Now even if you aren’t into the idea of dabbling into clothes making, be it for fun or as a prospectful career move surely you too recognize how important using the right fabric is. I mean have you ever been drawn into shop from the street by what appears to be a magnificent dress on display only to walk out empty handed because the fabric wasn’t right?

As a well informed eco loving consumer, your knowledge about fabric shouldn’t stop at what makes the clothes look or feel right. You should be aware of the green alternatives out there. There are quite a few you know and we’re going to share about some of them here. Mind that this list isn’t exhaustive:

1.    Flax Fiber (Flax Linen)
Made from: Fibers from the stalks of the flax plant – Linum Usitatissimum.
2.    Bamboo Fiber
Made from: The from the pulp of the bamboo grass.
3.    Hemp
Made from : Hemp fibers (primary and secondary bast fibers)
4.    Jute
Made from : The natural fibers obtained from the bark of the jute plant.
5.    Soy Silk
Made from: Soy protein fibre (SPF) which is obtained as a byproduct of the manufacturing of soybean cake/tofu.
6.    Milk Silk
Made from:  Milk casein fiber (milk protein)
7.    Ramie
Made from: The fibers of China Grass
8.    Modal
Made from: The fibers of the beech wood trees.
9.    Organic Cotton
Made from: The cotton plant that is grown without the use of pesticides and insecticides under a more sustainable condition.
10.    Tencel
Made from: Innovative cellulose fibers

All of these fibers spun out into yarn and then weaved into fabrics have different textures and uses but one quality they share in common is how they are all good for the environment and safe for you.

1.    Clean your nails.
Did you ever notice that toothpaste cleans your fingernails? When you’ve got rather yellowed nails, give them a brush like you would your teeth and watch it clear up.

2.    Wall filler
How much to you hate it when you put a nail into your beautiful white wall only to find that wasn’t the right spot? Well just fill it up with toothpaste and paint it over and it will be good as new.

3.    Fog be-gone
When you need to wear goggles, you’ll learn how irritating it is for it to fog up. I’m a water fan so I can only safely speak for how irritating and dangerous it is to be underwater with a fogged up goggle. I assume you experience the same with ski goggles….Anyway for the water fans, I know the sure to work, quickly effective solution is to apply your saliva to the goggle but if that irks you out, then spread toothpaste and wipe it off. I’ll stick to spit because minty goggles can be irritating to the eyes.

4.    Clean the piano keys
Those old pianos likely are made from ivory (not animal friendly I’ll have to note) and they do turn yellow after a while. Well just like your own nails, wipe them down with a coat of toothpaste and you are good to go.

5.    Clean the bathtub
Found rings forming around your tub? No worries, the abrasive texture of the toothpaste will clean it out.

6.    Remove scratches of surfaces
So far, I know it’s been used on glassware, CDs, watch faces and leather shoes (most likely patent leather) and has been successful. But with I would stress, do a test patch before applying all over. And never leave it on for too long.

7.    Cleaning the iron
Well this would refer to only the older irons – not the non-stick ones more of us use today. I remember the old days well before the arrival of non-stick, temperature control irons – dear me did we ever have to be careful not to burn our clothes. Well for those heavy irons, even if you don’t burn anything with it, there tends to be a build up on the surface after a while. Scrub it off with toothpaste!

8.    Cleaning watermark off wooden furniture
You’ve got kids or perhaps has guests? Then chances are you’ve got watermark staining your nice wooden table top. Take a soft damp cloth and wipe it away with toothpaste. Again don’t leave it in.

See how handy toothpaste can be?

Now I don’t mean to sound like a pampered poodle but it’s just a flaw that I cannot help myself with. I should know better than to have anything painted on when I’ll be away for such an extended period but still I  do anyway which means finding myself in the situation where my nail lacquer is chipped and peeling off without me having any nail polish remover to save my modesty is an always. If you question why I don’t just carry around removers, well it’s because I just refuse to.

Which means I’ve frantically tried practically every “homemade nail polish remover” around and I’m here today to share my experience:

The stubborn dilemma: OPI in Bubble Bath under a layer of top coat

The trial: Citrus/Vinegar concoction

The result: Fail! Lemon does wonders to whiten the nail but nothing to remove the lacquer. Vinegar just smelled.

The trial: Perfume

The result: Fail! I could not even get past trying it on more than one nail. Honestly who can stand so much perfume.

The trial: Hot water

The result: Semi-fail. Immersing your hand in hot water (not boiling of course) sort of makes the nail polish detach from the nail by lifting it but it’s not a clean come –off. So it just makes it even worse looking.

The trial: Surgical Spirit

The result: Pass! The one and only solution that worked.

