Homemade Shampoo and Deodorant

Okay, so I made my first batch of homemade shampoo and deodorant today. It is not organic, but it is all natural. And, okay, it wasn't totally "homemade" but, oh well! I made peppermint shampoo that is also body wash, face wash, hand wash, and shaving cream! Plus, you really don't need conditioner if you use this. But, if you want to and your hair feels too "waxy" after you wash, you can do a rinse in apple cider vinegar. APV gets rid of soap scum that may be left behind and when it dries it doesn't smell vinegary at all. Just remember to dilute it in water before you put it on your hair- I'd say about 1 part APV to 5 parts water. And steer clear of the eyes!

Okay, here are the two recipes--

Shampoo:
2/3c Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps Pure Castile Soap, Peppermint
1/2 c coconut milk
1 tsp vitamin e oil
1 tsp almond oil
10 drops orange essential oil
5 drops peppermint essential oil

That is the basic recipe. All you do is put all of the ingredients into an old shampoo bottle and shake it up! But, the contents will settle so shake it up before each use. This is for peppermint shampoo with a hint of orange, but Dr Bronner's had tons of different smells for the soap so you can chose one you like and add essential oils to fit as you feel you want them. Just remember not to use too much- 15 is plenty, but if you want a wider mix of smells just don't go over 30 drops. It might irritate your skin.  And don't use too much. Even for long hair, a nickel sized amount is plenty. I use 2 nickel sized amounts- 1 for my hair (which is over halfway down my back, and really thick) and 1 for my face and body. It doesn't lather like normal shampoos- those have chemicals added to make it lather. It will lather though; just add water after its on your head and scrub well. If you have long hair, bring a comb or use your fingers and run it through your hair to get out tangles before you rinse. And rinse well: rinse all the soap out, then rinse again like it's full of soap. After using this for a while, most people realize they only need to wash their hair about every 2-3 days. It's good stuff!

Okay, deodorant. This is made a variety of ways.  You can replace corn starch with arrow root if you are sensitive to corn starch. I HIGHLY recommend you take a trip to your local whole foods store and get these ingredients in their organic form. Your pits will thank you. :) (p.s. one swipe under each arm is more than enough to keep B.O. away)

Deodorant:
6 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp beeswax pastilles
4 tbsp corn starch (or arrow root)
4 tbsp baking soda (definitely organic if you can)
20-30 drops essential oils

Needed:
old mason jar with lid
small saucepan
stovetop
deodorant container (optional)

1) Fill the saucepan about half full with water and heat on the stove to medium low temperature.
2) Put the coconut oil and beeswax in jar; put the jar in the water to melt coconut oil and beeswax
3) When melted, remove jar from heat. Add cornstarch and baking soda. Put top on jar and shake until blended well. (about 1 minute, longer if doubling or tripling the batch)
4) Add essential oils of choice. I love matching, so mine was 20 drops peppermint and 5 drops sweet orange. My husband's was 20 drops sandlewood and 10 drops lemongrass. You really can mix and match however you please. The sky is the limit to essential oil concoctions.
5) Shake again
6) You can let harden in the jar and scoop it out with your fingers when needed or put into an old (or new and empty) deodorant container. You can find these for sale at Amazon easily, and I've heard Costco has them too.
That's it! Let harden in container for about an hour and you have a wonderful, non cancer causing deodorant.

Now, I realize these things are not cheap. But, the ingredients you buy now to make these will last about a year! I paid $70 and easily have enough to have shampoo, body wash, face wash, hand wash, shaving cream, and deodorant for a year. Now considering I was paying $30 a month for all of these things, I will be saving nearly $300 in the next year, just for being healthier! How great is that! And I also make my own laundry detergent, it's not all natural, but it costs just $30 for a year's supply. Considering a $20 thing of Tide used to only last us a month,  we are also saving over $200 on laundry detergent! I am on a mission to find healthier and cheaper option to continue to save even more!

Here's the laundry detergent recipe, if interested:

1 big box of Borax
1 box Arm and Hammer super washing soda
1 small container OxyClean
2 bars Fels Naptha
1 big box Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
2 big bottles Purex fabric softener crystals

1) Grate the Fels Naptha bars.
2) Mix all ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket ( I did it in layers, each ingredient in a layer, 3 times)
3) Mix well (I used the stick of an old mop- worked great!)

