The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Category: Makeover Mondays

  • Monday Makeover – Homemade Deodorant

    I’m terribly sorry that our Monday Makeover came a week late this month, but at least you had the bonus “all natural body care post” a few weeks ago when I wrote about using our goat milk soap as shampoo, which allowed me to take another chemical filled body care product off my list, so hopefully that made up for the delay. Anyways, this month I decided to tackle the recipe that I was most worried about, deodorant. It seemed like fate was forcing me to do it. No one wants to stink and we have all heard people making fun of those who use alternative deodorant options. I was not looking forward to becoming one of those people, but it had to be done.

    At the beginning of this month I lost my deodorant. I actually LOST my deodorant. It wasn’t like I was traveling and left it somewhere. I somehow managing to misplace it in my house, and while my house is sometimes the cluttered mess of a house that inhabits two small children it’s certainly not THAT messy. During that time I either didn’t wear any deodorant (if I was staying home.. something I would do even if I knew where my deodorant was) or I wore Kevin’s. I couldn’t bring myself to buy more. After looking everywhere I finally found it… it was in our room stuffed under a pile of paperwork. The kids must have stuffed it there. I used it for two days and it ran out. It was like I was being told that I needed to stop using it and make my own.

    Deodorant was the body product I was most worried about. I was worried about the chemicals and most importantly the aluminum. I knew this was a product that I had to tackle, but I was hesitant because, as I said before, I didn’t want to walk around smelling bad. I had been looking around for a recipe for a while when I ran across this one by A Blossoming Life. I liked the ingredients included in this recipe better than others I had seen, so I decided to give it a try.

    Homemade Deodorant  

    • 1/4 cup Baking Soda
    • 1/4 cup Corn Starch
    • 5 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
    • 5-20 Drops of Tea Tree

    Combine baking soda and corn starch and mix well. Melt the coconut oil for a few seconds in the microwave, then mix it into the baking soda and corn starch. Finally add the tea tree. Pour the mixture into an old deodorant stick or Tupperware and put it in the fridge to allow the mixture to harden. I didn’t want to take the time to clean out my old deodorant, so I put it in one of our glass containers. It doesn’t have to stay in the refrigerator. It’s only in there to set.

    The first few days of use the mixture was so hard that I had to use a spoon to scrape off the amount I wanted to use (maybe because it was colder in the house and coconut oil has a fairly low melting point, 76 degrees). After a few days the deodorant loosened up a bit to a more lotion like constancy and I was able to just scoop it out with my fingers, although I wish I had bothered to go to the extent of putting it in an old deodorant stick because it would have been much easier to apply and a lot lets messy.

    So, how well did it work? Maybe not as good as your average, chemical-filled deodorant, but it does the job. I’ve worn it for over a week now. I even gave it the true test in some “sweaty” situations like loading into our show this past weekend and working a craft show all day long, and for the most part it held up. While I didn’t feel like I smelled “pretty” I certainly didn’t feel like I stunk… which is all I am really aiming for. I plan to continue wearing it. I feel better knowing that I’m not putting chemicals on my skin and I trust that it is doing the job.

     

  • Using our Goat Milk Soap as Shampoo

    I have now been using our Goat Milk Soap as shampoo for two and have since revisited this post. See the new post here!

    I want to start by saying that I was truly skeptical about this. We have used our soap as shampoo on our children since the beginning, because it was the healthiest, cheapest option, but neither of them have a lot of hair and I wasn’t concerned about their hair “behaving”. I had fleeting thoughts about using it myself, but I have thick wavy hair that rarely behaves even with professional products, so I didn’t want to make my hair issues anymore challenging by using a product that wasn’t designed specifically for hair or my hair type.

    A few months after we opened I started to hear about customers using our soaps as shampoo with good results. A little over a month ago Kevin took the plunge and ditched the store bought shampoo as well… of course he didn’t inform me of this until I bought him a new bottle of his shampoo. I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t even notice he made the change. I finally decided that I needed to try it out myself. With my goal of getting rid of all my skin or hair care products that contain chemicals I would eventually need to figure out something else for my shampoo anyways. Why not start with something I already have?

    I waited until I had a week when I didn’t have a lot of meetings or work outside of the house to conduct my experiment. The first time I washed my hair right after I used the soap, while my hair was still wet, it had that stiff sticky feeling you get after swimming. It wasn’t the slick, smooth feeling I normally got with my old shampoo. When my hair dried it looked pretty normal… until I had reached the 24 hour mark from my last wash. It was greasy and I’m not used to my hair getting greasy so quickly. Normally, I only wash my hair every other day or every two days because anymore than that and my hair would get super dried out and frizzy (Don’t worry. I shower everyday. I just don’t always wash my hair). All of my friends with a similar hair type have the same issues, so I just thought it was normal. Needless to say I was concerned with how greasy my hair was in such a short period of time, I didn’t have time to double my hair routine, but I decided to keep working with it. I did a little research and found what was causing my issue. Normal shampoos strip your hair of it’s natural oils. Much like normal store bought “soaps” strip the natural oils of your skin. So how our soaps balance the PH and oils of your skin it is doing the same for your hair. I often tell our customers that if they plan to use our soaps on their face then they needed to allow for about a week to a week and a half for their skin to adjust (skin elsewhere does not seem to need this adjustment time). I needed to allow my hair to adjust. So I washed my hair everyday, and as the days passed it took longer and longer to get greasy. After about 4 or 5 days I was able to go back to my every other day hair washing regiment.

