It’s amazing when you think about all the different things that you can find in any given bar or bottle of soap. I mean, seriously. All of the perfumes, the chemicals, the emulsifiers, and all of the other garbage we just slather all over ourselves can get a little overwhelming. That’s what’s so great about the Oregon Soap Company: they love the “less is more” strategy. It’s also great that their soap doesn’t suffer for that mentality, and is actually much more enjoyable to use.

Think about it this way. You’re in the shower, lathering up after a long day, and you reach for the soap. You pour it on you and it gobs on you. It lathers into this bluish, chemically mass of bubbles on your hands and body, and in the end you’re left smelling like perfume scents that were developed in some lab by mixing a few short-chain hydrocarbons around to make you smell like a car air freshener.

Then you find something like the Oregon Soap Company, and you are rewarded by soaps that are created with actual ingredients grown from the Earth. They are the same basic ingredients of soap that you’ll find anywhere, they just choose to not make them in a lab out of otherwise toxic elements. That sounds like a pretty good tradeoff to me.

Despite their wide range of soaps, they also allow customers to come up with their own concoction, giving you more control than any of those other big companies would ever give you. The transparency of the whole process is what really gets me, and it’s one of the biggest reasons that I keep going back. I use the peppermint liquid soap myself, and man I love it.

The one I’m putting on here is a cucumber soap recipe, and it’s great. This one is super simple and very easy to make. Not only does it use some more common items than other soap recipes, but it carries with it a certain natural cache. After all, cucumbers are used around the world for their astringent properties, so you’ll be making soap with a kick. The recipe is pretty simple:

1 & 1/2 c. clean rendered tallow
1 c. cucumber pulp
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. cold soft water
1/4 c. lye flake3s
1/2 tsp. wheat germ oil or vitamin E oil

Grate every part of the cucumber to the finest texture that you can possibly get it. I mean EVERY part of the cucumber. Nothing goes to waste. Bring the tallow to a melt, and stir in the cucumber until you get a good mixture going. Keep it on the lowest heat your stove can manage for about half an hour, stirring infrequently.

Add the vegetable oil to the tallow, and set it aside. Add the lye flakes to the cold water, and set that aside as well. Once the two are cooled to about equal temperatures, you’re going to start stirring the lye into the tallow. It’s very important that you stir the lye into the tallow. Lye is an extremely caustic substance that can produce severe chemical burns. If you pour the tallow into the lye, you run a greater risk of having lye splash up onto your skin, so pour the lye into the tallow gently. Stir them together, and let the mixture sit.

Grease your molds with the petroleum jelly, and add the rest of the ingredients (wheat germ, vitamin E) to the lye/tallow mixture while stirring very slowly. Once they’re mixed and relatively lukewarm, pour the mixture into the molds and let it sit.

Lo and behold… soap!

Not only do we have them to thank for most of the fruits and nuts that we see in the grocery store, but they produce a number of extremely useful byproducts throughout the course of their lives. These byproducts can be used in any number of awesome home crafts that are very easy and economical to make– chief among them being lip balm. Keeping in line with our theme of talking about great homemade products, and with an eye toward the coming winter months, now is as good a time as ever to talk about making your own lip balm.

Lip balm is actually much easier to make than you would think. While you can easily make it yourself with a bunch of research, you can bypass all that research by simply buying yourself a kit. These kits are very easy to find online, and their costs vary a lot depending on a number of different factors. The biggest thing that will drive up the price of your homemade lip balm kit will be the exact type of beeswax you get with it.

For example, take a look at organic beeswax. Some people look at the organic label as mandatory for anything they buy or use in their home. However, to provide you with organic beeswax, farmers need to take extra measures to make sure their bees are only able to come into contact with organically grown feed crops. This extra expense translates into a much more expensive product for you at checkout. If it’s worth it to you, then great– if not, then keep looking.

