As I've been working to reduce the amount of trash passing through my home, considering homemade versions of toiletries (but, honestly, too lazy to actually try concocting actual batches yet), one of my excuses for continuing to buy commercial stuff in plastic bottles has been not having a good container to put homemade stuff in. Miserably thin excuse, really, but it's been enough for me.
Then, over Christmas, I was helping my dad clean out even more of my mom's old things. It's amazing how much one person can collect over a lifetime, and for the past several years, I've helped pack up more of her stuff each time I go home for Christmas or summer break. This past December, I ran across this trio of bottles.
Now, this probably doesn't look particularly sentimental to you, but those labels might as well be in my mom's actual handwriting. She had a labeling machine that she loved using, and she used it to label just about everything in the home she could get her hands on. I see this set, and I'm just overwhelmed with nostalgia. Dad doesn't use conditioner, and he doesn't use lotion, so he didn't want to keep them. So of course this came home with me.
Mom wouldn't have made her own shampoo from scratch (you can see she loved Nivea by name, and other bottles she labeled that I didn't take home were her travel bottles of "Breck Shampoo"). But she did always encourage us to try doing for ourselves, and she encouraged learning new skills. So now I've got to start looking for recipes. No more excuses, not even miserably thin ones.
Here are some of the sites I'm mulling over for recipes:
Loving it Raw (vinegar, baking soda, lemon, cucumbers??)
About Chemistry (castille soap, olive oil, glycerine???)
Frugally Sustainable (vinegar and herbs????)
Not sure that any of these is right for me. And I've got a bit of a backlog of shampoo still, so I'm not under any time pressure to come up with something perfect right away. Suggestions are welcome.
Then, over Christmas, I was helping my dad clean out even more of my mom's old things. It's amazing how much one person can collect over a lifetime, and for the past several years, I've helped pack up more of her stuff each time I go home for Christmas or summer break. This past December, I ran across this trio of bottles.
Now, this probably doesn't look particularly sentimental to you, but those labels might as well be in my mom's actual handwriting. She had a labeling machine that she loved using, and she used it to label just about everything in the home she could get her hands on. I see this set, and I'm just overwhelmed with nostalgia. Dad doesn't use conditioner, and he doesn't use lotion, so he didn't want to keep them. So of course this came home with me.
Mom wouldn't have made her own shampoo from scratch (you can see she loved Nivea by name, and other bottles she labeled that I didn't take home were her travel bottles of "Breck Shampoo"). But she did always encourage us to try doing for ourselves, and she encouraged learning new skills. So now I've got to start looking for recipes. No more excuses, not even miserably thin ones.
Here are some of the sites I'm mulling over for recipes:
Loving it Raw (vinegar, baking soda, lemon, cucumbers??)
About Chemistry (castille soap, olive oil, glycerine???)
Frugally Sustainable (vinegar and herbs????)
Not sure that any of these is right for me. And I've got a bit of a backlog of shampoo still, so I'm not under any time pressure to come up with something perfect right away. Suggestions are welcome.
I'd say it's a slippery ground. Although a chemist, I'm not an expert. Chemistry is pretty complex and every ground has its own specificities. Hair is not the same as skin.
ReplyDeleteJust to give you something in this comment, I'd stick to the second of your possible recipes (castille soap, olive oil and glicerine sound pretty correct for a soap, not so sure for a shampoo).