Helpful Tip - Henna

Okay, so I decided to go a little more colourful than tumeric for a change, so I went to my local Asian market and picked up some golden brown henna.

It was golden blonde...but my hair grows like skinny weeds along a backwoods two-lane highway, so I have to do it every three weeks. Which means the roots might be golden blonde, but the hair shafts get darker and darker...I'm a nice auburn right now, but way too dark for my age (thank you, my loyal friends for saying how nice it looks on me). So I am going to try mixing it with neutral next time...see what happens.

Oh! The tip! 

You know how mixing henna with water gives you that greenish sludge that drips water the colour of diarrhoea all down your face and neck? (And won't come out of last year's brightly coloured charity T-shirt that you wanted to leave your great-grandchildren?)

There is help!

Mix in 1 part of corn starch to every part of henna, but use boiling water and make a paste with which to paint your hair. If you use tepid water, you'll be sorry... it will drip all down your face like cornstarch and water, and it will still look like diarrhoea, only fuller, richer. And it stains!

"Oh! I see you did your hair again." Giselle said with arched eyebrows.


"What ever do you mean?" Koochie sniffed.


"Oops. Sorry. Wearing Jacob's dirty diapers on your head again, were you?"

Let not henna be the undoing of your closest relationships.

Shea Butter Exfoliating Bars

I whip these up as gifts...most recently to people in my home church, they are such sweethearts.

First off, I have a mould that has rounded spikes all over it (called massage bars), great for guys because often they just like to rub soap bars all over themselves, and not use wash cloths and puffies. I just put a bit of my coating in the moulds using my little silicone brush from the dollar store.

Then I melt some Shea Butter Melt & Pour soap base (soap, not SLS, not propylene glycol), and when it's liquid, add my essential oils (about 12 drops per bar), then about 1/3 c. sugar per bar. This part is a struggle as the sugar does not mix in easily. I usually wind up mashing the sandy good into the mould, but is it ever worth it. These bars are just loved by those to whom they are gifted, as they exfoliate oh, so gently, and leave the skin feeling moisturised. I do warn people, however, that these bars will not lather like regular soap. They never care, they always have their noses in the soap and gaze at me with that gaze that sharks have when they are sniffing blood just before...

"What's in this?"

"Oh, some essential oils..."

"But what's IN THIS? It smells so good! What's IN THIS?"

"Okay, okay! Some lavender, fennel, pine, a little lemon balm..."

"But what else?!?"

Dah-duhn.                     Dah-duhn.           Dah-duhn.       Dah-duhn.    Dah-duhn, dah-duhn, dah-duhn...

Lotion Bars

I was at one of my favourite wool shops in Scarborough, purchasing yet another exquisite wool I could not justify except for the love of knitting with fine wool, when they threw into my bag a freebie, a tin with a lotion bar inside. It was great, and scented with lemon grass and basil.

Now how long do you think I can go without making my own?

I'm happy with 1 part of shea butter melted with 1 part of white beeswax...heck, I'm happy with yellow beeswax. But I got oohs and ahhhs with a nice combination of rose and vanilla poured into happy sunny-face moulds.

Big hint...vanilla 10-fold essential oil will make them smell lovely, but Mr. Sunny Face will have freckles if you use it. 

Didja know that the baby powder fragrance is supposed to be the perfect blend of rose and vanilla, so balanced that you cannot discern the one from the other?

Coating For Plastic Soap Moulds

Coating For Plastic Soap Moulds

If you are working with plastic soap moulds, especially for Melt & Pour soaps, try brushing them down with this first:

1 part petroleum jelly
1 part mineral oil (pure baby oil)

Gently heat until the jelly is melted, then pour into a clean plastic bottle or jar. Actually, use a jar, because once it cools, the damned stuff just doesn't come out, then you have to find something long enough and thin enough to fit down the damned squeeze bottle...


Oops. Sorry. I forgot myself for a moment there.


This will help the soaps release when they are ready (24-48 hours for cold processed soaps, 2 hours for Melt & Pour). Bit stick 'em in the freezer for 15 minutes first, then run their little backsides under hot water...then they will pop out much more easily.

Very Gentle Shampoo & Body Wash

Very Gentle Shampoo & Body Wash

In a 500 ml bottle (2 c.) put:

2 T. pure liquid Castile soap
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1 t. Borax
water to fill

This is a very gentle product to use. You can add different things to it to make it nicer (like silk proteins, or essential oil), but remember this is not a detergent-based shampoo, but a soap. 


Have some apple cider vinegar and a plastic pitcher ready, so that you can put a squirt of vinegar in the pitcher for rinse water, fill it up, and rinse your hair and body with it. This will restore the acid balance to your skin, which discourages unfriendly bacteria and viruses, as well as keep your hair shiny!


Very Helpful Tip - Another good thing about this is, it does not anaesthetize your eyes the way many detergents do, so if you ever find yourself in the position of Janet Leigh in PSYCHO, just aim your squirt bottle at Anthony Perkins and while he is momentarily deterred and groping madly for a towel, run for your life! Take the towel, leave the clothes...help will then rush to you far more quickly then you ever thought possible.