Baking Soda Toothpaste Update

Last month I wrote a post about my husband and I switching from store-bought toothpaste to a homemade baking soda/sea salt mixture (followed by a post about fluoride).

I know that some people reading that might be skeptical about its effectiveness or even the overall safety of it on teeth (is baking soda too abrasive?...not according to this Relative Dentin Abrasivity chart).

Well, we have been very happy with it and I surely never see myself going back to the gooey tubes.

But for just a little more reassurance, I wanted to share about the dentist appointment I had yesterday for a standard check-up.

As background, I have very good teeth. I have had a small number of fillings and never had any major teeth or gum problems. I always have wonderful dental check-ups and nobody ever tells me I'm doing anything wrong.

Yesterday's visit went very well, as usual. After the hygienist used her little scraper on my bottom teeth - before doing the cleaning - she said that I only had a tiny amount of tartar and that my teeth looked great.

The dentist came in and took about 20 seconds to look around, made a comment about the warm weather and left.

So after 4 months of using our homemade toothpaste, everything is still in wonderful shape. I hope that says a little about it working just fine.

Homemade Deodorant

It's time to get a little personal and talk about deodorant.

For years, I have used an antiperspirant, even thought a while back I heard that it wasn't good for you, especially if it contains aluminum (which I assume most do). Every once in a while I have given a natural deodorant a try, but they never work. I have always gone back to my trusty old aluminum.

But after I started making all my changes around the house with my personal care products and cleaning products, I knew my stick of Dove had to go (not only does it have aluminum, but also many other nasty ingredients.)

*For more reading about deodorants, check out these articles:

Beware of aluminum in deodorant products
Top five ingredients to avoid in deodorant

So I had been given a homemade deodorant recipe last fall. I tucked it away for later, and then sometime in November or December I made a batch to give it a try.

I have been using it for about 6 months now and I can say that I love, love, love it and will never return to store-bought.

I waited to blog about it because while it was working just fine during the cold months, I needed to give it some Southern heat before making the final verdict.

And I can say that after a few hot days so far this Spring - which included doing some afternoon yard work - that this absolutely works better than my old stick of Dove. It's quite amazing (even by the following morning, I am still fresh as a rose).

***

Homemade Deodorant

1/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup corn starch
optional: a few drops of essential oil for scent

Heat through on the stove. Pour into a container with a lid (ideally a glass container).

With clean hands, scoop out a small amount with your finger and rub it on. 

The consistency will change depending on the season (it will be solid in the winter and much softer in the summer).

***

I'm almost finishing up with my first batch now...and as I said, I started 6 months ago. And I'm definitely saving money this way.

So if you have doubts about the safety of your deodorant, give this a try and see how it works for you. You might be surprised.

Good-bye Frizz

A few weeks ago, I wrote about going shampoo-free and switching to homemade options. The one I chose was using diluted baking soda, and then a rinse of diluted apple cider vinegar. Seems like a crazy way to clean your hair, but somehow it does seem to work.

In my previous post, I was mostly covering why commercial shampoo can be harmful to you, and then how to make your own instead. But I didn't say much about how it's specifically working for my hair.

(I want to say again that I know not everyone will get the same results when doing things homemade, so all I can speak to is my own personal experience with it.)

For as long as I can remember, I've been fighting against frizzy hair. I also have very thick hair, that is either heavy when worn long, or wavy and doing funny things went short.

6 years ago - used my hair straighener

Around 10 years ago, my sister-in-law gave me a gift of a hair straightener. I loved it and was able to have thinner-looking non-frizzy hair. I did that just about every day for 5 years. Then my daughter was born and I no longer had time to straighten it. So it didn't take long to start putting my hair back in a pony tail every day.

I stopped using my commercial shampoo 3 months ago. It took a good 3 to 4 weeks to get my hair's oil production back down to a normal rate. And since that has leveled off, my hair's texture is a lot better. It seems softer...but most importantly:

NO FRIZZ.

I wanted to break the pony tail cycle, so a few weeks ago I cut it short like I used to wear it in college. Now it's easier to wash with the natural stuff, it dries so much quicker, it doesn't get frizzy, and I can go 2 days between washing.

I truly believe that the store-bought stuff was damaging my hair and creating the frizz, along with the need to wash it every day.

I strongly encourage anyone to throw out their bottle of goopy toxins and try a natural solution (sure, you can buy something natural, but it's so expensive and tricky to find one 100% truly natural -  even "fragrance" is a harmful ingredient).

It may be a slight struggle in the beginning to find something that works for you, but do some experimenting because it's so worth it when you come out on the other side.

Toothpaste: Synthetic Chemicals vs. Natural Ingredients

A couple of months ago, my husband and I stopped using toothpaste.

Well, we still clean our teeth, just not with the store-bought stuff that we have all used since we were about 2 years old.

Even though we don't swallow it, the ingredients in our toothpaste still get absorbed through our mouths. And with 1 1/2 to 2 minutes twice a day for a lifetime, that will sure add up.

Do you have any idea what's in your toothpaste besides fluoride? I took my old tube of AIM Cavity Protection Ultra Mint Gel and did some research on the ingredients.

Aside from Sodium Fluoride, everything in there is either for sweetening, thickening, emulsifying, lathering or coloring. And two of them (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and PEG-8) could possibly be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, which is a carcinogenic by-product made during the manufacturing process.