That's it! Now you just have to find a place to store all of your wonderful smelly goodness- and it does smell fantastic! I love that it has the fabric softener built in. I never have to add extra fabric softener, even for the bed sheets or towels. Works out perfectly. To store, I used an old Sun washing powder bucket, but you could you any 5 gallon bucket with a lid, or several gallon ziplocks. It only takes about 3 tbsp for a BIG load. I add about 5 for bedsheets (cause those can get gross, and need to be extra clean) but for everything else I use 3 tbsp for a big load, 1 and a half for a small. That's about a capful using the purex crystals cap for big, half a cap for small.

I still have recipes for bar soap, lotion, and chapstick to try out (hopefully in the next couple of weeks!) and then I will be posting those recipes on here as well. :) Just need to see what has to be changed for the better and what can stay in those base recipes before I tell you all to go do it! And remember- even if you don't like these things, someone you now may want some for a gift!

Regards,
Mollie

Busy Busy Month!

Long time with no updates! So sorry about that. We have had a very busy month over here. We have retiled the kitchen floor, got chickens and ducks, built a chicken coop, and now are in the process of cleaning the garage and (hopefully!) about to get started with adding onto my dad's garage. Busy busy year!

So, here are our 6 Red Sex Link chicks and our 2 Pekin ducklings! They are 3 and half weeks and boy are they getting big :) Here they are enjoying and exploring their brand new coop! Pen is still pending.

 This is the base of the coop and walls up.

 Trusses up and secured.

 End walls up and screwed on.

 Got the side walls up.

 Got the shingles and roof on with a coat of paint!

 Finished product! This is the side with the door the hens will go in. The door is plexiglass so in bad weather light will still get in

And the door! Made of scraps and not yet painted, so it looks out of place, but it is totally functional!

So, this is what we have gotten done so far. I didn't bother to take pics of the kitchen being retiled, although a time consuming project it is not really picture worthy. Although I love the new tiles!

We are hoping to get the garage cleaned out this weekend, and hopefully start on the building of the new addition of the garage by the end of May! If we do not get started on it by then, we will start on our tiny house! We will just have to see how it goes. 

In other news, I have decided to start making our own household products. I already make our own powdered laundry detergent, but now I will start making our own deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, soap, chapstick, and dish soap. I have found some really good recipes, but am going to experiment and will post the finished recipes (and how I like them!) soon.

Also, last term I got on the Dean's list. Looks like my crazy studying paid off! :D

Plans Changing, D:

Well, our plans to build our tiny house have been set back a year. I had hoped for this blog to be more interesting soon, with the build going on, but it will not be.

Nothing bad happened to make us wait, but a few things did influence our decision. 

1) If we start building this summer, we will have to pay as we go. We will be able to purchase the trailer and the materials to get the house up and waterproofed by June (like the studs, windows, roofing, sheathing, flashing, and housewrap) but the rest will be pay as we go. It sounded good at first, but would take a LOT longer to finish anyways. We wouldn't even be able to be in the house until December, and would have to build during cold weather. If we wait until next April to begin, we can buy ALL of our materials and store them in my Dad's garage, which leads us to...

2) My dad is planning to update his house and extend his garage from a 3 door to a 5 door. If we wait to build our tiny house, and help him with his house and garage, we will get a TON of building experience and be able to build our tiny house faster, more efficiently, and better. This is because not only will we get the experience of building, but we will also have my dad right there telling us if we are doing something wrong and showing us the right way to do it for the next time (if we ever happen to mess up, not like that would ever happen, though ;D) 

3) If we build this summer, we can't help my dad, and he will need lots of help building this garage. And if we weren't helping, he would have to spend all of his spare time building it. That means his health might decline, and also he wouldn't be able to do our electrical work. Since he already knows how to wire electrical stuff in a new building to code, we really need him to help with that. I don't really want to burn our tiny house down with an amateur job. 

So, those are the reasons that we decided to wait.

In further news, a video of the tree we cut down falling.

We have a lot of work to do in the next month. We currently live in my dad's basement while awaiting our tiny house. So, we are redoing his floors for him for his father's day present. This includes the tile for the kitchen and the wood floor for the living room and hallway. We also will be tilling the spot for the garden within the next month and fixing up the yard. We have a fire pit to build, bushes to trim, and junk to get rid of that's just sitting in the yard. Plus cleaning out the garage. And this brings us to....

Chickens and Ducks! We have 6 chicks and 2 ducklings. Which means another thing we have to do is build an insulated hutch and pen/yard for them. We would like to have them free range but with the dogs and cat, we are not sure that is a fantastic idea. 

So, even though our tiny house is not yet built, or being constructed, I will still have plenty of posts about living a more sustainable life by having our own chickens for eggs and growing our own food in the garden (and canning the leftovers). If we just had room for a couple of cows and a pig, we would be set!

Regards, Mollie