DIY - Part 1

Previous Post

So, as I mentioned in the last post, convenience spurred me to try making things from scratch. Thriftiness played a part too -- more especially since I have switched to real food -- but mostly, it is convenience. Finding something that works, is good for your body, and doesn't cost so much that you have to take out a second mortgage is hard and time consuming. So, it was a natural transition to go from making food from scratch to making other things from scratch too.

Amazingly, one of the first things I started with was my face wash. And that came before the whole real food thing. Both Chick and I have always had issues with breaking out as a result of our oily skin. In fact, before we ever moved to Oklahoma, she was getting treated by our doctor for her acne. Age, to some degree I think, had slowed mine down some but you could still have heard me complain that it wasn't fair to have acne and wrinkles at the same time.

Chick was at the strongest medicine she could get before moving to that scary one (which we weren't doing). I think it was called Acutane or something like that. I had been using Proactiv with a little success but it really dried me out and was expensive.

Then I stumbled across OCM better known as Oil Cleansing Method. I bought some Jojoba oil and gave it a try. I mixed some up for Chick too. It worked like crazy. And I highly recommend it to anyone who asks. The expense is much less too. Win win! The best thing about it is that you customize it to your skin. Our recipe is 3 parts jojoba oil and 1 part extra virgin olive oil. Different kinds of skin use a different oil. I have also noticed that this helps with sores on my face like cold sores, etc. Several years later, I am still using and loving this method.

The next thing I tried was hand soap. We had foaming hand soap containers and I didn't like the way the store soaps dried out my hands not to mention that it seemed ridiculous to pay a dollar a bottle for that stuff. A young child can empty one in nothing flat since they seem to think they need half a bottle every time they wash their hands. What's more, I was starting to learn just how unsafe a lot of the ingredients were. Just lovely (not)! So, I picked up a hint from this post (recipe 2) and gave it a try. Add a tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's Castile liquid soap (a generally safe natural soap) in the container and fill it up with water the rest of the way. Give it a little shake and you're good to go. A 16 ounce container of the soap is about $12. That 16 ounces contains 32 tablespoons so I can make 32 bottles of hand soap for that approximately $12 which works out to just under 40 cents a bottle. Bigger bottles of Dr. Bronner's have a cheaper unit cost per ounce so it just gets better. They come in lots of scents (from essential oils) or you can get the Baby Mild for unscented or to add your own essential oil scent. I like the peppermint during Christmas time. The rose is a good any time one. And I love the almond one too -- especially for our body wash.

Which brings me to my next DIY that I tried -- body wash. A family of five can go through some body wash. I usually just bought whatever was on sale and that I had a coupon for. But again, looking at the ingredients, they had an awful lot of unsafe stuff in them.

By the way, one way you can find out is by using the app by EWG (Environmental Working Group - the nonprofit that gives us the Dirty Dozen produce list every year). You can scan items in the store and it will give you a rating and list the ingredients of products.

Body wash is almost as easy to mix up as the other two items I mentioned. I mix it up every once in while right in a quart canning jar and keep it in the pantry. I have a pump bottle in each bathroom and we just give the jar a shake and refill them as we need to. In a quart jar, I mix 2 cups castile soap (scent of your choice), 1 cup of vegetable glycerin, and 3/4 cup of oil (I usually use castor oil -good for skin - but you can choose one. Fractionated coconut oil is suggested.). If you use unscented castile soap, you can add essential oil too.

Again, you can use whatever scents you want this way. The almond is my favorite. If you usually bathe in the morning and you need to wake up, I guess you could try the citrus or peppermint (it might make you tingly though -lol). Or if you are bathing at night, you could use the lavender or another calming one. It's fun to play with. And we've been using this for years now too.

After all that success, I began to get bolder. I decided to try some more intimidating DIYs.

Next Post Here