What I've learned about j&j products is not so good. Apparently their baby products contain known carcinogens and formaldehyde. Not really stuff I want to put on my baby. Granted, you'll find those same ingredients in tons of products, and it would take lots of exposure for those trace amounts to make a noticeable negative impact, BUT, why expose my little one to all these chemicals if I don't have to?
I met a vendor at this year's Derby Breakfast that really got me thinking about it. She was selling her own homemade soaps. (I wish I could remember the name of the company, because she does have a website and sells a huge variety of products. If I find it, I'll post it.) She said that she began making her own baby soap when her oldest son was born and she couldn't find any in-store brands (organic included) that were truly chemical free. I've been using my j&j Bedtime Bath for the last 4 months, and really wishing that I wasn't, so I finally decided to do something about it and find out hard it really is to make your own baby wash. The answer is, not that hard!
Here is the recipe I {loosely} followed
And this is what I did!
1) Gathered my ingredients. I used olive oil I already had in my pantry, and, instead of buy Vitamin E or aloe vera gel, I squeezed the goop out of Vitamin E caplets that I already had. I bought my castile soap and lavender essential oil at our local health food store {they had Hemp Unscented Baby-Mild, not Aloe Vera like the recipe suggests. No biggie.} I discovered yesterday that I can get a much bigger bottle of the same soap for only $1+ more at Kroger. Good knowledge for when I run out.
2) Time to get mixing!
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| The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of castile soap for 12oz of shampoo. My bottle holds 17.5oz so I went with 1/3 cup. |
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| This part was kind of fun {and sticky}. I should have counted how may caplets it took to fill 1 tbsp. |
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| After all the oils were added. About 1/2 cup of stuff. |
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| I was definitely afraid of making a mess, so I poured it in the sink. |
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| It didn't look like much after I poured it in. |
4) The finished product!
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| All of my handmade goodies are named after my pretty little birdie =] |
The mixture naturally separates, so it needs to be shaken before each use (or that's my experience so far). Since it is so thin, my bottle (which was originally used for body wash) leaks a little bit. I will need to put cellophane or something under the cap if I ever travel with it.
I think I need to tweak this a little bit. It seems to make Evelyn's hair a little oily so I probably need to dilute it with more water and little bit more castile soap. I also used a little bit more of the essential oil than the recipe calls for (about 4-5 drops), but the fragrance is still very light.
EDIT: I didn't end up needing to change anything. I found out I just need to make sure to shake it well and to lather it in my hands before putting it in her hair. It's also best if her hair is good and wet first.
She mentions this in the original recipe post, but I will reiterate: this shampoo is NOT TEAR FREE! It is, however, very mild. I put some in Little Bit's bath water and she splashed some up on her face and was not bothered by it, but I was very careful when I washed her hair with it to keep it out of her eyes
And here are some pictures of my beautiful baby enjoying her chemical free bath =]
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| She's usually much gigglier and splashier at bath time, but, as you can see by her Bugs Bunny bandages, she had her 4 month shots that day so she was little more lethargic. |
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| Here she has the shampoo in her hair. It does lather, but doesn't foam up like I'm used to. It also just makes the bath water look a little cloudy. She smelled quite scrumptious after her bath =] |
