Insect Away!

The other day I brewed up a batch of Wellness Mama's Bug-Off Lotion Bars, and last night we got the chance to try them out. We were both amazed! Not a single bug harrassed us during last nights Aquatennial Firworks display! We strolled and sat for a good 90 minutes in bug-less peace. The mosquitoes have been terrible this year, and the spiders on our balcony have been active, too, I got three successive spider bites on my arm a few weeks ago from what I believe (hope) was a jumping spider. The lotion bars are easy to apply, though they melt incredibly fast, so we applied it as fast as we could. We just stroked the bar over our skin and then rubbed it in. It's a wonderfully hydrating lotion that smells mostly like the chocolately scent of cocoa butter. Since I'm not a huge chocolate fan, I may invest in some Shea butter the next time I make these so that I may smell the delicious herbs over the oils, but catnip is such a strong scent that perhaps I'd be better off smelling like chocolate than have my cats licking me every time I wear this!

Two thumbs up for the Bug-Off Lotion Bars!

Solid Choices

I'm excited to say that I will be switching to solid shampoo! While trying to think of how to bring some toiletries on our upcoming trip to Norway, I thought I may investigate some bar options. Then we went to Norway Day, and I bought the most delectable bar soap called Viking Soap which contains some wonderful ingredients like Iceland moss, sea kelp, oils of coconut, olive and palm, juniper, and essential oils of juniper, rosemary, fir and oakmoss. I used it on my skin and hair, and it was fabulous on both! Because this soap contains so many oils, I'm going to try to use it without conditioner and see how it goes. My hair is extremely thick, and I need conditioner. That said, using coconut milk, avocado and/or olive oil as conditioner has worked better than any store bought stuff, so other than at the gym, I'm using natural conditioners now. If the bars work for both cleaning and conditioning, then I can even use them at the pool. Squeeee!

Update: well, the Viking Soap did not work as conditioner :( Maybe if my hair wasn't so impossibly thick, but alas, I think I need my mega-creamy hair treatments. It has got me thinking about a conditioner bar, though...I wonder if it could be done! Another experiment, yippee!