Tag Archive for: natural products

How to Make All Natural Squeezable Remineralizing Toothpaste That Kids Love

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How to Make Squeezable Remineralizing Toothpaste

This toothpaste recipe is simply the best! I have experimented with different ingredients and different proportions time and time again, and I finally nailed it with this recipe. Everyone in our family enjoys using this all natural toothpaste that is free from the harmful ingredients found in commercial toothpaste, and it works great!

When my five children were young and we started to use the training toothpaste from the store (loaded with sugar) they just wanted to squeeze it out of the tube and eat it. That’s when I knew I had to make my own toothpaste! It was an easy transition, and to this day they all still love using my homemade toothpaste.

Ingredients

If you’re going to the trouble and mess of making this recipe, I suggest making a large batch. This toothpaste should have a shelf life of about a year (or longer if you keep them in the refrigerator), so they can last for a long time.

  • 4 cups Coconut Oil (Anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-fungal)
  • 1 cup Hot Water (Melts the coconut oil and makes the toothpaste squeezable)
  • 1 cup Baking Soda (Slightly abrasive, gently cleanses, tastes salty)
  • 1 cup Diatomaceous Earth (Slightly abrasive, gently cleanses, kills parasites, no flavor)
  • 2 cups Calcium Carbonate (Remineralizes teeth)
  • 2 teaspoons Liquid Stevia (A sugar free sweetener, add more or less depending on taste preference)
  • 2 teaspoons Strawberry Extract or  Peppermint Extract (with the peppermint, I like to add an extra teaspoon of flavor)
My Toothpaste Making Station

My Toothpaste Making Station

Ingredient Notes

  • Baking Soda: Not only does slightly abrasive powder help to eliminate plaque, it also whitens your teeth, helps eliminates harmful bacteria, and encourages a more alkaline (rather than acidic) environment in your mouth. (Read more here about the benefits of baking soda.)
  • Diatomaceous Earth: This is slightly abrasive just like the baking soda, but without the salty taste and with the added benefit of killing parasites in the digestive tract by shredding and dehydrating them.
  • Calcium Carbonate: If you have active decay, demineralization (indicated by white spots), or sensitive teeth, then this ingredient is for you! This alone will not remineralize your teeth as much as diet, however, so check out this amazing book by Ramiel Nagel called Cure Tooth Decay to learn how eating a healthy diet based on Weston Price principles (such as avoiding processed foods and adding nutrient dense foods to your diet like pastured meat and eggs as well as raw milk and properly prepared grains). Increased saliva also helps to keep teeth clean, and chewing this Trident Recaldent Sugar-Free Calcium Gum might help you to do that while getting some extra minerals.
  • Coconut Oil: Coconut oil is antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, and gives the toothpaste a nice creamy consistency.
  • Stevia: Stevia is derived from plant in South America called Stevia Rebaudiana. It is extremely sweet, so not much is needed and it’s calorie and sugar free. Some people like using xylitol, which is extracted from fruits and vegetables and is also calorie and sugar free, so it’s just a matter of personal preference. (Read more about stevia versus xylitol here.)
  • Flavoring: I really like the peppermint extract because it has a nice minty flavor, but lately the kids have really been enjoying this strawberry extract flavoring. You could also use cinnamon extract or orange extract depending on your taste preference. *FYI: Don’t use essential oils for the toothpaste unless you are 100% certain it won’t be ingested.

Directions

  1. Coconut oil and water: Add the 4 cups of coconut oil (generous cups) and mix with the hot water until nice and creamy. You can mix by hand or with a mixer.
  2. Baking soda, diatomaceous earth, and calcium carbonate: I like adding 1 cup of baking soda, one cup of diatomaceous earth, and 2 cups of calcium carbonate, but you can play around with this mixture. Because I have five young children using this toothpaste, I try to go as light as I can with the baking soda so it’s not too salty. Once you add these ingredients, mix well with a mixer.
  3. Stevia and flavoring: You really have to go by taste here. Just add a little, mix, taste, add a little more, etc. Just remember that you can’t take the flavoring out if you add too much!
  4. Tube it: I like using this baby food making system to store my squeezable toothpaste. You could also use small glass canning jars or even a disposable storage container. I basically just scoop the toothpaste into the containers, remove as much air as I can, rinse under hot water, remove even more air, and dry.
  5. To use: Add a pea sized amount to your toothbrush and use like you would any other toothpaste. Feel free to spit or swallow!

    Toothpaste in Use

    Toothpaste in Use

Tips and Tricks

  • Even though I try to mask it as much as I can with the other ingredients, the baking soda has a salty taste to it that you may notice at first. If this bothers you, either start with a very small amount at first or mix with some other toothpaste that you have as you transition away from it. This might be really helpful for young children.
  • This toothpaste doesn’t foam or lather, so you may want to dip a little more on your toothbrush before you finish brushing to get your teeth extra clean.
  • For some reason, we all tend to drool a lot when using this, so you may want to make sure you’re standing over a sink.
  • Although it’s a pretty hard habit to break, you don’t have to spit this toothpaste out. The diatomaceous earth kills parasites and the coconut oil is anti-fungal, so by swallowing this toothpaste on a regular basis, you can help to prevent and eliminate any candida or parasite issues.

