Coconut Oil + Coconut Sugar Body Scrub

Is anyone else's skin looking rather gray and chalky? Do you get the urge to take sandpaper to your feet and dip your entire leg into a lotion bottle this time of year? Just me?

Last week I continued my tireless search for a chemical-free golden ticket that would keep my skin soft during these moisture sucking winter months.

I thought I was onto something last year with the coconut oil-as- moisturizer. It worked pretty well and was economical and chemical-free. A few of you mentioned that you tried it and you kind of liked it, in a "Well, I guess it's better than rubbing petroleum products into my skin" sort of way. I confess that I, too, grew weary of the coconut oil's oiliness. There is a reason why commercial skin care products tout their "absorbs quickly with no greasy feel!" magic. Coconut oil works pretty well, and the lotion bars were handy and fun to make, but I haven't been able to shake the thought that we can do better.

On a whim, I bought some Coconut Sugar from Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago. Most interweb sources assert that it is one of the most environmentally sustainable sweeteners around (Kitchen Stewardship has some great info about it), and I thought I'd add it to my grain-free baking experimentation. It is fairly coarse but not as clumpy as regular brown sugar.

All the DIY Christmas gift pins with homemade bath products inspired me to try the Coconut Sugar with water or honey as a scrub for my crusty feet. And then it hit me: Coconut oil + Coconut sugar = Natural Moisturizing Body Scrub?

Friends, let me tell you, I've been using this concoction every few days for two weeks now, and I am really amazed by how well it works, how un-greasy it is, and how my skin actually feels soft for days. Days!

Les even commented that my skin is "much nicer than usual" all of a sudden.

Our two star ingredients.

It's ridiculously easy to make this scrub. 

1. Scoop a heaping spoonful of coconut oil into a small dish. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so you can get a nice hefty glop of it with a regular spoon. 

 2. Dump a roughly equal amount of coconut sugar into the oil and mash it around with the spoon.

Here's the best part:

3. Take your dish of coconutty body scrub into the shower with you, and give your limbs a good scrubbing with it after you've finished your regular washing and hair doing and ballad singing. Yep, slather this stuff right in the shower just as if it were a body wash. I use my hands, but you could put it onto a washcloth or poof if you prefer. You're wet, and you're sloughing off dead skin as you go so it absorbs in a totally different way. Plus you're rinsing off any excess oil as you finish up your shower.

4. Get out of the shower, dry off, and get on with your day with your soft and lovely skin.

I find that my skin only needs this extra step every few days, but if you want to do it everyday, go for it.

One word of caution - your feet will be really slippery if you use this scrub on the bottoms of your feet, so be careful in the shower! You could also just use this as a treat for your feet after your shower if you don't want to risk a slip.

Let's review the awesomeness of this scrub.

1. All natural ingredients = No nasty chemicals being rubbed into your skin.
2. Slather it on right in the shower. No need to stand shivvering in your cold wintery bathroom rubbing lotion or coconut oil into your skin until it absorbs. 
3. Smell like sweet coconut! Your chihuahua may decide he wants to lick your legs and hands, but that's not a problem, right? 
4. Soft skin that lasts for days. 

Bonus:  Edible shower scrub! No commentary. Just pointing that out...

All-Natural Lotion Bars

Sometimes I fret that my skin is noticeably drier these days than it was when I was younger. I know, I know... losing moisture and elasticity and all that jazz. Awesome. Well, now that winter is upon us and the heaters are toasting 'round the clock, I'm a hot mess of itchy, crunchy skin.

I've been happy with my Coconut Oil moisturizing regimen. Out of the shower, and slather on some coconut oil right out of the jar. Good stuff. But I would be totally lying to your face if I claimed that coconut oil works as well or lasts as long as the chemically commercial stuff.

I needed something a bit more portable than a jar of coconut oil. I do some weird things at work (like pack salads in mason jars, sport a gloriously sticky jar of honey on my desk for tea, etc), and I keep some weird things in my purse (reusable bamboo utensils, anyone?), but there's no way I'm going to start scooping coconut oil out of my purse/desk drawer.

Pinterest, for the win!

The instructions below are snagged directly from The Coconut Mama, with my own small variations.

First, you need equal parts beeswax and coconut oil.

You can buy little chunks of beeswax online, or at Whole Foods.  I took the suggestion from The Coconut Mama's comment section and grated the beeswax with a box grater for even melting.

Here's a snap of a half-grated chunk of beeswax:

Grating it up. 

