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Me and the boys had some fun yesterday making some homemade goodies!  I decided to take some pictures through the process so I could make my own tutorials to share with all of you.  The first one is a seriously easy way to make your own CHEAP, all natural liquid bodywash!  The other, that I will share at some later date, will be homemade laundry soap…also very simple to make and so cheap you will wonder why you ever spent so much on detergent :-)

I was inspired to make this bodywash after the big Johnson & Johnson baby soap scare several months ago.  Remember when word got out that some of the ingredients were linked to cancer?  Well, I happened to be halfway through a giant bottle of J&J baby wash and had been using it on the boys for months (years in Zion’s case).  I was admittedly too cheap to throw out half a bottle, but I immediately began looking for inexpensive natural options to replace our beloved J&J.  However, at $9 and up per 12-16 oz bottle, I quickly realized “cheap” and “all-natural” don’t often go hand in hand! 

Enter this amazing secret:  You know that really yummy smelling Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap you can buy at $16 for a 32 oz bottle?  Well they make a bar version for around $4.  And what is the main difference between the liquid version and the bar version??  WATER.  Suddenly, Dr. Bronner’s didn’t seem so expensive anymore!

So here is what you need to make the bodywash:

~Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps Pure Castile Soap (comes in all different scents, even a fragrance free mild baby version.  Or use whichever natural bar soap you prefer!)

~Water (any ole water will do, though I suppose you could get fancy with filtered)

~Grater

~saucepan

~Measuring cup

~Funnel

~Empty jar/bottle that will hold 32 oz (or separate how you like)

1. Unwrap your soap

2. Grate it into the saucepan—the soap is pretty hard, so this takes some elbow grease to do. 

This is what it looks like all grated up…Phoenix kept saying “MMM CHEESE!” :-)

Speaking of…it really makes a big difference if you have a cute little “helper” :-)

3. Pour 4 cups of water over the grated soap

4. Warm it up over medium-high heat

5. Stir occasionally until the soap is all melted.  Melting it down takes around 30 minutes or so, I think?  Just keep checking it.  You don’t really want it to boil because then you’ll have a real soapy mess on your hands!

6. Once it’s all melted I took it off the burner to let it cool down for another half hour or so, then I poured it back into the measuring cup to make it easier for the next step…

7. Using the funnel, pour the melted soap/water mixture into your container of choice.  I had this leftover 35 oz. Dial bottle that has a pump lid which I chose to use. 

8. Screw the lid on and step back to admire your handiwork!

A few tips/notes/suggestions:

~ Right after you melt the soap the mixture is going to seem very liquid-y and not very much like bodywash. That’s ok!  After I snapped the last picture I actually took the lid off and let it sit out for several hours and it became very gelatinous (but not so much it wouldn’t still come out the pump). 

~ This is a VERY CONCENTRATED bodywash!  As I said, it becomes very gelatinous after a few hours and in my experience it only takes 1-2 squeezes of the pump onto my bath poof to wash my entire body. 

~Alternately, you can double the amount of water you use to 64 oz. and have a more liquid-y soap if that’s what you prefer, or if you want to use it as a handsoap.

~Speaking of handsoaps…you can use this recipe in a foaming handsoap bottle (I saved a few of the Bath & Body Works foaming handsoap containers to try) by using 1/4 of the recipe and 3/4 water. 

~This soap can be used as a shampoo and is tear-free (kid tested and approved!)

So that’s it!  I’m sorry if I insulted anyone’s intelligence with these directions, but like I said, super easy to make.  This bodywash will last you forever, is all natural and only costs $4 out of pocket…can’t beat that!  Let me know if you have questions or comments!

Zion has had a productive cough for the past week or so and although I’m really thinking it’s just allergy issues, or post-nasal drip…I’ve now developed a cough as well, which is kind of weird.  There are no other symptoms though, so I certainly don’t feel the need to run out and buy a medicine just to make us stop coughing.  At the same time, poor Zion told me he’s tired of coughing and I’m feeling the same way already!

Enter this amazing and ridiculously simple homemade cough syrup made from just two natural ingredients: red (or purple..I say purple just because) onion, and sugar! 

Last year we were having similar cough issues and I took Zion to the pediatrician to see if there was any underlying reason behind his persistent cough.  She told me it was most likely allergies and nothing to worry about…and then proceeded to change my life by giving me these simple instructions:

Dice up a purple onion, put it in a bowl and cover it completely with sugar.  Let it sit in the refrigerator for 4 hours.  When you check it, the sugar will have drawn out the juice from the onion and created a syrup.  Give 1 teaspoon of the syrup every 15 minutes till the coughing subsides, and then once every couple hours after that.

It’s as simple as that folks!  I would make my own tutorial, but I still don’t have a way to take pictures…so I just borrowed a couple images of an onion and brown sugar (all I have on hand at the moment, you can use whatever sugar you prefer, or even honey!). 

I did a little research via Google this evening and I found out there are several different variations on the onion/sugar cough syrup mix.  Some people like to slice the onions and layer the sugar between the slices.  I don’t need to be that fancy, so I just dice and pour the sugar on top and kind of stir it all together.  You can also choose to pour off the syrup from the diced onion and save it in a little bottle in the fridge.  It will stay good for up to a month.  I usually make a little at a time and just keep it in a covered bowl.  I gave the children’s dosage above, but my pediatrician said adults can use 1 tablespoon with the same timeframe as the children’s dose. 

The syrup surprisingly tastes very good, so no worries about an onion-y aftertaste or breath!  You can actually eat the raw onion if you choose to though, as there are many benefits in doing that as well (Vitamin C being one!).  I found this statement somewhere on the web, and while I couldn’t find a direct source for it, it popped up enough on the internet that it seems legitimate:

The World Health Organization (WHO) supports the use of onions for the treatment of poor appetite and to prevent atherosclerosis. In addition, onion extracts are recognized by WHO for providing relief in the treatment of coughs and colds, asthma and bronchitis. Onions are known to decrease bronchial spasms. An onion extract was found to decrease allergy-induced bronchial constriction in asthma patients.

So there you have it!  A very simple, cheap, all natural way to get some relief from your coughs this fall and winter…it’s working for us tonight!  Hope you find it helpful :)