Here are two others who have written about common toothpaste ingredients:

What's in Toothpaste?
Do you know what's in your Toothpaste?

If you want to look up your own brand and its overall safety, you can look on either goodguide.com or cosmeticdatabase.com

***

Fluoride

Before continuing, I want to note that I am going to do a separate post about fluoride. In doing my research on toothpaste, I discovered that fluoride is a huge topic and quite controversial.

I have learned a lot about fluoride that I didn't know before, and have concluded that I want nothing to do with it (unfortunately, I have no choice that it's in my tap water). For anyone to leave fluoride behind in their dental care, it needs to be done as an informed decision.

But I will move forward with this post with the understanding that fluoride is NOT essential in dental care.

***

Going Natural

Because of all the synthetic chemicals in toothpaste - some more harmful than others - we decided to ditch the tube and make our own.

There are many ways to make your own - including using coconut oil - but we settled on baking soda and sea salt (with peppermint for flavor).

How are these ingredients effective?

Baking Soda: Make Your Own Natural Fluoride-Free Toothpaste

Baking soda is used for two reasons. First, it's a mild abrasive that provides a gentle cleansing. Second, it's alkaline. Being alkaline, baking soda can neutralize acids in your mouth that are often at the root of tooth decay. Baking soda also absorbs odors and helps produce sweet breath.

Sea Salt: Is Your Toothpaste Toxic?

According to Dentist Robert Nara, in his book, How to Become Dentally Self Sufficient, using real sea salt in your oral hygiene routine can treat or prevent most tooth and gum issues. Real sea salt contains a lot of trace minerals, many of which your teeth need to stay strong. Direct application of these minerals can benefit teeth and gums. Regular table salt does not work in the same manner and is not recommended for brushing.

When we first started using our homemade toothpaste, it took me several days to get used to the saltiness. We even reduced the salt in our second batch, but realized that it wasn't working as effectively. So we knew the salt was necessary.

After switching to the baking soda/salt, my mouth has felt fresher and cleaner after brushing. My teeth also feel smoother and the fresh breath seems to last longer. I certainly prefer this method to commercial toothpaste. I don't ever see going back.

Originally, I worked off of this recipe, but I have tweaked each batch until I got it how we like it. So of course, you may do some tweaking as well.

Cookie Monster fork used for scooping out our homemade toothpaste.

Homemade Toothpaste

1/3 cup baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 tsp peppermint extract (or peppermint essential oil, but only a few drops)
4-5 tsp water

Mix ingredients and put into a container with a lid (a small glass jar/container would be ideal). Use some sort of utensil/stick to scoop it out and apply to your toothbrush.

Going Shampoo-Free

I've talked a lot about ways to clean around the house using non-toxic ingredients, but I haven't gotten too much into personal care products. Today I want to get into the topic of shampoo.

When I started making things for myself about 4 or 5 months ago, I knew I would get around to shampoo eventually. I was more focused on replacing my cleaners and detergents. But one night in mid-February, I sat down with my shampoo bottle - a brand I've used for years - and looked up some of the unrecognizable ingredients. I was horrified and stopped using it immediately.

Shampoo is in no way an exception to all the toxic chemicals that the personal care product industry uses. These synthetic chemicals coat our hair to make it look "shiny and beautiful," but at the expense of allowing these harmful ingredients to enter our bodies.

Here's an article from naturalnews.com:

Popular Shampoos contain toxic chemicals linked to nerve damage

...it may surprise you to learn that manufacturers can put practically any chemical they want into shampoos, even if it is a hazardous chemical listed in the RTECS database of toxicity and even if it is considered a toxic waste chemical by the EPA. The FDA allows all sorts of chemicals to be used in these products, including chemicals that are known carcinogens and that contribute to liver failure and nervous system disorders. How's that for protecting public health?

 I found another article about shampoo at mercola.com:

Do You Know What's in Your Shampoo?

When you put shampoo or conditioner onto your scalp, the 20 blood vessels, 650 sweat glands, and 1,000 nerve endings soak in the toxins.

...when toxins are absorbed through your skin, they bypass your liver and enter your bloodstream and tissues -- with absolutely no protection whatsoever.

The article also lists 5 common - and toxic - shampoo ingredients. See if your bottle contains these.

For me, knowing that the chemicals in my shampoo bottle are doing some definite harm, I had no problem turning to a natural homemade solution...

***

What to use instead?

*First I want to note that any time you transition from commercial shampoo to anything natural/homemade, your hair will have to adjust. Shampoo over-strips your hair of its oils, so your scalp has to compensate. Now you have to train your scalp to slow down the oil production. The transition time is different for everyone, but for me, it took 3 to 4 weeks.

For the first month after ditching the bottle, I used a recipe I found online that used 6 natural ingredients. It worked okay, but I wasn't in love with it. It also wasn't as inexpensive as I wanted, so I looked for something different.

I started reading about the "no-poo" movement (as in no shampoo). I'm not sure when this got started, but the basic idea is to clean your hair without any commercial products. Mostly, this involves using baking soda to clean your hair and apple cider vinegar as a "conditioning" rinse.

Here are some others who have written about it:

Info: Shampoo Free

Shampoo-Free: Why and How

Going no-'poo?

So I've been using diluted baking soda followed by diluted apple cider vinegar for about a month and it's working quite well. I have tweaked my proportions a few times, but I think I'm settled on what's working best for me.