Aside from the type of beeswax you get with your kit, the size of the kit itself will also have a big impact on your final costs. However, this is mitigated in the long term due to the affordability of making the lip balm in bulk.

If you’re interested in taking on this fun, simple, and engaging project, you’ll be glad to know that it’s not difficult to find these kits online. There are even a lot of local retailers that sell them, and you should focus your search on home-craft or home hobby stores.

Brrrr. With those biting winds and with the heat running non-stop in your home, car, work, and in stores your lips are probably feeling the effects. Okay, I’m in San Diego so it’s not cold at the moment but it is still dry. I have tried so many eco-friendly lip glosses, balms, moisturizers, and salves and finally had to get to the bottom of why some of them haven’t worked for me.

Most lip balms contain a base of petroleum jelly which is a nonrenewable resource and is the cause of irritation in many people. WHen looking for a product, keep an eye out for products that combine beeswax with plant oils and nut butters. Shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil do the trick as well as petroleum jelly (i.e. Vaseline). Avoid balms that contain artificial colors, flavors, or scents. 

Although you might see those ingredients in some natural products, be wary of some botanical ingredients too: 

- Essential oils of lemon, orange, grapefruit, and lime might add a nice fragrance but they might also increase sun sensitivity. Use extra sun care if you are using products with citrus oils. 

- Balsam of Peru is a resin extracted to an El Salvadorian tree and is sometimes used as an antiseptic. It is often used as a fixative in perfumes. According to The Green Guide, It is one of the most allergenic ingredients in cosmetics and can lead to contact dermatitis (rash) in people with sensitive skin or allergies. 

- Chamomile is soothing and often used in tea however since it is similar to ragweed it may trigger allergic reactions in some people. 

- Lavender and tea tree oils are ideal for skin and bath products because of their fresh scents and tea tree’s antiseptic properties. However, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study in 2007 linking the use of these oils in topical products with prepubertal gynecomastia (the development of breasts in young boys). Avoid these two products on small children. 

Keeping all of that in mind, here are some good options for your chapped lips. 

Kiss My Face: Vanilla Honey, Ginger Mango, Treat Mint, Cranberry Orange, and a few other Lip Balm flavors as well as a variety of lip colors. Most have some level of SPF and do not contain any animal ingredients. Their base is beeswax, canola oil, and aloe. 

Burt’s Bees: Beeswax Lip Balm, Sun Protection, Lifegaurd’s, and many other balms, glosses, and lip colors. My favorite is the original Beeswax Lip Balm. I mix that with a colored lip gloss. 

Alba: Alba makes a great line of tropical flavored lip balms and a line of tinted lip balms and glosses called TerraTints and TerraGloss made with beeswax and shea butter. I have a few of the TerraGlosses in my purse at all times (Garnet and Bloom if you must know). 

These are all readily available at grocery and health food stores, online, and at many beauty supply stores  

(Photo Credit: Butterfly Kiss Photography)

N.Parkington

Looking for a new project to do or
just simply want to make your own eco-friendly lip balm? Homemade lip
balm is a lot easier than one may think. To make these lip balms
(thanks to lemelange.com) recipes truly eco-friendly simply replace
the oils, such as almond oil with organic almond oil. Have fun
everyone!

Recipes For Making Lip Balm:

40% of your recipe should be any
cosmetic grade oil that is liquid at room temperature (sweet almond,
apricot kernel, avocado, grapeseed, hemp seed, macadamia, olive,
sunflower, etc.)

25% of your recipe should be any
cosmetic grade oil that is solid at room temperature (coconut,
lanolin, palm, mango butter, shea butter, etc.)

20% of your recipe should be cosmetic
grade Beeswax (white or yellow, pellets or solid blocks)

15% of your recipe should be any
cosmetic grade oil that is brittle at room temperature (cocoa butter,
palm kernel, etc.)

The above measurements are “weights”,
so you can calculate your own recipe in ounces, grams, or pounds.

