Hi. I’m Crystal B and I’ve commented on your blog Borax-free Laundry Detergent. I was the one that melted the glycerin bars and then rolled them into balls. I was wondering if it would be alright for me to try selling these detergent balls in my area to make some extra money? I didn’t want to do it without permission from the person who came up with the recipe due to respect. If you could let me know I sure would appreciate it. Thanks bunches.
Is there a substitute for beeswax that could work in your deodorant recipe? I can not use that due to an allergy (also due to all nuts and avocado). Thanks so much!
All the beeswax really does is make the product firmer. If you take out the beeswax and keep the deodorant in a jar and put it on with your fingertips it will still work fine. The beeswax makes it nice and firm at room temperature and above so that it doesn’t get all soft and sticky on a warmer day or when your bathroom steams up from a shower. That said, there may be a replacement but I don’t know what it would be. Let me know if you come up with something! Thanks.
Hello, We have been looking for recipes for homemade cleansing products and today I found your website. We are new to this and I have a question. I noticed that the dishwasher recipe is the same as the laundry soap recipe with 2 added ingredients for the laundry soap for “cleansing”. My question is this…Does the dishwasher formula “clean” without the “cleansers”, and could you us the dishwasher formula for the laundry detergent? Thank you!
The soap is important for the laundry to get the dirt out of the clothes, in my opinion. Dishes need to be rinsed off but not penetrated. I have used the laundry soap in the dishwasher though when I run out of dishwasher detergent! Yes they are very similar. Good luck! Hope they work for you.
Hi there–After making the deodorant, we love it! Many thanks for such a simple recipe. After difficulty in finding Arrowroot Powder, I substituted Corn Starch. While the product is smooth and overall pretty perfect, it is a bit ‘sticky’ during the application process. Almost a little soft–as if it’s still ‘warm’ and not completely solid?? If that makes any sense at all?? Wondering if this is a result from Corn Starch substitute. I’ll make it again regardless–it’s great! However, would certainly go the extra mile to search out an Arrowroot Powder supplier if its use is the golden ticket
Thanks, thanks, thanks!
You can try increasing the corn starch a bit and the beeswax as well. The original recipe called for kaolin clay which is a natural clay but contains naturally occurring aluminum so I took it out of the recipe. If you can find clay that does not contain aluminum you can add it and it gives that “dry” feeling.
THanks for sharing!
You sound like you could be a friend of mine… We grow most of our vegetables and fruit too on our place in the country (live in city now so can’t raise goats…). I can fruit sugar-free (no sweeteners added … just use fully-ripe fruit and cook down a long time. Pears make a great spread, and we run the )
I taught pottery for 37 years. Visit my Facebook page: Lena Arice Lucas (https://www.facebook.com/lena.a.lucas) and go to “Photo Albums” and scroll down for photos of our place and some of the canning, etc. I do.
I love to cook (organic, low carb (managing my Type 2 Diabetes via diet alone)…
Looking forward to following your blog!
P. S., I “shared” your “GMO-free” Halloween page on my Facebook page.
Thanks Lena! Glad another kindred spirit has found us! Thanks for sharing the Halloween article. Good for you for controlling diabetes with diet! Take care.
I absolutley love your site. I am simplifying and trying to change to self-sustaining and eco-friendly way of life. Partly because of the increasing cost of manufactured (and government protected) products and food and partly because I believe sustainable living is the responsible thing to do. Thank you for the great cleaning products. Our great-grandmothers would be proud our ingenuity and invention.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Gayle! I totally agree with you. Our great grandmothers would be proud. It is our responsibility to NOT lose the valueable information that is disappearing as the older generations leave us. Take time to get to know these people and talk about the good ol days, the products they used, and how they did things when sustainable living was a way of life, not an option.
Just left a comment and question in the laundry detergent post but forgot to mention this….in your latest post when you listed several links to your latest stuff, there is a link to a yogurt recipe. That link doesn’t seem to be working, though I checked the others and they are fine. Just wanted to let you know because I would love to find and then try your yogurt recipe!
Thanks!
