Pinspiration and Turning into Mother

Not only have I made my own deodorant, started quilting more, tried reducing the parabens and chemicals in my cosmetics, begun canning....I have now made my own laundry detergent. My mother would say "You are turning into your mother" (she wouldn't say "you are turning into me" she likes speaking in the third person when people become more like her). I didn't exactly copy her though. I had to tweak it a bite like I did with the other things.

While pinteresting (the pinterest equivalent to googling which is slowly taking over my life), I found this recipe:

Here's why I love it...it only requires three ingredients and a food processor, it is customizable to your choice of scent/soap, it only takes 1 tablespoon per load, and it has a recipe to make smaller batches. Seriously check out the post from the website source. For 12 bucks or so you can make enough detergent for an entire year! I got the ingredients at walmart (which really was a miracle they had them given the walmart situation in this town). The difference was that I chose this soap:

It was the most natural soap they had and it was almond scent (which I can't resist along with coconut and lilac scented things). Eric was skeptical about the whole "make your own ____" movement until he smelled the soap and then he was on board. I have successfully brainwashed him to love almond scented things as well. I might have to look into Dr. Bronner castille bar soap next batch as they also have almond scent. Not sure how all the oil ingredients in that soap would affect laundry though.

**Update: while the soap box lists none, drugstore.com lists petrolatum as an ingredient in Yardley soap (knew it was too good to be true). I have found mixed info on the Internet and left a message with Yardley customer service asking for clarification. Might be looking for a new soap for the next batch.

Pinspiration: Deodorant

I have written before about skin products I use here. I am changing some thing ups though and adding in a cleaning routine with more natural stuff. I have been through 4 different "natural" deodorants and finally, with the help of Pinterest, have found the one.

I started with this, my mom's home made recipe. I am not sure where she found it, but her and my sister both use and like it. Maybe my batch didn't have the right proportions or maybe I am just sweatier or stinkier, but it did NOT work for me. About two hours into my day I started to smell myself. It was unpleasant to say the least. It also called for cocoa butter and I added some sweet orange essential oil. This made the deodorant smell like those chocolate oranges you get at Christmas, not my favorite smell.

I then bought Tom's natural apricot deodorant

It smelled awesome, just like nice natural fruity apricots. It smelled like that when you put it on, but then I got to work and just smelled like BO sweaty grossness.

After that I went with Arm and Hammer natural

This was good, smelled ok, controlled the smelliness pretty good until 3 or 4 o'clock but my shirts were rank by the end of the day. Especially if I had to go work at the nursing home where it is always about 80 degrees indoors. This was also a little to "non-natural/home made" for my taste for not quite doing the trick.

So...onto the Thai crystal.

I only bought the sample size in this from drugstore.com. I wasn't planning on it working. Call me crazy, but rubbing crystal's on my body is maybe a little "too natural" for my taste. I have some personal care/natural lines and this one crossed it. However, the online reviews were all glowing and people claimed it was amazing so I thought I would try it. For 2 bucks if it did the trick it was worth the purchase. You are supposed to wet the crystal slightly and then rub it under your arms. The claim is that it kills underarm bacteria, thus eliminating any odor, something new I learned in my deodorant adventure.

*** it isn't the sweat that smells, it is the sweat mixed with the underarm bacteria that smells***

Does that mean I have more bacteria than everyone else, or just too much for the all powerful crystal to handle? I used the crystal for one day and it was probably my stinkiest day ever, despite claims from the health food store lady in town that says it works for her when I was telling her about my adventure (during my trip to get ingredients for the master deodorant). I also much mention that the crystal I bought was a sample size square that came wrapped in plastic and isn't easily stored. It just made me frustrated. I went back to arm and hammer and called it good, despite the fact that walmart only carried the deodorant for about one day (as can happen at our walmart here, you buy something once and they never have it again).

Then, while on pinterest a random pin on the "everything" page showed home made deodorant. I, of course couldn't resist looking at the ingredient list, assuming it would contain what my mom's did. To my surprise it was totally different.

baking soda, cornstarch, tea tree oil, and coconut oil!

The tea tree oil is naturally antibacterial so that kills the stuff that makes you stink. Also, the coconut oil (make sure you buy the virgin raw stuff) smells heavenly. I loooove the smell of coconut and am always looking for the perfect smelling coconut product. So many of them smell too perfumy, strong, etc. This one, of course is just the oil from real coconuts and has the best smell EVER! I love coconut oil so much not I am using it as lotion and nixing all my other lotion products.

I could go on about it (and have to the point where Eric suggests I use coconut oil for everything just to be funny) but I just can encourage you to try it. The jar I bought is "Now Healthy Foods" brand and looks like this

It was 9 bucks for 12 oz. I figure since the deodorant only takes 3 T per batch (I halved it from the original recipe) and I am using it for lotion too, it end up being way cheaper than buying other deodorants and lotions because a little of this stuff goes a long way. The other thing I like about it is that it's a solid at room temp, but easy to get out of the container (not like natural shea butter), but once it touches your warmer skin it becomes and oil. It's less messy than trying to rub a "liquid at room temp" oil on your skin. Not to mention there are so many other things you can do with it.

Puppy Training

We spent a lot of time, energy, and effort training our first dog Chops not only in basic obedience, but for bird hunting too. Two years after purchasing him he is a very well behaved, very skilled bird dog who can't bird hunt (more on this in a future post).I credit a lot of the training success first to Eric, who did a large majority of the training with Chops, but also to this book.

