DIY Shave Cream for Men & Women

The market is overflowing with shaving products: gels, creams, waxes… but here’s the secret: you don’t have to use those to shave. Just because it’s in a store, on a shelf, doesn’t mean that’s your only option, nor does it mean it’s safe for your health.

I’ve used the below recipe on myself for a very long time. I don’t buy commercial shave cream due to all the chemical and synthetic ingredients (fragrance, lauryl sulfate, stearic acid, triethanolamine, glycerin, alcohol). Also, the cans shaving products come in are a waste of resources in my opinion. This recipe I created doesn’t give me razor burn or dry my skin out. It leaves it soft, hydrated and bright/clean looking. You can use it for whatever body part you shave and you won’t need a post-shave moisturizer (like aftershave or lotion).

Here’s a quick recipe I invented to make your own, sustainable shave cream. It’s safe and it keeps your skin hydrated even a day later after you’ve shaved. You’ll wonder why you ever wasted your money buying synthetic, commercial shave cream in the store; I promise!

**Use within 1-2 weeks.

1. Get a recycled or reused glass bottle with a lid like the one pictured (I use one about the size of a beer bottle. And for travel, I’ve also used an old spice bottle/container).

2. Divide the bottle into 1/4ths,

Mix:

- 1/4 part U.S. Grown & Certified Organic, Peanut Oil

(excellent emollient and lubricant for easy glide and hydration)

- 1/4 part Certified Organic, Olive Oil

(nourishes the skin)

- 1/4 part Certified Organic Almond Oil

(conditions and brightens skin)

- 1/4 part Certified Organic & Fair Trade Coconut Oil 

(softens & moisturizes)

3.  Shake bottle before use to mix oils together.

4. Pour into hands carefully and lather between hands. Once you have a good lather, apply to wet skin/the area you want to shave.

*Note: If you’re allergic to peanut, you can substitute peanut oil for pure vitamin E or tomato seed oil.

Shaving Tips:

-Pour out of bottle slowly otherwise it will be runny (like olive oil when you cook). This isn’t anywhere near the consistency of commercialized shave gels, so if you want it to be a little more thick or lather-y, you can add about 10 drops of Dr.Bronner’s soap into it. I’ve done this before, but I don’t do it on a regular basis.

-First, shave with the direction of your hair growth. Shaving against it right away pulls the hair up and away from the skin, causing stubble or roughness.

-Second, lather up again and now shave ‘against the grain’ if you feel you still need a closer shave.

-If you’re a male and shaving your face with this and have oily-type skin, you can probably skip the aftershave or moisturizer; this recipe takes care of all your hydrating needs.

-So, if it’s made up of oils, won’t these oils make my skin greasy? No. Just give yourself a good rinse with water after you shave and you can even skip moisturizing post-shower (I often moisturize with lotion right out of the shower, but when I shave my legs with this, I don’t always need it). Your skin needs oils and using this for shaving will only serve to nourish it and balance with your body’s natural oils. This is why using essential oils to shave won’t cause acne-prone or oily skin.

-At start up, this recipe costs more than a can of commercial shaving cream, but it will save you money after the initial buy, due to the simple fact that this mixture will go a long way when dispersed properly; my bottle lasts about 6+ months shaving every 2 days. Also, if you’re like me, you might already have olive, coconut, or almond oil in your kitchen already.

Clean Anything. DIY: Make Your Own Cleaning Solutions At Home

There’s a lot of reasons why it makes sense to make your own cleaning ‘products’ at home:

-The Safety of you, your family, and pets.

Read the warning labels on the products you buy, they caution about safety when using. Common sense may tell you that if the directions say “do not inhale” or that you should “open a window to let air in while using product”, that perhaps the product your using imposes risks to the safety of your health. The use of these products with ingredients like formaldehyde, triclosan, fragrances, ammonia, can cause illness, allergies, skin problems, etc. Products (like bleach) not only kill the germs on your counter, but they kill the cells in your body too. Your immune system can manage the everyday germs in your household. But your body can’t always protect itself from the effects of dangerous chemicals in the long run.

Ditch your toxic cleaners for good.