The trial: Toothpaste

The result: Fail. The minty freshness of toothpaste did nothing to the polish. This stuff may be a great substitute for wall fillers but it’s just useless at removing nail polish.

So that’s the result of my experiment. I do believe that it’s probably the layer of top coat that makes it more impossible for these homemade remedies to work, but at least you know what does.

But there are many who come too quickly to judge this as a very sinful against the environment indulgence – they argue about how much water is wasted but I don’t quite agree.

Here are the facts:

A bath tub can limit your consumption of water usage because there’s only so much you can fill into one-i.e. tubs have fix consumptions and the standard one probably holds 24 gallons. And you can always be more considerate by doing the following:

1.    Check to ensure that you have a good fitting plug which avoids the water from leaking and us from refilling.
2.    Don’t fill it to the brim; fill only as much as it takes to submerge your body. The smaller you are the less water you need.
3.    Use non-toxic eco friendly bath products so it won’t poison the water and you can reuse it in your garden – granted it’s a bit of work getting them from your tub into your garden but if you want to feel better about your bath then there’s no easy way out unless you have been mindful and fortunate enough to be able to install a grey water system for your house.

Now another interesting thing to note is how bathtubs aren’t the biggest ‘consumers’ of water in our house – it’s the toilet and un-minded showers we take each day that are the lead culprits for that.

Here’s my two cents on this. Achieving that ideal sized body is only a small step in ‘mastering’ the laws of attraction. Getting into that size 6 dress is great but it’s not very useful when you did not pay attention to the details of it – i.e. you look great dressed but undressed you’ve got another thing coming.

With this I’d like to bring to your attention a condition that plagues even the best of us – spots and I’m not talking about the ones on our face because we’re quite attentive to those. I’m talking about every perky bum’s nightmare – a spotty behind.

For various reasons, even the nicest bum gets haunted by spots and when those spots leave scars – it’s just nasty. So what can we do about it?

1.    Prevent/Avoid
You’ll need to find a way to not get the spottys to begin with. Usually it’s an issue that can be avoided with proper fitting clothes that come with good aeration. I recommend investing in good fitted bamboo cotton undies. Your tush will thank you for it.
2.    Control
You can control the condition by keeping good hygiene. For a natural antiseptic wash, I recommend the use of tea tree oil. Just add that to your soap and use it each time in the shower.
3.    Damage repair
Preventing and curing the spottys is one thing. Dealing with the scars is another. The most you can do is work hard at fading them and that involves exfoliating. You can use loofahs or invest in a good organic sea bath salt to exfoliate with.

I guess it would be how we’re all going to sustain and stay true to our green code.
Let us assess and break down what and how Christmas impacts us

The season for giving
I do believe the true meaning of giving here refers to the act of being selfless but in modern terms that probably translates as buying your loved ones gifts and their “heart’s desire” instead of that pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing all season. But the ‘sacrifice’ of the cash is just one part of it because you’ve got to find a way to balance the ambition with your conscience, ie: find the gift that will be what they want but in green which proves to be not so simple a task and often quite expensive.

The season for forgiving
There are 365 days in a year and only 7 days of it left once Christmas roles along. That’s 358 days worth of opportunity to be offended/hurt/let down/broken up by someone(s) which translates to a lot of pent up frustration, anger, hurt, fear and rage. In the long run the damage these negative emotions have on your core also indirectly affects your green lifestyle as you reach out for emotional comfort in the compensating form of destructive behaviors such as binge eating and retail therapy. You might think that these behaviors just wreck havoc on your weight and finances, but they also dig deep in carbon foot prints with the waste you create.

The season for miracles
Personally I feel that the miracle of Christmas isn’t about winning the lottery ticket or your old car miraculously turning into a brand spanking new Audi Coupe on Christmas morning. No, it’s about finding yourself, finding hope where it was lost. What’s the green bit on this one…I’m not too sure, but maybe it’s the awakening of some people to finally seeing and understanding why we all should care if the sunrises tomorrow, if the rain is acidic or if the animals are homeless.

So there you have it, my take on the Christmas Season and what it stands for to an eco loving woman.

Red
Red’s a pretty easy colour to get from nature. But the classic rainbow’s red is a bright one so that helps us narrow down the search to the Madder Root which gives a deep, rich red hue. The root of the madder plant itself is not red, but contains alizarin, which can be made to produce red lakes of several shades.

Orange
Orange is another colour that you can find various options for. But I’m looking for a cheery orange to match the madder red. So either paprika, turmeric or safflower petals would do just fine.  The intensity of the orange you get varies between these 3 herbs, but I would stick with safflower because it gives a rich orange-yellow colour.

