I just discovered something awesome!

A pink terry cloth shower cap which I bought from Daiso for RM5 (USD$1.50). I’ve always been using plastic cap all this while. Can you imagine how much of these goes to the landfill?

I feel so guilty now.

A study conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Environmental Working Group found that 17 of the top fragrances contained 38 secret chemicals!

Here are the list of the fragrances that has the most chemicals:

American Eagle Seventy-Seven – 24
Chanel Coco – 18
Britney Spears Curious – 17
Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio – 17
Old Spice After Hours Body Spray – 16
Quicksilver – 16
Calvin Klein Eternity for Men – 15
Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry-Blossom – 14
Calvin Klein Eternity for Women – 14
Halle by Halle Berry – 13
Hannah Montana Secret Celebrity – 13
Victoria’s Secret Dream Angels Wish – 13
Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce – 11
Jennifer Lopez J. Lo Glow – 11
AXE Body Spray for Men: Shock – 10
Clinque Happy – 9
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue – 7

See the problem is, studies have shown that our skin do absorb chemicals that we put on our body.

Frankly, I have not been using any chemical perfumes ever since I got pregnant with my first kid. I didn’t want anything to be absorbed into my baby’s body. Luckily for me, Asians have been using fragrances for hundreds of years. Traditionally, we soak flowers and nice smelling herbs in a warm  bath water, hmmm, about an hour before we take our bath. The wonderful fragrance from the bath water is what would lightly perfume our body.

Image taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/30471084@N07/2937326324

Bathing with fragrant flower water is something most brides-to-be in Southeast Asia will undergo

Asian women also use fresh flowers, like the tiny, pure white fragrant Jasmine flower,  on our hair.

I myself love perfumes, and when I decided to ditch my bottles of perfume, I did feel a twitch of sadness. Only the thought of doing something for the greater good spurred me on.

Ok, speaking of flowers being good for the hair, I’d like to share a natural hair shampoo that you can make at home using the hibiscus flower and leaves.

Hibiscus or Bunga Raya (Joyous Flower) is Malaysia’s national flower. And let me tell you, these plants can be found just about anywhere in Malaysia.

All Natural Bunga Raya Shampoo

• Firstly, you’ll need to collect a handful of leaves and flowers (remove the stems and stamen from the flowers).
• Wash and soak the flowers and leaves for about 15 mins.
• Then, cramp the entire thing into a blender. I like my Magic Bullet for this sort of thing.
• Blend the leaves and flower petal, adding a little bit of water to get the whole thing moving.
• The brown paste is ready for you to use as a shampoo.
• When you are washing your hair, first, be sure to wet your hair.
• Then, massage the brown paste  into your hair (yes, it can be used as a body scrub as well). You will get a mild foam when you do so.
• Wash and rinse really, really well to get everything out of your hair.

This cleanser is very gentle and totally safe for kids as well…  unless they are allergic to hibiscus.

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More info on how to heal your body

• Should we drink chlorinated tap water?
• Lots of great raw or almost raw food here!
• “This plant healed my sister!” said hubby
• Gotu Kola heals the world!
• Iodine Tincture Heals Cancer Lesions?

Corin Redgrave, reknown British actor of the famous Redgrave acting dynasty, passed away recently on April 6 at the age of 70. His funeral was splashed all over the British tabloids.

One of the things I noticed was that he was laid to rest in a wicker coffin, which I thought was a very cool coffin to use. Wicker coffins are very eco friendly and are among the greenest ways to a carbon neutral end. It’s cheap (not that the Redgrave family is in need of money) and sustainable. I’ve written about eco friendly coffins and how my grandpa was cremated. Surprise, surprise, his body wasn’t entirely burned down to ashes. Not something I ever imagine cause I suppose I watch too much tv and had assume everything could be stuffed into a cremation jar. You can read more of it here at Eco Friendly Burials

Anyways, Corin Regrave had a wonderful send off and his funeral was peppered with many British “acting royalties” like his sister Vanessa Redgrave, Corin’s niece Joely Richardson and her brother-in-law Liam Neeson (of the Star Wars fame), his sister Lynn Redgrave and her daughter Annabel, Corin’s former co-stars and friends Simon Callow and Sir Ian McKellan, Kika Markham and Corin’s actress daughter Jemma Redgrave. Corin Redgrave was a remarkable actorwho was also well known for his Marxist stand. He is a sad loss to society and the world of theatre.