The Most Important Reason to Avoid Commercial Toothpaste…Fluoride!

By making our own toothpaste, we can avoid the worst toxin of all – sodium flouride, which is a toxic chemical that has not even been proven to prevent tooth decay. If you look at your tube of Crest toothpaste, it actually says to contact poison control if more than the amount needed to brush your teeth is ingested. If a 2 year old were to ingest 42% of a tube of toothpaste, it would kill him.

Among other things, ingesting too much fluoride can cause dental fluorosis, which can permanently discolor the teeth, (especially children who have yet to get their permanent teeth), cause damage to the brain and alter mental behavior, result in a lowered IQ, produce impairment of the pineal gland which is linked to early onset puberty, lowers thyroid function, causes arthritis, damages the bones, and causes reproductive failures.

Other Harmful Ingredients Found in Commercial Toothpaste

  • Triclosan – An antibacterial compound found in antibacterial soaps, toothpaste, deodorant, and many other household products that can lead to disruption of the thyroid hormone and endrocine system and creates a dangerous antibiotic and bacterial resistance. Many companies are banning its use.
  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate – A foaming agent that is present in nearly all shampoos, laundry detergents, and toothpastes that can lead to organ, reproductive, and neural toxicity, endrocine disruption, cellular mutations and changes, and even cancer.
  • DEA (diethanolomine) – Formulated into soaps, detergents and surfactants, it has been linked with kidney, liver, and other organ damage according to several government-funded research studies, and has been proven to cause cancer in rats when applied to the skin.
  • Propylene Glycol – A colorless, viscous, hygroscopic liquid used in anti-freeze solutions, in brake and hydraulic fluids, as a de-icer, and as a solvent. It’s even found in some pet foods, processed foods and cosmetics, toothpastes, shampoos, deodorants and lotions. It is implicated in contact dermatitis, kidney damage and liver abnormalities. It can inhibit skin cell growth in human tests, can cause gastro-intestinal disturbances, nausea, headache and vomiting, central nervous system depression and can damage cell membranes causing rashes, dry skin and surface damage.

Further Reading:

Ruby and Elliot Helping Me Make Toothpaste

Ruby and Elliot Helping Me Make Toothpaste

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What’s So Bad About Phthalates?

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What's So Bad About Phthalates?

I’ve done a bit of research about phthalates to know that they are bad, but I wanted to dig a little deeper to see just how bad and learn more about the possibilities for exposure.

My Health Journey

As a health conscious mother of four (soon to be five) and also on a pretty strict budget as a stay at home mom, I’m always trying to balance out health and cost. I first of all try to serve my children as much nutrient dense food as possible while at the same time try to eliminate as many toxins as I can. That being said, stress causes the release of the hormone cortisol which leads to inflammation, free radical damage, and a weakened immune system, so I try to avoid that by not getting too paranoid about things that can affect our health.

I believe the best health journey is one that is continuous and involves baby steps. Once, I tried throwing out everything processed and only purchased organic whole foods, but the cost was overwhelming and something we couldn’t support on one income. (Also, organic isn’t a magic label freeing us from all toxins.) So now, we do what we can, and I’m always trying to just focus on the next step rather than the final destination.

In this series of articles, I would like to explore some of the toxins that are lurking in our everyday lives, explain what they are, how they are hurting us, and discuss how they can be avoided. I hope that this research will serve our family as we continue our health journey, choose better and safer products, and try to live the best life that we can every day for both our current and future health.

What are Phthalates?

Most phthalates (pronounced f-THAL-ates) are plastcizers that are added to plastics (such as vinyl flooring, raincoats, shower curtains, plastic toys, and IV drip bag tubes) to make them more flexible and harder to break. They are also added as a dissolving agent (solvent) and fragrance carrier to many personal care products including soaps, shampoos, deodorants, and laundry detergents.

*On a side note, phthalates are not commonly found in things like plastic wrap, food containers, and water bottles…although these plastics do contain other dangerous chemicals that can leech into your food and beverages that I will discuss in future articles.

Finding Phthalates on Labels

If you’re a label reader (like me), the scary thing about phthalates is that under current law, they can simply be labeled as “fragrance”, even if they make up to 20% of the product.

