Green Your Clean Series! Your body products

So far, we looked at a few areas of the home: the bathroom, the laundry room and the kitchen. Now lets wrap this up and take a look at how you may green up your personal body products.

When you look at all the things you put on your body, the chemical load can really add up. Lotion, shave gel, soap, shampoo, conditioner, mousse, hairspray, foundation, eye shadow, toothpaste, deodorant... I could go on and on. Look at the ingredient list on just one of those products...pretty crazy huh? 

I do not recall exact order I took when changing over products. It was one thing at at time. Taking the first step. Mostly I looked for stuff I could replace (and still be satisfied with it) without paying a ton of money for. This is how I ended up making most of my stuff (much cheaper) and ultimately what led me to Young Living.

Here is a little list of things I have done and hopefully you will find some you can try crafting. You can change the essential oils used for the scent or benefit you desire.

Foaming Shave Soap - love this stuff!

Sugar scrub - great exfoliant

Foaming Hand Soap - this can also be used in the shower or bath

Deodorant - no stink here!

Bath salts also here - so many options!

Roll on Perfume

Lotion Bar

Face Serum - replaces my face moisturizer

Pillow mist 

Magnesium Oil - great way to get your magnesium

Baby wipes - not just for babies, works great for clean ups of many kinds!

Waterless Hand Sanitizer - oh, this stuff is the bomb!

Here are two new things I have done that I have not talked about before:

Thieves Toothpaste: I made this one last year. Pretty simple to make. If you try it let me know what you think. This recipe makes a small amount which is nice, since you do not need much.

What you will need:
1/2 tablespoons bentonite clay
1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt - finely ground
1/2 tablespoon hot water
4-5 drops Thieves essential oil



Stress Away and Lavender Whipped Body Butter: This is awesome for all over lotion. I have made it with a few different essential oils but I think stress away and Lavender are my favorite combinations.

What you will need:
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup mango butter (or shea butter or cocoa butter or a mix or each)
1/2 cup sweet almond oil
1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
essential oils of your choice! (I put in 10 of each stress away and lavender but I do love my oils!)

Melt the coconut and butters in a double boiler. Remove from heat and add almond oil, vitamin E. Chill in fridge for 1-2 hours until it starts to solidify. Then mix in a stand mixer with the whip attachment to get it a whipped consistency. It will take several minutes. Add essential oils and mix them in. Store in a jar on your counter. (If your home it really warm it may melt but you can always whip it back up.)

So what do you want to replace? What have you tried? What is missing from this list?

Where ever you decide to start, have fun playing and enjoying all your chemical free body products.

Blessings!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

What is cooking in my kitchen this week?

What is cooking in my kitchen today? It is all edible but none of it is food. I was out of a few things so I whipped up a couple easy recipes. Lots of people ask me how I have the time. Really it does not take that long. I have all the ingredients on hand and can whip together most recipes in a few minutes. Lets take a look at what I made today...








Deodorant: I have used this recipe off and on over a year. I would say I am pleased with the results. I have tried several over the counter natural deodorants and still like this one better.

I purchased empty deodorant containers on amazon but you can use old ones after you clean them up if you wish. Here is the one I purchased.

You will need:
4 tablespoons bentonite clay
1 tablespoons shea butter
4 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon baking soda (optional)
1.5 tablespoon bees wax
25 drops essential oils- this batch I used 15 drops lavender and 10 drops Mel-A

In a double boiler melt the coconut oil, shea butter and bees wax. (I like to use an 8 ounce glass gar that I reuse for this each time.) Add in the clay and optional baking soda. Note: Baking soda can irritate some peoples skin. Mix well. Remove from heat. Add essential oils. Mix then pour into deodorant containers. It will make about 2 deodorants. Let cool completely before adding lids.

This project takes me about 30 minutes only because I have to wait for the oils to melt and I tend to do it on low heat. But during that time I can do lots of other things- like make a cute label.


Lotion Bar: I have been making these for years. I just love them and give them as gifts to all my friends and family. They are great for dry skin. Rub them in your hands and the heat from your body will melt the oil. These bars are very moisturizing. I get cracked skin along my finger nails in winter and I will rub my lotion bar on the cracks at bedtime. By morning the crack will be gone. Happy dance!

You can use lots of options to make this with different molds. I use a small loaf silicone mold but you could make hearts for Valentines or pour them into deodorant containers for easy use as well!

You will need:
1 cup bees wax
1 cup mango butter
1 cup coconut oil
1-2 tsp vitamin E oil or about 5 capsules of vitamin E
50 drops of essential oil

In a double boiler melt the beeswax, mango butter and coconut oil. Once melted, remove from heat and add Vitamin E and essential oils. Then pour into molds. Let completely cool before removing from mold or if using deodorant containers make sure its cooled completely before adding the cap.

In the past I have made bars with just lavender essential oil but this batch I decided to use stress away as I recently have been obsessed with the scent of cedarwood and lavender together and this was a perfect complement.

This project takes about 30 minutes to prep and get into the molds. Most of that time again being the melting of the oils. Using the mold above I generally get 10-11 bars.


So there you have it! My quick nap time projects in the kitchen today. Happy cooking!

Blessings!


If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.