Directions:

melt all carrier oils, honey, beeswax
and butters over low heat. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then
add the flavored oils, essential oils, vitamin E, etc. Stir until all
ingredients are blended well and pour into containers. The easiest
way to do this, is to purchase those inexpensive “pointy”
paper drink cups (like the kind on the side of a water cooler). Cut
off the point and use it as a funnel. Then you can just toss them out
when you’re finished!

You may have to “play around”
with these recipes by adding a tiny bit more or less of the beeswax
pellets. As with any of these recipes, if it comes out too soft, add
a few more beeswax pellets; if it’s too hard, add a little more
almond oil (or other oil). They’re really hard to mess up, so enjoy
yourself and have fun.

LIP BALM RECIPE #1:

2 Teaspoons Olive Oil

1/2 Teaspoon Grated Beeswax or Beeswax
Pellets

1/2 Teaspoon Shea Butter or Cocoa
Butter

Sweeten to taste, if necessary

Any Flavored Oil To Taste

1 Vitamin E Capsule (as a preservative)
(optional)

LIP BALM RECIPE #2:

3 oz. Almond Oil

Sweeten to taste, if necessary

1/2 oz. Beeswax or Beeswax Pellets

1 Vitamin E Capsule (as a preservative)

1-4 Drops Essential Oil (peppermint or
tea tree or sweet orange, etc.)

LIP BALM RECIPE #3:

2 Teaspoons Grated Beeswax or Beeswax
Pellets

3 – 6 Drops Flavored Oil

1 Teaspoon Sweet Almond Oil or Jojoba
Oil or mix 1/2 and 1/2

1 1/2 Teaspoon Cocoa Butter

1 Vitamin E Capsule (as a preservative)

LIP BALM RECIPE #4:

This one is positively excellent for
dry, cracked lips – even helps heal cold sores (it’s the emu oil….)

1 oz. Emu Oil

1 oz. Almond Oil

1 oz. Avocado Oil

1/2 oz. Shaved Beeswax or Beeswax
Pellets

6 Drops Lavender Essential Oil

2 Drops Tea Tree Essential Oil

3 Drops Lime Essential Oil

Follow the following recipes to create your own eco-friendly lip gloss:

Homemade Lip Gloss

Instructions:
1 teaspoon of cocoa butter
1 teaspoon of shea butter
1 teaspoon of almond oil
a little of vitamin E oil
15 drops of sweet orange essential oil (or really any smelly and flavored oil)

Directions:
Melt together, pour into a empty tin or case, set in a refrigerator. Sounds easy right? And once you have those ingredients, you can make it over and over again.

This recipe is by Kendra Cunningham. You can view her recipe in her article online.

Citrus Lip Gloss

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons sweet almond oil
2 teaspoon beeswax (pearls or solid beeswax grated and measured)
1 teaspoon aloe vera gel
1 teaspoon honey
800 IU Vitamin E
4 drops lemon essential oil
3 drops tangerine essential oil

Directions:
Melt the beeswax and sweet almond oil together in a heat-proof container over boiling water. When the beeswax is melted, remove from the heat. Add the honey and Vitamin E, mixing briskly with a wire whisk. Add the aloe vera gel and stir into the mixture. Add the essential oils and stir in well. Pour into a low wide-mouth jar.

This recipe was posted by Annie B. Bond, and you can view it in her article online.

Chocolate Lip Gloss

Ingredients:
Take 4-5 chips of Chocolate
About 3 full tablespoon of cocoa butter
One capsule of Vitamin E

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a large boiler and melt them very well. After this, blend it by using a spoon. One can use this homemade lip-gloss on lips. Pour it into a small bottle and keep in a cool place for making it solid.

This recipe is by BeautyFeast.com.

Let’s take a good look in our makeup bag and see what makeup is available to us in a more natural form. As we open our makeup bag one of the first things that we can see sitting on top inside of it is a bag of ]]> http://www.ecofriendlydaily.com/beauty/cosmetics/whats-makeup/feed/ 5