If you’re looking at your labels, you may notice different acronyms and names:

  • DBP (di-n-butyl phthalate) – used in nail polish and other personal care products
  • DEP (diethyl phthalate) – used in personal care products, such as deodorants, perfume, cologne, aftershave lotion, shampoo, hair gel, and hand lotion
  • BzBP (benzylbutyl phthalate) – used in vinyl flooring, car-care products, and personal care products
  • DMP (dimethyl phthalate) – used in insect repellent, plastics, and solid rocket propellant
  • DEHP (di-phthalate, bis-phthalate, or 2-ethylhexyl phthalate) – used as a softener in PVC products, such as IV bags, tubing, and other medical devices

*In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed a law calling for the phthalates DBP, DEHP, and BBP (benzyl butyl phthalate) to be banned in all toys (including teething toys) and bedding intended for children 12 and under. There are, however, no regulations on phthalates in toys made in China, and they have been tested to have very high levels (28%-38%).

Why are Phthalates Dangerous?

While most studies reflect the effects of phthalates on animals, the results have been disturbing enough for people to start taking notice. Most adults will metabolize phthalates through the digestive system and excrete them via feces or urine, but this isn’t really possible for fetuses in the womb and particularly dangerous for the immature digestive system of infants and young children, so they are most at risk.

While more research is needed, animals studies show that low exposure to DBP phthlates (found in most grocery store cosmetics) can damage the reproductive system of males and that DEHP (used to soften plastics) is toxic to the developing fetus (especially at high exposures such as experienced by those undergoing medical procedures). Other studies show that,

“there is a potential for phthalates to impact birth outcomes, including gestational age and birth weight, fertility (lower sperm production), and anatomical abnormalities related to the male genitalia,” states Maida Galvez, a pediatrician and director of the Mount Sinai Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit in New York City.

Phthalate exposure is also linked to asthma, the timing of puberty, childhood obesity, and other health conditions such as breast cancer.

How to Avoid Phthalates

While I don’t think it’s practical or possible in this day and age to chuck every man made material possession and move deep into the woods to be free from human influence or innovation, there are some ways that we can start to eliminate our phthalate exposure both gradually and practically.

  1. Look for phthalates or fragrance on labels. Avoid anything with “fragrance” or any mention of any type of phthalate. Instead of using air fresheners, just put a few drops of essential oils into a spray bottle filled with water.
  2. Look for phthalate-free labels. This may seem like kind of a no-brainer, but it is a pretty good way to find things that are free from phthalates. 🙂 Look for phtalate-free labels on cleaners and cosmetics especially.
  3. Check the bottom of plastic bottles and choose those labeled #2, 4, or 5. Avoid #3 and #7 because they may contain phthalates.
  4. Use a french press for coffee. The plastic tubing and high heat in coffee pots are a recipe for high phthalate exposure.
  5. Don’t buy plastic toys from China. If you buy children’s toys in the U.S. (made after 2008), they cannot contain phthalates, but even still, you might want to steer towards wooden toys like these wooden teethers that my friend makes! And don’t buy plastic toys from China (or other countries) where there are no regulations on phthalates.
  6. Know where your milk comes from. Even organic milk may have passed through plastic tubes (with DEHP) on the way from the cow to the bottle. The fatty acids in milk basically pull the the DEHP out of the plastic tubing and into the milk. We actually get raw milk from a farm (that we have visited) where the milking is done by hand and never touches plastic of any kind.
  7. Sweat more. Sweating helps your body to eliminate phthalates twice as effectively as elimination through urine. So, adults can exercise more or visit the sauna!
  8. Be careful when painting. Most paints have DBP to help them spread better, so make sure there are no children are around and the room is well ventilated, or look for natural paints without DBP.
  9. Choose non-vinyl options if possible. For example, you can check out these non-vinyl shower curtain options and these PVC and phthalate free raincoats at Puddlegear that will not produce chemical off-gassing bringing phthalates into your environment. *These options are expensive and things I would save for more advanced elimination.

Conclusion

The people most at risk from phthalate exposure are unborn babies and infants (especially males), so it’s especially important for pregnant mamas and parents of young children to be aware of things that contain phthalates. During human studies, women have tested higher for the type of phthalates found in cosmetic products, so women are typically at greater risk as well. So before slathering lotion on yourself or your baby, spritzing on some perfume, or washing your clothes, check your labels and know what you’re putting onto and into your body.

Like I said before, I don’t think it’s worth the stress to get super paranoid about every possible danger in life because we’re all going to die one day anyways, but by taking thinking of it as a health journey instead of a health destination, we can continuously choose one thing at a time to improve in our lives that will help not only our current health, but our future health, and the health of future generations as well.