Of all the horrible things about our first dog breeders, they did suggest this book which was very helpful and taught us a lot about dog training. It has since been revised and now looks like this:

The Monks of New Skete are a  raise and train German Shepherds. They have a handful of dog books out there and their training techniques helped us a lot. Keep in mind this is the only puppy training book I have read, but it worked pretty good and baby Turk can already sit and is mastering down within his first two weeks with us.

Winter Skin

If you google image "winter skin" this is one of the many pictures that come up.

all the other ones that show up are similar in nature and ridiculous.

My skin FREAKS out in the winter. Negative temperatures, poor water intake (my own fault), crazy wind, and miserable weather prompted me to rework my skincare routine and hopefully find some better solutions. While I was at it, I decided to go paraben free and as natural as possible. Here's the new line up that is working out well so far.

St Ives 24 hour deep restoring 24 hour moisture lotion

After reading labels for way too long at Valmart (part of the "w" at our store is not lit up this week), I found this on the bottom shelf, never expecting it would be paraben free with recycled plastic in the bottle and for a reasonable price. So far I am really liking this as and all over body moisturizer. To get more details about it here's the link. I also really like Alba very emollient body lotion, but it's more expensive and I had just finished a bottle of it. I was looking to try something new.

Onto face wash. I was using Ponds cold cream, which I love, but isn't natural. At first I tried Avalon Organics vitamin C cleanser for all of the good reasons it lists on the website and the SMELL! It smells like oranges. I really wish it would have worked out but it gave me lizard face (that scaly dry tight feeling skin) and I couldn't stand it, especially combined with our weather. I was miserable for a week until I bought this:

Burt's Bees sensitive skin cleanser

I have always had very sensitive skin which is probably why the first wash I tried didn't go well. This stuff is amazing! It is soap free too, which my sister tells is why some face washes can be drying. It's also hypo-allergenic, fragrance free, etc. Love it! While writing this post I discovered there is an eye cream, night cream, and daily moisturizer in this line too. May need to try that. I also love their facial toners, but am trying this one right now.

Thayers Rose Petal Witch Hazel Toner

This is an alcohol free all natural toner and it is cheaper than the Burt's Bees brand, but may be less available. However, I can find it in my town and GNC. It doesn't smell as good as I had hoped (I love the smell of roses) but they also have other scents like cucumber, another favorite of mine. So far so good with this one. Onto face moisturizer. I went with my mom and sister's recommendation for Avalon Organics Oil Free Vitamin C face cream and am in LOVE.


I am tempted to try the Burt's Bees sensitive moisturizer since it costs a little less (this one is kinda pricey at 22 bucks) but I seriously think this is going to become a lifetime beauty product for me. A tiny little dab goes a long way, smells amazing, and feels so good.

I have had no breakouts or skin issues with all these changes and have jumped on the all natural cosmetic train (choo choo). Better late than never (right mom and mere). I have to use up my shower gel but just bought the Say Yes to Carrots nourishing body wash. I am interested in their line of products and need to explore a little more.

I am also making mom's deodorant but am still figuring that one out. I added sweet orange essential oil to it and combined with the coco butter it smells like one of those chocolate orange balls you get at Christmas time. The other issue I am having is that using all natural ingredients makes it solid like regular deodorant and hard to spread with your hands. I am trying to find a container like a regular deodorant stick so that I don't have to scrape it off the solid piece with a spoon to put it on. Yucky.

Cold Cream



I have made a beauty regimen change in the last month. The long, bitterly cold, dry winter has taken a toll on my skin especially, and having combination skin in -30 weather is a challenge. After reading about ponds cold cream in a magazine It was featured here with good reviews. Soon later PW mentioned it in a post.

As a die hard cetaphil fan I researched  ponds and read glowing reviews. It doesn't hurt that Kylie Minoque endorses it as a product she uses. We all know how good (and young) she looks. I was worried the mineral oil might cause breakouts despite the reviews. I decided to try it anyway, something that's been around as long as this product has is worth a try.  I LOVE IT. It cleans, removes makeup, moisturizes, and will help with wrinkles all in one step. It is better and faster than what I had been doing and it isn't too greasy.  I use it by putting it on, wiping it off with a towel, and then using my olay moisturizer afterward. My skin has really never felt better. I don't know if I will need the extra moisturizer step this spring and summer, but for winter it is wonderful.

Scentbug

I will admit I shop at Bath and Body Works more now than I did in the past. This is probably because I have such limited retail options within 50 miles. I recently received one of these as a gift and had never seen or heard of them before. I love them now so much I started buying them for other people. I was always a big candle person mainly because I like they way candles look when lit. But, where does all that wax go? You start with a huge candle and when it's gone it's an empty container. This leads me to assume all that wax is burning up into the air and settling on the brand new dry wall, trim, paint, etc. Not a happy thought for me considering how much time, energy, and dough I've invested in the little green house. So...I've explored some new options one of which is the scent bug.

You buy this little battery operated egg and whatever scented oil you prefer. Mine is fall leaves right now. The set-up runs you around $20, but you know the BBW sales are plentiful and you can probably find a deal on one of these little joys. The bug comes with these round cotton pads you put the oil on and then you put it in the bug, turn on the very quiet little fan, and forget about it. I forget about mine a lot, and have to replace the batteries often. The best features about the bug are 1. you can control the amount of scent released by the amount of oil you put on the cotton pad so you don't have aroma overload. 2. You can change the scent when you want to because the bug comes with three different cotton pads and you can buy refills too. 3. The jar of oil lasts forever because you only use 10-20 drops when you fill the bug. 

Go check them out. Good little gifts. Oh, they come in tons of colors too.