Ecos Natural Detergent

So a while ago when I was at Sam's Club, I saw a bottle of natural detergent with soy based fabric softener, fragranced with Lavender oil. It's by a company called Ecos, and it was about the same price that all of the other detergents. Since I'm allergic (sneezing, watery eyes, etc) to the perfumes in a lot of laundry detergents, and whatever chemical they normally use to make fabric softener, I thought we'd try it.

It's been awesome. No laundry-related sneezing. The laundry smells good, it's really clean, and it seems to be pretty gentle on our black workpants. Definitely worth checking out.

Ecos Liquid Detergent

Super Easy Body Mist

Distilled water
Fragrance or essential oil of your choice

Pour water into atomizer bottle, add oil. Shake well and spray on. If you don't use an essential oil, please to be sure to purchase a fragrance oil meant for soaps and body products. Many "room" and "home" type fragrance oils will irritate your skin.

Salt of the Earth Bath Soak

A pair of recipes at the same time! More pamper yourself goodies. I'm gonna post them separately to make them easier to search from the recipe box.

Salt of the Earth Bath Soak
1 cup Epsom Salts
1 Tbsp ground(powdered) Kelp
approx 10 drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil
3 drops Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil
5 drops colored dye (I like green for this one)
a few drops of Patchouli Essential Oil to your tastes

Add all items into a zippy bag and mix until color is consistent.

To Use: add desired amount to a hot bath and enjoy.

Bee Sweet Honey Scrub

A pair of recipes at the same time! More pamper yourself goodies. I'm gonna post them separately to make them easier to search from the recipe box.

Bee Sweet Honey Scrub
1 cup clover honey
1 cup Sugar in the Raw
2 droppers full of Sweet Almond Oil
a dollop of Vitamin E

Mix thoroughly. With no water, this should keep relatively well in a sealed container.

To Use: Take a generous handful and scrub wet hands or feet. Because this is thick and sticky, it works best with a bit of warm water added when you use it. It rinses off really well, exfoliates mildly and leaves your skin pretty darn soft.

Wicked Hot Pumpkin Seeds

Ok, so the pic's not fantastic, and the recipe's a bit overdue, but I only make these this morning. With all the humidity, it took days for my pumpkin seeds to dry.

Ingredients:
Fresh pumpkins seeds (rinsed well with all the stringy crap removed)
Table Salt
Hungarian Hot Paprika (or ground cayenne)
Vegetable Oil

Once your seeds are completely dry from the rinsing, preheat your oven to 300 degrees. While the oven preheats, pour a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil over the pumpkin seeds and stir until coated. Don't use any more oil than you have too.

Sprinkle with salt to taste and add paprika generously. Stir to coat. Spread seeds in a thin, even layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring twice along the way. Let cool 5 minutes or so and enjoy.

***

My seeds are different sizes and colors because I carved my jack o'lanterns from a few different varieties of pumpkin. Some on them had small seeds and one even had seeds with no hull (that's the green ones).

Lotion in the works.

I've been reading up on handmade hand lotion and scrubs and stuff. There are a couple of recipes brewing in my head. Will let you know when there are new additions to the recipe book.

I'm looking forward to it.

Auntie Age's Best Foot Soak Ever.

Add the following to a zippy bag.

• 1.5 cups of Epsom Salts
• 8 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil
• 6 drops of Tea Tree Oil
• a healthy dollop of Vitamin E oil (make sure it's just Vitamin E, many are diluted with Soybean or some other oil)
• a few drops of dye (I use liquid soap dye)

Close bag tightly. Knead bag until color is consistent throughout mixture. (That's what the dye is for - the oils are very transparent and it's hard to tell if you've mixed well without the dye.)

Yield: 25 amazing foot soaks.

Directions for use:
Add 1 Tablespoon of Foot Soak to a basin of hot water. Soak feet and enjoy.

If you're soaking in the bath tub, I would double the amount of soak, so it's not too dilute to work it's magic.

Info about ingredients:
Epsom Salts: great for a relaxing, skin softening soak. Also good for soaking minor sprains and sore tired feet.

Vitamin E: softening nourishment for your skin.

Peppermint Oil: the scent is great for mental clarity and stress relief. Plus it has a cooling effect when applied to your skin.

Tea Tree Oil: know for it's antiseptic and deodorant properties, the inclusion of this is a must for a foot soak. Also, it's scent blends well with peppermint, softening it and adding an earthy note.