Tag: essential oils

Truthpaste ayurvedic toothpaste

TruthPaste Toothpaste Review & Giveaway

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TruthPaste wants to giveaway one jar of TruthPaste toothpaste and a copper tongue scraper to one of my Instagram followers. TruthPaste is an all-natural, ayurvedic, botanical toothpaste sourced from pure ingredients in a sustainable way. Packaging is up-cycled and recyclable. Awesome! Details on how to enter are found below.

Truthpaste ayurvedic toothpaste

Some of you know that I’ve been making our family’s toothpaste and deodorant for about a year now. I started making it because I like to be self-sufficient but also because I wasn’t sure about the ingredients in toothpaste, even in the case of organic and natural brands. For example, some natural brands contain sodium lauryl sulfate, which is not healthy at all (you can read why here).

If you are still using conventional toothpaste you might want to know that many (most, or even all) of the big brands of toothpaste contain plastic microbeads for exfoliation. That’s right, you read it: plastic! So, not only are you likely to be ingesting (and accumulating in your body) some plastic beads, the rest are being washed down the drain and accumulating in waterways. Not cool! You can read more about it over on one my favourite blogs Zero Waste Chef.

My toothpaste recipe, which I need to share on the blog soon (note to self!), is a simple combination of:

It works really well and is easy to make, and so far no complaints at the dentist. I make a similar recipe for my kids, but use Citrus Bliss essential oil (think orange-vanilla creamsicle flavour) and add a few drops of liquid stevia to sweeten it.

When I recently found out about TruthPaste I was naturally quite curious to know what the ingredients were. I was really pleased to find a completely natural and healthy formulation. It is definitely superior to my own recipe, particularly because it includes colloidal silver, which is a strong, but gentle, anti-microbial liquid, so I gave it a try. Result: we all love it! I definitely recommend it to everyone.

To enter the giveaway for a jar of TruthPaste and a copper tongue scraper, visit my Instagram account (rules are explained there too) and make sure to:

  • Follow @ilovetruthpaste
  • Follow me @hippieindisguise
  • Like and comment on the giveaway photo (same photo as above) to confirm your entry
  • Tag at least one friend in the comments
  • For extra entries: Tag more friends, but please separate each friend into a different comment so that it is easier for me to make the ballots. No limit to number of friends tagged

Contest closes Saturday May 28th, 2016 and is open worldwide. Good luck friends!

 

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Zero Waste: How to Make Easter Egg Bath Bombs with Flowers + Essential Oils

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zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

I freely admit that the naturally dyed Easter eggs I see on Instagram (these ones!) and Pinterest (these ones!) have me feeling a little underwhelmed with our own vegan Easter crafting traditions. For a few years now, I’ve wanted to naturally dye wooden eggs but haven’t found an economical source for the wooden eggs. We’ve been making our own bath and beauty products for the last year or so (deodorants, creams, toothpaste and so on) and it occurred to me when I was getting our Easter decorations out that the plastic Easter eggs we use for the egg hunt would make perfect bath bomb moulds, so I decided to try it out with the kids. And, low and behold we found our Easter egg, vegan friendly, crafting tradition! (Note: After years of frustration related to buying aluminum wrapped chocolates, I decided to buy reusable plastic eggs that I could fill with dried fruits and other treats, rather than put aluminum foil into landfill. Zero waste life!).

Making the bath bombs was really easy and a super fun activity for the children. They got their hands into some dough, designed their own scents from mixing essential oils, and crumbled dried flowers. A sensory and very satisfying experience! The bombs smell great, are healthy for sensitive skin and soothing for the soul. On top of this, you can make the bombs with common household ingredients that are likely to be in your pantry or available at the grocery store.

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils

Here’s how we made them:

  1. In a bowl combine: 2 cups of baking soda, 1 cup of potato starch (you can also use corn starch or cream of tartar), 6 tablespoons of Epsom Salts (you can also use sea salt).
  2. If you want to make different scented bombs, then separate the mixture evenly into a few bowls — we separated into four bowls.
  3. Crumble approximately 2 teaspoons of dried flowers into each bowl. We did different combinations to get different colours. For example, a pink egg from wild roses, and a green egg from blue hydrangea. Make sure to finely crumble the flowers because the bits will go down the drain in your bath so you don’t want to clog it up. Although, as Ro said: “It would be the nicest clog ever!”
  4. Add 7-10 drops of your favourite essential oils to each bowl. I use Do Terra essential oils which are very high quality (pure) so I didn’t need many drops, if you use a more conventional essential oil you may need a few more drops to get a strong enough scent. We used lavender, wild orange, balance, serenity, citrus bliss, eucalyptus and melaleuca in different combinations.
    • Lavender, balance and serenity are calming.
    • Wild orange and citrus bliss are energizing and refreshing.
    • Eucalyptus is great for opening up the air ways especially if you have congestion or a cold.
    • Melaleuca, also known as tea tree, is a natural anti-septic, is soothing and smells great.
    •  I’ve included links above to purchase from Amazon, but if you are interested in opening an account with DoTerra to get oils at a significant discount email me: hippieindisguise1@gmail.com
  5. Add 2 tablespoons of melted (liquid) coconut oil to each dry mixture, if separated into four bowls. (Overall you would add 6-8 tablespoons to the entire mixture).
  6. Using a spray bottle or a teaspoon to very slowly add water and mix, only add water until the mixture is crumbly but will hold together if you squeeze it in your hand. At this point it can be pressed into your egg moulds. Pack the moulds fully and firmly so that as they dry they will hold shape. I let ours dry in the egg mould for 2 days although 1 day was probably enough.
  7. Gently open the moulds. A few of our eggs crumbled from over excited hands, so be careful.