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How to Make Your Own Lip Balm

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Embracing Motherhood How to Make All Natural Homemade Lip Balm

Do you already make your own deodorant or whipped body butter? Then with one more ingredient (beeswax), you can also make your own lip balm! I’ve always been a big fan of using Bag Balm on my lips, but I like this even better! It makes my lips super smooth, and I love the smell!  This recipe is super easy to follow, and you can have your own lip balm in no time! Not only do I use this as a lip balm but I massage it into my dry cracked hands (especially the cuticles) for super soft skin and on any skin irritation such as eczema or psoriasis. I also like mixing it with some beef tallow and use it as a moisturizer for my face. If you don’t want to make it yourself, head over to my Etsy shop and check out what I’ve made. 🙂

Ingredients/Materials

Ingredient Notes

  • Essential oils are all about your preference. You might enjoy using only a couple or you may be like me and add a little of this and a little of that until it’s just right.
  • You may have to play with the beeswax ratio, especially when considering your climate. For a firmer product in a really warm climate add more beeswax (start with a 1/4 cup at a time) and for a softer product in a really cold climate start with 3/4 cup.
  • Another variation is to do half the coconut oil and add more shea or cocoa butter. Both are more moisturizing than coconut oil, but also more expensive.
  • As with any recipe, I tend to play around and have some fun adding a bit of this and a bit of that. Through experimenting with this recipe, I have found that I prefer a softer version that I store in containers and can easily apply as a salve. So I typically add a bit less beeswax and a bit more sweet almond oil.

Directions

  1. Set up a double broiler by boiling a pan of water and placing a glass bowl on top of it.
  2. Add the beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter and/or cocoa butter.
  3. The beeswax takes the longest to melt which is about 15-20 minutes. (To speed up the process, you can put a towel over the bowl. Just make sure it doesn’t touch the burner!)
  4. Once everything is melted, fill one container and put in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes. Once it hardens, you can test to see if you need to add any more ingredients.
  5. Transfer your melted mixture to a pouring container (like this). A spatula can help to transfer all of the mixture.
  6. Stand up all of your lip balm containers and place them close together in a bunch. Use the funnel to fill each container.
  7. Or to be more precise, you could use a big dropper to get exactly the right amount in each container.
  8. Let cool, harden, and then use!
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All Natural Homemade Deodorant That Really Works!

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Embracing Motherhood All Natural Homemade Deodorant That Really Works!

I have been using my homemade deodorant for awhile now, and I am blown away by how well it works. Not only is it better for me, but I get to tailor it to my specific preferences.

I first got the idea that commercial deodorants were bad when I read this article about how the aluminum in commercial antiperspirant deodorants prevents your body from sweating (which is one of the ways that the body releases toxins), and it was reason enough to make me search for an aluminum free deodorant! (Not to mention that aluminum is toxic to the body.) My husband was easily able to find a deodorant without an antiperspirant (Dove was his original choice, but we have switched to Every Man Jack), but I was only left with a few natural options at the grocery store. I tried every one, and none of them worked. In fact, Tom’s Natural Deodorant actually made me smell worse!

Then my cousin said she tried Primal Pit, and it was the first natural deodorant she had ever used that actually worked. I was going to buy some myself, but when I saw the price tag and the list of ingredients, I thought, “I can make this!”

Homemade Deodorant Recipe

This recipe will make four 4 oz. jars of deodorant, and each jar typically lasts me about 4-6 months. Coconut oil has a shelf life of about 18 months (if in a covered jar), so that’s a pretty good expectation for how long it should keep. *Although 2022 update, I just used my last jar that I made about 5 years ago, and it still worked just fine!

*Note: The pictures below actually show me making a double recipe. When I make things, I like to have enough to last for a long time, and I like to have extra to give away!

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Measure the Ingredients: Measure the coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and beeswax (for deodorant sticks) and place in a glass bowl. It’s helpful to break apart and mash them up a bit before melting.

    cocoa butter shea butter coconut oil beeswax

    Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, and Beeswax

  2. Double Broiler: You can use a double broiler like this, or you can just put a glass bowl on top of a pan of boiling water (that’s what I did). Make sure everything is completely melted before moving on. This should take about 15-20 minutes. If you want to speed things up, put a towel over the top. Just make sure it doesn’t touch the burner!

    double broiler

    Double Broiler

  3. Add Powders: Using hot pads, place the bowl on the table. Then add the arrowroot powder and baking soda. Mix with a fork until it’s nice and creamy.
    melted butters and oils

    All Melted!

    stirring ingredients

    Adding the Dry Ingredients

  4. Add the Essential Oils: I like using a dropper like this for measuring my oils. Don’t add the essential oils before you heat everything up because they will evaporate and not be as strong.
  5. Storage Containers: I like keeping my deodorant in small glass jars because that is what fits best in my bathroom. I like using a glass measuring cup like this to transfer the recipe into small jars. (*Once the deodorant hardens, I find it useful to stir it up with a spoon or fork so that it’s easier to use.)

    ready to pour

    Ready to Pour

Deodorant in a Glass Jar

Deodorant in a Glass Jar

Deodorant Stick

If you want to be able to keep your deodorant in a plastic deodorant container, you can use the above recipe, and keep in the refrigerator, or you can modify the recipe by adding more beeswax. Fyi: I tried both recipes on either armpit, and the recipe with more beeswax did not work as well.

