Chemical-free living?

[ahmo]

I haven't used commercial body products for many years. After using a high quality organic product for a couple years, I was never willing to use commercial products again, and over the years, experimented with recipes for face and body lotions. I also make a body butter with cocoa and shea butters, w/ almond,, olive, coconut, mg oils, + some EPO, a few other things I can't recall in the moment. Rose hip oil is good for skin, especially face. I also make lip balm, really simple.

After reading the article re baking soda, I've stopped using bicarb for shampoo, body wash, as I'd been doing for the past year. I was in intense detox mode when I began that, so it made sense. I've now resumed a sulfate-free shampoo, conditioner, mild castile body soap. but I only shower once a week, generally.

 

[IreneF]

@ahmo
I was asking how they compare to conventional products, such as if they work better or cause less symptoms.

All the oils aren't necessary, you could use 1 type of oil, but they each provide different benefits. I naturally have dry skin, so I don't think it will be a problem for me. The arrowroot powder, diatomaceous earth (food grade), kaolin clay also balance out the texture so it has the consistency of normal deodorant. I made body butter using a mix of those oils with shea butter and cocoa butter and it's actually more solid than lotion. I think a smaller amount will go a long way when compared to store-bought lotions.

For toothpaste I would definitely use distilled or at least filtered water, due to the amount of chlorine and fluoride that's in tap water. I was looking at water filters and the good ones cost over $200. Yikes!

@IreneF Essential oils do have some health benefits, but they aren't necessary if you are sensitive to them. The only thing I've made so far is body butter, and I didn't have any essential oils when I made that. So I don't know if I'm sensitive to them or not.

I definitely think that making your own products will help, because you control what goes in/on your body. If there's an irritant you can isolate it and either remove it or replace it with something else.

I'm too sick to make anything.

Soap is just intrinsically irritating, possibly because of its high pH or because it can be hard to rinse it off entirely. Strangely, I can use it on some parts of my body but not others.

 

[kristysmiles]

I have successfully made a few things to include deodorant, face moisturizer and body lotion. They didn't all turn out entirely as hoped, and I'm still working on a shampoo recipe. I'm not sure if it's a result of the changes I've made, but I've completely weaned myself off Provigil. My symptoms are still there, but the Provigil was mostly taking the edge off the drop-dead exhaustion and brain fog. So it's enlightening to get the same effect without the medication. It's too soon to say for sure whether this is from the changes, and I'm still going through a detox period so everything might change again.

The most difficult process is finding a decent recipe for the product you want and acquiring the supplies. The actual process for most of the products is fairly easy. I put the ingredients (usually shea, mango or cocoa butter and beeswax) in a double-boiler (pyrex bowl in a pan with water) on a low setting and then go sit down. I'll check on it every 10- 15 minutes until everything is completely melted. If you are storing it in mason jars you can just put the ingredients in that and use it as a part of your double-boiler. I'm sure if you had a better grasp on how long it takes everything to melt you don't have to check on it quite so often. I know the ups and downs definitely make me dizzy and more exhausted, but I think its worth it for I'm accomplishing. I often wish that it could count as a full-time job to create a healthier environment for myself.

@ahmo
None of the recipes I use have baking soda. There's a lot of baking-soda free recipes that are replaced with clay or D.E. or something similar to maintain the texture.