Throw the grated beeswax into a small saucepan with an equal amount of coconut oil:

For this first go, I used roughly 4 tablespoons of grated wax and 4 tablespoons of coconut oil. The original instructions say you can use a few drops of essential oils. I wanted my lotion bars to smell vanilla-y, but Holy Buckets! Vanilla Essential Oil is $22 for a tiny bottle. Scrap that. I tried adding a few drops of vanilla extract.

I DO NOT recommend swapping vanilla for vanilla essential oil, sadly. It didn't really incorporate into the oils, and basically just separated out to he bottom of the pan. 

But when it was all nice and melty, it poured elegantly into these little mini muffin pans:

I got a little impatient and decided to scoop one of the little bars out before it had fully set. Also a bad idea, but it did give me a preview of the lotiony awesomeness I had just made. Soft, but not too soft, with a pleasant coconutty-and-vaguely-honey scent. I rubbed it all over my arms and elbows. Soft, chemical-free skin!

Win!

If I had had some of those silicone bendy muffin pans, that would be a better choice for getting the bars out and keep them looking cute. But I'm thinking I might actually smash these little babies into Altoids tins or something similar to make them more purse-safe. 

Even in a tin, though, I would recommend you consider giving them one extra layer of protection from your stuff. I love love love homemade skin care, but it can be unpredictable in terms of melting and separating. If I put mine into a tin, I think I'll make the tin a little oilcloth zipper case. I once left my bag on top of a heating vent on the floor (didn't see it!) and all my lip balm melted into a gooey mess all over my bag! Fun times.

Dehydration - Not So Bad When You're a Tomato, by guest blogger Tammia

Tammia brings us Food Preservation Part 2 - Dehydrating!

I'll admit it. I've got a problem, a food preservation problem. In one day I canned 5 quarts of tomatoes, made 16 jars of blackberry jam, 1 quart of sauce, pickled 2 quarts of onions, and dehydrated a quart of cherry tomatoes. Since that's a lot to cover in one post, let's break it down into bite sized pieces. "Sun-dried" bite sized pieces.

 

First, you'll need a huge load of tomatoes, salt and pepper, a bunch of basil, and a dehydrator.

I borrowed my dehydrator from a friend of mine that has TWO. She's a food preserving bad ass.

 

If you don't own one, you can buy one for about $40 (the dehydrator, not the badass friend - she's priceless).

One Huge Load of Tomatoes

Step 1:  Clean and halve all the tomatoes.

 

Tomato bath.

Step 2: Clean out all the seeds. A spoon could be used, but it's so much easier to just use your fingers. 

 

Scoop out the seedy guts.

Step 3: rinse, dry and chop basil. toss the cleaned out tomato halves with kosher salt, pepper and basil.  

 

Step 4: Place the tomatoes skin side down on the dehydrator trays.

 

 

ooooh pretty!

 

Step 5: allow to dehydrate completely - about 8 hours/overnight.

 

 

Dried Up Tomatoes!

Step 6: Place in a clean dry jar and use in salads, soups, pasta sauce, pizza...the uses are endless. I tend to just eat them straight out of the jar, they're so delicious!

 

Dessicated tomato-y goodness

 Thanks for this great post, Tammia! I LOVE dried tomatos, and I put them in everything, especially egg sandwhiches and omelets!

Smooth skin, guest bloggers, and other fun surprises

One week into the Oil Method face washing and I have to say that I am AMAZED. Seriously. I could sound like an infomercial right now. "Oil Cleansing Method changed my life! I look younger and more well-rested than I have in years! All my problems have been wiped away!" Well, maybe not quite that crazy, but you get the idea.

It could be partly due to where I am in my hormonal cycle, but even if that IS the case, my perma-zits along my jawline and chin are... Gone. G-O-N-E. Smooth, almost unnoticeable pink ovals mark the places where tiny volatile volcanoes sat angrily for years. And those pink ovals are getting smaller and smaller every day. I'll let you know how it is going after I've made it through a full month, but so far, I can heartily endorse this very counter-intuitive sounding oil wash.

Next up: Guest Blogger! Yay! Mia has been hard at work with all manner of Homesteady preserving methods, and she was kind enough to take some photos and write up some tutorials! I'm excited to share those with you this week.

Other Fun Surprises: Blog Editor-in-Chief Auggie has been nutso about his new home-made dog food. Who knew he would gobble lentils and millet and nutritional yeast as eagerly as his nasty canned dog "food"? No packaging waste, no creepy preservatives, no BPA exposure for The Editor. Excellent surprise WIN.