I recently found the article listed above (Info: Shampoo Free) that helped me clarify what proportions I should be using and why using too much baking soda - which I was - was not giving me great results (too much can dry your hair out and make it frizzy).

The article also gives some info about the history of shampoo, along with tips if the baking soda/ACV rinse isn't working very well. It's worth a read through.

So here's one way to go 'poo free:

Baking Soda "Shampoo"

1 cup water
1 Tbsp baking soda

Mix into a squeeze bottle. Shake up before each use. After applying to hair, let it sit for about a minute before rinsing off.

Apple Cider Vinegar Conditioning Rinse

8oz water
2 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

I prefer to mix this in a small spray bottle (can also be kept in any kind of container that pours or squirts).

Use minimally. Too much can leave your hair greasy. When rinsed, your hair should not smell like vinegar.

***

Everyone's hair is different, so I am not convinced that this will work well for every single person. But there are many suggestions out there as to how to make your own shampoo so that you can quit buying from the store. A simple Google search should give you many, many options (one being to use castile soap: Use Natural Liquid Castile Soap for Safe and Wonderful Homemade Shampoos)

Just find what works for you. Happy hair cleaning :)

Glass Cooktop Cleaner (Natural)

Back in February, our whole family was sick with one or more of the following: a cold, an ear infection, pink eye, bronchitis, or strep throat. So when we had all gotten better, it was time to clean and disinfect the whole house.

When we got to the kitchen stove (glass top), I wanted to find an alternative to our Cerama Bryte Cooktop Cleaner.

(I tried to find out what the ingredients are in this, but most of it is "trade secret." What they do disclose are harmless ingredients - but what are they hiding with the rest of it? At the end of this data sheet, they classified it as "toxic material.")

In my online search, I found different suggestions for cleaning with natural ingredients, including baking soda, vinegar, dish soap and a combination of them. I've been experimenting with different variations and have found what works best, at least for me.

Note: I have found that it's much easier to clean up recent stains than to work on something that's been there a while. Even the Cerama Bryte didn't work very well on old stains. So it's best to get things up as soon as you can.

Natural Glass Cooktop Cleaner

My first step is to get up all the loose crumbs and wipe it as clean as possible with a wet rag.

Then I sprinkle some baking soda and work on the dark stains with the rag. This usually gets up most of it (again, not so well on old stains).

When you need a little extra cleaning power, put down a little liquid castile soap (I assume dish soap would work too) along with the baking soda. The two together seem to work a little better than just the baking soda alone.

Wiped with a wet rag.

Cleaned with baking soda.

Homemade Dish Soap

Okay, so I've talked about what to use in your dishwasher that is natural (and not full of petroleum-based chemicals). For me, that combination is still working equally as well as the store-bought cheapie stuff we used to buy.

Now lets move on to dish soap. I've been making my own for a few months now, and I am very happy with it. It works well and it's simple to mix up. I just pour it into an old dish soap bottle and I'm good to go for a few weeks. It doesn't suds up as much as store-bought (since it's lacking that horrible sodium lauryl sulfate), but after about a week of using it, I was used to it and haven't looked back.

My recipe is based off of this one, but I have tweaked it a little. So here's what I do:

Homemade Dish Soap

2 cups water
1/4 cup liquid castile soap (or castile bar soap shavings)
2 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
1-2 Tbsp washing soda**

Heat water over medium heat (do not bring to a boil). Add soap, vinegar and washing soda. Stir until washing soda is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Pour into a dish soap container (24 fl.oz. bottle is good).

It will be watery at first. After several hours it will solidify. Just shake it up. If it's too thick for you, add some water.

**The washing soda is what affects the thickness. So if you'd like it thinner, use less washing soda.

***
 

Proof that it's more gentle on your skin

Between diaper changes, preparing food, going to the bathroom, washing the dishes, wiping up messes with a wet rag, and bathing the kids, it seems like my hands are always getting wet. And I never remember to put lotion on.

During the warmer months, it's not a problem. But at the beginning of the cold season, my hands always get really dry, and even red and cracked around my knuckles (and I still forget to use lotion most of the time).

I changed over to my homemade dish soap just about the same time that I stopped using the store-bought hand soap (just using castile soap diluted with water, instead). And within days of making this change, my dry, cracked hands were as soft as ever.

So this is further proof to me that all these synthetic chemicals are just too harsh for us - in many ways.

Cleaning Metal Pots

Bar Keepers Friend

For a long time, Sean and I have used Bar Keepers Friend to polish up our copper bottom pots. It's a cleaner and polisher that can be used on stainless steel, chrome, porcelain, ceramic cooktops, brass, tile and copper. It removes rust too. It works very, very well.

I was using it the other day, and I thought about the fact that I didn't know anything about this product; what it contains or whether it has toxic chemicals in it or not (there is no ingredient information on the label).

I searched around the internet and found out that the active ingredient is oxalic acid. Here's what I've gathered about it: it's a toxic chemical, harmful if inhaled, can be absorbed through the skin, can irritate the skin, eyes and lungs, and can cause kidney damage.

Here's a report on oxalic acid, and here's an article on eHow Health - Oxalic Acid Dangers.

I don't know how much oxalic acid is in Bar Keepers Friend, or if it makes this product unsafe or not, but I have decided to stop using it on my cookware.