I would just like to ask you research heinz and monsantos before promoting the health of the company. I know you think for yourself and I love your article, in fact tweeted it! You have a chance to promote a company that doens’t keep the GMO overrides where we have to make everything from scratch because there isn’t enough healthy food on the market to go around without perservatives. However, I am looking for a way to jar without BPA! Good luck!!
Hi there – was referred to your website and really like it. I’d like to make the laundry and dishwasher detergent and have three questions. What is washing soda? Would Ivory work as well as glycerine soap? Do you have a good source for beeswax? I live in Maple Ridge, BC – thanks very much!
Hi Nichole and welcome Washing soda is sodium carbonate. You will find it in London Drugs near the Borax in the laundry detergent isle. Arm and Hammer brand. Ivory would work, but I am not a fan of the other ingredients of ivory. You’ll find glycerine soap at Roots or Organic World. Buy the plain kind… it is opaque and has virtually no scent. Beeswax… I have a very good source… we keep bees . Before we did, though, I bought beeswax candles from stores like Bruce’s Country Market or Roots who sell locally-made beeswax candles. You can also buy beeswax chunks or pellets (although I am unsure of the source) from a great soap making store called Aquarius. It is an online store but you can pick it up locally in Silverdale. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Thanks – are you local to me? Do you sell your wax? I have to go to Bruce’s this afternoon so I can check out there wax candles…
I know there’s Dr. Bee in Pitt Meadows and they may have it so I was going to check there too. Normally I don’t have Ivory in the house, but had another recipe I was going to use (before I stumbled on yours!) and it suggested Ivory…
Thank you!
Nicole
Yes I am local to you We don’t have enough to sell at this point. Just enough for personal use. Someday, maybe! If you buy candles you just grate the wax. It is probably cheaper to buy it in bulk but finding it will be more challenging. Cranberry Lane in Pt Coquitlam carry it too, although likely not local.
Thank you for your quick response. I love your story and am envious of your 2 acres! I was raised very wholistically and minimalistically and try to now run my family the same way. As natural as possible with no processed foods, as much of it organic as possible (and can be afforded!). Up to now I’ve been purchasing the expensive ‘natural’ dishwasher and laundry detergents but am excited to now start making my own. I’m also a homeopathic practitioner so understand the effects of toxins in and around us – we all need to avoid as many of those nasties as we can (as there’s so many we can’t avoid…). Thanks for your information and I’m glad I found you! Nicole
Good for you! Are you following My Healthy Green Family on facebook? We have a very interactive page there. Perhaps we’ll meet some day since we are in the same area.
I recently came across your site and I really enjoy what you have to say. I also agree with your reluctance to use Borax and have questioned its safe use for years. I know that the combined use of baking soda and vinager as a cleaning agent is not listed on your site but it is on many other eco-friendly type sites. Could you please help get the word out that combining these ingredients creates water, carbon dioxide, and sodium acetate which is NOT an effective cleaner. To harness their full cleaning potential they should be used separately. The baking soda only neutralizes the acid in the vinegar. To read more about this here is one site that explains it: http://everydayeinstein.quickanddirtytips.com/vinegar-and-baking-soda.aspx
Thank you for you time and such an inspirational site.
I did talk about that in my article “Cleaning Your House with only baking soda, lemons and vinegar”. You are absolutely right. Combining an acid and a base neutralizes them and renders them useless. Thanks for sharing!
