As I delve more and more into the plastic-free movement and sustainable living I thought I'd share with you some of the DIY products I'll be trying for the foreseeable future. I don't think I ever thought about making my own products, but as I was browsing Pinterest I came to think of how much plastic there is just containing the products we use on a daily basis, be it for hygiene, house cleaning or just general enjoyment. Not only that but, when it came to the ingredients, I couldn't even read half of them, let alone understand why they were really there, were they absolutely necessary? Were they safe? Could I do the same job without them? And so, a journey for a greener home commenced. 

Now, I must say, none of these are my recipes, I just thought I'd combine them all in one place for you to refer to, most recipes are ancient, although some adapted to fit newer needs and modern ingredients, they are, nonetheless, great recipes, some of which my mum remembers her mum and grandma using when she was young. I'll only be sharing the ones I would actually make, but I'll leave you links at the bottom for a few more recipes that might interest you. Obviously, you won't be making all of these in one go, just make them as you finish your store bought ones, once you make one you'll most likely have most of the ingredients for the rest of the products. You'll soon realize how cost-effective this is.

First things first, apple cider vinegar is the basis for many products for obvious reasons, some of which you can read here. Always have it around and you'll be set for most of these recipes, whether you buy it (organic, if you can) or if you make it yourself, just consider it your best friend. 

Apple Cider Vinegar

To make your new best friend you'll only need a few things: around 8 apple cores (I like to freeze them as I eat them, instead of cutting them just for this, reducing my food waste) these should be all clean cores, meaning sliced and not eaten straight, this way you'll prevent the reproduction of pathogenic bacteria; 2 tablespoons of sugar; 2 cups of warm water + enough filtered water to cover the apples. Avoid tap water as the chlorine will kill the bacteria needed for the fermentation process but if you can't get your hands on filtered water, simply let the tap water sit overnight so the chlorine can evaporate out. Start by chopping all of your apple cores into small pieces and placing them in a 1-liter jar, filling around 3/4 of the jar, dissolve the sugar in the 2 cups of warm water and add it to the jar, along with enough of the room temperature filtered water to fill the jar/cover the apples. 

At this point, you will need a fermentation weight (if you're not sure what this is, just give this post a read, I'll personally be using another one of my many glass jars as a weight) in order to keep everything in place, place it on top of your apples to keep them from floating around and help prevent any mold. Cover your jar with a cheesecloth and secure it with a rubber band. Leave it in a darkish area of the kitchen for 1 to 2 weeks. Stir the mixture daily to prevent mold. During this time you should start to see some bubbles forming, this means the sugar is turning into alcohol, which also means that if you would rather have cider instead of vinegar, you could stop here. After the 2 weeks, when the liquid starts to taste acidic, strain the apples, pouring the cider into a clean jar. Compost the apples if you can, cover the cider jar the same way as previously, and allow it to sit for another 3 to 4 weeks, remembering to stir it daily if you can. During this time the bacteria will turn the alcohol into vinegar. After 3 weeks taste the liquid, if it tastes like vinegar it's ready, if not, let it sit for another week. When it's finally done, strain it once more and add a tight lid. Store it in the fridge and use it whenever you need it. (as I was making dinner and writing this blog post at the same time I decided to bake some apples and realized I now had enough apple cores for the recipe, I'm making my very first batch and I'll keep you updated, fingers crossed)

Beauty & Hygiene

Hair Rinse

Now that we have our basics covered, let's delve into the actual products. One I've previously made and can recommend is the Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse, which I use each time I wash my hair and has completely transformed my hair. Not only does it last longer between washes, but it feels lighter, shinier and healthier, I haven't used a single other hair product ever since I started making this rinse and I'll never go back, although next time I'll be adding a few drops of essential oils to help with the vinegar smell, not that it stays in your hair, but it does get quite intense in the shower when your bathroom doesn't have a window. I've already posted this recipe around a month ago so all you need is to follow the link.

Dry Shampoo & Shampoo Bar

I've never personally used these two recipes but they're next in my list of things to make as I would like to make my shower routine completely plastic and waste-free. I originally thought of just buying one of the many shampoo bars out there (more about this on my Living Plastic Free post), but I thought I'd try to make it at least once before buying from a store. 

For the dry shampoo, you won't need much, take 1/4 cup of arrowroot powder or cornstarch, 1/4 cup cocoa powder (unless you have light hair, in which case skip the cocoa) and 10 drops of essential oils (the scent used is entirely up to you). Simply mix the ingredients and store in a shaker jar. Dip your makeup brush in the mixture, tap to remove excess, and brush your roots, moving from the top to the bottom of your hair. Let it set for a couple of minutes and the brush it like you normally would (for any fellow curly haired people out there, you can just blend it in with your hands instead of brushing your curls away, this will also help with the volume).

As for the shampoo bar, there are quite a few recipes out there, but this one seemed like a good place to start. You'll need 500 grams of melt and pour soap base (a quick google search will lead you to many choices on this matter); 1 teaspoon of shea butter; 2 teaspoons of castor oil; 25 drops of good quality essential oil (again, the scent is your choice and this is an optional step). Cut your soap base into small chunks and melt on low heat on a double boiler, making sure not to let it boil. Once melted add in the shea butter (you can use coconut oil instead), and allow that to melt. Remove from heat and mix in the castor oil and the essential oil of your choice. Simply pour the mixture into a leveled mold and let it cool for several hours. Once cold, remove it from the mold and store in an air-tight container, it should be good for up to a year. To use simply lather it in your hands and use like normal, it won't create as much foam as a regular shampoo but it'll work perfectly. (If you find your hair seems dry or dull afterward that's because soap is alkaline and you need to counter that with something acidic. Restore your hair's PH with the ACV hair rinse mentioned at the start of the post after shampooing.)

