Cutting down on waste

One thing I've noticed when I talk to customers is how commercials and advertising have taught us we need separate products for every little thing.  For example, we need shampoo, and conditioner, and body wash, and shaving cream, and lotion and each one of those things comes in its own plastic bottle that then goes in your trash and on to a landfill, to take years to disintegrate.  Did you know that hasn't always been the case?

Less than 100 years ago our ancestors used only 1 or 2 products to do everything from wash the dishes to the laundry to their bodies.  Now, was that ideal?  Of course not, and that is why different soap formulas were created.  However, as manufacturers realized they could give each separate formula it's own purpose, they also realized how much revenue they could make by advertising more products.  Did you know that when soap is made it naturally contains glycerin; an ingredient that attracts moisture and therefore moisturizes your skin?  When manufacturers figured out how to remove the glycerin and make it into lotion; they had another product they could sell and it did, because their soap was no longer moisturizing.

One of my goals is to make soap that you can use for more than one purpose, saving you money and making less waste for our environment.  Each recipe I make is run through a soap calculator which lets me know what qualities that soap will have based on its ingredients.  It's an amazing tool!  My shampoo and conditioner soaps have ingredients that are mild enough to leave your hair soft and bouncy, but strong enough to clean.   You can also use it on your body, and it has no odd synthetic ingredients made in a lab that you need to look up to understand.  I have another formula for the facial soaps (oatmeal honey and charcoal) that makes them more mild so they will clean but not irritate.  Yet another formula (clean cotton) can be used for laundry.  It smells nice and is just a little stronger for handwashing lingerie and whites, or can be grated for your washing machine.  My last type of soap are the scrub soaps; which are similar to the laundry soap but have additives like pumice or coffee grounds for extra scrubbing power on hands that are greasy, oily or dirty.  Of course, none of these soaps come in plastic; so there is now waste once you're done with them.

I hope this blog post made you think a bit about how you can use various products in multiple ways and cut down on waste in our environment.  Have a great day!