Cant wait to try the vinegar orange rind cleaner. Had one ? any reason why you couldnt add say1/2 cup orange juice in the mix for even less vinegar smell? Actually 2 questions do you have a newsletter ?? have a nice day. Sean
I would like to give you a huge thank you! I am so grateful for all the work, time and energy you have put into experimenting with different products and creating this website and for sharing this wealth of knowledge with the world. It is so important and so wonderful to find it all in one place! … Thank you for helping us and the planet be healtheir and safer. Blessings & love and luck to you )
Another comment! … Can you tell me more about your process/experimentaiton with body butters. I am looking to begin experimenting with lotions and want to make something that is safe, effective, nourishing and has some shelf life. I have been using a cream with rose water, and was planning on trying to mimic it, but after reading what you wrote about it being tricky/dangerous adding water to oil, rosewater included, i paused my plans and want to hear more from you. If you have good links/resources to read and personal experience you can share, I would be very grateful to read/listen. Thanks again for all this bounty of information! Cheers, Mika
I am working on a recipe for a general hand/body lotion. I haven’t written it up yet but so far so good. It has zero preservatives and has lasted me 6 weeks on my bedside so far without getting moldy. I am also working on an anti wrinkle face moisturizer, with no preservatives. I am calling them “fresh” body products that need to be used up, and the recipes will only be small batches. If you treat them as fresh products that need to be used up, then it isn’t a problem. If you want them to last months and months you need a preservative. There is pretty much no way you can buy a body product that has any shelf life that doesn’t have come kind of preservative, so if you want to go completely preservative-free (as I do) you need to make it yourself and use it up. I am changing my opinion about “dangerous”. It might grow mold, in which case you will see or smell it, and won’t use it. I would much rather deal with mold I know than the toxins I don’t LOL! Watch for the recipes coming soon. In between birthing baby goats, collecting eggs, starting the garden, driving my kids to activities, making meals etc etc my free time is pretty sparse right now for blogging! But I will get them up, I promise!
another question! … in your entry about home cleaners, you mention that mixing acid and basic neutralizes, duh! it took me by surprise that i hadn’t though of that. and so i’m wondering – i read somewhere a recipe mixing lemon peels and soda. this would be the same neutralizing effect, right? lemons are tricky, because outside they are acid and internally they are alkaline, so i was wondering if they maybe go both ways? like it could mix with soda to form strong basic substance as well as with vinegar for strong acidic substance. let me know what you think! thanks.
Let me just start by saying I have thouroughly enjoyed your site, what an inspiration! I do have a few questions for you if I may. Do you make your own noodles, like spaghetti, lasagna, alfredo, etc… and if you do, do you make them fresh and cook them the same day or do you make them in a big batch and freeze them? Also, if you freeze them what do you keep them in? Another question I had is do you make your own cleanser for your face and moisturizer? Also, do you make your own liquid hand soap? Thank you so much for all your time, Im sure you are super busy and I really appreciate you taking the time for all of the questions!
I make my own pasta and either we eat it fresh or we hang it on hangers around the house until it dries (overnight) and then put it in containers and boil up when we need it. I have yet to freeze it.
Yes I make my own moisturizers. I haven’t posted the recipes yet, but will when I get a chance. Watch for them I haven’t made a liquid hand soap yet. Good suggestion!
I just found this blog and I am so excited! I am trying to get away from processed food and other other products that are full of junk and from what I have looked at this blog is for me. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Okay, this may be gross, but I recently began making my own lotion and, like your article stated, I got mold in it. I just scraped the mold off the top and continued using the “clean” lotion underneath. It wasn’t black mold or actually a lot of it, mostly bluish discoloration. Anyway, all the research that I have done (limited to google and about 10 minutes of time – so not extensive) says that one should throw out lotion that has gotten mold but no one says why only an ambiguous “it’s dangerous”. Long explanation to get to the question, aside from the ick factor, can moldy lotion still be used if you scrape out the moldy bits? Why is moldy lotion “dangerous”? Thanks
I have never had mold in mine to date, so I don’t know exactly what to say except mold is just mold, and you aren’t eating it. If it doesn’t smell bad I guess it isn’t a huge issue. When you make it, use distilled water if possible, or boiled water. When you apply it, wash your hands first.
Hi. I’m Crystal B and I’ve commented on your blog Borax-free Laundry Detergent. I was the one that melted the glycerin bars and then rolled them into balls. I was wondering if it would be alright for me to try selling these detergent balls in my area to make some extra money? I didn’t want to do it without permission from the person who came up with the recipe due to respect. If you could let me know I sure would appreciate it. Thanks bunches.
Hi, I am fine with that. I appreciate you asking! Please refer anyone who is interested in the powder version to my recipe. Thanks!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! I will definitely refer anyone to your blog who wants the powdered version. Thank you.