**In searching, I couldn't find anything that says Bar Keepers Friend is dangerous to use. But since I am going 100% toxic free in my cleaning, it's my personal decision not to use it since it contains an unknown amount of a toxic chemical.

***

An Alternative

I still want to get my pots clean (often soap and water isn't enough to bring back the shine)...so what do I use now?

Well, a while ago, I came across an awesome blogger, Jillee, who posts all sorts of useful household tips, recipes, etc. While I was looking for some of her homemade cleaners, I came across this post: Kitchen "Miracle" Cleaner.

Basically, mix up a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. I tried it on my everyday silverware and it made them shiny as new. I also cleaned my kitchen faucet with it and again - shiny as could be.

So I thought about trying it out on the copper bottom pots. And it worked wonderfully! Equally as good as the Bar Keeper's Friend.

In the above photo, I cleaned the whole pot the best I could with soap and water - even using a scrub brush. The right side was as clean as I could get it. Then I used the baking soda - peroxide paste on only the left side. Very shiny!

Read more about Hydrogen Peroxide and its uses: Use Hydrogen Peroxide to Heal and Stay Healthy.

What to use in your dishwasher that is safe and natural

Of all my new ways to go toxic-free around the house, figuring out what to use in the dishwasher was the toughest one. I searched through tons of posted recipes and read all sorts of comments from people who either had really good results or really bad results.

Bottom line, I think the type of water you have - how soft or hard - will determine a lot as to what will work for you when it comes to the homemade stuff. Also, different things work well for different dishwashers. So there are some variables to work out. Not everything will work the same for everyone.

One combination of ingredients that I was seeing posted quite frequently was Borax, Washing Soda, Kosher salt and Citric Acid. I don't want to use Borax, and citric acid seems too expensive from what I could find.

I started searching for recipes that are Borax-free. I found one that I wanted to try and used it for about a week: Natural Homemade Dishwasher Detergent. Ingredients: water, vinegar, liquid castile soap, pure lemon juice, salt and washing soda.
 
I loved it for about 3 or 4 days, until my glasses all started coming out cloudy. So I kept searching for another one that didn't contain Borax or citric acid, and didn't have too high of a proportion of castile soap (making it too expensive).

Then I remembered a blog post I had bookmarked a while ago that had very useful information in it. 10 Things You Should Know Before Making Homemade Dishwasher Detergent. She concludes that you may only need washing soda to wash your dishes, or maybe also add a little soap.
 
So I thought about all I had read and learned (including using less soap to get better results), and I tried a combination using my best educated guess: 1 tablespoon washing soda and 1 teaspoon castile soap. I also used vinegar as my rinse aid (see below for more on that). Everything came out perfect and sparkly clean! I continued it for a few days getting nearly perfect results every time.

I wasn't sure if it was the castile soap or vinegar (or both) that was doing such a great job, so for about 2 weeks I experimented with each load (I kept the washing soda constant because I knew I wanted to use that as my base). I tried varying amounts of vinegar and castile soap, even leaving each of them out completely.

What I found out was that I definitely needed the vinegar to rinse all the food particles away and get all the glasses shiny and clean. I thought that I might get away with not needing the castile soap, but without it, I have had several things come out with food stuck to them. So, looks like I need both in addition to the washing soda.

So here's what I'm using in my dishwasher: 

1 Tablespoon washing soda
1/2 teaspoon castile soap
1/4 cup vinegar as the rinse aid

Simple and toxic free :)

(I still might get one or two things that come out dirty, but that usually happened with the store-bought stuff too. Overall, I am very happy with these results)

***

Rinse Aid

We had been using Jet Dry for quite some time, but obviously we wanted to ditch that too. I have read all over the place to use vinegar as a rinse aid.

HOWEVER, most people suggest putting it into the rinse aid compartment. I read on a blog post that "the acid in the vinegar can damage the rubber components in the rinse aid compartment." And that came straight from the dishwasher repairman.

So an alternative is to use a small bowl that can sit right-side-up in the top rack and put some white vinegar in it. This will slowly slosh it around as it goes through the cycle.

And as I said above, this is working very well for me.

***

Cost comparison 

I wanted to see where my three ingredients fit into the spectrum of store-bought detergents. Here's what I calculated, listing the least expensive first:

Great Value (Walmart brand) powder detergent, 75oz box
$3.22 (price from their website) / $.04 per ounce

My homemade option
Washing soda + soap + vinegar = 2.13oz per load = $.11 per load
$.05 per ounce

Cascade powder detergent, 75oz box
$6.90 (priced from Walmart's website) / $.09 per ounce

Seventh Generation (all natural) powder detergent, 75oz box
$7.49 (priced from amazon, shipping not included) / $.10 per ounce

I may not have beaten Walmart in price (who can?), but I'm sure I beat them in safety of ingredients (they don't even disclose their ingredient list...what are they hiding?).

How safe is your hand soap?

(note: this got quite long, but I found out some interesting things that you might want to be aware of. The way to make your own hand soap is at the bottom.)

In switching over to toxic-free homemade products around my house, another really easy, no-brainer was the hand soap.

I thought about simply posting the two-ingredient "recipe" for hand soap, but I want to do just a little bit more. It's easy to say we're replacing the store-bought stuff because of all these chemicals we keep talking about. But why specifically should we avoid it? What exactly is in that stuff and do we (ever) want to use it on our hands?

