don't want to show you the proof. ;)

Part of being in this lip balm business is doing research.  Now I can't say I've done tons of serious research, but I spend time online and find that I pick up bits of knowledge here and there.  Some would warn to be careful with just bits of knowledge... and I agree.  I am not writing this post to influence anyone.  Influence would require some major education and research efforts.  I will share that through the course of gaining these bits of knowledge, I have tried some things I would have never even thought of before.

This past month I attempted to make my own laundry detergent.  Why?  Well, I don't really know how to answer that question.  I found this post and found it intriguing.  I didn't jump right in an make it though.  I found lots of other recipes online and compared them and read the comments from those who attempted to use the detergent.  I finally decided to give it a try.  It was a combination of the mad scientist in me and my frugal nature.  This has nothing to do with chemical awareness or being green.

I bought 2 gallons of distilled water... probably could have used tap water, but I'd need the jugs anyway.  Plus who knows how the different minerals in the tap water would affect it... not that I don't use tap water to actually wash my clothes!
I bought a bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap and grated half of it with the cheese grater.  I like the smell of this soap.  It just smells clean.  I decided against using bath soap like Ivory.  Some bath soaps have added ingredients that just are not necessary and really aren't meant to be used on clothing... the things that help moisturize your skin, for instance.  The laundry soap has some added ingredients, too, but they are in there to help with laundry issues.  There is another laundry bar soap called Zote.  I could not find that brand at my local grocery store, but I'd be willing to give it a try as well.
I already had borax, so I bought a box of washing soda.  I learned from some of my research that washing soda is not the same as baking soda, but both come in a yellow box from Arm & Hammer :)
Even with buying the water, this all came to less than $6.  Minus the water, these supplies will last quite a while and who knows how many batches I'll be able to make.

I used my big canning pot to heat 1 gallon of water and the grated soap to a boil.  After the soap melted, I added 1 cup each of the borax and washing soda and kept stirring it with a spatula until it all of a sudden boiled up.  I removed the pot from the heat and then added the other gallon of cool water to it while stirring.

While it was still warm, I had my husband carry it to the garage where we tried to fill the empty gallon jugs without making too much of a mess.  Let's just say I need a bigger funnel.

We filled the two jugs right up until they bubbled over a bit.  I used the little bit that was left in the pot to wash the pot and my utensils and then I was done.  Super easy.

I was so excited to try it I did as many loads of laundry as I could :).  I am very pleased with how all the clothes came out.  I enjoy the scent despite not being a big fan of perfumes.  The scent is very subtle and very clean.

I imagine I'll need to be diligent on pre-treating stains and I'll need to add oxiclean to the whites in order to get some optical brightness in there... nothing I shouldn't already be doing!


And then...
About a week later, my husband announced he would be needing antiperspirant on our next trip to the store.  I was still pretty excited about the laundry detergent experiment and I since I had this recipe for deodorant already bookmarked, I offered the idea to him.  See, he's really not a sweaty person, so for the day to day stuff he really doesn't need antiperspirant.  He has also mentioned how aluminum is connected to Alzheimer's disease which concerns him. Aluminum is the active ingredient in antiperspirant... another tidbit of information.  Deodorant leaves out this ingredient because it's purpose is just to keep you from getting stinky and it doesn't keep you from sweating.

Just like the laundry detergent, I read through all the comments before I attempted it.  And I may have done a search on natural deodorants and anti-microbial essential oils.  My husband is not a big fan of tea tree oil ever since I mentioned it's link to enlarged breasts in pre-pubescent boys.  So I found that cedarwood essential oil is also microbial (and Dr. Oz may have mentioned its usefulness for acne as an alternative to tea tree oil, too.)

Now I use the term anti-microbial lightly.  Like I said, I have not done extensive research but only have a limited knowledge.  Microbes tend to include bacteria, fungus and whatever other nasties there are.  I tried to explain to my kids that the stink in their arm pits and shoes is from these little nasties having a party and eating too many beans.  Anyway, the coconut oil used to hold the recipe together is also anti-"nasties" and as most know, baking soda is a natural deodorant.  The corn starch is a soft powder to help absorb some of the sweat that will be happening since there is no aluminum.  All in all, the recipe really seems set up to do the job!


Some more tidbits:  Coconut oil is solid resembling Crisco when at room temp or lower.  In the summer, it's pretty much liquid.  Because of this you may need to keep your deodorant in the fridge.... refreshing!  Essential oils have very strong fragrances.  At first whiff, my husband thought his cedarwood deodorant smelled like a musty basement... think cedar lined closet.  The nice thing about cedarwood essential oil is that the strong scent disappears rather quickly leaving the very calming scent attributed to it by "those in the know" about aromatherapy.  If you don't want to use corn starch, you can apparently sub arrowroot powder.  If you have sensitive skin, the link includes instructions to lessen the baking soda.


How it's going:  Hubby got over the basement smell and has to admit that he has not been stinky even in the summer heatwave.  He does wish he didn't have to go to the kitchen to put it on.  I've been using the leftovers on a spoon and have to say that I really like it.  I used it a few days and then when I went to work I decided I'd better use the regular stuff, but I noticed that even though it's an antiperspirant I still got the same amount of moistness, but without the powder to help absorb it, so I'm giving up the antiperspirant, too!

