Shoes and soaps and sealing wax, cabbages and rings

[ailbhe]

Shoes

While passing through Galway I went back to the little children's shoe-shop in the Eyre Square centre where we got her some canvas things three months ago. And lo! They had a lovely pair of boys' ankle boots in navy blue, size 6.5G, Start Rite (which means she'll outgrow them quite soon, but who cares?) and neat-looking - not suffering from that odd but fashionable hiking-boot-cum-trainer look afflicting so many boys' shoes these days.

I was dreading shoe-shopping on our return to Reading. Now I don't have to do it for another 8 weeks or so.

Soap

My mother bought me some handmade soap wrapped in linen (to be used as an exfoliating cloth!) while she was on her holidays, and I bought Radz and Niall some handmade soap made in Swords but called Aran Mist while I was on my holidays and I was again reminded that I intend to remove all traces of MegaCorp products from the bathroom. So. How do I go about choosing a home-made solid bar shampoo? I currently use Dove shampoo and conditioner, because it works and requires no thought and I end up with lovely hair, but it's incompatible with the whole "try not to hurt the planet" thing even if I do recycle the plastic bottles. And the farmers market has a soap stall. So. I already know a few of the things I want to look for in soap. Shampoo-buying tips, peoples?

Sealing wax

I need to sign a box of ten books, seal them, and ship them with an invoice.

Cabbages

We are in credit with our organic supplier so we have a fridge full of nyummy brassicas.

Rings

My missing wedding ring showed up while the house was turned upside-down by the central heating installation. Hurrah!

Rob has taken Linnea swimming to tire her out for a better bedtime experience tonight. Tomorrow we have to leave at 8 am for our Swedish lesson. Sunday we are doing diddly-squat.

Comments

[more-musings.livejournal.com]

Lush do some fantastic hair stuff - I currently use the Ultimate Shine shampoo bar (http://www.lush.co.uk/pages/ultimate.html) and Veganese (http://www.lush.co.uk/pages/veganese.html) and my hair is sot - all I do though is pull it in to a ponytail though, so I don't know how it works if you style your hair at all.

[ailbhe]

Lush are a bit too big and international for my tastes, as well as the thing about their shops being so highly scented that I can't breathe well walking past them. I've never entered one.

That said, how did you decide which bar to use? what do you look for on the ingredients list?

I don't have a hairstyle, I just have hair.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Lush hair products are quite mildly scented, despite the descriptions, and you can order on line if the stores are bothersome for you.

I have fine, straight, rather dry hair, and like the Seanick and Ultimate Shine solid shampoos, both of which have very little scent (don't be put off by the glitter in Ultimate Shine or the seaweed in Seanick; neither of them leaves bits in my hair). I've found the reviews in the North American Lush forums to be of limited utility, since people's tastes vary so much.

I've been amazed how long the round solid barslast, too - just a few swips through my wet hair works up a lot of lather, and if you make sure not to leave them resting in a puddle of water, a small bar easily outlasts 2-3 bottles of shampoo for me.

[more-musings.livejournal.com]

I don't have a hairstyle, I just have hair.

Seconded ;-)

Someone gave me one of the Ultimate Shine ones and I found it was quite nifty - I have really thick hair, and it rinses clean really quickly, which is a big positive for me. I agree on the highly scented thing, the shampoo is fairly innocuous, I can't really remember there being any real scent to it. The conditioner is slightly lemony.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Lush add a lot of unnecessary chemicals to their stuff, and very little of it is organic or fair trade - the "alternative" appearance is really just a sales gimmick. I used to like them, but I don't buy from them since I took a closer look at their labels.

[ailbhe]

I've been reading their labels and they all seem to have that thingy, forget the name, purpose basically to cause the soap to look foamy, somethingorother sulfate. Among other things.

I think I might have a look at Lush ingredients to get an idea of what to look for in home-made soaps at the farmer's market, but not actually buy Lush, IYSWIM.

It's faintly possible that I might make my own soaps when madam is older. I don't fancy experimenting now - muffins are about my level.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

I considered making my own, too, but I decided I wasn't comfortable handling lye. For handwashing, I use the Duchy's Original organic handwash, which has far fewer chemicals than most. For everything else, I'm still looking for something affordable that I'm really happy with.

[barakta]

Do you have any other resources for learning Swedish other than the classes? A deaf friend of mine is trying to teach himself Swedish so he can consider working in Stockholm for a few months in the next year or so.

He would be looking for ideas about good books to buy or other resources which did not require 'listening' skills for obvious reasons.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Lush do shampoo bars, but also one of my bookcrossing friends hand makes soap & shampoo bars. They are fab & I have a collection in my bathroom as she gave me some free samples at the Unconvention.

http://www.soaphiethesoapdragon.co.uk/

Removing all megacorps from the house is a great idea, but my hair does look far better after I've used Aussie 3 minute miracle conditioner ...

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

You could try the shampoo-free (http://www.livejournal.com/community/naturalfamily/53928.html) thing. Of course, that may defeat the purpose of removing megacorps, since I don't know if it's possible to get non-megacorp baking soda.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Diddly-squat is the BEST.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Try beauty and the bees -totally natural, based in Tasmania - generally organic. Their solid state shampoo bars are great. http://www.beebeauty.com/