So I did two things. I looked at the labels on the bottles of store-bought hand soap that I have in the house (which are now the old bottles refilled with the good stuff) and I did a google search - "what is bad about hand soap."

I want to start with what I learned doing the google search. A lot of the links on the first page talked about why antibacterial soap isn't so great (this one says "residue-producing antibacterial soap may kill normal healthy bacteria on the skin as well as unhealthy bacteria, allowing resistant bacteria to take its place"), one was a great article worth reading called The Benefits of Using Real, Natural Soap, and two talked about an ingredient called Triclosan.

***

Triclosan

The Benefits of Using Real, Natural Soap:

"Antibacterial and antimicrobial soaps often contain triclosan. Triclosan is a toxic chemical that is known to cause cancer. According to the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP), manufacturers of a number of triclosan-containing products claim that the active ingredient continues to work for as long as 12 hours after use. Consumers are, therefore, exposed to triclosan for much longer than the 20 seconds it takes to wash their hands or face."

Triclosan, A Chemical Used in Antibacterial Soaps, is Found to Impair Muscle Function:

In recent years, research has shed light on a number of problems with employing triclosan so widely. Studies have shown that the chemical can disrupt the endocrine systems of several different animals. Additionally, triclosan penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream more easily than previously thought, and has turned up everywhere from aquatic environments to human breast milk in troubling quantities.

...Triclosan impairs muscle function in both animals and humans...The chemical hinders human muscle contractions at the cellular level...

“Triclosan is found in virtually everyone’s home and is pervasive in the environment,” said lead author Isaac Pessah. “These findings provide strong evidence that the chemical is of concern to both human and environmental health.”

According to Triclosan's Wikipedia article, "Two reports . . . suggest that triclosan can combine with chlorine in tap water to form chloroform, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen, meaning it likely causes cancer.

***

Is it actual soap?

I'm looking at my 64 fl.oz. refill bottle of Image Essentials Aquarium Liquid Hand Soap that I bought at Target awhile back. I'm wondering what these ingredients are and if this is actually real soap or just a bunch of synthetic chemicals.

(information comes from the Cosmetics Database)

Water

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (foaming agent...may be contaminated with potentially toxic manufacturing impurities such as 1,4-dioxane* and ethylene oxide**)

Cocamidopropyl Betaine (a synthetic surfactant. It was named 2004 Allergen of the Year).

Decyl Glucoside (a glucose-based surfactant)

Sodium Chloride (an inorganic salt)

Fragrance

DMDM Hydantoin (an antimicrobial formaldehyde-releaser preservative. Strong evidence of human skin toxicant or allergen. Contamination concern of formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogenic.)

PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate (a surfactant and emulsifier, used as a thickener. There are contamination concerns of 1,4-dioxane* and ethylene oxide**)

Tetrasodium EDTA (a chelating agent, used to sequester and decrease the reactivity of metal ions that may be present in a product. Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful. Enhances skin absorption.)

Sodium Sulfate (an inorganic salt)

Polyquaternium-7 (a synthetic polymer. Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful. Suspected to be an environmental toxin.)

Citric Acid (in this case, it's used as an acidity adjuster)

Poloxamer 124 (a synthetic surfactant)

PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate (This synthetic polymer is based on PEG (polyethylene glycol) and fatty acids derived from coconut oil. Due to the presence of PEG, this ingredient may contain potentially toxic manufacturing impurities such as 1,4-dioxane* and ethylene oxide**)

Red 33 (a synthetic dye produced from petroleum or coal tar sources. Widely used FD&C and D&C colors are coaltar (bituminous coal) derivatives that are continuously tested on animals due to their carcinogenic properties.)

Blue 1 (blue dye)

*The carcinogen 1,4-dioxane contaminates up to 46% of personal care products tested. The chemical is an unwanted byproduct of an ingredient processing method called ethoxylation used to reduce the risk of skin irritation for petroleum-based ingredients. Though 1,4-dioxane can easily be removed from products before they are sold, its widespread presence in products indicates that many manufacturers fail to take this simple step.

**Ethylene Oxide is a known human carcinogen and a known human respiratory toxicant. It's a flammable toxic gas used as an intermediate and fumigant.

Wow. I'm officially disgusted. So this hand soap that my family used directly on their skin for months, contains 2 ingredients that may be toxic or harmful, and 4 ingredients that might produce carcinogenic by-products, including formaldehyde.

***

Carcinogenic By-products

Okay, so I just learned a lot by researching the ingredients on the back of my refill hand soap. I didn't have the first clue as to what these ingredients were, let alone their toxicity levels. And the most disturbing part to me are these two by-products that are known carcinogens (1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide). So I did some more reading on them.

I found two write-ups about this on the ATTITUDE boutique website: FAQ Body Care and We think you should know (good to read for more of the whole story). Here's a good summary of what they tell us:

To save money, manufacturers use ethoxylated ingredients contaminated with 1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide by-products, which are classified as carcinogens (groups 1 and 2), according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. These industrial pollutants are not identified on the label, so it’s very difficult for the consumer to know whether a product contains them or not. Because these by-products appear in low concentrations, industry and the governments ignore them, hiding behind the age-old principle that it’s the amount that kills, thus tolerating these contaminants.

So the manufacturers and the government think that because these cancer-causing toxins are present in tiny amounts, that it's all okay for us? Are they serious? Oh, I guess it's just like how high fructose corn syrup is "okay in moderation"...although it's in everything. We are not a country of moderation!

