My Blog Has Moved To Wordpress!!!

I had been debating for a while if i should make the move to wordpress. I decided to go for it even though it still confuses me a little.

I will still keep this blog alive but my new address is:

http://tokyoindreamland.wordpress.com/

Glamour Doll Eyes May Giveaway!

Glamour Doll Eyes

Review: Sarakan Toothpaste 50ml

Having started to use more natural skin and haircare products I moved on to making my own toothpaste, but  if you read my post on it you'll know i couldn't really use it due to the weather here, So I had to look for an alternative and this was it!. I was sceptical at first due to not having any experience of a natural toothpaste and to be honest didn't think it would work that well. I was wrong!.

Sarakan is:

• Fluoride-free
• Vegan
• Unsweetened
• No Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
• No Added Colours or Preservatives
• No Parabens
• Approved By The British Dental Health Foundation
• 
  

Ingredients: Glycerin (non-animal), calcium carbonate, aqua, magnesium carbonate, salvadora persica natural extract, mentha piperita, mentha arvensis oil, eugenia caryophyllus oil, pelargonium roseum oil, hydroxethylcellose, sodium phosphate, limonene, citronellol, geraniol.

Sarakan toothpaste contains natural extract of Salvadora Persica, also known as the ‘toothbrush tree’ – used for centuries in its natural state as twigs as an effective way to keep teeth and gums clean and healthy.

The toothpaste is flavoured with peppermint, clove and geranium which on first brush tastes horrible and a bit like brushing your teeth with perfume, but stick with it. I find this toothpaste actually better at cleaning and stain removal than all the old commercial ones i have tried and my mouth feels amazingly clean after i rinse. I don't think i could go back to regular toothpaste now and i will continue to buy this as long as my next dental visit goes well (it's not for 4 months). The taste grows on you also and i actually quite like it better than just ordinary mint toothpaste.

Sarakan can be found in Holland & Barrett in the UK for £2.35 and i got it on a Buy One Get One Half Price offer, so i got it for £1.18 which is a bargain compared to the price of commercial toothpastes!...Give it a try you won't be disappointed!.

How To Make Natural Homemade Toothpaste

I have never liked normal toothpaste, My teeth never felt that clean after brushing and I hated the way some of them tasted. As you've seen on earlier posts I've slowly started to get into going more natural, especially when it comes to what I'm putting on my body.

I really went cold turkey when changing my normal toothpaste to a homemade one....I don't know if it was the best approach and don't recommend it because it will be a shock to most.

This was my first recipe: 

2 teaspoons virgin coconut oil 
2 teaspoons xylitol (stevia can also be used)

1 teaspoons baking soda (sodium bicarbonate not baking powder)
6-10 drops spearmint essential oil

I put all the ingredients in a bowl and started smooshing it together - it seemed easy enough and i actually remembered to take pictures :)

This actually worked great, It was a bit saline like for me and i missed the foam, so i went back to the drawing board and added in some calcium carbonate (to help re-mineralize teeth) and some more coconut oil to bind it together, but being as the temperature here was in the -3/4 area it solidified :(

It did work great though, but it was a pain to scrape it out of the packaging...if you live in a hotter country give that a go but i had to move on to a toothpaste i got in the local health food shop which i will blog about in the next few days because i completely LOVE IT!

I won't rule out my homemade stuff completely though and will make another batch when it's much warmer here.

 I would love to know if any of you have made your own and if it worked for you?. Leave a comment and let me know.

The Hunger Site - Feed the starving at no cost to you!

Click through to www.thehungersite.com and amid a pile of banners you’ll see an orange button in the middle of the site’s front page. The emblazoned message is ‘Click here to give - it’s free!’ Do so and a cup of a staple foodstuff is bought for someone, somewhere, who is hungry.

The logic behind this site is brilliant. It’s a win-win-win situation for the starving, the internet user, and the sponsors: in practical terms they receive cost-effective, feelgood public relations, especially powerful in helping promote ethical brands.

Taking time to click really helps, especially if you do it daily. The Hunger Site offers an email daily prompt reminder service (signing up to it also gives an additional two cups of food).

I only learned of this website today and i will now click every day as it seems like a great idea for us internet lovers especially with no sign up or fee's required! 

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The No Poo Experiment!

I am starting to get into using shampoo bars. I do have to say finding them is actually proving quite difficult in the UK as all the companies I've looked at or heard rave reviews about are in the USA.

I have ordered some sample sizes from a UK company on Etsy and so far only one of the bars are really working for me. I am only going into my second week of no poo though and i did use silicone laden products for donkeys years!.

Today I purchased a natural shampoo and conditioner to use in conjunction with the bars as i did find my hair was needing conditioner badly after using them, so i will press on with them all and hopefully come back and give my thoughts in a few weeks depending on how long this adjustment period takes!.

Have you gone no poo? Used shampoo bars? Let me know your thoughts on the whole process.

To Henna or Not To Henna? That Is The Question!

I definitely need to to dye my hair sometime soon as the grey hairs that i do have are about 1/2" now (shocking). I usually have always used chemical dyes permanent/semi-permanent over the years. Salon brand and drugstore, but i wanted to find a more natural alternative as my hair now is half medium brown and half black because of the horrible porous ends from all the dye build up.

