Wednesday 3 December 2008

My Soaps Aren't Natural and They're Full of Chemicals


I don't harvest them from bushes in my garden - there are plants which are "natural soaps" in that they contain saponins (chemicals of course, like the rest of the plant); plants like Soapwort, which is still used to wash some old and delicate fabrics.

But a bar of soap can't be "natural" as it is formed by a chemical (re)action between lye and fats. Lye itself isn't natural either, the sodium hydroxide used in solid soaps is usually formed from brine by electrolysis and is often a by product from the manufacture of hydrochloric acid.

So don't let anyone tell you their soap is "natural".

Nor can it be "chemical-free" - think about it!

Everything is composed of chemicals, some are good and some are bad.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

More Moisturising Scrubs

Today I posted off samples of three new scrubs to willing human guinea pigs - and then realised that I hadn't taken any photos!

So until I make some more here are the descriptions listing some of the ingredients:

Karakorum
A salt scrub for vigorous scrubbing containing a mix of salts and spicey EOs. Going by reports on bathsalts of a similar mix this should be a goodly scrub to use in the bath at the end of a hard day.

It will contain:
All sorts of salts including Himalayan Black Salt
Coconut oil
Kokum butter
Black Seed oil
Blend of Spice EOs

Hey Mango!
A cornmeal scrub for use on most parts of the body and limbs; not as hard as Karakorum it will contain:

Mango butter
Mango powder
Papaya seed oil
Sunflower oil
Mango and Lime natural essence

Face the Morning
A caster sugar and ultrafine oatmeal scrub with ground Cardamon and Grapefruit EO (OK on my face so will have to see what the testers say).

It will also contain:
Babassu oil
Jojoba
Grapeseed oil
and one or two other ingredients.

Another problem was that my sense of smell hasn't properly returned following a cold so I'll have to see what the guinea pigs report on the fragrances.

All fingers crossed for the next few days!