    Normally, my hair is out of control. It waves in every direction and I am in a constant fight against the frizz (one of the reasons I have always avoided washing it everyday). I don’t do much to my hair. I wash it, let it air dry, then straighten it to avoid the hair sticking out in every direction. I don’t use product. I really don’t have time for all of that. I figured I should maybe buy a hairdryer since I was going to have to wash it more often, yes I had committed to using the soap at that point, even if that meant I had to wash my hair more often (it takes my hair hours to dry), and no I did not own a hairdryer, so I ordered one on Amazon. After about 4 or 5 days of using the soap I noticed a nice change though. My hair maintained it’s body, but the frizz was non-exsistant. My waves waved in (mostly) the same direction. I haven’t straightened my hair since I started using our soap as shampoo. At first because I didn’t have the time to wash my hair everyday, let it dry for 3 hours, then spend the 30 or so minutes straightening it, but now it’s because I don’t need to! Before I wouldn’t dream of going out without my hair either up or straightened. I’m quite pleased with how it looks naturally now.

    One more good side effect. I have been battling a dry scalp for months. It’s been driving me crazy. I have never had this problem in the past. Our soaps are great for healing dry and damaged skin…I guess the same goes for the skin on your scalp. It’s a much better option than medicated shampoos.

    Here we are, two weeks later, and I don’t plan to ever go back to regular shampoo. I would call that a successful experiment! Now what do I do with the barely used bottles of shampoo and conditioner that we have?

    I used our Castile Goat Milk Soap for this experiment

    *** This is was a personal experiment and there is no guarantee that you will have the same results. Our soaps are designed to be used on the skin and we cannot claim that it will work on hair, but I do suggest you try yourself! ****

  • Monday Makeover – Vinegar Hair Rinse

    To debut our Monday Makeover I picked an oldie but goody… Vinegar Hair Rinse. I am sure over the next year you will see quite a few body care recipes that include apple cider vinegar, because in my mind vinegar cures all. Kevin often jokes that I am to apple cider vinegar as the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding is to Windex.

    Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse - Monday Makeovers from The Freckled Farm Soap CompanyThis recipe is one that I have used in the past when conditioners and other hair products started to build up on my hair. The apple cider vinegar strips hair of build up and residue, giving it more shine. It also closes the cuticles of the hair (which looks a great deal like tree bark under a microscope when the cuticles are open) making the hair more smooth and preventing tangles

    1. Mix 1/4 – 1 cup of vinegar to 16 oz of water. You will have to play to see what ratio best fits your hair needs. Dry hair generally likes less ACV, while oily hair has a tendency to like more.
    2. Shampoo as normal.
    3. Skip the conditioner.
    4. Pour the ACV mixture on your hair.
    5. Massage your scalp to make sure the ACV reaches the base of your scalp.
    6. Allow the mixture to sit in your hair for a few minutes.
    7. Finally rinse with the coldest water you can stand.

    This is not a treatment that you want to do too often, as it could potentially dry out your hair. Most find it helpful to do it once a month, while others prefer to do it as often as once a week.

    If you are interested in keeping up will all of our all natural body and hair care recipes subscribe to the blog!

     

  • 515 Chemicals and Makeover Mondays

    I recently read that the average woman wears 515 synthetic chemicals daily… Think about that… 515 chemicals.  These chemicals are found in her shampoo, soaps, hairspray and other haircare products, makeup, deodorant, nail polish, lotion, self tanner, and perfume. To me this number is staggering… although I guess it shouldn’t surprise me since most of these products are made up more of chemicals than anything else.

    I’m a bit of a tomboy, and don’t use many beauty products. I use shampoo, and deodorant. Of course I use our soaps, which are natural, and because of our soaps I don’t have to use lotion. The last time I really wore make-up was at Kevin and my wedding 6.5 years ago. I honestly can’t remember the last time I wore nail polish and I’ve never used self tanner… I’m pale and freckled. That’s just the way it goes. So, the chemicals that I use on any given day are in the very low double digits, but really any amount of chemicals worries me.

    With that being said I have a new goal for 2014… I plan to get rid of ALL of the chemicals that my family and I wear and in the process help you do the same. Every first Monday of the month I will share a new chemical-free DIY skin, body, or hair care product to help you get that crazy number much lower! I will include ideas of how to make products that are an everyday necessity, as well as ones that pamper. Subscribe to our blog so you never miss one of these recipes.

     Makeover Monday starting the first Monday of 2014!