Make Your Own Toothpaste!

I know this sounds disgusting, the first time I heard of making my own toothpaste, I didn't think it was one of the 'green' lifestyle choices i was ever going to be ready to try... UNTIL last week.

To say Ive had a slight obsession would be an understatement... I MUST , MUST ,MUST brush my teeth at least 3 times a day. I just hate the feeling when my teeth don't feel smooth, i wont be able to have a meal if i don't brush before hand.. its really weird i know. But anyway, despite the gentle obsessive brushing, they would never get pearly white. My teeth weren't yellow like a smoker, but they definitely were not bright white, More like an off white, but it would show against Red lipstick for example. 

Changing my toothpaste was something i have been meaning to do for a long time, but i would always put off for a few( important) reasons;

1. Would my teeth be really clean?
2. Would this affect my breath?
3. Would this cause my teeth to fall off as a result of not being clean?
4. Would the health of my gums deteriorate?
5. Would it taste BAD?
6. would it be messy?

If it was any of the above, i would probably never try a green toothpaste again. I had tried Holland and Barrett's aloe Vera toothpaste in the past, but decided it was too expensive..we are in recession after all people! and I'm a student  so beggars can not be choosers!

I researched some natural and cheap toothpaste alternative and came across baking soda (you really can use this in everything) and salt tooth powder.

People use to use this in Victorian times, although they're tooth powders also contained crushed enamelware and chalk. I thought i would try the recipe omitting the chalk and crushed up glass of course.

I made some amendments to make my toothpaste have the following properties;

• Anti-bacterial
• Fresh and Minty
• Combat bad breath
• Healthy Gums
• Whitens teeth slightly( not making any promises, just reduce the tea and coffee for full effect)

Also it doubles up as pretty nice mouthwash.

What you need;

• 4 TBSP baking soda (bicarbonate of soda if your in the UK) - helps with the cleaning and whitens teeth
• 2 TBSP Salt( this is what provides the abrasive power)
• 7 drops Lemon essential oil (for taste but also antibacterial, and gives a nice sherbet smell)
• 6 drops rosemary (anti- bacterial and viral)
• 6 drops Peppermint oil or Mint oil ( Purely for taste , but also good for health of teeth and to freshen breath)
• Optional but should be added if you have halitosis or just to freshen breath: 6 Cloves crushed up or 8 Drops clove essential oil
• 2 cm crushed Licorice Root ( optional)

All ingredients need to be ground  up either in a grinder or pestle and mortar will do. Store in a Jar
When your ready to brush teeth, sprinkle some powder onto tooth brush( DO NOT dip into the powder as this may spread germs,Especially if your ill, or if this is intended for sharing). Brush as normal paying attention to gums and teeth properly. The brushing is responsible for cleaning, this goes for your chemical toothpaste too.   When rinsing, the powder will dissolve and make a nice gargle. This doesn't foam, so you may miss that from your normal toothpaste, but you get use to it. I cant imagine using a foaming teeth cleaning product anymore, it feels alien to me, and its only been a week!

After doing this my teeth felt so smooth, my gums felt healthy and smooth. My mouth was invigorated and felt a little tingly. The smooth feeling lasted longer than when i used my synthetic chemical toothpaste too. Also this tastes good when you get use to the salt taste, although my sister doesn't like the taste, she loves the smell!

But if you do not like the taste you can buy XyloSweet which is a natural sweetener that is good for your teeth too. I have yet to try this so i cant offer my opinion.

As you can see my tooth powder looks a bit like plain flour because Ive made it very fine. if you only grind it up a bit it will have more thicker pieces and look more crystal. I would recommend grinding a bit as the salt may get in between your teeth or irritate your gums.

I'm currently working on mixing up a new batch of tooth powder to whiten your teeth some more, and provide a longer lasting fresh mouth feeling! Watch this space!

x

Swe

Shampoo: to skip or not to skip?

The other day I was just browsing the Internet to find a remedy for dry hair and I came across ''the CO method'' (Conditioner method). Intrigued as I was, I decide to try it out and see what all the fuss was about, as many people were commenting about how great they're hair was doing. I was a little skeptical at first if it would actually clean my hair. My hair tends to get oily, and I know its bad, but I find I MUST wash it every day excluding the weekend.  Seeing as I have a few days off from uni, I thought I would try it out today, so I followed the instructions for the CO method, which were to;

1. Apply the conditioner to wet hair as soon as you get into the shower
2. Cover the entire scalp and massage in from roots to tips.
3. Shower as usual, or keep in about 10 minutes
4. In the end rinse hair, and follow with ACV(apple cider vinegar)rinse or just plain water.

I didn't have ACV, so i used plain water instead. This method specifically states to use any conditioner, it doesn't have to be expensive, but its must not have any silicone's ( this is any ingredient ending in -cone). As these will stick to your hair, and wont come out easily, making you think you need more silicone's, in the end you''ll just be drying your hair out more. NO GOOD can come from applying SILICONE'S to your hair!

Anyway, after doing this my hair was so soft ,silky,smooth and SHINY! Now my hair is pretty shiny as it is, but after doing this it gave a liquidy shine. This is a first use however, so I don't know how my hair will be over time.

Some of the disadvantages I can think off though are;

1. Need to use alot more conditioner than normal (but you wont need to buy shampoo! :) )
2. If doing a deep oil treatment, I don't think this method would remove the oil

And that's really all I can think of. Overall for  daily hair washing I will use this all the time, as i have long hair, this has been a saviour for my ends. The only time I would consider digging my baby shampoo out  is for deep oil treatments. For this method I used ''Faith in Nature Seaweed Conditoner''