Yellow
Anatto seeds give a lovely light yellow to yellow-orange colour.  Alternatively a good yellow can be achieved by using the petals of the calendula flower.

Green
Kelp/seaweed gives the most amazing green, but they do tend to have a bluish tinge. So if we want a more grass green colour then the extract of wheatgrass would be perfect!

Blue
Woad (first year leaves), the miracle Isatis tinctoria used in the treatment of breast cancer, colds and throat infections will give our soap a beautiful sky blue colour.

Indigo
Well the obvious choice is indigo! But this colour is really strong so a little goes a long way and the Japanese Indigo flower will give the perfect shade.

Violet
Alkanet root will give the soap a beautiful pinkish purple colour if we keep the soap white.

And there we have it! Natural colours to make a rainbow of soap!

One of the most commonly reused food commodities is cooking oil. Granted the price of cooking oil is one that is always on the rise, it drives even the best of us to use it sparingly. But sometimes we try to do a little more than just reduce the usage of it, we try to increase the number of times we use it. In general that’s a great habit but when it comes to oil, reheating it over and over is just not okay because a toxin called 4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal (HNE) forms when such oils as canola, corn, soybean and sunflower oils are reheated.

However, this does not mean that you can’t ever reheat and reuse your cooking oil. You can…but you just need to be aware and very careful of the rules – that is to know how many times you can do it and what are the signs to look out for when reheating oil to avoid putting your health and the health of your family are risk.

Personally I think it’s a lot easier to recognize when it’s time to part with the oil by the physical signs. Good oil is always light in colour, fluid and clean without particles in it. You will notice that even after the first time you use the oil there is a change in the physical appearance of it – the oil becomes darker, thicker in consistency and of course bits of what you fried in it remains.

To save the oil for another round of use is simple. Allow the oil to cool, strain it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth and store in an airtight jar in the fridge. I would say use it again only once but some would say you can safely use it another 3 times.

The physical sign to look out for is when you can’t reheat the oil without smoke developing or it smells bad/rancid- these are indications significant deterioration of the oil.

And so we are all advised, to take precautionary measures to protect ourselves. Women are empowered by both choice and knowledge. So as you all have the choice, I’m here to share the knowledge.

Now some of you may have the signed up for some self-defense classes and that’s great, but for others who don’t have the same opportunity, fret not because even the best trained in martial arts would still carry a little handy helper in her purse.
So you’ve heard about mace and you’ve heard about pepper spray. Are they the same things with interchangeable terms? No…they are not. In fact one is derived from manmade compounds and the other from a natural source.

So which is which?

Mace
Mace is essentially tear gas. It is derived from either the mixture of CS (2-chlorobenzalmalononitril, also called o-Chlorobenzylidene Malononitrile) or CN (Alphachloroacetaphenone.) It’s an irritant  to themembrane tissue that causes stinging pain and tearing in 5 to 30 secs. But it’s not effective on everyone, as some people can develop a resistance to CN and CS. In fact mace doesn’t work on the intoxicated!
This form of mace should not be mistaken for the edible mace which is something we get from nutmeg.

Pepper Spray
Pepper Spray is not made from pepper seeds; it is instead made with a natural compound Capsicum Oleoresin which is what you get when you crush capsicums in certain solvents. Pepper spray is an inflammatory agent which causes the eyes to shut instantly. And even if the assailant could open his eyes, the capillaries would be dilated rendering him blind for a certain period. Pepper spray will also result in an instant coughing fit as it inflames the breathing tissues causing breath to be severely limited.
So really the pepper spray is the better choice!

I’m sure it isn’t just me who notices how dry skin, puffy eyes and dark circles are just so much more amplified during winter. On some days I’m even convinced that we age overnight during the freezing season. And the experts confirm this observation as they give their scientific reasons for it – lower level of vitamin D in the body during the colder months.

Vitamin D is something we can get naturally from the sun, along with serotonin which is that feel good chemical your body produces. So to beat the winter eye bags here’s what we need to do.

1.    Get sufficient sleep with naps in between during the day (15 mins is good enough)

2. Watch the diet – if you ever wondered why you’re always hungry when it’s cold, well it’s got to do with the fact that the lack of sunlight reduces the effectiveness of the hormone leptin. Leptin is what tells us we’re full. Also, cut down on the salt!

3. Increase the vitamin D in the body through supplements but bear in mind that  vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in very few foods, so your choices may come limited. Known rich sources are salmon, sardines, cow’s milk, goat’s milk, shiitake mushrooms, and eggs.
So there you have it…the winter eye bag mystery solved! Let’s just see if the solutions work.