-Save Money. By using ingredients you already have in your own home/kitchen, you won’t have to go to the store to spend extra money on product.

-Sustainability. Using natural/food products in your cleaning means the environment isn’t being harmed (because your ingredients in your cleaning supplies come from nature). So  you don’t have to worry about disposing of bottles/containers that once held your toxic cleaning chemical. Or dumping out excess cleaning product down your drain or into your local water supply.

Here are recipes and solutions for you to clean your home safely with. (Remember, if you have a food allergy or are allergic to oil ingredients, you obviously wouldn’t want to use those ingredients, but you can always substitute ingredients).

Here’s my Shopping List~

These are basically all/the main ingredients I use in all my home, car, or outside cleaning:

-Essential Oils: Jasmine, Rosebud, Lavender, Almond, Lemongrass oil, Tangerine oil (whichever scents you want your home to smell like).

[*Note: Be sure you're buying certified Organic, Essential Oils.

There's a lot of watered-down, commercialized products on the market. For oils, I love Thieves, Young Living Brand, but I can rarely afford to buy this brand, so I buy mine locally at my Food Co-Op. You can find essential oils in the health market section of your grocery store, at health food stores, or online.

Also, be a conscious consumer. Look for certifications like USDA, Fair Trade Certified, or made in the USA].

- Tea Tree Oil. Tea Tree contains terpenes and other phytochemicals that are naturally powerful antiseptic and fungal killers. Tee Tree oil is often added to natural soaps because it is considered a safe germ killer.

-Lemon Juice from Lemons.

- Baking Soda

- Tap Water

- 1 Bottle Club Soda

- Dr.Bronner’s Liquid Soap

- Table Salt

- Distilled Vinegar

- Recycled Newspaper for polishing away smudges and cleaning glass surfaces.

- Rags from old tshirts or repurposed clothes.

- Recycled Pouring Containers, glass bottles or Spray Bottles to hold your cleaning solutions. Here’s how I mix mine:

If you have a few of these ingredients on hand, now you too can learn How to Make Your Own Green Cleaning Supplies; read how after the jump

Earth’s Berries: Laundry Review

Introducing,

Earth’s Berries, Soap Berries.

If you’re searching for an environmentally-friendly or healthy & safe laundry line, search no longer. You can’t get much closer to nature than Earth Berries. Earth’s Berries successfully clean your clothes all while helping people across the world.

Economical, Eco-Friendly, and Humanitarian, it washes my clothes over and over again beautifully~

I have no reason to go back to using commercial laundry detergent. Earth’s Berries remove scents and stains from my clothes and allow my clothing to hold its color longer. One bag of Earth’s Berries lasts me months longer than a standard bottle of [Tide] laundry detergent. Not only do laundry detergents have ingredients that aren’t good for you or your children’s health, they also pollute our water systems. Using Earth’s Berries means I don’t have to worry about detergent on my skin or allergies. Plus, I’m not contributing to filling up the landfills or polluting water supplies.

Earth’s Berries has such a nice website explaining their story & philanthropy, I wanted you to see for yourself:

“I am loving the Soap Nuts! Economical, ecological, village building, planet saving, people saving! Karen’s story about a whole village being employed touched my heartstrings – a small change in my habits could mean a huge change in someone else’s life. My clothes come out clean, soft and with no fragrance and a family is able to put food on their table – it’s a win-win situation.”
-Jan

“I was amazed to discover that those natural little nuts where able to take the stink out of our our workout clothes. I have noticed that our clothes are softer without having to use a softener and keeping one more bottle of chemicals out of our home is wonderful. It’s a very cost effective way to do laundry especially with our HE washer the commercial detergent is expensive, plus no big plastic bottle to throw out every month, and it’s earth and body friendly. Everyone should try them.”
Sarah

 

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps: A Product Review

FOR Cleaning Everything: from your dishes to your pet to your hair!

Lucky you, you’ve just hit the jackpot of Beauty World. I could write a whole book on this incredible company. Throw out all your old toxic products, because you won’t need them anymore.

