Au Natural Deodorant

I've been reading about homemade deodorant for awhile. But like so many other things, I tuck it away in the back of mind for some day down the road when I have a little more spare time than I do right now. I was interested out of curiosity to see if it really worked.

I'm not a heavy sweater so when using conventional deodorant, I can apply every other day after my shower. A couple deodorant containers ago, I started using Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal. I decided to switch to Naturally Fresh because it was paraben and fragrance free and it only had six ingredients. Plus, I was happy with how it scored on the cosmetic database. I think it's unrealistic to avoid every chemical that's bad for you. The only difference that I noticed when switching from my Degree to the Naturally Fresh was that I had to apply it everyday. I can handle that.

I also tried Kiss My Face Active Enzyme deodorant and it did not work for me. I was bummed because I did the like the scent.

A couple weeks ago, I went to a Nourishing Connections meeting (our local chapter of the Weston A Price Foundation). After the initial presentation, someone talked about green cleaning products, the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database and homemade deodorant! The best part? She had samples in small baby food bottles for $2! I was thrilled to be able to buy a small sample to see what I thought before buying the ingredients and mixing it up myself!

Recipe:
6-8 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot
Mix together in a blender or food processor. I also think you could add a drop or two of the essential oil of your choice.

Does it work? Yes. Just like the other, I have to apply it everyday but I have no noticeable body odor. It has a barely noticeable hint of coconut smell which is nice. I just use my finger to rub it in but I have read about people who take the time to put it in an old deodorant container for ease of application.

I have not worn it with any delicate fabrics yet but I have worn it with several of my black shirts and have not noticed any oil stains. Also, it hasn't gotten very hot out. DH did wear it one day to work and was pleased with it in this cool weather. I want to have him test it out when it gets HOT (he's Hungarian and a gardener). I've never met anyone who sweats as much as he does!

Would I recommend it? I won't be harassing family members to ditch their deodorant for this fabulous concoction, but I would definitely suggest it for people who are trying to save money or lessen their exposure to chemicals.

No Shampoo - Day 2

I hadn’t planned on blogging about this so early in the process but I really want to share my thoughts thus far. We went away over the weekend and I something planned tonight so I wanted to wash my hair last night so I wouldn’t have to deal with it after getting home late tonight. When I remembered I was out of shampoo and conditioner, I suddenly regretted my decision to ditch the shampoo. I was feeling particularly lazy after a bad night’s sleep with two 17 month old toddlers in a hotel room and a 3 hour drive home. I didn’t want to take the time to mix up my baking soda/water and apple cider vinegar/water. I realize just how lazy this is because let’s face it, how hard is it to mix up a few things?

But it wasn’t just laziness I was struggling with. I was also dealing with the fear, however small, of what my hair was going to feel like and behave. My hair is very fine but I have a LOT of it and it’s down to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I kept envisioning me trying to detangle my mop instead of doing other important things. In the end, it was the first blog post I wrote that kept me from digging through the closet to find some shampoo/conditioner. I had already committed to doing this…in writing. I had to follow through. I also want to prove a few people wrong. I want to show them you don’t NEED shampoo and conditioner to have clean, healthy, manageable hair.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the whole process. As I knew it would be, it was easy to mix everything up. I used the bottles from my beloved Herbal Essences for my new mixtures. And while my hair wasn’t as easy to detangle as it is with my conditioner, it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be. And for some reason, I kept expecting it to tangle up as it dried but it continued to stay nice and smooth as it dried. I was happy with how it was today too. We’ll see how it is tomorrow on day 2.

Barring any catastrophes, I plan to stick with this for a minimum of six weeks to see how it goes. I mentioned it to a coworker and asked him if my hair looked any different. He said yes. When probed about what was different, he said it was flatter than usual. While this may be valid, he’s a guy. Can they really be trusted to be a good gauge of anything related to hair?

Ditching shampoo and conditioner

I’ve been wanting to write this post before I went through with this crazy idea. I knew I only had till the last bit of my shampoo and conditioner was gone but I kept putting it off. Maybe I'm subconsciously stalling? I wanted to get my thoughts down and then come back with my thoughts as I’m going through my detox.

I first read about going “no ‘poo” sometime last year. I thought it made sense but quickly decided I couldn’t give up one of my last good-smelling things – my shampoo. I’ve used Herbal Essences as my main shampoo since college. I’ve flirted with others. I’ve even tried some good stuff (my sister has a friend who used to work at L’Oreal). Even over Shu Eumera, Kerastase and MANY other high end shampoos, I prefer my Herbal Essences. I use the formula for extra body and it’s just perfect for my hair. And I love the scent!

I subscribe to several green living blogs so I kept coming across this whole idea of ditching my shampoo AND conditioner. Here is a good post explaining the process. But basically you use a combination of baking soda and water to wash your hair and apple cider vinegar to condition. And no, your hair will not smell like vinegar. We use white vinegar in lieu of fabric softener and you can’t smell it at all. Honest.

From what I’ve read, there will be an adjustment period while my hair gets used to not having its natural oils stripped every day. I already wash every other day, use minimal conditioner, don’t use anything else on my hair, and let it air dry 99% of the time. So I’m hoping my adjustment period won’t be too awful.

