el Natural

I am forever looking for new ways to go green or all natural vs using chemicas or costly uncecessary things. Who isn't right? Spending $20 a month on shampoo/conditioner doesnt seem like much, but over a year thats $240 JUST to wash our hair....whaaa? On top of that think of all the cleaning products we buy $4 for windex, $10 for laundry soap (which lasts a couple weeks only).... and body wash and face lotions which can be upwards of $40 for a 3-4 month supply and skin lotions that are $7 a bottle and the list goes on. So, the frugal mama in me has been determined to find other ways. I will share them as I come across them.

The 2 I am starting with is shampoo/conditioner and lotions.

Here goes. I have seen blog after blog on being "poo free". Seems gross yes...I am a little leary of not washing my hair either. I have naturally thin, fine, oily hair. Its dry dry dry and if I go a day without washing it its crazy crazy oily. So the trick? 1 Tablespoon of baking soda to 1 cup water.....I put it in an old shampoo bottle and made enough to fill the bottle. You put it on your scalp mostly since thats where the oil comes from and let it soak a little, rub a little and rinse. The goal is to let your hair keep its natural oils instead of sudsing them out and drying them out causing your scalp to overproduce oil. As for conditioner you are supposed to use EITHER 1 Tablespoon honey in 8 ounces of water OR 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in 1 cup water and mostly just apply to the ends. More conditioner if your hair is dry after a couple days, more baking soda if its too oily.

Results? After 2 days being "poo free" here is my hair.  More body and not greasy yet! I'm going to keep it up for a few days and see what happens....I might be poo free for life if this works. I did not use conditioner at all (including the natural above recipe.) but will next time as the ends got pretty dry.

clean face.

Ok, onto the face/lotion. I might possibly have the worlds most sensitive skin. Seriously. I break out just walking into bath and body works ;) and anything with fragrance in the lotion? cant do it. I typically use Philosophy Hope In a Jar for face lotion. Its divine. Glorious. Oprah worthy face lotion (seriously, she uses it! We're basically besties.) but its $40 a jar and lasts a couple months. Its worth it. To me. I have VERY dry skin (making myself sound so attractive I know- Poo free dried out ole me.)  and for body lotion I have tried everything on the block. L'Occitan works best but its $20 a tube and that might last me a couple weeks. So whats a scaly skin girl to do? I have done away with ALL lotions for a couple months now. I am using Vit E Oil. Thats it. On my face and body. Its $3 a bottle at Trader Joes and a bottle lasts me a couple weeks. I use it twice daily on my face. It DOES NOT make you oily at all and clears up all zits thus far. I put a little in the bath and if I need more after that will rub on like lotion. It is AMAZING. I am trying to also go make up free and its nearly killing me. I love make up. BUT, I am so full of self loathing hatred lately that I am trying to like me for me, not the masked made up, falsified me. SO here is a sad, hard to look at picture of the Vit. E Oiled up non makeuped me. Ugh, this is hard for me to see. Can I get used to this person? I dont know.