filled deodorants

Deodorant Sticks

hardened deodorant

Deodorant Stick Hardened

FAQs

How Should I Use This? First of all, natural deodorants really work best on thoroughly cleaned armpits. So when you’re in the shower, don’t just graze your pits with a loofa; really get in there with a bar of soap and make sure they are clean! I find it’s best to apply this deodorant right after I get out of the shower (I have never had it sting after shaving my pits) and before I put any clothes on, but you could apply it once you’re dressed too. (It won’t leave any white marks on your clothes like traditional deodorant sticks, and it’s not so oily so that it will leave grease stains on your clothes either.) Scoop a pea sized amount onto your fingertips and rub into your pits. With the leftover residue on my fingertips, I usually smooth out any flyaway hairs on the top of my head and rub the rest into my hands to soften them up. I typically don’t reapply throughout the day, but if you’re worried about stinking, it might be a good idea.

Can I Play Around with the Recipe? I have played around with many different combinations and types of oils, butters and wax, and even though this exact recipe is my favorite, there is a lot of room to play around with different combinations of things. For example, you could substitute cocoa butter for shea butter or eliminate the beeswax altogether. The coconut oil is antimicrobial and pretty easy to come by, so that’s always a staple for me. As a rule of thumb, you basically want the dry ingredients to be about one and a half times more than the liquid ingredients. I have used many different essential oil combinations, and this one turned out simply divine! I really think that the tea tree oil and lavender oil are essential, but the honeysuckle was just for my personal preference. Feel free to add whatever essential oils you like until you find the right combination that works for you.

Where Can I Get the Ingredients? I originally bought all of my ingredients on Amazon, and I have linked to them above. I used my favorite organic brands, and I really loved the quality. But since then, I have discovered Bulk Apothecary. They are an amazing company that consistently delivers a quality product at a reasonable price. I buy coconut oil (not organic) in bulk from Country Life to use for cooking. Also, once you buy the shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, beeswax, and essential oils, you’ve got a lot of the ingredients to make whipped body butter, toothpaste, and lip balm (recipe coming soon).

How Can I Make This Recipe More Manly? I have not yet made this deodorant for my husband, but I’d like to someday, and I will update this post when I do. In the meantime, to make this recipe into a version fit for a manly man who likes manly smelling things, I would use all of the same ingredients except for the lavender and honeysuckle oil. If you take those out, the tea tree oil might be a little overpowering, so you could add sandalwood oil, cedarwood oil, vanilla oil, patchouli oil, or any other scent combination that works for you.

Is There an Adjustment Period? If you’ve been using an aluminum based deodorant for awhile, you’ll need to “detox” for a bit before your body fully adjusts. With your antiperspirant deodorant, your pits weren’t allowed to sweat freely. Now they are, and they will have a lot of toxins to eliminate. So you may initially see a large amount of perspiration as your body adjusts. After awhile, however, things will taper off and you’ll settle in to a new normal. I’ve also heard that your pits might be a little sensitive at first, but I haven’t personally experienced that myself. If this happens to you, you might want to make a batch with about half of the recommended baking soda and go really easy on the tea tree oil, which is probably what’s irritating you.

Why Do Underarms Stink Anyways? Sweating is how the body cools itself down when we get too hot. Sweat has no odor. The odor is caused by the bacteria that live on our skin. Basically, the bacteria metabolize the proteins and fatty acids from our sweat, and this is what causes body odor. We don’t need to stop the sweat to stop the odor, we just need to stop the bacteria. This is why so many of the ingredients in this deodorant recipe are anti-bacterial. If you’re really concerned about having stinky pits, you should make sure to shave often so that the bacteria have less places to get trapped. Other things can effect the smell of your pits as well. Being overweight, being diabetic, taking antidepressants, and eating garlic, certain spices, and alcohol can also effect the smell of your pits.

Reasons to Avoid Commercial Deodorant

When I researched these harmful ingredients found in commercial ingredients, I was very glad that I had stopped using it and found a better alternative.

  1. Aluminum – A metal used to help block the sweat from escaping from the pores. It has been linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. (Here’s a study showing aluminum found in breast biopsies. This is a great article if you want to learn more about the dangers of aluminum.)
  2. Parabens – A synthetic preservative that disrupts the hormonal balance leading to early puberty, a higher risk of hormonal cancers, birth defects, and organ toxicity. (Check out this study about how parabens are found in breast tumors, and read this article that explains how when mothers are pregnant, parabens cross the placenta and are even found in higher concentrations in the baby.)
  3. Propylene Glycol – A petroleum based material used to soften cosmetic products that in large quantities can damage the central nervous system, liver, and heart. It is also found in many processed foods. (This is a great article to learn more about the dangers of propylene glycol.)
  4. Phthalates – A class of chemical used to dissolve other ingredients and to create a better consistency that has been linked to birth defects, cell mutation, and a disruption of hormone receptors. Used in cosmetics, synthetic fragrances, plastics, body care products, and medical goods. (This is a great article to learn more about how phthalates can affect you when you’re pregnant and what to do about it.)
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How to Make Whipped Body Butter