On the 1,4-dioxane page of the Cosmetic Database website, you can see all "Ingredients potentially containing the impurity 1,4-dioxane." This takes you to a list of 1,813 ingredients. Of those, 649 are listed in products within their database (some of those ingredients at the bottom of the list are only in one product that is labeled as an "old product." But that doesn't mean it's not sitting on someone's shelf still being used).

And the top two ingredient winners are:

Polysorbate-20, contained in 4,750 products (within the database)
Sodium Laureth Sulfate, contained in 3,822 products

There are a lot of "polysorbates," "PEGs," and -reths" (laureth, steareth, etc.) at the top.

Okay, so what to do about it. The article Contaminants in Bath Products, which talks about 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, gives us a few tips:

1. Avoid using products that list ingredients that may be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, including:

• sodium myreth sulfate
• PEG compounds
• chemicals that include the clauses "xynol," "ceteareth" and "oleth"

2. Avoid products that contain formaldehye-releasing preservatives, including:

• quaternium-15
• DMDM hydantoin
• imidazolidinyl urea
• diazolidinyl urea
• sodium hydroxymethylglycinate
• 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3 diol (Bronopol)

That is certainly excellent advice. But when you're standing in the store, looking at the back of a label, are you going to remember which of the unpronounceable ingredients are the really bad ones? 

My advice: MAKE YOUR OWN.

***

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

I didn't intend on this post getting so long. But the more I learn about all this, the more it just infuriates me that this is going on without most of the general public knowing about it (including me for years). I want to help spread the word. This stuff will kill you.

So, as I said in one of my previous posts, castile soap is an awesome natural soap that is plant-based. It is toxic free and not at all synthetic. It's REAL soap. I'm using it in my laundry soap, my dishwasher, my dish soap, as my hand soap, and will soon be using it in my homemade shampoo.

This is the proportion of how I like to make it (you may like it thicker or waterier):

In a soap dispenser, put in one part liquid castile soap, two parts water. Shake it up.

That's it, end of story.

Toxic Free: Cleaning the Bathroom

Going for toxic free cleaning in the bathroom is so super easy, there's no excuse not to do it. There are no recipes to search for or things to try and try again.

You need two things to clean your bathroom: Vinegar and Baking Soda.

For your sink, counter, shower and tub, mix a spray bottle with equal parts white vinegar and water. This will disinfect and get rid of any mold and mildew.

I tried it a while ago in our hard-to-clean-because-it's-so-tiny shower and it seems like it's taking longer for the pink stuff to return than from when I used Tilex.

For the toilets, just sprinkling some baking soda, spray some vinegar and scrub with the brush. This also has seemed to keep the visible yuckiness away for longer. 

I also mixed up some glass/mirror cleaner using this recipe I found. It works great. (update: my friend Amy just left a comment about using the vinegar/water mixture on the mirror too. I tried it and it works perfectly...no streaks! Yay for simplifying.)

The water/vinegar mix is a good all-purpose cleaner, not just for the bathroom.

These small and easy changes will be better for your lungs and easier on your wallet.

Toxic Free: The Laundry

Ah, the never-ending job (along with the dishes).

If you have any interest in "going green" with anything in your house, I would say ditching your laundry detergent is a must (switching to laundry soap instead).

According to this article on eHow, "detergent is made from petroleum products. It contains many preservatives and antibacterial agents, which do not have an agreeable smell. As a result, detergents usually contain heavy perfumes to counteract the odor."

Detergents contain surfactants, which help to reduce surface tension in water, thus allowing dirt to be removed. They can either be plant-based or petroleum-based. Surfactants are not a bad thing (soap is a surfactant), it's just that most detergents use petroleum-based surfactants.

The companies that make these detergents are not required to list their ingredients on the label. So there's no way of really knowing what's in there.

All this matters because detergents leave residue on our clothes and some gets absorbed through our skin from the constant contact. Read "The Truth About Detergent" (it's a bit heavy on the drama, but it gives you something to think about).

***

So anyway. After trying a couple laundry soap recipes and not liking them (because of the ingredients they used, not because of how well they worked) and doing a lot of searching around trying to find the perfect recipe...I decided to make my own. Here's how I picked my ingredients:

1. Castile Soap. Bottom line, what do we need to clean our clothes with? SOAP. And I want one that's 100% pure and natural.

2. Washing Soda. One of its main purposes is to be a laundry booster. It's used in many homemade laundry soap recipes and I want to include it for a little extra kick.

3. Vinegar. Under the "laundry" tab on the 1001 Uses for Distilled White Vinegar, it lists 20 reasons to use it in the laundry (removes stains and odors, reduces static cling, prevents yellowing, attacks mildew, acts as a fabric softener, brings out bright colors, etc.). Seems like a good thing to include.

So here's my recipe (and yes, it's getting my clothes clean):

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

1 cup liquid castile soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup white vinegar

Heat 2 cups of water on the stove over medium heat. Add washing soda and vinegar and stir until dissolved.

When it has cooled, funnel into a one gallon container (like a milk jug) and add castile soap. Fill the rest of the way with cold tap water.

Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup per load.

***

This costs less than half of what we were paying for our detergent (and we always bought the cheapest we could find).

My decision to Green Clean (Part II)

In my last post, I talked about the reasons to rid our houses of all these store-bought cleaning products and personal care products that contain many, many toxic chemicals that enter our bodies. I have no doubt that over time, it must have a negative affect on our health.