Ok, so maybe that was only a fun surprise for ME. The fun surprise for YOU is that I've been working on a bunch of crafty home-made things lately, and I'm really pleased with the results. I've got a whole photo shoot planned so I can share some of these surprise successes, and would love for you to share your favorite Greeny, Home-made WIN in the comments section. I even have a little prize idea....More details to come.

I turned my couch into a shoulder bag

Les and I got a new slip cover for our glorious hand-me-down IKEA couch last December and I could not bring myself to throw away yards and yards of lovely white canvas. I'm not sure what I thought I was going to make with it. A boat sail?
Anyway, after many MANY canvas-inspired ideas but little follow-through, I decided I would make a bag. An easy, cool-looking bag that I could use to stow my unattractive Fancy Camera bag and still have room for all my other essential stuff. It had to be a project that would not require me to spend a lot of money on additional supplies, and it had to be something I could complete in one weekend. I searched for online freebie instructions until last week, when I saw THIS tutorial on How About Orange.

After a quick trip to JoAnn for some 60% Off faux leather for the straps (PS - faux leather NEVER goes on sale, so I was elated to get 1/2 a yard for $7), some heavy duty thread ($3), and a box of gray fabric dye ($3 each), I turned this:

Into this:

While not as chic as the tutorial version, it did use a substantial amount of canvas. And after 2 dye attempts, I finally got it the shade of gunmetal I had been aiming for. As long as you don't count the vaguely pink splotches that I assume are the result of couch stain removal attempts that perma-bleached the fabric. I think it just adds a certain "hand dyed" marbling mystique. Right? Um, yeah.

Anyway, the best part about making your own stuff is that you can customize it.
Like the handy elastic Sock Bottle holder I added to the lower side edge:

Spill Proof!

If I were to make this again, I'd go for a different/darker dye color and I'd probably make it a liiiiitttle less tall. It's great for holding all my gear, but it feels a little more shopping bag than a fashion piece. Could be the fact that I had trouble converting centimeters to inches and just eye-balled it. I do have a huge sheet of pretty dark denim that I could use if I want to totally copy-cat the tutorial piece, but it was very gratifying to finally use a hunk of couch to make something practical.

Not the most flattering shot, but you get the idea.

I spent about $19 and have thread and lots of faux leather left over, so I'd say that the only real expense of this experiment was the 2 boxes of gray dye for $6. Plus, I now have a prototype and some trial-and-error insight for my next attempt (which will probably be with the dark denim, since I do LOVE the look of the tutorial version).

So there you have it. My repurposed couch fabric got a new life as a MegaTote. Not bad for an afternoon's worth of work.

Home Made Laundry Detergent - Jess's Notes!

Last week I wrote a quick summary of Jess and my experience making our own Laundry Detergent from a recipe Jess found on Bonzai Aphrodite. We had a few questions from readers about some of the ingredients, and whether home-made detergent saves money.

Jess has far more experience with the ingredients and the cost analysis than I do, so here's what she had to say:

Washing soda is a product of baking soda - but different and needed! It can be found at hardware stores (usually) or at like independent grocery stores. Our local produce/international foods store carries that as well as Borax. I've seen Borax at Target. I think Wal-mart carries both as well, but I'm not sure since I don't shop there.

Does making detergent yourself save you money, since you have to buy all those ingredients?

I think the savings come into play if you use your ingredients to pull double duty for other cleaning products, then the versatility really stretches the dollar much further. I think the amount of detergent you can make for the price is cheaper than store-bought, but you are also spending your time (minimal) making this stuff and you have to decided if that's worth it. I'm not even sure what Tide cost these days because I've been using 7th generation for so long now and I know the homemade is way cheaper than that!

Cool. But does home-made detergent really work?

I just did a load of rugs that soaked up water from our flooded basement and they came out nice and clean, so I think the detergent is doing its job! Hope that helps and you are able to take your own adventure!

Thanks for your extra info, Jess!

More homesteading adventures to come...

Home Made Laundry Detergent (Brick)!

Co-Conspirator Jess and I finally got to have our first Homesteading Date this weekend. We successfully completed two DIY greeny projects, and we're excited to share them with you.

We'll start with Home Made Laundry Detergent!

So convinced were we of this fool-proof recipe that we made a triple batch.  Here's the recipe, via everyone's favorite vegan super-crunchy blogger, Bonzai Aphrodite.

Single Batch (we tripled these amounts)
1 1/4 cups vinegar
1 cup baking soda
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/4 cup liquid castile soap

Vinegar + sodas and borax

You have to start with the vinegar, then add the baking soda, washing soda, and borax. The mixture will fizz and foam (yay!). We found it valuable to have one person continually stirring (Jess), while one person measured and poured (me).