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I love moisturizing my skin with nourishing creams and lotions, but the more I have been learning about living a healthy lifestyle, the more I have been learning that what you put on your body is just as important as what we put into our bodies. When we eat food, it is processed and filtered through our digestive system, but when we put things on our skin, they are absorbed and enter the bloodstream without any filters. When I realized this, I knew that it would be important to start really looking at the ingredients in all of my skin care products. Something else I learned is that there are no FDA regulation for beauty products. This means that there’s really no way to know if companies are being truthful in their labels.

There are many different recipes for body butter but the best recipe will basically have a ratio of 25% liquid oil (almond oil or jajoba oil) to 75% solid oil (coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, etc.). I’ve linked to some of the Amazon ingredients I’ve purchased, but I really love going through Bulk Apothecary for all of my wholesale needs. They have excellent products at a great price. I like to get everything organic, but they have some great naturally refined products if you’re looking for something without the odor.

Ingredients:

*After learning about the health benefits of each oil and butter, I would like to create another recipe that calls for less coconut oil, a little more cocoa butter, and a lot more shea butter. Shea butter is the least clogging and the best for your skin. Cocoa butter is really good too, but coconut oil really clogs pores. Plus, it is always makes my skin feel really dry and itchy. After using the above recipe, I feel like my hands were even drier than when I started. I would also like to make one recipe with whipped butter and one without whipping it for more of a salve. I will post an update!

**Update: I made One with only cocoa butter, shea butter, almond oil, and olive oil (because I ran out of almond oil). I didn’t whip it very much, and it hardened quite a bit and was too hard to use. So I gathered all of it up from the jars again, threw in just a handful of coconut oil, and whipped it up really well again. I still feel like it made my skin a little itchy, so maybe I’m just really sensitive to coconut oil. I’ve read that jojoba is the best oil for the skin because it most resembles the bodies natural oils. So the next recipe I make will have jojoba oil, shea butter, mango butter, and aloe vera. I also want to try and get the deodorized brands because I’m not a big fan of all the different smells. I will update when I make it!

Directions:

  1. Melt everything (except the essential oils) in a double broiler. (If you don’t have a double broiler, you can put a glass canning jar into a pot with an inch or two of boiling water or you can do what I like to do which is to place a glass bowl on top of a boiling pot of water because it’s easiest to mix that way.)
  2. Put in the freezer for about 20 minutes. It should start to harden.
  3. Use a hand mixer and beat until there are peaks (about 10 minutes).
  4. Add desired essential oils.
  5. Put back in the freezer for about 10 minutes to stiffen up (if necessary) before putting into small glass storage jars.

Notes:

  • Why Shea Butter? Raw, unrefined shea butter is rich in essential fatty acids, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins A and E. It has a creamy color and a distinctive and somewhat unpleasant smell. It is widely used for its moisturizing, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging properties. It also won’t clog your pores like cocoa butter and coconut oil.
  • Why Cocoa Butter?  Raw, unrefined cocoa butter is rich in essential fatty acids, minerals and antioxidants. It’s been claimed to help reduce stretch marks and help with sensitive skin issues like eczema because it contains cocoa mass polyphenol which has been shown to thwart cancer, prevent cardiovascular disease and ease arthritis. It also has a nice chocolaty aroma.
  • Why Coconut Oil? It is anti-microbial, anti-fungal, and antioxidant, the medium-chain triglycerides present in coconut oil deeply penetrate the skin for great moisturizing, it screens 20% of the ultraviolet exposure, and it has vitamin E to aid in my recovery of skin damage such as burns, cuts, scars, etc.
  • Why Almond Oil? It is loaded with antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and vitamins A, B, and E. It has a light and less greasy feeling to it. Jojoba oil can be a great carrier oil too. It has a shelf life of five years versus almond oil’s one. But it is more of a wax and creates a barrier on the skin that doesn’t really penetrate. Plus, it costs five times what almond oil does.
  • Essential Oils: Blood Orange, Honeysuckle, Vanilla, and Lavender are some of my favorites.
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How to Make Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

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How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent

I started making my own laundry detergent to save money and for the health of my family. This recipe is definitely a cost savings, much better for us than commercial detergents, easy to make, and it really works! I wash a lot of pee soaked toddler bedding and soiled cloth diaper wipes, and this detergent gets them all super clean.

Ingredients for Laundry Soap

Ingredients for Laundry Soap

*I like using the liquid laundry detergent better because it lasts longer, and since the soap has been previously dissolved, it works better, but you could also just not add water and use it dry (just make sure you’re washing with hot water).