Replacing all store-bought cleaners with homemade ones takes some effort in the beginning - researching ingredients (what to use and where to buy), finding recipes, trying things out and then trying something different if it doesn't work - but once everything is in place and you find what works for you, then you can easily continue with little effort.

And of course the reason I'm doing all this is to hopefully make it easier for someone else to get started by sharing what I've learned.

***

A look at what needs to change

Okay, so after I made my commitment to stop using store-bought cleaners and detergents, I had to look at what products I needed to make for myself. At first, it felt a bit overwhelming, so I made a list and started one at a time. I'm still not completely done, but I've made some great progress.

Here are the things that I needed to work on for my house:

Laundry
Laundry detergent

Kitchen
Dishwashing detergent
Dish soap for handwashing
All-purpose cleaner

Bathroom
Toilet cleaner
Sink/Counter/Shower/Tub cleaner
Mirror/Glass cleaner

Personal Care Products
Hand Soap
Shampoo
Bar soap for the shower*
Toothpaste*
Deodorant
Lotion

* for now, these two things I will just buy all-natural products. I'm not ready to make my own soap...and I have to get a little braver to make my own toothpaste, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

Up to this point, I have pretty much tackled everything except shampoo and lotion and I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far.

One entire category that I personally don't have to worry about is make-up - I haven't worn make-up since my first child was born - so I can't speak to that. I have no idea if making your own is possible, but I know that all store-bought products are NOT created equal. I would suggest buying only truly natural products (which I'm sure are more expensive). To see where your current make-up products stand, find out at cosmeticdatabase.com.

***

Store-bought is out the window...now what?

5 ingredients you'll need 

Let's talk about ingredients for making your own cleaners. Here are the basics that will get the job done:

White Vinegar - It kills mold, bacteria and germs. A great natural disinfectant!

I just found this website for 1001 uses for white distilled vinegar. So there you go.

Baking Soda - I think we all know about baking soda. It works as a mild abrasive, a deodorizer, and a stain remover. It's a great cleaner, especially when mixed with vinegar.

10 Uses for Baking Soda
27 Ways to Clean with Baking Soda
51 Fantastic Uses for Baking Soda

Washing Soda - Washing soda is baking soda's cousin. They are similar, but not the same. I'm not going to get into the chemistry that makes up the difference, but basically, washing soda is a wonderful ingredient to include in your cleaners.

Arm & Hammer makes this product (I'm not sure if there are other brands) and on the box they call it a "Detergent Booster and Household Cleaner." It also says it "cleans grease from indoor and outdoor surfaces all around your home." In addition to cleaning surfaces, it can also be used in the laundry and on dishes.

Washing soda can be found in the laundry aisle, or make it yourself by baking some baking soda in the oven (I think that saves a little money).

Castile Soap - This is a type of soap that is made from vegetable oil (usually olive oil) and is pure and natural...no harmful chemicals added. It can be used on your dishes, in the laundry, as a general cleaner, as hand soap, as shampoo or body wash. Pretty much anything you need to clean with soap!

I have just recently discovered this stuff and it's my new best friend. I'm using it in a lot of my recipes and I'm very happy with it.

As far as where to find it, I think you're limited to health food stores, specialty shops that sell natural products, or the internet. I bought a gallon of liquid castile soap and several bars on amazon.com.

(I'm noticing how much the prices fluctuate from day to day on these soaps on amazon. Prices have gone up on both the products I bought.)

Dr. Bronner's is a popular brand that most people say is really good quality - therefore worth the price. The bar soap I bought was Dr. Woods - a little cheaper than Bronner's - and I think it's fine. For me, I had to get over the initial price-shock of buying it in bulk. But ultimately, per batch of whatever-you're-making, it's cheaper than store-bought equivalents.

12 Great Ways to Use Castile Soap 
How to Use Castile Soap

Lemon Juice - It's a natural cleaner and degreaser. I'm currently only using it in my dishwashing detergent, but here are 24 Things you can clean with a lemon.



***

What to think twice about buying

There were two products I bought when I started doing all this. They were mentioned in recipes and I bought them without doing any research for myself - just assuming they were fine and all natural. After doing some reading on them, I have decided to keep both out of my toxic-free recipes.

Fels-Naptha. This is a "heavy duty laundry bar soap" as described on their packaging. It is used to pre-treat stains. I saw it mentioned in a few recipes for homemade laundry soap and hand soap (grated and melted).

I realized, after reading the ingredient list on their website, that this bar soap includes talc. That is an ingredient to stay away from. It's a suspected carcinogen (read more: Risks of Talcum Powder and Talcum Powder and Cancer).

Borax. If you've never heard of this (like me 2 months ago), it's basically a natural mineral based on the element boron, that can be used as a cleaner and can do many other things (like kill insects). The most common brand of this is 20 Mule Team (marketed as a "Detergent Booster"). Borax is an ingredient in MANY, MANY homemade cleaning recipes.

So, I bought a box right off the bat (76oz for $3.something) and started using it as part of an all-purpose cleaner and in my laundry soap. Then I came across this article: Avoid borax in your green cleaning products. Since then, I have been trying to locate a difinitive answer as to whether or not this is 100% completely safe to use. That has been hard to do.

