The Green touch

Here is the list of the different peeling ingredients I may or may not have mentioned on the blog. The great thing about it, you probably already have them in your kitchen. Face peeling - thin salt in a little bit of oil (olive for example) That's what I use, once a week :) - wheat bran. You can mix it with yoghurt but I guess it's just as fine in olive oil. I would especially recommend this for sensitive skins as it's extremely soft (a bit too soft for my taste though). I bought the wrong type of flour so that was a good way to use the bran after sifting the flour. - coffee grounds. Slightly more abrasive than thin salt but still ok Body peeling - sugar! and honey and olive oil --> See honey sugar scrub here . - coffee grounds Hair Yes, hair, or more precisely, scalp scrub. From what I read, it helps you get rid of dead skin cell and stimulates circulation and hair growth. You can choose any of the ingredients above depending on how sensiti...

Ever since I got a job, I don't make as many cosmetic products as before. But this one is very simple to make and so pleasant to use. Smells delicious and you'll understand why. It's a body peeling with only kitchen-ingredients. - 4 table spoons sugar - 2 table spoons honey - 2 table spoons oil Mix everything and...it's ready! --> The more liquid the honey, the better. Mine is slightly hard but is just mix everything with the finger before use. --> Use preferably organic ingredients --> Use any oil, but if you don't have antioxydant, don't use a fragile oil. I chose olive and apricot oil. It leaves the skin really soft but I think sugar would be a bit harsh for a facial peeling. Recipe found on http://www.faitesmaison.com

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators 4 - Superfatting your soap Superfatting your soap means you will use excess oil, i.e. more oil than necessary for saponification. Consequently, not all the oil used will be turned into soap; some of it will remain as oil. When you use any detergent, shower gel, or even homemade soap, it destroys the skin's protective film, which takes a few hours to reconstitute. Washing too often will weaken your skin. When your skin is dry for example, it's actually better not to wash - with soap or gel - the dry and sensitive parts every day rather than trying to fix them with cream afterward. The oil contained in superfatted soap temporarily replaces this natural film by leaving an oily (but not greasy) film on the skin. This and the natural glycerine contained in cold process soap make homemade soaps very good ...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions Sodium hydroxide is very corrosive; its pH varies between 12 and 14 (FYI, water has a pH of 7, skin around 6, and hair around 5). Making soap requires you to mix caustic soda with water (or another liquid, for example, herb tea), which will significantly increase the liquid temperature. To avoid dangerous splashes, it's very important to POUR THE CAUSTIC SODA INTO THE WATER (not the water into the soda), and this lye mixture into the oil. Pouring water into caustic soda would provoke a "volcano effect". The same thing will happen at this point if you use objects made of materials that react with lye e.g. metals (except stainless steel) and wood. Using glass containers and a stainless steel spoon to stir is a good solution. And you don't want the volcano effect to happen because:            ...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap?  1 - How: the saponification process    Soap is the result of a chemical reaction between fatty substances (oils, lard, vegetable butter) and sodium hydroxide also called lye or caustic soda (NaOH). Caustic soda is a dangerous substance and is to be used very carefully, but it is totally transformed through the process: none of it remains at the end of the chemical reaction...if you used the right quantity of lye. If you use more lye than required your soap will be "caustic" and irritating. Therefore it's recommended that you use less soda and more oil than the exact amount required for total saponification. Firstly, it's a safety precaution: using more oil than necessary for the chemical reaction is a guarantee that the lye will be entirely transformed through the process. And more than that, with extra oil (nonsaponified - remaining oil), your soap will be even softer on the skin. This extra oil is called "sup...

As I explained it in a previous article, I came to home-made soap because I wanted to control the ingredients (no palm oil) and their origin (as few kilometres as possible), so as to use the most ecological soap for my laundry liquid . But there are other valid reasons to make soap for yourself: some oils are naturally soft and good for the skin, others you will choose because they give extra lather and foam to the soap, or even because they just give a special colour you like. In a word: home-made soap is very good for the skin (also because it naturally contains glycerine, which is otherwise removed from industrial soaps) and it's even better because it's customized to your needs. Another good reason to make your own soap is the price. Finally, it's a very creative (and addictive!) activity, which may explain why soap makers make more soap than they can use. Soap making is a complex and very rich art. It’s a great hobby, and you probably won't offer anyth...

A balm is basically made of (bee)wax and oils. Contrary to a cream, which is an emulsion, a balm is only composed of fat material and quite easy to make. It nourishes (and does not moisturize) the skin, and leave a fat protective film on the skin.  A balm may serve as a support for active ingredients, like essential oil, for local application ( unguent ; ex: tiger balm). You can also make " massage bars " (1st recipe) and lip balm , in pot or stick (second recipe). The consistency and hardness of the balm depends on the quantity of wax and solid butters (not obligatory). The quantity of wax varies between 12 to 20%; source ). Why make homemade balm? Modus operandi Recipe 1: massage bar Lip balm: recipe & recycling of an old tube Where to buy beewax? Why make homemade balm? As any homemade product, you know exactly what ingredients are used, which you can choose according to their quality (organic, coldpressed oil...) and properties. Yo...

Oil is your best friend! (see below) Are you sick of using creams you don't understand half of the ingredients (usually not a good sign), and which your skin does not seem to appreciate? Here are easy solutions to replace them. You can first decide to buy organic cosmetics, but since it's rather expensive I understand why many people give up. But at least you know that stuff you put on your skin are healthy.  You can also decide to make your own cosmetics yourself ; it is not that hard to find raw material but it doesn't mean it's easy to to make a high quality cream. That requires knowledge on your type of skin, on the ingredients you use, on chemistry (a cream is an emulsion) and on hygiene precautions. The great advantage is that you know exactly what's in it and choose the ingredients according to what you really need. On this blog I will only speak of easy stuff to make, like lip balm for example. But as regards skin care, I like simplicity, wh...

Initially published on 21/09/2011 Have you ever seen the movie Recipes for disaster ? This is about a finnish family who tries to live without petroleum and products made of it: no more gasolin, plastic package (probably the hardest part), etc. The problem is that petroleum is a very small part of the picture and some efforts they make, like using biofuel or buying some kind of carbon offset to compensate their carbon-emitting electricity, are counterproductive. The worse to me is still the father's conclusion: "it's impossible to live without petroleum because you cannot replace toothpaste"... WRONG!! And maybe he thought he was only talking about plastic but the paste itself contains petrochemicals. Another good reason to prove him wrong. Our current toothpastes did not exist a century ago. They actually appeared at the same time as dietary excesses and food with a high rate of sugar. Extra fluor toothpastes were made to compensate ...