Ingredients

  • 1 Bar of Soap: I like to use Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Castile Soap or Kirk’s Natural Castile Soap, which is a little cheaper.
  • 1 c. Washing Soda: Get some here or find it in the laundry aisle at your grocery store for about $3.50.
  • 1 c. Borax: Get some here or find it in the laundry aisle at your grocery store for about $3.50.
  • Cheese Grater: I like using this stainless steel stand up grater.
  • 2 Quart Pot Filled with Water
  • 1 5-Gallon Bucket: Get one here.
  • *Oxygen Booster Get some here. You can add this separately to your wash cycle to get whites whiter.
  • *Fels Naptha: Get some here. This works really well to get out tough stains. You can add a grated bar to this recipe to make it really powerful, or just grate some up in a bucket of hot water to soak the stained garment. *Warning: Once I washed Jack’s baby blanket with this and he got a really bad rash on his face, so use with caution.

Directions for Liquid Laundry Detergent

  1. Boil Water: I like using a two quart pot, but really any size will do.
  2. Prepare the Soap: Use a cheese grater to grate an entire bar of soap. You could also cut the soap into slivers with a sharp knife or cut it coarsely and put it into a food processor. Basically anything that will help the soap to dissolve quickly.

    Freshly Grated Soap

    Freshly Grated Soap

  3. Add the Soap: Add the soap to the boiling water, turn the burner down to a 6, and stir with a wooden spoon until the soap dissolves.
  4. Add the Borax: Add the Borax first because it doesn’t react as volatilely as the Washing Soda! I like to use a liquid measuring cup and slowly add the Borax while stirring with a wooden spoon until it is dissolved.
  5. Add the Washing Soda: Keep your eye on this one because too much heat can make it bubble over and not hot enough won’t allow it to dissolve. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon until dissolved.
  6. 5-Gallon Bucket: Once everything has dissolved, pour into a five gallon bucket. Fill to the top with hot water. I like to use the sprayer on my sink to do this. 5-Gallon Bucket Filled with Liquid Laundry Detergent5-Gallon Bucket Filled with Liquid Laundry Detergent
  7. Stir: Stir two or three times a day for the first two to three days until it reaches a gelatinous consistency. A long handled spoon like this is really helpful.
  8. Use: I do a lot of laundry and a lot of big dirty loads, so I usually use 1 cup per load, for smaller less soiled loads, you could use ½ cup.
    1/2 a Cup for Normal Loads

    1/2 a Cup for Normal Loads

     

(To make a dry laundry soap, just mix the dry ingredients together and don’t add water, store in a mason jar, and use 2 tablespoons per load. I personally feel like the liquid soap is better and lasts longer, however.)

FAQs

  • What about HE washers? This detergent isn’t very sudsy and should work just fine in HE washers.
  • Why hot water? The next time you make some hamburger patties, try running your hands under some cold water to get them clean. Doesn’t work so good, does it? Now try adding some soap. Still doesn’t work too good. Now try rinsing your hands with warm to hot water. Pretty cool, huh? Now, try adding a little soap to some warmish hot water and notice how your hands are finally clean. Keep this in mind when doing laundry. 🙂
  • Why washing soda? The high alkalinity of washing soda helps it act as a solvent to remove a range of stains. You can heat baking soda to make your own washing soda.
  • Why borax? Borax works by converting some water to hydrogen peroxide which increases the effectiveness of other cleaners. This chemical reaction works best in hot water. There is some debate as to how “green” Borax is, but it’s just a laundry booster, so you could skip it entirely and this would still be a good recipe.
  • Why soap? Soap is an emulsifier which means that it can suspend oil and dirt in a way that it can be removed.
  • How much does it cost? If you buy the washing soda and borax at your local grocery store and get some good organic soap online (Like Dr. Bronner’s) I figured out the cost of each 5 gallon bucket to be about $3 for 80 loads of laundry (if you use 1 cup per load), which is about $0.04 per load.
  • What about really soiled clothes? If I have something with really tough stains, I keep a stain remover stick like this around to pretreat the stain. Then I grate up some Fels Naptha (about a quarter cup grated) along with a cup of my liquid detergent to a small bucket with really hot water. Then I soak the soiled garment for at least 20 minutes or so. I have not encountered any stain that couldn’t be removed this way.

    Soaking a Stain Away

    Soaking a Stain Away

Dryer Tips

  • The Harm of Dryer Sheets: In addition to being made with a laundry list of toxic chemicals with negative side effects, the artificial fragrances are a carcinogen and coat all of your clothes.
  • White Vinegar: If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll add ½ cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle to reduce static cling. Don’t worry, it won’t make your clothes smell like vinegar at all!
  • Dryer Balls: We have also used dryer balls. They are supposed to soften the clothes as well as reduce static cling. *But in all honesty, I usually don’t add anything to the dryer. Something about having five kids made me not care about static cling anymore. Go figure! 🙂

The History of Laundry Detergent

Did you know that the use of “laundry detergent” as we know it today took off because during WWII the fats and oils used to make soap were needed to manufacture nitro-glycerine into explosives? Another source had to be used, and that’s when the synthetic form of laundry detergent using a base of petroleum became widespread. (Read more about the history here.)