Is there a substitute for beeswax that could work in your deodorant recipe? I can not use that due to an allergy (also due to all nuts and avocado). Thanks so much!
All the beeswax really does is make the product firmer. If you take out the beeswax and keep the deodorant in a jar and put it on with your fingertips it will still work fine. The beeswax makes it nice and firm at room temperature and above so that it doesn’t get all soft and sticky on a warmer day or when your bathroom steams up from a shower. That said, there may be a replacement but I don’t know what it would be. Let me know if you come up with something! Thanks.
Hello, We have been looking for recipes for homemade cleansing products and today I found your website. We are new to this and I have a question. I noticed that the dishwasher recipe is the same as the laundry soap recipe with 2 added ingredients for the laundry soap for “cleansing”. My question is this…Does the dishwasher formula “clean” without the “cleansers”, and could you us the dishwasher formula for the laundry detergent? Thank you!
The soap is important for the laundry to get the dirt out of the clothes, in my opinion. Dishes need to be rinsed off but not penetrated. I have used the laundry soap in the dishwasher though when I run out of dishwasher detergent! Yes they are very similar. Good luck! Hope they work for you.
Hi there–After making the deodorant, we love it! Many thanks for such a simple recipe. After difficulty in finding Arrowroot Powder, I substituted Corn Starch. While the product is smooth and overall pretty perfect, it is a bit ‘sticky’ during the application process. Almost a little soft–as if it’s still ‘warm’ and not completely solid?? If that makes any sense at all??
Wondering if this is a result from Corn Starch substitute. I’ll make it again regardless–it’s great! However, would certainly go the extra mile to search out an Arrowroot Powder supplier if its use is the golden ticket 
Thanks, thanks, thanks!
You can try increasing the corn starch a bit and the beeswax as well. The original recipe called for kaolin clay which is a natural clay but contains naturally occurring aluminum so I took it out of the recipe. If you can find clay that does not contain aluminum you can add it and it gives that “dry” feeling.
THanks for sharing!
You sound like you could be a friend of mine… We grow most of our vegetables and fruit too on our place in the country (live in city now so can’t raise goats…). I can fruit sugar-free (no sweeteners added … just use fully-ripe fruit and cook down a long time. Pears make a great spread, and we run the )
I taught pottery for 37 years. Visit my Facebook page: Lena Arice Lucas (https://www.facebook.com/lena.a.lucas) and go to “Photo Albums” and scroll down for photos of our place and some of the canning, etc. I do.
I love to cook (organic, low carb (managing my Type 2 Diabetes via diet alone)…
Looking forward to following your blog!
P. S., I “shared” your “GMO-free” Halloween page on my Facebook page.
Lena
Thanks Lena! Glad another kindred spirit has found us! Thanks for sharing the Halloween article. Good for you for controlling diabetes with diet! Take care.
I absolutley love your site. I am simplifying and trying to change to self-sustaining and eco-friendly way of life. Partly because of the increasing cost of manufactured (and government protected) products and food and partly because I believe sustainable living is the responsible thing to do. Thank you for the great cleaning products. Our great-grandmothers would be proud our ingenuity and invention.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Gayle! I totally agree with you. Our great grandmothers would be proud. It is our responsibility to NOT lose the valueable information that is disappearing as the older generations leave us. Take time to get to know these people and talk about the good ol days, the products they used, and how they did things when sustainable living was a way of life, not an option.
Just left a comment and question in the laundry detergent post but forgot to mention this….in your latest post when you listed several links to your latest stuff, there is a link to a yogurt recipe. That link doesn’t seem to be working, though I checked the others and they are fine. Just wanted to let you know because I would love to find and then try your yogurt recipe!
Thanks!
Thanks for letting me know! I have had some issues with the site and as a result some of the posts aren’t coming up. I fixed it, and here is the link!
http://myhealthygreenfamily.com/blog/wordpress/simple-all-natural-homemade-yogurt/
Thanks! Looking forward to trying!
