A little while ago I wrote a post about Dr. Bronner’s castile soap and how I was happy to learn that a product I was using in my homemade shampoo seemed to come from a reputable company that cared about people and the environment. At that time I had only used Castile Soap as one of the ingredients in my shampoo and I’ve been happy with the results so far; regardless of the fact that the reason I came to own this bottle of soap was because my Mom had purchased it as a natural alternative for dishwashing detergent and was not happy with the results.
Now, I have successfully used Castile Soap in two additional ways! The first was as a gentle body wash for my infant son and the second was as a pet shampoo to bath my cat. Yes I occasionally bath my cat.
Both of these examples were not done using Dr. Bronner’s brand, I used all of my original bottle making shampoo and when I went to my local health foods store to see if they had any, I found that they sold a locally made brand of Castile Soap called Flatlanders but not Dr. Bronner’s so I bought it instead. First I used it during my son’s bath, putting tiny amounts in my own hands and then lathering him up. Not that he was actually visibly dirty or smelly to begin with but I think it worked well and there have been no side effects from the essential oils (the soap is very mildly scented with lavender and lime). I’ll call that a win for bath time! Secondly just this morning I decided I’d had enough of my cats dandruff getting everywhere. It was time for a bath; which isn’t actually as horrible of a process as you might think. As long as she’ll let you pick her up long enough to get to the bathroom she doesn’t actually mind the bathing process. Again I squirted the soap into my own hands first and then lathered her up, massaged it in and rinsed clean. Wha-laa! I have a bathtub full of cat hair and a squeaky clean cat with significantly less dandruff. I guess I’ll also call that a bath time win; just with a little extra cleanup.
And there you have it, two more examples of conventional products I will no longer be purchasing in favour of more natural alternatives. My journey towards creating a home that’s chemical free still has a long way to go and requires a lot more reading and trial and error but I consider this to be two tiny steps closer to my goal.
After my son’s bath I just happened to leave the bottle on our bathroom vanity for lack of a better place to keep it and I’ve used it there in replacement of our other bathroom soap a couple of times. What can I say I like the smell, it’s in a squirt bottle already plus I bought it, I might as well use it right? So I guess that kind of counts as three tiny steps towards my goal.
For my next step I think I will either try using a Castile Soap recipe in my dish washer or perhaps try one of the bathroom cleaner recipes I’ve seen online. Do any of you have a favorite Castile Soap dishwasher detergent or bathroom cleaner recipe that you think I should try? Love to hear it.
naturessence 