I have seen Herbatint brand dyes in the local health food shops, but i have noticed these still contain PPD's and I'm not sure if these are worth trying if they are not much different to drugstore dyes....I also don't know if I'm willing to spend £10 on a dye that i then need to buy the shampoo to mix with it at around £8 a bottle.

So, I'm in two minds here.....Do i strip all the colour from my hair (with chemicals) and re-dye a lighter colour to start fresh or do i move onto henna which i have been itching to try for a few weeks?

I am tempted to start with the LUSH Caca Brun bar as it's less expensive, less hassle and so much easier than buying the henna powder and indigo especially when i have never used the proper stuff before nor do i know the mixing ratios for a nice dark chocolate brown with a hint of red. I have read very mixed reviews on it thought and i do worry about my black porous ends if it will just make them even darker?

I really need to hear from someone who has used both to give me a good opinion pros and cons if you like, but maybe the lush bar is a good start for a novice without too much commitment?

To be continued....... ;)

Homemade Deodorant Update - Perfect Recipe For Sensitive Skin

Just an update on the last recipe I made it is working phenomenally! I have no rash or itching. There is a slight hint of the essential oils in it but it's not overpowering like a lot of the recipes online - mine is subtle.

I don't even want to adjust it to see if it is the baking soda or oils i was getting the rash from because this is working PERFECT!

I think this will be perfect if you have sensitive underarm skin like myself. So please check my recipe here if you wish to try it out at home.

Using homemade deodorant you will still sweat as this is your body releasing toxins and if you are a heavy sweater you may need to reapply it once or twice during the day, but i really recommend sticking with it!

Good luck and i will keep updating on my progress with this recipe :)

Homemade Deodorant Part 2

I blogged two days ago about my trouble with homemade deodorants and my last batch was another failure for me. I can't decide if it's the baking soda that causes irritation on my underarms or the essential oils. If you are not sensitive to either it may work fantastic for you! So please do try it!.

Today i started afresh and decided to try another recipe this time my own. I wanted to remove the baking soda completely, but got scared so i kept a small amount in. This makes a good sample size that fills 1/4 of  an old lush tub....Just enough to see if it works without using too much product.

1 Tablespoon Shea Butter
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Butter
1/2 Tablespoon Coconut Oil (virgin)
2 Tablespoons Arrowroot Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Drops Lavender Essential Oil
1 Drop Clary Sage Oil

I store it in an empty Lush pot :)

UPDATE 8/4/13: just to show you all that i actually use this. I'm nearing the bottom of the tub with no irritations or rashes and it actually works at keeping me dry more than anything else I've ever used! I might change the scent for the summer but I'm actually scared to because this is working so good! As you can see it's a little crumbly, but that goes away as soon as you apply... it melts right onto skin!

Striving To Be Toxic Free - Homemade Deodorant

Starting 2011 I decided to cut out using commercial deodorants as none of them were working for me. I had  also tried prescription strength which worked for the first few times and then stopped, but what worried me more was what was in these sprays and roll ons and why did i actually need it?.

I had read a lot of good things online about making your own and letting your body get expel of all of the toxins from the many years of using what we thought was "normal", So i made up my first batch following this recipe which worked out great for the first week then i ended up with bad dermatitis which i found out was a  bad reaction to the baking soda (i didn't use any essential oils) I then tried a second batch using less baking soda and adding some essential oils and got the same problem but i found out the oils i was using caused skin sensitivity and my baking soda settled at the bottom of the jar....grrrrr

So i gave up on home-made and moved on to Salt of the Earth Deodorant Spray which worked good if you weren't doing any strenuous exercise or anything at all really, but it was expensive for something that didn't do what i wanted all the time and the spray was very wet and took a while to dry.

I then went back to commercial deodorants and actually things seemed to have regulated back to normal, I have been using Dove Dead Sea Minerals which has been great! before when i used commercial i used to sweat constantly nothing kept me dry and it would always ruin my day i almost considered BOTOX things were that bad!.

This last week i was looking for new deodorant recipes to try and today made a deodorant bar (by accident- too much butters) I will see how i get on with it and i hope it's not too firm (it is between 2 to -4 degrees here)

My recipe was loosely based on this i decided to half it just to try a sample first as we seen what happened before and i didn't want to waste good products. It was a lovely consistency, but has hardened into a bar maybe due to how cold it is here in Scotland?....Here's what I used:

1.5 Tablespoons Shea Butter
1.5 Tablespoons Arrowroot (added 1 extra teaspoon more to thicken)
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Butter
15 drops Botanics 100% Organic Face Oil (used in place of Vit E as it has jojoba, argan & rosehip oil along with some essential oils)
5 drops Lavender
5 drops Clary Sage

I haven't tested yet but will be straight on it tomorrow and i will update the recipe if i feel it needs tweaking at all. I'm excited to try it because it has no coconut oil in it like my last tries and i want to see how different it will be. I may have overdone it with the botanics oil thought but we shall see :)

I also ended up making my own carpet deodorizer out of boredom:

1/2 Cup Baking Soda
20 Drops Lavender Oil

Sprinkled on and left for 30 minutes....Worked like a charm! Who knew it was so easy! So no more having to buy nasty shake n vac i can now make it all myself for much cheaper :)