Once you have that mixture fizzing and spitting away, add the castile soap. We used Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, peppermint scent. Not because we like our clothes to smell like Certs, but because we both had a bottle in this scent. Probably because that's the one they have most often at Trader Joe's. We added about 20 drops of lavender essential oil to the mixture to cut the very sharp scent of the castile soap. The mint scent wasn't unpleasant, just strong. The lavender had a nice mellowing effect.

This stuff really is magical.

AugDog came by to supervise the science experiment. He got bored quickly when he realized we didn't have anything that he could eat.

Once you've stirred in all your ingredients, you have completed about 1/3 of the necessary elbow grease. This recipe requires A LOT of stirring. Stop stirring, Bonsai warned, and you'll end up with a rock-hard brick of soap. So we stirred. And then stirred some more.
As you stir, the mixture will start to take on a sort of cakey appearance and texture. KEEP STIRRING!  We kept stirring until the soap easily formed a nice little cohesive clump of detergent in my hand when I scooped it out.

It looked like this when we stopped.

We split up our glorious home-made all-natural laundry soap and I took my portion home in a plastic storage container. I was sooooo excited to try it out.

And then I tried to scoop some out to do a load of laundry last night. And discovered that I had not a jaunty container of DIY laundry soap goodness, but a laundry soap brick.

Chisel or scoop?

I think it is still usable, I'll just have to break it up before use. Not ideal. I emailed Jess about the brick situation, and she said that her soap was still soft and cakey!  So maybe my soap just ended up baking in our hothothot apartment? Who knows. I'll try it out with some actual laundry and let you know how what happens.
Jess, any words of wisdom to share with the blogosphere?

Stay tuned for our escapades in home-made natural deodorant!

An Armpit Manifesto?

It's only 9:32am and I can already tell you that the Alba Botanical deodorant is going to make me completely crazy by noon.

Today is my first trial run of the safer stick, and to be fair, I'm wearing a sort of irritating little jacket over my dress, but sticky pits are derailing my already flagging concentration.

I know that deodorant is not the same as antiperspirant. And I also know that if I were wearing a more breathable, less-armpit-snug ensemble today I might not be so bothered. But today, my armpits = gross.

So I'll try it again tomorrow with a smarter outfit choice and see if that makes a difference. But handily, Twitter brought me this post from the Mother Nature Network with a few additional home-made deodorant options. Including how to use cornstarch and baking soda to reduce that sticky-pit sensation that has made those sweet-smelling-but-toxic antiperspirant sticks a mainstay of even the crunchiest toiletry cabinets.

This is what my armpits want:

• Safe ingredients that are not linked to cancer, death, doom, or any other human or environmental badness
• To not have my clothes stick to them, or become soggy in a pool of sweat
• To smell at least neutral, and ideally pleasant
• To be cared for for less than $18 per deodorant stick (even a really pretty, sweet smelling, safe deodorant stick)

G3 readers - Anyone want to go on a home-made deodorant adventure with me? We could try different recipes and report back. I know at least one of you (my favorite Nashvillian) has gone home-made and lived to tell the tale.

Just mix 1 part Fear and 1 part Laziness...

There are tons of recipes available online that will instruct you on how to make just about anything. Wood floor cleaner? Toothpaste? Granola? Why buy it in a store, in a package, when you can make it?

Notice I said YOU can make it.

I love DIY. I love saving money and customizing stuff that fits my life. I also get some thrills and jollies from being able to say "I made that!".

So what, pray tell, is preventing me from actually making my own shampoo, glass cleaner, and mouth wash? I have bought all the ingredients for them. Paid money. Money that could have been spent on lattes.

Well, I'm kind of afraid that they won't work, and I'm also kind of lazy. I don't personally know anyone who uses baking soda to cleanse her hair, or vinegar in a spray bottle to wash her bathroom mirror, or anyone who has cooked up a pot of vodka, water, lemongrass, and minty essential oils into some home brewed mouthwash. My goal for this week is to try all three of these concoctions and let you know how it goes. Les is begging me not to try to make my own mouthwash until he is satisfactorily convinced (via consult with his chemist dad) that I will not poison myself.

But if you can't stand the suspense, or know me well enough to suspect that I might just give up and watch JAWS on DVD rather than clean the bathroom tonight, you can check out this handy "Does it work?" road test of some popular home-made cleaning products, brought to you by Gizmodo.