Homemade Deodorant That Really Works!

I attended an outdoor wedding last night and had sweat dripping in places I didn't realize I could sweat. It got up to 102* and I am sure it must have been in the high 90's, if not 100*, at the wedding. Thankfully it was very shaded. We all were sweaty and yet the bride, as beautiful as can be, was still radiant!
I, on the other hand, looked like I had just run a marathon. My face was bright red, my curls were limp and I entertained thoughts of going commando. No, I made that last part up.... or did I? Needless to say I was a hot mess! BUT, my armpits were fresh as a daisy! A DAISY I SAY!

(Photo source... that would be me!)

Ok, so that's not a daisy, but it looks fresh. Right? Hello?
I got home and kept sniffing just to be sure (did I go too far with that?). I bet you want to know what deodorant I use? Well, I make my own. Psh.. of course you do Lizzy! Why? Because its non-toxic and cheap! Now I didn't come up with the recipe, I found it over at one of the most entertaining blogs I follow, The Elliot Homestead. Visit her site for the recipe. Read some more posts. She is HILARIOUS!!!  Its a super simple recipe with only 3 ingredients. Four if you want to add essential oil. I haven't yet. I put my mixture in an old deodorant container, but I am too lazy to take a picture (its 102* at 7:30pm so lay off me!) The only problem with that is it doesn't travel so well since coconut oil is liquid at around 78*. I will have to switch to a little jar for travel. It scoops out nicely and when you rub it on your pits it melts right into your skin. I just rub whats left all over both hands. Don't you go ewww, my pits are clean! Then I rinse my hands off. It leaves them soft and moisturized too! Give it a try. I am telling you, my pits don't even have a hint of B.O. when I use this! It passed the stinky, sweaty test several times now. Its a keeper recipe.
That is all I have to say. I think we all just had a moment of bonding. Did you feel it? I feel closer to you, oh gentle reader.

And now, because I feel bad for yelling at you about not taking any pictures of the deodorant, I give you this self portrait of me (myself ?).

You're welcome. 

Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

Last year I decided to start making my own non-toxic health and beauty products. I made my own face cream,  lip balm,  lotion bars and sunscreen. Of course I still make my own laundry soap too.

I intended to write this post for nearly a year now but I have also been making my own hand soap this year. I started off making my own liquid hand soap, but I didn't like it so much. Mostly because I used scraps of soap I had laying around and it smelled funky. Plus I just didn't care for the consistency of it. It was like the goo from a snot flower. I don't know the real name, but growing up in Florida we had these purple flowers in our yard and when picked there was a clear goo in the middle.. like snot... but clear. Ok. so.. right then. Here is what it looked like (the soap that is).

 The Farmers Nest blog has a great tutorial on how to make liquid soap from a bar. I didn't bother Googling how to make mine so it wasn't very fabulous. I really wanted to use it in a foaming pump dispenser stretching it even further. It just didn't always dispense all that well from the foam pumps and needed to be shaken a lot. So I decided to try another method.

First off you will need some foaming soap pumps. I had done some Googling on foaming pumps and most everyone said the ones from Bath and Body Works were the best to be had. Well I didn't want to spend a lot of money for their soap just for the containers so I searched for cheap foaming pumps. Turns out it was  just cheaper for me to get the B&B soap.  I had been receiving daily (grrr B&B) email from them and in one they announced a clearance sale online with free shipping on a $20 (or $25 maybe) order. So I got right on there and ordered 10 bottles because I needed 3-4 and what if one or two broke? I now have spares.

I had thought to just use the soap in it then gradually refill it with my homemade stuff, but that Twisted Peppermint stanks! (sorry to those who love it) I can't deal well with artificial fragrances as I get headaches/migraines and allergies flare up.  It also contains Triclosan, as well as other stuff I don't need to get clean,  and I want to avoid that in my products.
So I just emptied it out, saved it for a while because it seemed wrong to pour it down my drain, or throw it away. Eventually decided to pour it out and.. where was I? Oh. So I poured it out peeled off the labels and cleaned up the sticky residue with Goo Gone (love) and then soap and water.

Next, choose a liquid Castile soap that you love, or make your own if you want. This is way easier.
You all probably know of Dr. Bronner's but there is another cheaper one (like $6 less a bottle) that I found out about just after like within minutes and I couldn't change the order I ordered the Dr. Bronners that I actually like better. It is called Dr. Woods. You can get Dr. Bronners just about anywhere. My local grocery stores sell it and so does Target. It is several dollars cheaper from Trader Joes if you have one. My TJ's only had peppermint, sadly. Those above are the 3 that I have acquired. I prefer the Dr. Wood's. It may be because of the shea butter in it, but it seems nicer to me. Both are organic, so yay!
You could even find a plain castile soap and add essential oils to make your own smell if you like.
I bought my Lavender and Dr. Wood's from Vitacost.com . I love that site as they have very good prices on vitamins and lots of other stuff.

