Diva Cup Update

In my original post about safer feminine hygiene products, I said that I was having problems with my Diva Cup. Although I loved the function of the cup, despite my less common difficulties with its effectiveness, it was causing problems.


How to Make Your Own Soap – My Hot Process Soap Procedure

Once you’ve chosen your ingredients and recipe, it’s time to make soap. There are two main ways to make soap: Hot process and cold process. In hot process soap making, the saponification reaction is completed before the soap is moulded. In cold process, the saponification reaction is initiated and then left to complete while the […]


How to Make Your Own Soap – Designing Your Own Soap Recipes

While it’s easy to buy at least one version of a plain olive oil soap in most places, soap is expensive. A single bar can set you back $3 to $6, or more. Not only that, but what if olive oil soap isn’t the best option for your skin? Finding other fragrance-free bars can be […]


More Methods of Safely Washing When You Have ACD

If there’s one thing that’s clear, it’s that different people with allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) react to different things and have different “safe products.” The general advice from doctors for contact dermatitis sufferers is to avoid their allergens. Newly-diagnosed ACD patients may find themselves directed toward any number of products which do not contain their […]


Fraudulent Olive Oil

It all started with an experiment. My daughter was making soap with medieval ingredients. I had saved her some beef tallow and some bacon fat, and were planning to add olive oil and a bit of beeswax. We entered numbers into the soapcalc.net calculator, which calculates the amount of water and sodium hydroxide (lye) to use […]


Homemade Carpet Cleaning Solution

It was with disgust one day that we found our cat had been peeing on a specific area of carpet. Carpets are hard to clean, and even harder if the urine gets into the padding underneath. Luckily, I had made a pet stain remover already, but we felt it was time to clean the whole […]


Hidden and Not-So-Hidden Antibacterials

We’ve all seen the antibacterial designation on hand and dish soaps. You may even have seen the same on packages of shower curtain liners or athletic wear. But what does this mean? To the company who produced the product, it means that antimicrobial agents have been impregnated into the fibres or substance of the product […]


Going to the Dentist

My yearly dental check-up and cleaning came up just two months after my patch test confirmed a number of allergies. I was afraid to book my appointment, especially since I had been having a month-long reaction since the patch test, but it had to happen. Taking a cue from my hotel visits, I decided to […]


Most Common Hair Care Myths

I think I started questioning the value of hair products about 10 years ago. Back then, I was a student on a co-op term in a big city. There I discovered Sephora. I was in awe. Here was a place where you could try anything, get samples, have your makeup done… My hair was limp […]


Soaps and “How to Get Clean”

Did you know that if you’re like the majority of Westerners, most of the products you use to clean aren’t soap? Soap is a cleaning product made by saponifying vegetable oils or animal fat with an alkaline salt (strong base like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide). Most of the products in the typical home are […]


Homemade Laundry Soap

Laundry detergent is one of those things most people think nothing about until they have to. Most people go out and pick up the cheapest one, or the one they’ve always used. They may have a preference of liquid, powder, or scent, but there’s not much to it. My mother always used powdered laundry detergent […]