Face Wash

This is something else I've been trying to get into making, I usually just use water and soap or rose water to clean my face, or even almond oil to remove difficult makeup, but sometimes I feel like treating myself to something a bit more special. You will need 2 cups of Castile soap; 1 cup of herb-infused water; 5 drops of essential oils; 1 teaspoon of moisturizing oil (jojoba, almond, rosehip it's up to you). Start by making your herb-infused water by simply adding three tablespoons of dried herbs of your choice (I'll be using lavender) to one cup of boiling water. Let steep for 45 minutes. Strain and compost your herbs and keep the water. Combine the soap, the herb-infused water, and the oils, give it a shake and store in a glass bottle with a lid.

House Cleaning



Laundry Detergent Three Ways 

If you wanna go for the most natural way possible soap nuts are the way to go. You can simply throw them in the wash (you do have to make sure of a few things: firstly keep track of how many times you've used each berry, each berry can be used up to 7 times and you should use 4 to 6 with each load; secondly you need to store them properly between washes; thirdly, if you're washing in cold water soak them in hot water for 10 minutes before popping them in the wash; and lastly, if you do dry your clothes in a dryer, which really you should try to avoid, make sure you don't accidentally throw the berries in the dryer.) There are many places where you can get these nowadays, just make sure you buy deseeded soap nuts, as the seeds may stain your clothes. Also, you can add some vinegar as a fabric softener as a natural substitute. 

If that's too much hassle you can also make liquid detergent out of the berries. For this, you simply need to add 24 to 30 berries to a pot with 12 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and let it simmer for about an hour, you'll know it's ready when the berries look tan/grey. Allow the soap to cool, remove the berries and, if you're using, add 16 to 20 drops of essential oils and you're set. Shake before using, you'll need around 2 to 4 tablespoons per load of laundry. Obviously, you shouldn't make a huge amount because it'll go bad, in order to make it last longer make sure to store the liquid soap in an air-tight container and away from sunlight. It should last up to 2 weeks at room temperature and 3 to 5 weeks in the fridge.

If you can't get your hands on some soap nuts, you can easily make detergent out of Savon de Marseille (you should only use the original olive oil one, not the palm oil ones which are incredibly bad for the environment). Simply grate 1 cup of Marseille soap and melt it in 4 liters of hot water. Let it cool a bit and add 1/2 cup of baking soda (to fight odors), as well as 1/2 cup of white vinegar (to act as a fabric softener), once again, you can also use essential oils if you want, 20 drops should do the trick. Mix it thoroughly until you get a milky liquid and pour into an empty container of your choice. Shake well before each use. Savon de Marseille is also great at removing stains, simply rub it directly on the stain you're trying to remove before placing your clothes in the washing machine. 
EDIT: ever since I started making this liquid detergent, so about a year ago, I've noticed the clothes always feel nicer when I only use the vinegar (which I like to infuse with citrus beforehand) and ditch the baking soda, so keep that in mind. I mostly use the baking soda directly on stains before adding the clothes in the wash now. 

All-Purpose Cleaner

If I were to list every single cleaning product out there we would be here for a loooong time. I thought it would be smarter to show you an all-purpose cleaner which, much as the name suggests, you can use everywhere, and who has the time and space to have dozens of cleaning products laying around? Although you should be aware that as the base for this product is vinegar, you shouldn't use it on stone counters and wood. Instead, if you're cleaning wood use olive or coconut oil, if you're cleaning hardwood floors simply use warm water and a few drops of castile soap. If you're unsure of what you can and can't clean with vinegar, take a quick look at this super informative post.

Get yourself a 500 ml jar, add around 1/2 a cup of your herbs/citrus peels/cinnamon sticks/cloves or whatever you're using to really mask the vinegar scent. Peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, orange, thyme, cinnamon and clove not only make it smell so much better but they else have strong antibacterial properties so keep that in mind. Once your scent of choice is in the jar, fill it with white vinegar, you can also use apple cider vinegar but the scent will take longer to go away. Close the jar tightly and there you go, let the ingredients infuse into the vinegar for at least a week or up to two weeks in a sunny place. Once ready, strain it and use it to make your cleaner. Simply combine the infused vinegar with water on a 1 to 4 ratio, so if you're using 1/2 cup of vinegar, you'll use 2 cups of water, simply pour it into a spray bottle and clean away. Much like the ACV rinse you should only mix the water and vinegar when you're going to use it, the vinegar itself won't go bad but the mix will.

If you'd like some scent combos to use here are a few: orange peel, cinnamon, and clove; lavender and sage; lemon, orange, and thyme.

If your surface is very dirty, let the spray sit for several minutes. For mineral build-up around fixtures or mildew in the shower, give the spray a few minutes to work before gently scrubbing with a brush, then rinse well. For scrubbing, first sprinkle some baking soda in the sink, shower, toilet, oven or cooktop. Then, use the vinegar to dampen the baking soda, creating a paste. Scrub the paste with a scrubbing brush and watch the dirt disappear.