Once you have your soap picked out fill your thoroughly clean dispenser about 1/4 to 1/3 full of castile soap. In mine it was about 1/4 cup or 2oz. of soap.

Finally,  fill the rest of the bottle with water, but not all the way up to the top. Leave about an inch for the pump. Shake it up and enjoy. Thats it. Super simple. Can't believe it took all of that writing for such an easy recipe!

 Note that this will not be as slippy and slimy as your normal soap. It will get your hands clean though and you will get used to the feel of it. I did add a dash (didn't measure) of vegetable glycerine to the one I made for this tutorial just to try it out. It may help take away that feeling that I am having a really hard time describing. Its like.. your hands are stripped of all moisture and they drag.. does that even make sense? Only they are not dry. I use this soap because my kids and I get eczema hands and this soap makes a big difference.

I figured out that this soap costs me $0.56 a bottle. I am telling you friends, you seriously should consider making your own products. This is way cheap. I think you can get even cheaper if you use bar soap melted and heavily watered down. Even with having to purchase the bottles (about $2 for me) it is cheaper than buying it. The best part is that the ingredients are non-toxic and gentle on my skin.
One way to save is if you have a friend who uses B&B foaming soap ask them for the bottles that they most likely throw away. Then direct them to my blog so they can  make their own soap.. after you have gotten a few bottles that is. I didn't have any friends so I had to buy mine.

Guess what? You can also use this as dish washing soap (Not dishwasher!).
Also, I re-used a Kandoo foaming shampoo container and the kids use this concoction as shampoo and even body wash! Its gentle so you could wash your face with it also. I haven't actually tried that yet but it says on the bottle you can. Yay for multi-purpose items!


I hope you will give this a try.

Homemade Hot Cocoa

I did it. I made my own hot cocoa. Its so ridiculously easy! Why didn't I do this before?  Its cheaper. OK so I didn't do the math, but it has to be. If it isn't at least its better for you which is priceless right? So. It's cheaper, better for you and better tasting than the envelope crap. I happened to use mostly organic ingredients so that is a plus for me.
Here is what you need.

 Plus salt and cayenne which I didn't photograph.
You don't have to use organic ingredients, of course. I just try to whenever possible because I know its better for us.

Homemade (mostly Organic) Hot Cocoa Mix:

1 1/2 cups of organic sugar (2 cups if you like it sweeter. I don't like a lot of sugar)
2 cups organic cocoa powder 
1 TBSP good cinnamon
2 dashes of sea salt (scant 1/8 tsp)
optional:
2 small dashes of cayenne pepper

Just mix all ingredients together then add 1 super heaping soup spoon (is that right? The big one in your flatware set? I just call it a shovel.) to your hot milk or if you prefer, water. I suggest milk. I use Publix brand organic milk.

 Stir thoroughly and enjoy!
Its always better in a favorite mug. I used to have a thing for flamingos when I was a teen and this cup is from that flamingo obsessed time period. I still smile whenever I see them.

One thing I did was to use my food processor to pulverize the sugar. Since I use organic sugar its darker and the granules are larger than normal white sugar. So to make it melt faster in the hot milk and keep it from sinking to the bottom of the dry mix, I ran the sugar in the food processor with the blade attachment for a minute or so.  I am not really sure what to do if  you don't have a food processor. Sorry. (update: duh! Use powdered sugar. drrrrr!)

See the difference?  The one on the right is the pulverized sugar.

 I  just used my food processor to mix in the rest of the ingredients since it was already dirty.  You can just stir it all together or put it in a jar and shake if you don't have a food processor.

Penzey's Spices has some awesome cinnamon that I used. If you are reading this and decide you don't want to make your own cocoa mix Penzey's has the most amazing hot cocoa mix ever with most of the same ingredients as this mix. I used the same type, Ceylon cinnamon, that they used in the mix that I bought last month.  There are no preservatives, dairy, or "what is that" ingredients.

By the way, here is the ingredient list from Nestle Rich Hot Chocolate Mix -Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids, Partially Hydrogenated Coconut or Palm Kernal Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Dairy Product Solids (From Milk), Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Calcium Carbonate, Contains Less Than 2% of:, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Caseinate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Guar Gum, Skim Milk, Sodium Aluminosilicate, Mono and Diglycerides, Artificial Flavors, Sucralose

Why must it have all that crap in it? Seriously. Make your own.

   
 Store in an airtight container. I got this one for $5 at Publix last year. A mason jar would have worked too, but this was my hot chocolate pack container and I love it.

Hope you give this a try and enjoy your homemade hot cocoa!
Thanks for reading.