I would just like to ask you research heinz and monsantos before promoting the health of the company. I know you think for yourself and I love your article, in fact tweeted it! You have a chance to promote a company that doens’t keep the GMO overrides where we have to make everything from scratch because there isn’t enough healthy food on the market to go around without perservatives. However, I am looking for a way to jar without BPA! Good luck!!
Hi there – was referred to your website and really like it. I’d like to make the laundry and dishwasher detergent and have three questions. What is washing soda? Would Ivory work as well as glycerine soap? Do you have a good source for beeswax? I live in Maple Ridge, BC – thanks very much!
Hi Nichole and welcome
Washing soda is sodium carbonate. You will find it in London Drugs near the Borax in the laundry detergent isle. Arm and Hammer brand. Ivory would work, but I am not a fan of the other ingredients of ivory. You’ll find glycerine soap at Roots or Organic World. Buy the plain kind… it is opaque and has virtually no scent. Beeswax… I have a very good source… we keep bees 
. Before we did, though, I bought beeswax candles from stores like Bruce’s Country Market or Roots who sell locally-made beeswax candles. You can also buy beeswax chunks or pellets (although I am unsure of the source) from a great soap making store called Aquarius. It is an online store but you can pick it up locally in Silverdale. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Thanks – are you local to me? Do you sell your wax? I have to go to Bruce’s this afternoon so I can check out there wax candles…
I know there’s Dr. Bee in Pitt Meadows and they may have it so I was going to check there too. Normally I don’t have Ivory in the house, but had another recipe I was going to use (before I stumbled on yours!) and it suggested Ivory…
Thank you!
Nicole
Yes I am local to you
We don’t have enough to sell at this point. Just enough for personal use. Someday, maybe! If you buy candles you just grate the wax. It is probably cheaper to buy it in bulk but finding it will be more challenging. Cranberry Lane in Pt Coquitlam carry it too, although likely not local.
Thank you for your quick response. I love your story and am envious of your 2 acres!
I was raised very wholistically and minimalistically and try to now run my family the same way. As natural as possible with no processed foods, as much of it organic as possible (and can be afforded!). Up to now I’ve been purchasing the expensive ‘natural’ dishwasher and laundry detergents but am excited to now start making my own. I’m also a homeopathic practitioner so understand the effects of toxins in and around us – we all need to avoid as many of those nasties as we can (as there’s so many we can’t avoid…). Thanks for your information and I’m glad I found you! Nicole
Good for you! Are you following My Healthy Green Family on facebook? We have a very interactive page there. Perhaps we’ll meet some day since we are in the same area.
Just got home and thought I’d let you know the Arm & Hammer brand of washing soda is on for $3.99 right now at London Drugs!
Awesome! Thanks for the tip.
Yes, I’ve found your facebook group as well. Thanks. Send me a message if you ever need homeopathic advice…. Nicole
Thanks Nichole!
I recently came across your site and I really enjoy what you have to say. I also agree with your reluctance to use Borax and have questioned its safe use for years. I know that the combined use of baking soda and vinager as a cleaning agent is not listed on your site but it is on many other eco-friendly type sites. Could you please help get the word out that combining these ingredients creates water, carbon dioxide, and sodium acetate which is NOT an effective cleaner. To harness their full cleaning potential they should be used separately. The baking soda only neutralizes the acid in the vinegar. To read more about this here is one site that explains it: http://everydayeinstein.quickanddirtytips.com/vinegar-and-baking-soda.aspx
Thank you for you time and such an inspirational site.
I did talk about that in my article “Cleaning Your House with only baking soda, lemons and vinegar”. You are absolutely right. Combining an acid and a base neutralizes them and renders them useless. Thanks for sharing!
Cant wait to try the vinegar orange rind cleaner. Had one ? any reason why you couldnt add say1/2 cup orange juice in the mix for even less vinegar smell? Actually 2 questions do you have a newsletter ?? have a nice day. Sean
I don’t see why not. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
I would like to give you a huge thank you! I am so grateful for all the work, time and energy you have put into experimenting with different products and creating this website and for sharing this wealth of knowledge with the world. It is so important and so wonderful to find it all in one place! … Thank you for helping us and the planet be healtheir and safer. Blessings & love and luck to you
)
Thank you Mika and welcome!!
