DIY All-Natural* Dishwashing Detergent

I am all about the DIY situations for home cleaners and this guy works great!  I've been using this "recipe" for the past year or so and it does a wonderful job, doesn't leave spots on your glassware and is CHEAP.

You need 

*Borax

*Washing Soda

*Salt (technically Kosher Salt but I went with what I have)

*Citric Acid (OR Lemonade Flavored Kool Aid - remember, you have to add the sugar to lemonade so the lemonade flavor is basically just citric acid and lemon fragrance - built in fresh smell!) 

Throw 1 cup of the Borax and the Washing Soda 

together with 

1/2 cup each of Salt and Citric Acid (about 17 packets of Lemonade Kool-Aid)

In a blender (or you can mix it in a bowl)

And that's it!!

I use a little scoop/spoon from a canister of powdered greens I had but you can use whatever you want - and it just takes one scoop!

You can also throw a little white vinegar in the dishwasher's rinse aid reservoir for added goodness. 

For my DIY All-Natural Laundry Detergent click HERE

For my DIY All- Natural All-Purpose Cleaner click HERE 

*and no, the fragrance in the Lemonade Kool-Aid isn't all natural but I'm okay with it :)

DIY Eyebrow Tinting

First off, you're not supposed to tint your eyebrows - so there's that.  The box literally says don't use this on your lashes/brows because it can blind you.  Amazing.  So I'm not brave enough to tint my lashes but I'm down with brows.

I used RefectoCil's Brow and Lash Tint in 4.1 (also avail on Amazon).  It comes with a little plastic applicator that doesn't look like it would actually do anything but it ends up working very well.  

You can buy a mixing plate or just use a piece of foil or a disposable plastic plate or something and you squirt some of your color on there and then mix in some of the developer (pictured above) which is basically the same thing as Hydrogen Peroxide just FYI.  You're supposed to put a bit of the Eyebrow Tint on the plate and then eyeball adding the developer to it, which honestly feels a little scary when you're not a professional hair stylist but I just thinned out with like 10 drops and it was fine.

So then you use the little plastic applicator and paint it on your brows.  There's a chart that says how long to leave it on.  You get your "time" based on your natural brow color (I'm between a 6 and a 7) and the color you're going to dye it.  So for me it was 10-20 minutes (which seems like kind of a large timeslot!) so I split the difference and did 15 minutes.  If you're nervous I would err on the shorter timeframe as you can always go back and dye them again if they're too soft.  I then used a makeup wipe to get it off.  It does dye your skin too which you can clean up pretty easily with the makeup wipe but the skin under your brow will stay dyed til you take a shower (but it just looks like you filled it in with brow powder).  People do who do it regularly do it about once a month.

Here you can see way the dye picks up on every hair - the ends of this brow are white and don't show up so it's nice that after dying them they DO show up.

So what's the verdict?  I LOVE not having to fill in my brows everyday and feel much less like a redhead poser since I'm not rocking a brown eyebrow with red hair.  That said, my red hair is a copper gold (warm) and this dye color was a cooler, pinker red so I'm just going to get my actual hair dye color (or a couple of shades deeper) and use that with the developer BUT, I'm so glad I went ahead and tried tinting my brows as it was super easy!

DIY All-Natural Laundry Detergent

Natural cleaning products are SO EXPENSIVE you guys!  I just couldn't handle it anymore so I started searching all over creation and found a great recipe for laundry detergent at DIY Natural.  It works wonderfully, will last you a long time and is easily tranportable if you're a NYC'er and have to carry your laundry/gear to the laundromat (put it in a sandwich sized Ziploc).  

You'll need:

1 cup Borax Powder

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1 bar of laundry soap - Fel's Naptha or other

Essential Oil of choice (optional)

Blender

Food Processor or Cheese Grater

This is a different bar than Fels Naptha - Fels Naptha is what turns it yellow

Use your food processor or cheese grater to shred your bar of soap.  Pour that into your blender (I use a Ninja Blender which works really well) and add the Borax and the Washing Soda.  Add essential oil to your liking.  Blend til the soap is pulverized and everything is mixed together.  Use 1 Tbsp/load of laundry - yep!  One Tablespoon!

The first time I did this recipe I didn't pulverize everything in the blender and found that the soap "shreds" were too big for the washers at our laundromat and they didn't all make it into the wash easily - they got caught in the coils and didn't totally dissolve in cold washes.  So, that's when I started blending it all together and it's easy peasy now.  

The first time I made this recipe it also didn't have essential oil in there and I knew after reading THIS article that we associate clean clothes with clothes that SMELL clean, regardless of if they're clean or not.  So I needed some smell ya'll.  I did a bunch of batches with Lavender Oil but now I'm on a Grapefruit Oil kick - it's amazing!  I pop in about 1/2-1 tsp for a whole batch of detergent.

I also have really sensitive skin and have always bought the dye free formulas of laundry detergents at the store and this recipe works wonderfully for me.  If you have a significant stain you'll want to use a stain remover (I'm working on finding my favorite recipe to share with you!) but if you've got basic stinky clothes with normal wear and tear you'll be fine with this - it works wonderfully!  

For my favorite DIY Natural All-Purpose Cleaner click HERE.

DIY All-Natural All-Purpose Cleaner

There is so much crap in our cleaning supplies you guys and we are breathing all of it in (and paying a LOT for it).  I have been playing with different recipes for cleaners, laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent and have settled on some faves that I'll share with you over the next bit of time.  Today is a breakdown on my favorite All-Purpose Cleanser which works beautifully on everything except granite and marble.  It still smells a bit like vinegar, just better, once you add all the goodies, but the vinegar smells dissipates in seconds.  It is SO much more healthy than the bleach and other chemical laden ingredient and WAY cheaper.  One batch of concentrate is good for 4-5 bottles of cleaner.  I found my recipe at The Yummy Life and she has other recipes you could do instead so check it out!  

You'll need

*4-5 lemons

*3-5 sprigs of herbs (rosemary, sage or mint)

*vanilla

*white vinegar

*airtight jar to put it in

I was juicing so I had a bunch of orange peels, and a couple of orange peels, gathered up so I figured it was a good time to make another batch of the concentrate.  I just leave the stickers on as you can see.

Throw all of of the peels in an airtight jar

I grabbed some rosemary and sage from my garden but you can throw any herbies in there - wash them off first of course

Add the herbs to your jar of citrus peels

Add 1-2 tsp of vanilla

Cover with vinegar

Let it sit for 2-4 weeks (yep, 2-4 WEEKS) and strain it - it'll end up looking like the jar on the right.

Run one of your existing spray bottles (or buy a new one) through the dishwasher to get all of the chemicals out (thank you Method).

Then pour in 2 parts water for 1 part vinegar concentrate.

Start cleaning!