homemade lemon coconut sugar scrub, mouth wash, and honey lavender shampoo

I've been seeing more and more recipes around for beauty and health products and knew someday I would get around to jumping on the bandwagon. Lets face it, lots of shampoos and face scrubs and body lotions are full of crappy chemicals or are super expensive.

So yesterday, the kids, now feeling better, were playing outside and the baby was sleeping and the sun was shining in and dinner was...not made but I was procrastinating...so I jumped on that bandwagon, full throttle.

A few years ago my sister got me a lovely smelling jar of fancy French body scrub. It was divine. I went to replace it later and couldnt believe how much a fancy French store can charge for a jar of sugar and oil.

Simple enough, right?

I kept finding these sugar scrub recipes and once looked them up but they had oils in them I dont have so, typical me I simply mixed a few thing together that I had around.

the oils I used on the left, other possibilities (lavender or ylang ylang!) on the right

Here is what I did.

A third of a cup of coconut oil.

Two thirds cup of sugar.

Several drops of lemon oil. Lemongrass oil. Geranium oil.

Mix.

Store in a pint sized mason jar.

DONE.

I mean, seriously, this stuff is so great. I used it on my face as a scrub too.

 

Now for the mouth wash. I started to make it this past winter. Its unbelievably easy and tastes much better than store bought stuff. The only catch is that I use thieves oil, which is expensive. If you dont have any get the Young Living Oil brand, its worth the investment. I say that but my mom totally gave a bottle to me. She is awesome like that. (She also handed us pounds and pounds of their own grass raised beef the other day! YUM.)

I simply take a mason jar, filled with distilled water (run through our purifier!) drop in two or three drops of thieves oil, two or three drops of peppermint oil and a teaspoon of baking soda. Screw the cap on and shake it up. Thieves oil is great for oral health and is blend of various oils. The name comes from the Middle Ages. Grave robbers were robbing the bodies of plague victims and not getting sick. Turns out they were covering their mouths with cloth soaked in a mixture of these herbs (cinnamon, clove, rosemary and others). That is the story anyhow. Ha.

In any case. This stuff is great. I mix it in small batches because after sitting too long the baking soda gets a metallic taste.

So there is that.

As far as the shampoo. This is for the kids. I wash my dreads in baking soda mixed with lemon juice in warm water with a few drops of oils - right now I am using geranium and lemongrass and teatree oils (all are supposed to repel bugs!). (This is a great clarifying treatment for any kind of hair.) I want something for the kids that is natural, cheap and easy to make. I read something about honey shampoo and thought, huh, I have honey. So I made some.

Simply mix raw honey in with warm water and a few drops of oil, for fragrance. I used lavender and geranium.The recipe I saw was 1 tsp of honey to 2 Tbs of water. Mine isnt that concentrated but I think that is fine.

Honey?? I know right? Its supposed to condition well too. I havent used it yet. Bathtime was skipped last night as we tried to get our cranky kids to bed. I will let you know how it works. Oh, and make this one in small batches too.

ETA: a week later and, YES, this stuff is GREAT! I added more water to dilute after the first wash. I think I put in too much lavender oil because it left the girls hair too oily but after that it was perfect. Yay!! I'd say next time just a drop or two if oil per bottle plus maybe two tablespoons of raw honey. Shiny, conditions and smells amazing!! 

bonus crunchy hippy granola points for using a recycled container for the shampoo!
HAHAHA

SOOOO there you have it. One step closer to crunchy hippy granola mom greatness. "And she MAKES HER OWN SHAMPOO TOO." HA. But seriously this stuff is so easy to do, and its cheap, and better for you than the chemical crap, so, why not, right?