Joely Richardson and Liam Neeson

Images from http://www.dailymail.co.uk and http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk

Solution of vinegar and soap

I was just reading a funny post about how this lady hated fruit flies, and guess what … I DO TOO!

Hate them.

I don’t like them hovering my bananas, and I certainly don’t like them to hover over my garbage bin and then fly over to hover over my fruits!

Apparently, there are scores of people who have tested ways to kill these buggers (don’t you just love this British term?) and here are the environmentally freindly ways to do so.

1. Alcohol kills 

One guy found out that a few inches of wine in a standard wine bottle works extremely well - as he found out the next morning, after he took a glug of wine with some dead flies floating in it!! The little bugs love wine and they will dive into the bottle only to drown after having a few hick sips. Apparently, the reason why they can’t fly out of the narrow opening of the wine bottle  is because these lovable  fruit flies can only fly side to side, not up and down. 

Here’s what he says “I don’t like killing anything, but I salve my conscience by shaking the bottle regularly, to drown them so they don’t swim for hours, struggling…”

Note to self, look INSIDE the alcohol bottle to make sure there’s no drowned animals before having a go at the hoo-hoo-hoo. However, if you already ate these bugs … accidentally … consider this. They are a good source of uncooked protein. 

2. Wash / hand slap trick

This same wino guy tried another tactic which he said worked well for him. He washed the  fruits right away and then hand slap the flies as soon as they appear, right before they settle in and procreate. 

3. A deadly cocktail of apple cider vinegar and soap

If you are too lazy to wash the fruit or kill hand slap the silly buggers, then you might want to try this instead. Leaving a mixture of foamy, soapy apple cider vinegar solution on the table next to the fruits. It seems the pesky flies are attracted to the vinegar. But the foam traps them and they die. Something you can easily try at home.

Speaking of insects, I found that they drown easily in soapy water. If you are a sadist, you can try picking up ants, cockroaches, bees, whatever takes your fancy and slowly release them into the soapy water … to test my theory. There’s one insect I truly dislike with passion, and that is mosquitoes. Just one mosquito can cause so much damage to a baby. One day, I found multiple Mozzie bites on my precious baby’s skin. Horrified I tell you. So this fuming mommy sat there, waiting patiently with soapy wet hands. I took a slow easy swipe at the nasty mozzie just as it was about to make another meal out of my kid and it promptly got caught in the foam. Then, I walked to the bathroom and triumphantly release the struggling mozzie into the soapy water and watched it slowly sink down into the abyss.

Bliss! No more bites that night. 

So, if you don’t like nasty insects like me, you know what to do.

Peace!

Image and info taken from Re-Nest.com

I just so love the banana leaf cups featured here. So gorgeous. And eco  friendly too. Just eat whatever that is in the cup and then, toss the biodegradable cups into your compost heap. And yes, the Thai snacks shown are delectable looking as well aren’t they? The Thai lady chef who took these pictures is Kasma Loha-unchit. Currently, she’s got a Thai cooking school at Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco.

The instructions to make the biodegradable banana leaf cups are at eThaiCooking.com page.

Can you believe this is really good looking reusable sandwich bag was once an old shirt, a piece of scrap cloth and a clean Ziplock bag?

How cute. I love it when old stuff are brought back to live as a new and so reusable item.

So gorgeous, you’d want to bring it to work Every. Single. Day.

The bag just folds up and snaps shut with a piece of velcro

The inside of the bag is a gallon size Ziploc bag (cut apart)

It’s a breeze to make, doesn’t take much time at all. Best thing is, you can just drop it in the washing machine, and then hang it up to dry in time for the next use.

Check out the tutorial at Salt Water Kids