Based out of Escondido California (only 1/2 hr away from where I used to live, when I lived in California!), Dr. Bronner’s is one in a million. Dr.Bronner’s uses pure castile soap mixed with herbal ingredients to give you a great all-purpose product. I use their Classic Liquid Soaps for everything! And I mean everything. Just this-morning, I used it in the shower as Shampoo and I ended up using it later to clean my entire stove after I let my pot of boiling water/food over-flow. I should have taken a before and after photo, because my oven/stove looks like a brand new appliance after washing it. This soap can clean anything and make it look better than ever.

Pros: I use the Hemp-Almond Soap in my kitchen as hand and dishwashing soap, and to clean my counters and appliances. 

I use the Hemp-Lavender Soap in my bathroom. It’s super gentle on skin. I use it for bodywash, and I also dilute it with water and have also used it for shampoo and face wash, as well as hand soap. It’s great for removing makeup, but be careful about getting it in your eyes. Castile is nature’s gold-medal winner of soaps, so it’s strong.

Moms, if you’re reading this, put your chemical Dawn dish soap down, and get this stuff. You only need 3 or 4 drops per use, unless you cleaning something large, a little goes a long way.

They’ve also come out with a new line of Shikakai Conditioning Rinse treatments for your hair. I did a review on it here.

Critiques:
If you’re using it for your shampoo, only use a few drops and dilute, dilute! Or it will leave your hair greasy. This is because a little goes a long way and if you use too much, it’s hard to wash out. This also goes for cleaning anything, make sure you wipe your counter or whatever down after cleaning to remove soap residue.

PROS:

• USDA Organic Certified & Fair Trade Certified.
•  These Soaps have 18+ purposes. Since they’re just made from castile, hemp, and essential oils, the peppermint can be used to brush your teeth or as a deodorant, you can also use any of them for shaving, as a body rub, as a pest-spray repellant, a dishwashing soap, or as laundry detergent. They also make baby soaps. You can use this soap for washing pesticides off your vegetables, for aftershave, for giving your pets a bath. Since this soap is from vegetable oil (not animal fat), there are no harmful ingredients and they’re environmentally friendly- completely biodegradable.

• It’s safe. Forget about spraying weird chemicals all over your house to clean. If you have children, pets or allergies, you’ll have a lot less to worry about when using this stuff.
• No Synthetic Foaming Agents, Thickeners or Preservatives.
• 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Bottles and Paper Labels.
• #1-Selling Natural Brand of Soaps in North America.
• Made in the USA!
• And, as an extra bonus: I’ve found that it cleans jewelry! My jewelry looks new, everytime I wash it with Bronners. I bought jewelry cleaner awhile back and stopped using it once I realized I could just use my castile soap.
• It’s a money-saver. College student on a budget? Single & Saver? Dad or Mom and looking for a way to stretch your dollar?                                                                 Price: $15.99-16.99 for a 32. oz. Also, your local health market or store may offer a bring your own container policy where you can refill at the store instead of buying a new bottle. The 32 oz. will last you at least 2 months with daily use. You’ll be able to stop buying other cleaning & beauty products when you realize you can use this one product for everything.

Staple Ingredients: Extra-Virgin Coconut oil, organic Olive Oil, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba, Citric Acid, Vitamin E, are mixed with different essential oils (like peppermint, lavender, natural almond, etc), Potassium Hydroxide.

* Transparency: Potassium Hydroxide is an inorganic compound; it is used in the saponification (the process of making soft soaps as opposed to the more common sodium hydroxide-derived soaps). While the process of making this soap involves the ingredient Potassium Hydroxide, this company claims that this ingredient does not remain in the product once the soap is actually made. I’ve talked a lot about companies using harmful ingredients or masking ingredients or trying to pass ingredients off as safe. I trust this particular company because they are open about their ingredients and the process in which they make their product.

Where to buy: I get mine at my local Food Co-Op and my local health food store.

Or Target.

Otherwise, get it online.

Dr. Bronners sells internationally too!

“Our soaps are available in Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We have listed the information for our international distributors for you to consult. Depending on the distributor, they may sell to you direct or refer you to a retailer in your area.“