​Hand soap is a wonderful, wonderful, thing. Really, where would we be without it?
 
Short answer: Dead
Long answer: well, let’s just be happy we have soap!
 
I’ve always loved shopping for soaps. I feel like a kid in a candy shop when I smell the different bottles and admire the beautiful packaging, but when I look at the ingredients, the joy quickly fades. And, if I find a bottle that wows me with the ingredients- the price tag doesn’t.
 
I decided hand soap really is a simple product with a straight forward purpose, and I could easily and cheaply make it myself with the help of a few household friends.

Now, we purposefully don't use antibacterial hand soap, but I wanted the soap to have some aggression against bacteria so I chose to use a blend of oils well known for their germ-killing power. We use Nature’s Shield, also known as Thieves oil from other companies. This blend has been used since the black plague to keep people healthy, so I figured it’s good enough for my bathroom. (If you have questions about the safety of the ingredients in Thieves for little ones, check out this great article here )

​If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll add some vitamin E or a teaspoon of fractionated coconut oil to the mixture to make the soap a bit more luxurious, but it’s not a necessity.
 
I find that foaming hand soap dispensers are the best with this mixture because the solution is watery. If you don’t have a foaming soap dispenser, you can use a regular one and just pump a few extra squirts on your hands and lather well! My husband thinks the soap smells like Christmas time, and I’m just glad we have something that’s cheap, easy, and healthier!
 
What’s your go-to for hand soap? Have you made your own before?

​I had one of those crazy days where I bit off more I could chew, and then I decided to make laundry detergent! At this stage in the pregnancy game, I tend to forget I'm pregnant until I'm exhausted and my back hurts, then I remember to breathe and rest, and eat vegetables... that's all I have to remember, right?
 
Anyway, back to the laundry detergent! I've been wanting to make my own for years. With three basic ingredients, it's healthier and has fewer chemicals. It's incredibly cost effective, and can be tweaked for your family’s needs, so what's not to love?
 
For this recipe, I followed Wellness Mamas laundry detergent instructions for powdered soap. It calls for washing soda (not baking soda), borax, and a shredded bar of natural soap.
 

​For the soap, I chose an amazing smelling natural bar of soap I had received from the Wow Bloggers conference. This bar held a special place in my heart after its beautiful fragrance soothed my first-trimester morning sickness. Yes, I'd smell the bar every morning and it would help squelch my queasiness.
 
Now, my food processor went caput about a year ago, so I spent way too much time hand grating this bar of soap. I have a whole new level of admiration for pioneer women after this task… and sore fingers. I highly recommend popping your soap in the food processor for a few minutes, or be forwarned that grating soap is quite a task!
 
The ratio is simple 2 parts borax, 2 parts washing soda, 1 part shredded soap. This bar produced about 2 cups of shredded soap, so I ended up with a large batch that should hold us about 6 months!