From what I've gathered, borax is harmful if ingested in large quantities (like many things are, but that doesn't mean small amounts aren't perfectly fine), and can irritate the skin. It may or may not be linked to reproductive toxicity (I've read conflicting reports). The cosmetic database gives it a "moderate" score for "overall hazard" and the good guide says the ingredient Sodium Tetraborate Decahydrate is suspected of causing neurotoxicity (which alters the normal activity of the nervous system in such a way as to cause damage to nervous tissue).

A lot of people say Borax to be perfectly safe, and maybe it really is, but I've read enough about it to raise a red flag for me personally. I have chosen to leave it out of my homemade recipes, and you'll have to decide that for yourself.

***

Okay, since this post ran a little long :) I'm going to take a breather. I'll continue later with the recipes I've gathered for happy cleaning.

My decision to Green Clean

We're going to take a side-step from food for a minute.

A couple months ago, I watched a documentary on Netflix that forever changed the way I clean my house.

The name of it is Chemerical: Redefining Clean for a New Generation (there's a trailer for it on their website). I definitely recommend watching it if you can. If you don't have Netflix, it's available on youtube for $2.99.

This documentary helped me to see just how harmful the toxic chemicals are in our everyday store-bought cleaners and personal care products. I had known some of this - mostly in a vague sense - but this helped me to really clarify what exactly we're putting into our bodies by using these products and that it truly is harmful to us because of the constant contact we're having with all of it.

In this first post, I'm going to give you the information I learned in the documentary. Following that, I'm going to share with you what I've learned about homemade cleaners and what I've started making for myself.

Making your own is cheaper than store-bought and absolutely healthier because you are eliminating ALL toxic chemicals and using natural ingredients.

***

Chemerical: Redefining Clean for a New Generation

The Goode Family

Throughout this documentary, the Goode family is followed for 3 months to see if they can go toxic free in their cleaning supplies and personal care products. They are a family of 5 (two teenagers and one in middle school), and live on a tight budget.

At the beginning of the 3 months, they have 40 store-bought cleaners in their home that are found to contain dozens of toxic chemicals. The home's air quality is tested in 3 rooms over 3 nights. There are found to be dangerously high levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in the house.

Throughout the 3 months, the family is convinced of the benefits of natural, homemade cleaners and will not go back to the way they used to clean their home. Their air quality was tested again, and the toxic levels were much less than half of what it was before, bringing them down to acceptable and healthy levels.


Cleaning Products

• Americans are in contact with over 72,000 chemicals per year.
• Women who stay at home have a cancer rate 54% higher than women who work outside of the home (the narrator/producer's mom stayed at home and she died of cancer at 57).
• Chlorine is the #1 household poison.
• Napthalene - a chemical in carpet cleaner - is a toxin created from coal tar. It can damage your liver, blood, heart and brain.
• Ammonia and Chlorine were first used in WWI to kill the enemy. They were then reformulated to attack the new enemy: bacteria, mold and mildew.
• Residues from cleaners are left behind that you end up ingesting.
• Indoor air quality is 10 to 50 times worse than outdoor air, thanks in part to the products we clean with, known as VOCs.
• Over 2 million Americans have a condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity - a severe sensitivity to everyday chemicals.
• Every year, 10s of thousands of children under the age of 5 are poisoned by the chemicals found in our household cleaners and personal care products. Yet the chemical industry has convinced us that this is a suitable and reasonable risk to accept for having their products in our homes.

Natural cleaning products: Soap and water, Vinegar, Baking Soda.


Personal Care Products

Cosmetics. Your body absorbs makeup through your skin. You end up ingesting what you put on your lips, and you inhale what you spray into the air which gets absorbed through your lungs.

Fragrances. They are made of phthalates, plastic chemicals that will build up in your system and that have been associated with various types of cancer. Studies on phthalates have linked their use to a drop in male sperm count and a reduction in the birth rates of male offspring. Phthalates are in personal care products, cosmetics and hundreds of other items.

Parabens. They are a commonly used preservative in cosmetics, other care products and food. According to Wikipedia, "they are becoming increasingly controversial, however, because they have been found in breast cancer tumors. Parabens have also displayed the ability to slightly mimic estrogen (a hormone known to play a role in the development of breast cancer). No effective direct links between parabens and cancer have been established, however. Another concern is that the estrogen-mimic aspect of parabens may be a factor in the increasing prevalence of early puberty in girls."

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate. A foaming agent linked to known carcinogens that is in almost everything we use from toothpaste to dishwashing soap. Read more.

Talking with Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face. In 2007, she looked at 33 popular brands of red lipstick. 61% contained LEAD. The companies she contacted said that lead is only a problem for children. Yes, lead is a neurotoxin, which can interfere with brain development and is most dangerous during developmental phases of children...but, where do they think children come from ("Pregnant women and women of child-bearing age are also at increased risk, because lead ingested by the mother can cross the placenta and affect the unborn fetus").

Personal care products are not regulated like food. Claims can be made like - Organic, Natural, Pure, Gentle, Dr. Recommended, Hypoallergenic, etc. and they mean nothing. They are without any legal standard what-so-ever.


Conclusion to the film

I wrote down two quotes that I want to end on.

"Gradually, there's an accumulation of these toxins in your body and over the long term they have a health affect on you."

"The changes that you make don't have to be expensive. It's about taking your time and finding out what works for you. If you try something and it doesn't work, try something else. And be willing to take that journey."