Homemade Bodycare - Live Green

Published on October 5, 2015
estimated reading time: ~3 minute(s)

What if I told you that you could make your own toothpaste, mouthwash, body cream, deodorant and hair conditioner with only three basic ingredients?

Well, let me introduce, our all-time favourite, minimalist and natural ingredients:

Coconut Oil

The fatty oil that is extracted from the flesh of coconuts is just amazing, we use it daily, for many things:

For cooking
For oil-pulling
For brushing the teeth
As a hair conditioner
As a facial and body cream
As a deodorant

We strongly recommend to use raw and cold-pressed coconut oil for any application, since heating and processing the oil, changes its structure and destroys many of the valuable nutrients.

Note that the oil becomes liquid at about +25°C, so we usually keep it the shade. We found that it gets pretty hard in the fridge, which is not practical for most applications.

Raw and cold-pressed coconut oil is usually not available in the grocery store, we therefore buy it online.

In case you’re interested in how cold-pressed coconut is produced, please watch this video.

Natron

(Aka baking soda, sodium bicarbonate)

A mineral salt that is often found in dried lake beds. It occurs naturally and consists of hydrated sodium carbonate. Actually this fantastic salt itself already has the properties to do most of the aforementioned care, as long as it is fairly fine grinded:

Mix some Natron with water for an easy mouthwash
Dip your toothbrush in some Natron and simply brush
Put some powder under your armpits to absorb undesired odor
100s of other uses, ranging from cleansing detergent to backing and even as antiseptic.

You will find some “enhanced” recipes for body care products on our website, that make great use of some of Natrons wonderful properties.

Please consult this website (DE) that is dedicated to Natron, if you’re interested in other applications.

Natron is available in almost any pharmacy or online.

Xylitol

A “tooth-friendly” sugar alcohol that is commonly extracted from birch tree sap or corn cobs.

We love Xylitol for its dental and oral care properties, and harmless consumption when used as a table sugar substitute. Similar as Natron, Xylitol can be used as mouthwash or toothpaste as-is.

The health aspect of Xylitol is great, but the extraction and production not so much:

For birch tree based Xylitol, the sugar is extracted from the harvested bark, which in effect kills the tree. We strongly hope, that only bark from already chopped trees is used, which in turn gives the otherwise unused bark a another purpose.
For corn cob based Xylitol, the peeled cob is usually thrown away, but this is probably no issue.

We prefer the corn-based Xylitol, since is more sustainable. Corn can be re-grown every year while a birch tree takes about 15 years. Also the created waste is not toxic and it is slightly cheaper. In anyway we use it sparingly and thoughtfully. The only downside to corn-based Xylitol is that it is fairly hard to get.

More information regarding Xylitol can be found on this website (with ads).

Birch tree based Xylitol is available in most pharmacies or online (cheaper).