A Sweaty Problem

Over the past few years I have been striving to eliminate as much unnecessary plastic and toxic ingredients from my personal care products. The end result is that my washroom is starting to resemble my kitchen because of the ingredients that are essential to my daily routine. My counter is lined with homemade products with coconut oil, body butters, cider vinegar, baking soda, honey, essential oils and salts. Because I make many of my own products now, I often have to store them in my refrigerator, so on top of my kitchen in my bathroom, my bathroom is now in my kitchen.

But there is one personal care product that I have decided to purchase from a store; natural deodorant.

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I am a very sweaty person, but I have long since given up wearing antiperspirant, for a variety of reasons.  I'm no longer fond of putting aluminum on my skin (some may say the jury is out on the dangers of aluminum but I'm not taking any chances), and I have found that unless I use the extremely strong, and therefore questionable, aluminum mixtures (which also burn my skin horribly), it does not stop the embarrassing pit stains for me. To top it all off, antiperspirant may actually make us stinkier! I've just given up the idea that I can go about life as if I live in an advertisement; so what if I have visible sweat marks once in a while (I have adapted to wearing darker clothing on top to mask the wet marks)?

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So then the only issue is the smelly one. I had to find a deodorant that I liked, that was natural, and didn't sting, because I have very sensitive underarm skin.


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Eco Jewelry Cleaning

After my second daughter was born I asked for a charm necklace with my girls' names and birth dates inscribed on them. The internet is chalk full of companies that can create beautiful personalized jewelry for women to commemorate motherhood and I succumbed. I love my necklace that now has three charms on it. I like to tell my girls that when I wear it I am keeping them close to my heart. But because I wear it everyday it can get scruffy looking.

I am very partial to silver jewelry and most of my earrings and necklaces are made of it, but a drawback is that it can tarnish easily when exposed to the humidity in the air because of oxidation.

I tend to forget to clean my jewelry until I am in a hurry getting ready to go out and I realize that my earrings are tarnished, so I put it away to clean at another time. Then I forget again until the next time. Lather rinse repeat.

Silver dips and pastes worked for me because they were quick and easy to do, but I knew that they contained toxic chemicals that smelled horrible. I have been working on detoxifying my home cleaning products and personal care products so I knew that I had to find a better way to make my silver shine again. I don't want to put something on my skin that has been cleaned in harsh chemicals.

It isn't hard to find non-toxic silver cleaner recipes on the internet but this is the one that I like to use.

Supplies for eco jewelry cleaning:

liquid dish soap (some recipes skip the soap)

salt

aluminum foil (I save a piece of recycled foil for this purpose)

water

bowl

Steps:

1. Place aluminum foil in a bowl
2. Pour a tablespoon of salt on top of the aluminum
3. Pour a tablespoon of liquid dish soap on the salt
4. Add 1/2 cup - 1 cup of water 
5. Place silver jewelry on the aluminium and mixture. 
6. Swish the jewelry around then leave for a few minutes.
7. Remove the jewelry from the bowl, rinse in water and dry off.
8. If my silver is particularly dirty I like to give it a quick shine it with a cloth.

That's it! No harsh chemicals, no gloves required.