natural easter egg bath bomb diy dried flowers essential oils

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

natural easter egg bath bomb diy dried flowers essential oils

No surprise, the children couldn’t wait for Easter to use the bath bombs. We found they worked really nicely. They didn’t fizz around (you need to add citric acid to the recipe if you want fizz, but citric acid can be hard on the skin so I don’t add it to my recipe) but they smelled really good and easily melted into the bath water. The crumbled flowers floated to the surface of the bath and made the bath water extra fancy. The coconut oil was soothing on the skin and the essential oils gave off a delightful and calming aroma. Overall, the bombs were a success.

natural easter egg bath bomb diy dried flowers essential oils

If you have any questions about how we made the bath bombs please leave a comment and I will be happy to answer. For an amazing tutorial to make naturally dyed wooden eggs visit Fareisle Blog here.

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You might also like my post:

How to Make All Natural Temporary Tattoos from Real Flowers

Garbage Free: How to Make Your Own Delicious Cashew Milk

How to Make a Mother Nature Leaf Dress from Real Leaves

Drawing a Day: A Summer Drawing Project

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DIY Essential Oils Citrus Scented Natural Play Dough

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essential oil herbal play dough diy hippie in disguise

With winter weather soon coming to an end, we’ve been savouring the last of the winter days by doing activities that we don’t make as much time for in the summer, like visiting museums, baking, painting, and doing other indoor activities. Last weekend we decided to make play dough. We’ve made play dough a few times before and have tried our hands at naturally colouring the dough with spices and teas, with mixed results. (However, I can confirm that it is very easy to make brown dough!)  This time we decided to play around with scents.

essential oil herbal play dough diy hippie in disguise citrus  To make scented doughs we added essential oils to our usual playdough recipe. The result was lovely scented balls that Ro and Sen really enjoyed playing with, and miraculously resisted taste testing!

The recipe I use is very simple and involves no cooking, which makes it easier for young children to help. Best of all the dough will last many months if stored in an airtight container between uses. I’ve adapted my recipe from one I found on the Imagination Tree site. Note: If you divide the dough in half before adding the essential oils, you can make two different scented balls, as we did.

essential oil herbal play dough diy hippie in disguise

Here’s what you need:

*2 cups of all-purpose flour (other flours will work, but I wanted a white dough so I used all-purpose)

*2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (I used coconut oil, because it is clear and hardens at room temp, so it helps with the consistency of the dough)

*1/2 cup of salt (I used sea salt, because that’s what I had on hand, but table salt is typical for play dough)

*2 tablespoons of cream of tartar (if you haven’t used this before it is a powder found in the baking section)

*1+1/4 – 1+1/2 cups of boiling water (I used about 1 and 1/4 cups, but different flours may need more or less water)

*15 drops of Citrus Fresh essential oil (An oil blend offered by Young Living Oils)

*15 drops of Lemon essential oil (I used Young Living)

*optional: citrus zest (to add colour and texture, I used lemon, lime, blood orange, and minneola orange)    

Preparation method:

1) If using zest in your recipe, then begin by preparing the zest first, so that it has been exposed to the air for a while before adding it to the dough. It would be ideal to dry the zest out a little by dehydrating it or drying it out in the oven, but it is not necessary. I recommend using a fine zester if you have more than one size.

2) In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients and the coconut oil.

3) Start by adding 1 cup of boiled water. Mix thoroughly. Add the remaining 1/4 to 1/2 cup little by little until the dough is just mixed or very slightly dry. The dough will become wetter when you add the zest and work it with your hands. If the dough becomes too sticky add more flour one tablespoon at a time.

4) Separate the dough into two even sized balls and allow to cool down to almost room temperature.

5) Lemon dough: Form a bowl shape with one of the balls of dough and add the lemon zest and lemon essential oil drops, then fold dough over and knead the zest and oil into the ball.

6) Citrus Fresh dough: Using the second ball form a bowl shape with the dough and add the Citrus Fresh essential oil and zest from other citrus fruits into the dough bowl, then fold the dough over and knead thoroughly to incorporate the zest and the oil into the ball.

7) Time to play!

essential oil herbal play dough diy hippie in disguise odette williams

essential oil herbal play dough diy hippie in disguise odette williams

If you are interested in learning more about essential oils or in purchasing some, my friend Nicole has a website, which is a great resource for learning about essential oils.

You might also like my nature inspired art and craft projects and DIYs:

How to Make a Mother Nature Dress / Costume from Real Leaves

How to Make Natural Tattoos from Real Flowers

How to Make All Natural Floral Vegan Easter Egg Bath Bombs (or other shapes for other seasons!)

Let’s be friends! Please come find me in other places: