Reading the ingredient list on your favorite deodorant, shampoo and toothpaste can be enough to send a person screaming into the night.

When we began homesteading, we wanted to "get back to the basics" and get processed foods and chemical products out of our lives. You too?

Commercial cleaners were the first to go. I tossed them out and made some homemade cleaners instead. I've found them to be just as effective and so much more frugal as well as being less toxic.

In our quest to live a simpler, less-chemical-laden life, we looked at bathroom products next.

So many personal products are made with ingredients that are hard or impossible to pronounce. Personally, my opinion is if I can't pronounce something, it probably shouldn't be slathered on my body.

Deodorant

What we call deodorant is often actually an antiperspirant. Humans are meant to perspire; sweating cools our bodies down and keeps us from overheating.

What began as a product to prevent smelling like sweat is now a product that prevents us from sweating at all. Aluminum compounds, parabens, silica, triclosan, talc and propylene glycol are in most antiperspirant and deodorant products, and all of these have been linked to health problems including breast cancer and Alzheimer's.

If you're ready to make a change and avoid these ingredients, you can check the ingredients in all-natural products, or use natural alternatives to deodorant such as coconut oil, witch hazel, baking soda and cornstarch.

I'm not able to use baking soda in homemade deodorants, but magnesium oil works great for me. It doesn't prevent sweating, but it immediately deals with odor. This is the brand I buy from Amazon (affiliate link); but if it's out of stock, order another brand - it should state that it's 100% pure magnesium chloride from the ancient zechstein seabed.

Toothpaste

Take a look at the ingredients label on your tube of toothpaste and compare to this list: sodium fluoride, triclosan, sodium lauryl sulfate, and hydrated silica. Fluoride alone is enough reason to avoid commercial toothpaste. Did you know it's the main ingredient in rat poison?

As a child I used to get really sick with nausea and vomiting in the mornings. I missed school often (and no, I wasn't just trying to get out of going to school). After consulting with my pediatrician and my dentist, my mother realized I was swallowing the toothpaste.

I'm sure the dentist didn't tell my mother that I was ingesting rat poison, but I remember as though it were yesterday how she told me I had to be very careful not to swallow the toothpaste, that it wasn't good for me and that's why I was feeling sick.

Recipes for homemade tooth powders and even toothpaste can be found online. A simple alternative to toothpaste is baking soda. I used it for years, although currently I purchase this one from Amazon (affiliate link); I love the taste and fragrance of the cloves and it is soothing if you have sore teeth or gums. At my twice-a-year checkups, my dentist always says "keep doing what you're doing."

Shampoo

Some sources claim there are as many as twelve toxic ingredients in shampoo products. The most suspicious are sulfates, parabens, triclosan, polyethylene glycol. Many of these disrupt our hormones.

It's easy to make your own shampoo, either liquid or solid. I make my own shampoo bars (here's a primer on how to use them). I have friends who use baking soda mixed with water to wash their hair, then rinse with vinegar and water.

Healthier Living

I like knowing what's in my personal care products. The natural alternatives we use are healthier and usually more frugal as well.

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My hope is to inspire you, and to encourage your homesteading plans and your dreams of a simple, self-reliant, God-dependent life. You can follow me at:
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