Harmful Ingredients in Commercial Laundry Detergents

  1. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate  – Used as a surfactant (lowers the surface tension between a liquid and a solid – helps the water to get everything wet), detergent, and emulsifier in thousands of industrial cleaners and cosmetic products including shampoos, toothpastes, body washes, and laundry detergents. 16,000 studies have been published showing the dangers of this chemical including irritation of the skin and eyes, organ toxicity, developmental/reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, endrocine disruption, ecotoxicology, and biochemical or cellular changes, along with possible mutations and cancer.
  2. Dioxane – It’s not really an ingredient, but rather a byproduct of ethoxylation which combines low sudsing ingredients with ethylene oxide to produce softer detergents that produce more suds. It has been found in about 2/3 of all detergents (excluding USDA certified organic brands). It has been found to cause cancer and to be potentially toxic to the brain, nervous system, kidneys, liver, and respiratory system.
  3. Nonylphenol Ethoxylate – An inexpensive nonionic surfactant that is an endrocine disruptor and estrogen mimicker that can potentially cause hormonal problems or even cancer. It has also been shown to cause kidney and liver damage, decreased testicular growth and sperm count, disrupted growth and metabolism, and increased mortality.
  4. Phosphates – They break down the dirt particles and remove stains by softening the water and allowing suds to form, but they can cause nausea, diarrhea, and skin irritations in humans, and they are difficult to remove from wastewater and often end up in rivers and streams where they increase algae growth which starves the animal life of oxygen. 40 states have currently issued phosphate detergent bans.
  5. Other Harmful Ingredients: Linear alkyl sodium sulfonates, petroleum distillates (which have been linked to cancer), phenols (which can cause toxicity throughout the entire body), optical brighteners (which cause bacterial mutations and allergic reactions, and can be toxic to fish), sodium hypochlorite (bleach), ethylene-diamino-tetra-acetate, and artificial fragrances (which have been linked to various toxic effects on fish and animals, as well as allergic reactions in humans). (Source)

In Conclusion

Making your own laundry detergent is really easy once you get in the habit of it. With a large family and the high cost of laundry detergent, this has been very helpful for our budget. Not only that, but it is a definite health improvement from using the commercial toxic laden detergents. This recipe will make enough detergent to get you through about 80 loads.

For Further Reading

“Are You Poisoning Your Household With This Chore?” by Dr. Mercola – A very in depth look at why commercial laundry detergent is bad that cites many more sources for even further reading.

*You might also like my articles about:

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Homemade Diaper Wipe Solution

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I have had every intention of using cloth diapers, but with two and sometimes three in diapers at a time and one particularly sensitive child prone to very bad diaper rashes, it just hasn’t worked out for me. But using cloth wipes and making my own diaper wipe solution has been an easy to maintain and cost effective home solution for me.

Ingredients: 

Directions:

  1. In a small bottle (I use an old glass pizza sauce jar), mix a concentrated version of this mixture that’s about ¾ full of water to mix as needed into a larger container.
  2. I like to use an old diaper wipe container or a tupperware container to put the solution in.
  3. First pour in a glug of olive oil. (It doesn’t need to be extra virgin, any oil will help the sticky messes to slide away).
  4. Then add a generous squirt of soap (For my newborns I like using Weleda Calendula, but for budgetary reasons, I usually just end up using hand soap)
  5. Next add few drops of tea tree oil (This is a great anti-fungal and I used it when my son was getting a bunch of yeasty diaper rashes.)
  6. Then add a few drops of lavender oil. (This just helps it to smell good.)

ragsCloth Wipes: I love using these Bumkin Reusable Cloth Wipes. When I got them on Amazon, they were $8.15 for 12. I ended up buying 36 and that seemed a good amount to only have to wash about once a week for two kids at a time in diapers. (Note: Do not use dryer sheets, they will prevent the wipes from absorbing.) What I do is dip the cloth in the solution, wring it out, and use as needed. I also like to have some thinner cloth diapers around to give a dry wipe afterwards to prevent too much moisture from accumulating.

Diaper Rash: If we do have a diaper rash problem, I LOVE using this Weleda Diaper Cream. It’s kind of expensive at $9.09 for 2.8 oz., but a little bit goes a long way!

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Hi, I’m Stacey Maaser,

author of Embracing Motherhood! I am a stay at home mother of 5 with 7 years of teaching experience and a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I am passionate about teaching my children, feeding them healthy food, learning the truth about things (not just what is popular opinion or counter culture), and sharing what I’ve learned and experienced with others. Thanks for stopping by!

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