I recently moved to a house heated by electric baseboards (yikes!), which means my house is exceptionally dry. When I ran out of my hand cream and the cracks in my knuckles started bleeding where they were cracked (double yikes!), I knew it was time to get on with my plan of making my own. So I started with Minimalist Beauty's DIY Hand and Nail Care recipe, and made a few minor changes.

The recipe calls for equal parts of shea butter, cocoa butter, and grapeseed oil and vanilla absolute oil for the smell.

I did a small bit of research (aka reading reviews of the products from New Directions Aromatics) and decided that I didn't want my hands to smell like cocoa for fear I would constantly be craving it, so decided to substitute aloe butter instead of the cocoa butter. Even though I requested they use as little packaging as necessary, I still felt there was way too much. Especially for a box full of plastic containers!

I also substituted lavender essential oil rather than vanilla, because it was something I already had in my possession, and therefore didn't need to buy. Less waste and less money!

I also went to my local thrift store and got a lovely super thick walled small pot to use. It cost me a whole of $5, and means I don't need to worry about mucking up my cooking pots with these types of experiments.

As per the directions, I put the butters and oil into the pot and put it on the lowest setting to melt.

Butters and oil in the pot

 Once they were melted, I turned off the stove, and let it cool just a bit.

All melted!

I added the lavender, then split up the mixture into small screw top aluminum containers that I got for this purpose. I needed something I could throw in my bag without worrying that the top would come off!

Individual container of liquid hand butter

I then let the containers cool overnight. When I woke up, I had two containers filled with hand and nail butter! No more need to buy hand cream!


After using the hand and nail butter, I decided the formula was too oily for my liking, so I scooped up all of the butter from the containers and put it back into the small pot to melt it down again. I then added another 1.5 oz of each butter and another 10 drops of lavender once the new mixture was cooled.

I am very pleased with the final results, and will continue to make this instead of buying hand cream! It still feels a little bit oily on my skin after putting it on, but it's much better than the first iteration.

Materials to make this cost me $7.37 for 7 oz or approximately 210 mL. Less than half the price of the body butters at the Body Shop, and I have control over the ingredients.

P.S. The containers I got only hold 2 oz each, so I put the remaining 3 oz into a washed out yogurt container. Not as pretty nor transportable, but much better for reducing waste.

I got a Neti Pot last Christmas, and I`m so happy to have it!  A neti pot is used to treat sinus problems, colds, allergies and post-nasal drip. You basically pour a saline solution in one nostril, through your nasal passages, and out the other.  It feels really weird the first time, but it becomes normal really quickly.


The neti pot can be a really nice alternative, or augmentation, to cold medications. When I feel a cold coming on, and throughout, I use the neti pot every morning until my nose has stopped running and the cold has passed. Except in extreme conditions, I manage to avoid having to take a any medication at all. That being said, when I get a cold so bad that I can't breathe when I lie down, I'll take a NiQuil so I can sleep!

There are plastic neti pots out there, I've seen them at the drug store, however my neti pot is ceramic. I like that it can be sanitized with  boiling water and washed in the dishwasher. I buy the salt to make a saline solution in bulk from Selsi Sea Rosks at the St. Lawrence market.

In combination with my homemade handkerchiefs, it's my zero waste way to deal with a cold.

About 6 months ago my mom decided she was going to make her own powdered bathroom cleaner. Apparently her cleaning lady requested she buy some Comet, and my mom wanted to find a slightly less toxic version. She made her own, and also mixed me up a small container for me, and I love it! The tiles and counter are clean and don`t smell chemical-y (like my roommate`s Pine Sol, which hurts my nose and who knows what else) at all!

The recipe is simple. Mix equal parts of baking soda, borax and washing soda. That's it!

This should last me a long time!

I got my baking soda, borax and washing soda in bulk at Grassroots. This is a minimal waste cleaning solution!

Soap Making Essentials suggested adding liquid soap and essential oil, and since I had some Eucalyptus Essential Oil sitting around from a previous project, I added it as well. It smells lovely, but I don`t expect it will make much of a difference to this concoction`s ability to clean.

Back in August when R was here I took him to `Tastes of the Danforth.` In addition to eating some amazing Greek Food, we walked into the Riverdale Grassroots Store, which is where I bought my Diva Cup (more on that to come later). I was so happy to find bulk vinegar, washing soda and so many other cleaning products that I actually gave a little cheer and jumped up and down, to R`s dismay. He is very typically Dutch in liking normalcy, and not standing out!

Source

Note: I don`t know this dude. It`s still not second nature to me to take photos of these types of things for my blog - I promise to take a picture next time I go back!

As we were leaving, the girl at the cash asked me why I was so excited, and I told her. I didn`t have any containers with me at the time, but I knew I would be back for some soon enough.

And that time was this weekend! I ran out of cleaner last weekend when I was cleaning (shocking, I know!), so grabbed some jars and went back to Grassroots and got some washing soda, borax, baking soda and cleaning vinegar. I remembered to weigh my jars before I left so they could be tared when they were full with product.

Hooray for bulk products!

I`m going to have to label these jars - the baking soda and borax look very, very similar. Thankfully only the baking soda reacts with vinegar, so it was easy to confirm which was which. Another win for science!