Articles & Experiments
DIY Habits You Should Get Into
As much as I have resisted the idea, a lot of my assorted DIY-ing is scientific-ish. Drat. My high school science teacher was right (though I have never bothered to balance the equation of surplus electrons for anything I have ever made, and I can safely say I never...
Natural Hair Care: Washing Your Brushes & Combs
One of my favourite articles on natural(ish) hair care dates back to the early 1900s, and is written by Mlle. Aline Vallandri, a woman who is famous for the length and health of her hair. The article is accompanied by a rather shocking (to modern eyes, at least)...
A Quick Guide to Solubility
Let me preface this by saying I am no scientist, and this guide is definitely a quick one (and based very much on personal experience). I took 12th grade chemistry, and that's it—and that was a while ago. I did, however, convince my brilliant friend Adrian to...
Why You Should Give The Metric System a Chance
Canada, for all of its wonderful traits, is a wee bit confused in the measurement department. We officially switched over to the metric system in the 1970's, but we did a pretty half-assed job of it. We measure distances in kilometers, and temperature in Celsius, but...
My Cosmetics Cabinet: Ingredients for an Aspiring DIY Cosmetics Wizard
One of my favourite questions that I often get via e-mail is “I would love to make all my own make-up—what on earth should I be buying?” Awesome! I love to hear that you’re interested in making all the colourful powders you used to buy. You’ll have tons of fun, you’ll...
The Different Properties of Make-Up
I am the first person to admit that I was a terrible teenager. Not in the “sneaking out, smoking, drinking, and destroying private property” way, but in the “dismisses typical teenage behavior as being stupid & irrational, and therefore behaves mostly like an...
A Guide to Essential Oil Substitutions
After writing about carrier oil substitutions, I couldn't wait to write more about swapping this ingredient for that, and why things do or don't work. So, today I'm writing about essential oil substitutions. There are fewer variables here, so it'll be a shorter entry,...
A Guide to Carrier Oil Substitutions
One of the questions I am asked the most is along the lines of "I don't have ingredient X, can I use ingredient Y or Z instead, or just leave it out?". Sometimes the answer is a quick yes, and sometimes it's a complicated no. So, I put together this guide to help you...
Why There is No Such Thing As How to Make Soap Without Lye
For anyone who makes soap, this whole entry will be fairly redundant. However, I've been getting a lot of questions lately from people who say they are scared of lye, and want to know how to make soap without lye. They're either afraid of working with it, or they...
Make Your Own Herb Infused Oils
Herb infused oils are awesome for lots of reasons, but my favourite reasons are 1) you get the benefit of the herb without having funny chunky bits hanging out in your lotions and balms and 2) they just get better as they age, like whiskey, but cheaper (and you can...
8 Ways to Naturally Colour Soap
I've been asked a few times over the past couple months how I colour my soaps. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a store like Lush or The Body Shop branding itself as "natural", and seeing how many artificial, petroleum-derived colourants they use in their...
Why I Use Lard or Tallow in My Soap (And Why You Should, Too)
I wasn't originally going to publish this today, but I received a few comments on yesterday's entry about the use of in soap making. I've also had a quite a few questions over the years about the use of lard and in my soaps, so I...
DIY Body Product Equipment You Need
Well, I've been making some neat products (and some great messes) over the last few years with my beloved DIY products. In the process, I've figured out that there are two categories of equipment; things that you can share between your kitchen and food prep life, and...
How to Use Raw Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is known to most people as bright green goop. I imagine that goo comes from an underground river like the one in Ghostbusters. As it turns out, that is not where actual aloe vera comes from. Not even close. Aloe vera is a cactus-like plant with long, meaty...
My Favourite Butters
I know I have too many body type ingredients. Too many oils, butters, essential oils, powders, clays, and everything else. Oh well. I'm ok with it. And lucky for you, since I have too much, I can tell you what's worth buying and spare you the same fate. These are my...
How to Stretch Out Your Hair Washes Without Looking Like a Dirty Hippie
I've been working on stretching out my hair washes for about seven months now. I've gone from washing every other day to washing every seventh day. And I've managed to do it without looking like a greasy, dirty hippie (for the majority of the time, at least). Here's...
How to Render Tallow for Making Soap
There's a bit of a debate in the soap making community as to which types of fat to use for the hardening fat. Lots of people like palm oil. It's cheap, plant-based, and works. But the harvest of palm oil is also threatening a lot of vulnerable real estate and species...
15 Uses for Baking Soda
Baking soda is crazy cheap and super useful. See? I no longer recommend putting baking soda on your skin; read this for more information. 1. Wash your face Baking soda is just the right texture to be mildly exfoliating, and it's status as a mild base does a great job...
Bare Hair Care
It's a bit unsettling to think about, but shampoo has a lot more in common with dish washing detergent than that oh-so-gentle cleanser idea advertising agencies like to sell you. I don't know about you, but my hair has very little in common with the pan I made pasta...