Another comment! … Can you tell me more about your process/experimentaiton with body butters. I am looking to begin experimenting with lotions and want to make something that is safe, effective, nourishing and has some shelf life. I have been using a cream with rose water, and was planning on trying to mimic it, but after reading what you wrote about it being tricky/dangerous adding water to oil, rosewater included, i paused my plans and want to hear more from you. If you have good links/resources to read and personal experience you can share, I would be very grateful to read/listen. Thanks again for all this bounty of information! Cheers, Mika
I am working on a recipe for a general hand/body lotion. I haven’t written it up yet but so far so good. It has zero preservatives and has lasted me 6 weeks on my bedside so far without getting moldy. I am also working on an anti wrinkle face moisturizer, with no preservatives. I am calling them “fresh” body products that need to be used up, and the recipes will only be small batches. If you treat them as fresh products that need to be used up, then it isn’t a problem. If you want them to last months and months you need a preservative. There is pretty much no way you can buy a body product that has any shelf life that doesn’t have come kind of preservative, so if you want to go completely preservative-free (as I do) you need to make it yourself and use it up. I am changing my opinion about “dangerous”. It might grow mold, in which case you will see or smell it, and won’t use it. I would much rather deal with mold I know than the toxins I don’t LOL! Watch for the recipes coming soon. In between birthing baby goats, collecting eggs, starting the garden, driving my kids to activities, making meals etc etc my free time is pretty sparse right now for blogging! But I will get them up, I promise!
another question! … in your entry about home cleaners, you mention that mixing acid and basic neutralizes, duh! it took me by surprise that i hadn’t though of that. and so i’m wondering – i read somewhere a recipe mixing lemon peels and soda. this would be the same neutralizing effect, right? lemons are tricky, because outside they are acid and internally they are alkaline, so i was wondering if they maybe go both ways? like it could mix with soda to form strong basic substance as well as with vinegar for strong acidic substance. let me know what you think! thanks.
Wow too deep for me LOL! I didn’t know that they could be both. If you try it out let me know! Thanks!
Let me just start by saying I have thouroughly enjoyed your site, what an inspiration! I do have a few questions for you if I may. Do you make your own noodles, like spaghetti, lasagna, alfredo, etc… and if you do, do you make them fresh and cook them the same day or do you make them in a big batch and freeze them? Also, if you freeze them what do you keep them in? Another question I had is do you make your own cleanser for your face and moisturizer? Also, do you make your own liquid hand soap? Thank you so much for all your time, Im sure you are super busy and I really appreciate you taking the time for all of the questions!
oops I meant thoroughly
I make my own pasta and either we eat it fresh or we hang it on hangers around the house until it dries (overnight) and then put it in containers and boil up when we need it. I have yet to freeze it.
I haven’t made a liquid hand soap yet. Good suggestion!
Yes I make my own moisturizers. I haven’t posted the recipes yet, but will when I get a chance. Watch for them
I just found this blog and I am so excited! I am trying to get away from processed food and other other products that are full of junk and from what I have looked at this blog is for me. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Wonderful! Glad to have you here.
Okay, this may be gross, but I recently began making my own lotion and, like your article stated, I got mold in it. I just scraped the mold off the top and continued using the “clean” lotion underneath. It wasn’t black mold or actually a lot of it, mostly bluish discoloration. Anyway, all the research that I have done (limited to google and about 10 minutes of time – so not extensive) says that one should throw out lotion that has gotten mold but no one says why only an ambiguous “it’s dangerous”. Long explanation to get to the question, aside from the ick factor, can moldy lotion still be used if you scrape out the moldy bits? Why is moldy lotion “dangerous”? Thanks
I have never had mold in mine to date, so I don’t know exactly what to say except mold is just mold, and you aren’t eating it.
If it doesn’t smell bad I guess it isn’t a huge issue. When you make it, use distilled water if possible, or boiled water. When you apply it, wash your hands first.