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.

Follow these eco-friendly recipes to make your feet praise you:

Green Rub For Pretty Feet (use this recipe to soften feet)

Ingredients:
2-3 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoon fresh mashed avocado or avocado oil
To make:
Mix both ingredients in a small bowl until they form a meal-like mixture.
To use:
1. Place feet on a towel. Put one half of the mixture in the palm of your hand, rub both hands together, and apply to one foot, working the gritty and emollient meal into calluses and rough spots, and up and around the toes.
2. Repeat with other half of mixture on other foot. Rinse and dry feet thoroughly.
3. Repeat treatment once or twice a week.
This recipe is by Annie B. Bond. You can find this recipe in her article on care2.com.

Sandal-Friendly Feet (use this recipe to exfoliate)
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons used finely ground coffee grounds
1 teaspoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon whipping cream
1 tablespoon whole wheat, rice, or white flour
2 drops lavender essential oil
2 drops tea tree essential oil
1. Mix together the coffee grounds, cornmeal, and olive oil. Add whipping cream, flour, and essential oils, stirring well.
2. Stand in the tub and scoop up a quarter of the mixture, scrubbing gently on skin of one foot. Repeat with second quarter of mixture. Rinse foot, then repeat process with the other foot. Rinse well and pat feet dry, then apply a moisturizer.
This recipe is by Annie B. Bond as well.

Basic Foot Soak (use this recipe to sooth feet)
Soothe aches, remove odors, and soften rough skin with this basic foot soak. Add 1/2 cup of Epsom Salts to a large pan of warm water. Soak feet for as long as it feels right. Rinse and dry.

Fun Additions to Your Soak
Lime slices and mint leaves
Rose petals or lavender
Orange peel and rosemary sprigs
Dried seaweed and seasalt, great detoxifiers
A few drops of your favorite essential oils:
for example, peppermint will be cooling, lemon uplifting.

This recipe is by Melissa Breyer. Please visit her article titled, “Swift Bliss Foot Soak” to read the full article with this recipe located in it.

You may already buy healthy shampoo. By healthy I mean shampoo that does not contain harmful chemicals, parabens, or sulfates, and that is not tested on animals. No matter what the product claims, look closely at the ingredients because it may, for example, not contain parabens, but it still could contain other chemicals and the company may test on animals. 

It seems whatever products we purchase these days we have to think twice about due to rampant overuse of dangerous chemicals, animal testing, sustainability of the product and potential recycling of used products. Some products are available to help though like “Tom’s of Maine” toothpaste. Tom’s of Maine was founded in 1970 and based on the idea that nature has answers to everyday needs, and that nature not chemicals were the answer. Over the years their teams of herbal experts, dental health professionals and scientists have proven that nature really does work. 

Certifications

In 1995 Toms of Maine toothpaste was the first natural toothpaste to be given approval from the American Dental Association, earning their seal of acceptance that the toothpaste is safe and effective. Toms of Maine also holds certifications that their product is Halal and Kosher, and is approved by Peta as being cruelty-free.

Ingredients

All the ingredients in their products are fully disclosed on their packaging, not only that but also the reasons WHY they are included and the source of the ingredient. This might not seem a big deal but for items that can be animal or vegetable based this is a huge resource, especially for vegans/vegetarians and those of religious cultures that don’t allow specific animal consumption. After all you wouldn’t imagine that toothpaste may contain animal products would you? However Glycerin used in many personal hygiene products can be animal or vegetable based so knowledge is power! Remember than animal farming uses so much more natural resources than vegetable farming so the more eco-friendly option would be vegetable based. Along the same lines Toms of Maine products contain no artificial colorants, perfumes, flavors or preservatives.

Choice

Toms of Maine seems to be all about offering their customers choice. Some eco-friendly people may be avoiding SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) while others may not care about this ingredient so Toms offers both SLS and SLS-free varieties. The same applies to Aluminum in deodorants and fluoride, offering both products with and without the ingredients so consumers can decide for themselves. This is not only beneficial to the consumer but good business practice for the company. Most consumers aren’t ready to switch to an all natural product so offering these hybrids is a great idea!

Product recycling

One great thing about Toms is on their website is that along with providing manufacturing information, ingredients and ways in which the company helps he earth they have a list of all the packaging and give information as to whether the packaging is recyclable. This is for the consumer awareness so we can continue their vision and recycle where possible.

Company take-over?

A few years ago Toms of Maine sold the majority of its stock to Colgate-Palmolive. Initially eco-friendly consumers were wary of the take-over but it appears that the companies have held true to their word and kept the companies values separate. Colgate as many will know relies on chemicals and animal testing for it’s products whereas Toms of Maine is fully natural and eco-friendly. Whilst some eco-conscious consumers still balk at the idea of finding Colgate with their purchases maybe we should look at the bigger picture and show the big corporations that we want the natural products and hopefully they’ll sit up and take notice and change their other products over to more natural alternatives also.

According to the Preserve website purchasing Preserve toothbrushes can have the following environmental impacts

• At least 54% less water than virgin polypropylene
• At least 64% less greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) than virgin polypropylene
• At least 75% less oil than virgin polypropylene
• At least 48% less coal than virgin polypropylene
• At least 77% less natural gas than virgin polypropylene
• At least 46% less electricity than virgin polypropylene

The great thing about these toothbrushes is that along with being environmentally friendly they are also good for our teeth! The toothbrush itself has an easy to grip curved handle for those hard to reach places, and a three level bristle arrangement to massage the gums. Another great feature is that the products are BPA free and made in the USA therefore shipping is reduced, using less fuel and reducing the global footprint. Even the container/packaging is environmentally friendly! The reusable travel case each toothbrush comes in is made from wood-based plastics, and all the paper advertising is made using 100% recycled post consumer content. The toothbrushes come in a variety of colors and bristle firmness just like regular toothbrushes, however they are also competitively priced! One great feature they offer is a subscription service, which delivers one toothbrush to your home every three months. Great for those of us that simply forget!

When the toothbrush is past it’s usable life the good news doesn’t stop there! Preserve accepts the toothbrushes back for recycling into new products! Simply mail the toothbrushes (and other #5 plastics) to them and they’ll turn them into more toothbrushes and other fully recycled products! Give them a chance, support them in their environmentally friendly products and practices!