Earth friendly

Natural Makeup Remover – Week 3

Handmade Haven, Makeup remover, natural makeup remover, organic cotton, reusable cleanser pads

Handmade Haven, natural make up remover, vegan makeup remover, organic cotton, reusable cleanser pads

Well, this week has been the sunflower oil week. After using the coconut oil last week I must admit to being a little apprehensive about this as the coconut oil was so fab.

I’ve just being using the bottle straight out of my oils rack, rather than decanting as it was quite low. The first thing I noticed was how it soaked straight through the pad, just like a conventional makeup remover, meaning I would be using more over the week. It felt messy. On first look it seemed to work as well as the coconut oil, but when I checked there were still tiny bits of mascara round the eye. I think, because it soaks straight into the pad, rather than sitting on the top like the coconut oil, then more of the oil is needed. The extra rubbing made my eye tender at the time, but OK later on. The skin was not as ‘baby soft’ as the previous week.

I haven’t washed the pads yet, as I stupidly put the whites in without the pads, so I’m not sure how it will clean. I shall keep you posted though.

This bottle was £1.10 for 1 litre from Tesco, although I would usually shop in Aldi so it would be cheaper still.

Next up is the olive oil.

Natural Makeup Remover Experiment – Week 2

Handmade Haven, michelle Good, natural makeup Remover Experiment

So it’s the end of week 1 – organic coconut oil week. I’ve not had makeup on everyday, and the above picture was taken on the day where I had the most makeup on, so still not a lot, but plenty for me 😉. I reckon I used less than a third of a teaspoon’s worth of the coconut oil on my pad to remove that days makeup. Not much at all!

Handmade Haven Hemp make up remover pad, organic

My eyes haven’t felt dry, but I’ve not used it everyday so that’s helped. The skin underneath them actually feels quite soft. I love the fact that the oil is solid, then there’s no excessive soaking of the oil into the pad first. I’d always seem to use too much of the Boots one as it soaks through so much. The pads washed perfectly fine, although I do wash as 60 degrees when I do all my whites. I don’t mind the smell either…not sure I’ll be saying that every week 😉

The jar, from Aldi, was £2.29 for 300 ml.

In short, I’ve loved using the coconut oil. Not sure I want to switch 😉 but next up is the sunflower oil.

Natural Makeup Remover Experiment – Week 1

handmade haven, experiment with natural oils as makeup removers, coconut oil

handmade haven makeup remover, boots no 7

Holding my hands up now and admitting to using a high street bought makeup remover. It seems a bit hypocritical using this as the reason I started making my soaps was to cut out the nasties. I’d tried the Body Shop makeup remover, and to be perfectly honest, it was just a bit shit, so I went back to using the boots one.

My lovely friend over at Sylvan Stories has used olive oil for years, but I was a little sceptical. Surely it couldn’t be that easy? Why doesn’t everyone do it? It would be so much cheaper too!

Today (yes, I couldn’t be arsed to take my bit of makeup off last night) I started with organic coconut oil. I don’t wear a lot of makeup, mascara and eyeliner this time, so there wasn’t a lot to come off…but come off it did! Amazing! The coconut oil is obviously solid, but as it has such a low melting point, as soon as it was on my eyelid it melted. I’ll be trying this over the next week to see how we go, as coconut oil can be drying.

handmade haven, makeup remover experiment, organic coconut oil

handmade haven, organic cotton makeup pad with organic coconut oil as makeup remover

So, I’m setting myself an experiment for the next 4 weeks.

Week 1 will be organic coconut oil (so this week 😉 )

Week 2 will be sunflower oil,

Week 3 will be olive oil, and

Week 4 will be sweet almond oil.

The first 3 are all ‘food’ oils which are available in any supermarket. The sweet almond it a cosmetic oil. I’ll be reporting back each week, with how they’ve worked, how my eyes felt and how well the makeup remover pads washed afterwards.

Eek, quite excited!

Home Spa Treats – Bath Salts

Handmade Haven Natural Bath Salts, Patchouli and Orange, 200g Glass Kilner Jar

Handmade Haven natural bath salts, Hint of Vanilla. 200g jar. — Handmade Haven Natural Bath Salts

I love making these bath salts! It feels like when you were a child (in the 70s/80s for me) and you had a bag of sherbet that you used to stir with your fingers. I don’t use my fingers for these but it is great fun all the same!

Handmade Haven, Natural Salt Sachets. Bath Salts, Foot Soak Salts. Lavender — Handmade Haven, Natural Salt Sachets 50g

I make them in 6 different scents – Citrus Zing (definitely smells like sherbet), Sensual, Lavender (with chamomile and calendula), Frankincense & Myrrh, Patchouli & Orange, and Hint of Vanilla. Each has a base of Himalayan salt and Epsom salt, then I add essential oils and botanicals. Nothing nasty goes in ☺️

Handmade Haven Natural bath salts, lavender, chamomile and calendula. Jar 200g — Handmade Haven Bath Salts – Lavender, Chamomile and Calendula.

I usually shower, and if I have a bath I use the bath fizzes, so I usually use the salts as a foot soak instead. I have this fab enamel bowl, then just place a towel underneath and I have a towel to the side ready. Heaven…

Handmade Haven foot soak bath salts, himalayan salt epsom salt

Do you like bath salts? I’d love to know how you use them.

Who Gives A Crap?

I’ve seen a few posts about this amazing business but I wanted to share my own experience. At the beginning of the year I saw a friend on Facebook had shared that she’d tried these loo rolls that were made from recycled paper rather than trees. I thought this was awesome so I went to investigate. Turns out that not only do they use recycled paper, they also give 50% of their profits to charities that help build toilets and improve sanitation across the world. A-m-a-zing!

Who Gives a Crap Toilet Rolls, Recycled Paper, Profit-for-Purpose. Handmade Haven's supply.

Did you know that more people in the world have mobile phones than toilets?! I didn’t either. Two children a minute die from diseases caused by poor sanitation. Comparing those two facts is beyond shocking. I didn’t hesitate in signing up. We have a 12 week rolling subscription, where a box of 48 rolls (wrapped in paper, not plastic) are delivered to the house. It’s great. Someone said to my Hubby that ‘you can get cheaper loo rolls you know’. Hmm…it’s not about the money though.

Who gives a crap, gorgeous paper wrapped toilet rolls — All away in the cupboard

If you’d like to give them a try, pop over to their website and have a browse yourself.

(I’m not gaining anything from Who Gives A Crap for this post, I’m sharing their ‘profit-for-purpose’ values as I believe in what they do)