So between the homemade lip balm, soap, laundry detergent, and deodorant; my husband wonders if the neighbors know they're living next to hippies ;)

SLS-Free Adventure

About two months ago I was running low on my favorite Herbal Essences so I put it on my grocery list.  Low and behold, my trusty mega super mart did not have that particular flavor anymore!  So I decided to wait and see if I could find it at another mega super boutique.  No such luck.  Good thing I wasn't totally out yet :)

It didn't take too long before I needed to take a serious browse down the haircare aisle.

Don't you dislike being in the haircare aisle?  So may products to choose from and not a clue where to start.  Not to mention the fact that there are always people in that aisle.  There are people who know what they want and they really want you to get out of their way.  There are also people, like me that day, who clog up the whole aisle with there grocery cart while they read the back of every bottle of shampoo.

So there I was, reading labels, trying to remember what I've read on the internet about chemicals in cosmetics.  I knew I wanted to avoid sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS).... not just because it gets picked on by everyone.  Over a lifetime of shopping for shampoo a person starts to realize what really works and what doesn't.  I prefer to wash my hair every other day.  Not every shampoo out there works for that.  I narrowed it down to shampoos that use ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS) verses SLS.  The ones with SLS I would need to use everyday because my hair would be oily on the second day.  The ones with ALS at least got me through the second day with minimal greasies.  So there I was in the haircare aisle looking at the back of all of the shampoo bottles for ALS.

Now over the past couple years I've been reading quite a bit about chemicals in cosmetics.  In the course of this research I learned that in Europe they don't even allow SLS/ALS in their products.  There are reports that these harsh surfactants contribute to the formation of cancer cells.  There are other reports that refute this.  I don't know which is true and I'm not letting that contribute to my decisions.  What I do know is that SLS/ALS are very strong surfactants.  They are very, very good at their job.  Unfortunately for our skin and hair, they can do too good of a job and strip your body's natural oils and wash them down the drain along with the dirt and grimies.  (find more info about sulfates here)

My first experience with dropping the sulfates was when I switched to my homemade liquid soap.  I noticed that this past winter, when my hands and skin would normally be crying from the dryness, my skin was holding up quite well.  They dried out the most when I was at work... using the bubbly, sulfate-filled soaps.  I have also been using the homemade liquid soap on my face and body with the same results.  After using, I don't feel like I have to run to the bottle of lotion before my face cracks!

So, back to the haircare aisle... While reading the bottles, I found a line called Organix that said it was sulfate free.  The thought occurred to me that maybe this is the way I should go since the switching my soap was going so well.  The shampoo was a bit more expensive than what I would normally pay for shampoo, but I thought it was still worth the try.  I chose the Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Therapy Shampoo because I have straight-ish hair and it's best to just go with what you have. (I thought it smelled good, too.)  


The first thing I noticed... and I think everyone notices... is that there just aren't that many bubbles (this is true of my liquid soap, too).  I figured this would be the case since the sulfates really make things bubbly.  I took the amount I would usually take to do my whole head and it just did the front part of my scalp.  I had to squirt some more to get the back of my head down to my ends.  Without all the bubbles, it's harder to tell if you gotten all the hair.  I have noticed that since that first time I don't need two squirts of shampoo to accomplish the job... I wonder if it just had a lot of junk to clean off my head!  I used my usual conditioner.  Note: The smell of this shampoo does not linger in my hair.  


After drying, the first thing I noticed was how soft and fluffy my hair was.  It was not super straight like I thought it would be given the name of the shampoo.  This disappointed me a bit.  I also noticed fly away hairs.  You know the ones that give the halo effect?  This annoyed me a bit.  I squirted some hairspray on to smoosh them down and went on with my day.


A wonderful change since using the sulfate free shampoo has been that my hair doesn't get oily fast.  I could go three days between washing if I wanted to!


With the flyaways still annoying me, I ventured to try another product by Organix to try to smooth them out.  The Rejuvenating Cherry Blossom Ginseng Shine Spray sadly did not do the trick.  I found it drying and strong smelling.  I think it could double as perfume.  That's a little bit of money I won't get back.


Despite the flyaways I have kept using the shampoo.  Since switching, I have noticed less hairs going down the drain and/or into the trash and/or all over the bathroom floor.  (LOVE this!)  I have also noticed the halo flyaways are getting longer too... as is the rest of my hair.  I wish I had thought to measure it before I switched shampoos so I could give you some numbers.  My hair grows quite slowly, so this is a super bonus!


So I now have these thoughts about the fly away hairs.... I believe that all of those hairs were damaged and broken from using the harsh sulfate shampoo.  The same shampoo that has dimethicone in it to smooth all of the hairs giving me a sleek, shiny hair-do.  All this time I thought my hair was healthy and I see now that it is damaged.  I am hoping that by sticking with the sulfate free shampoos that my damaged hair will soon be replaced by the new healthy hairs growing.  In the meantime, I'll be trying different things until I get those hairs to lay down.


Just last week, when I was back in the haircare aisle... I found another line of sulfate free shampoos called RenPure Organics.  Attached to the bottle was a rebate card refunding the full purchase price.  Naturally, I couldn't resist and decided to give it a try... it was only going to cost me a stamp, anyway.  I picked up i love my hair / Body & Shine Shampoo - I thought maybe this would be better at taming the flyaways.  I have used this three times.  I love the smell.  The scent stays with my hair, unlike the other one.  It seems to bubble a little more.  Sadly, the flyaways are still there... yet still getting longer... eventually, they'll just lay down.


Note:  I did not get these products to review them, nor am I being compensated by anyone to write my opinion.