When I told my mom my plans to ditch shampoo she said, “Where did you come from?” I told her she couldn’t give me a hippie name and not expect this to happen! Her real question was, “Why would you want to do that?” I gave her the briefest explanation I could muster, “the chemicals they put in these products are not good for us.” All you have to do is Google Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) and you’ll see what I mean. Eliminating a few chemicals from the many products I use on a daily basis is just the tip of the iceberg for me. But I think this is a good place to start. Plus, it’s much better for the environment AND my body.

Please keep your fragrance to yourself

The less I use products with “fragrance” the more sensitive my nose has become to scents (when I’m not having allergy issues). So I frequently find myself assaulted by other people’s fragrance (deodorant, perfume, body spray, smoke, etc) more and more.

I now use an unscented natural deodorant that’s basically a roll-on version of crystal rock deodorant. I don’t use any scented lotions or body sprays. Our homemade detergent only has essential oils that don’t leave any scent, we use white vinegar in lieu of fabric softener and skip the dryer sheets.

The only things left that I haven’t given up are my shower wash and my beloved Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner (body envy). I’ve been contemplating switching to baking soda and water for my hair. You can read all about that here.

I can definitely say that my sense of smell has improved since I’ve cut back on scented products. And who needs all that mysteriously named “fragrance?” Not me!

We compost, now what?

One of my big things for this year was that I wanted to compost. I started reading about it last year but with the pregnancy and me practically being incapacitated, it wasn’t feasible for us to start - especially since it was something I wanted to do but Sean would have to do all the work. Early this spring I started thinking about it again and researching options. I know it can be as simple as a “pile” but we live in the city in a neighborhood and I didn’t really want to create a “pile” in our backyard. And the garden is right up against the back of the house where our bedrooms are and I didn’t want to do it there either. Retail composters can be ridiculously expensive so we were left weighing our options.

Fortunately, Sean’s SIL Denise wanted to compost too and his brother decided he wanted to make a tumbling composter. He found instructions on the internet but it required an enormous pickle barrel and the only place he could find those was in Kentucky. Believe it or not, he drove down and bought 2 – one of for us, one for them. I still can’t believe Eric drove to Kentucky just to buy 2 pickle barrels but I’m glad he did.

We scheduled a Saturday for us to go to Eric & Denise’s to make the compost bins and all was well. We got there shortly after lunch and they got started. It didn’t take them long to realize it was going to be more difficult than they thought. Turns out the directions were merely a diagram! Afternoon turned into evening and I was exhausted from trying to juggle the babies away from home. Despite much help from Denise & Adrienne, I just needed to go home. We decided that Sean should just stay as long as he needed to to finish it because we didn’t know when we’d have another weekend for him to do that. Luckily, we had driven separate since there was no way the finished product was fitting in my car.

Sean didn’t get home until almost midnight but our composter is awesome! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed dutifully taking our scraps out and dumping in the stinky bin (it’s behind the garage for optimal sun) and dodging all the bugs. But last night Sean said, “So when do we stop putting stuff in there?” I said, “That’s a good question. I guess I’ll have to look that up.” I was so set on getting started I never researched how long it would take or how full we should make it can still tumble and breakdown, etc. I guess I need to get on that.

Reuseable Bags

We’ve been using reusable bags at the grocery for over a year. We have 2 Kroger bags and 2 Trader Joe's bags. Four bags is USUALLY enough for us. We’ve gotten into the habit and remember to take them 99% of the time. We even have 2 reusable produce bags (we lost one but I want to buy more anyway). I hate when I make an unplanned trip to the grocery and don’t have any bags. While I could just store the ones we use in the car, the ones we have aren’t very compact and definitely won’t be lasting indefinitely.

I’ve been contemplating the purchase of some new reusable bags for MONTHS. I want some that are sturdy yet compact when folded and I want them to be durable. At first, I thought I wanted a set of Envirosax, preferably this style. But when I finally decided to buy them, they were out of stock. In the meantime, I kept looking at the ones on reuseit.com. I want some that will work at Kroger and Walmart so the cashier doesn’t huff and puff when I pass them over so I’ve also considered something like this. But I also like these and these.I think this is a case for Nancy!

I'd love to hear what you use as well as suggestions about what I should buy!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

For months now I’ve kind of been researching cloth diapers. Before you go thinking I’m crazy, you need to realize cloth diapers are COMPLETELY different than what most people think of when cloth diapering. Yes, it still requires more laundry, but it’s not those Gerber prefolds with the old school safety pins anymore. The options are limitless. And that’s why I say I’ve “kind of been” researching them. It’s slightly overwhelming.

Trust me, I’ve heard my fair share of naysaying – even from my own mother, “Trust me, you’re not going to want to mess with the extra laundry.” And yet I still feel compelled to try. I found out that a sorority sister who has twins did cloth. Also, one of the women we’re looking to use as a babysitter has her 2 girls in cloth (a 6-month old and a 2 year old). She also said she could help with washing some!

Even though I think it’s great that they’re “green” my main motivator is cost. It’s also the thing that’s holding me up. The monetary commitment up front is intimidating when we don’t know if we’re up for the challenge. There are ways to get used ones (and ways to sanitize them). What I’m leaning toward at this point is getting a trial package. There are numerous websites where you can get X number of diapers for 20 days or so to see how you like them.

We have been given a LOT of diapers. We still plan to use these but it doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my cloth diaper plan. I’ve read a lot about how cloth diapers are actually better for containing the newborn blowouts than disposable!

I finally found a GREAT site that I felt like I could use to make some decisions – www.jilliansdrawers.com.