Two step approach organic insect killer spray

Soapy solutions kill ants instantly.  It also immobilize larger insects but normally don't kill them.

Someone adds vinegar to diluted washing liquid to kill flies.  It worked.

Flies are a different matter.  If you don't want to wait until they rest on somewhere close, you have to spray a lot in the air and everywhere just to stop one fly.  Even diluted washing liquid isn't that safe.

So for flies the first step is a wide angle spray bottle filled with diluted organic soap.  Soap from soap nuts are certainly organic - food grade.  I think Bronner's soap is organic too, at least the ingredients are.  I just have some for the bathroom and they are good to be diluted.

The organic soap still stop ants at the spot and kills them.  Flies have to find a place to land if you hit them.  Water may work to some extend but you can see that they have difficult walking in the soap.

When the fly is grounded, you can move in for the kill - with drops of vinegar, lime or lemon juice.  Totally organic.  Even better, I have citric acid crystals.  So I can make  very concentrated lemon juice if some insects need that.  Dry crystals can be stored much longer than juices.

The two steps also work for spiders.  First they are caught in their own net with the soapy solution.  Then the acid kills them.

I have no cockroaches to test.  But I guess you have to have a very sticky solution to trap them, and a very strong acid to penetrate their defence.  I got both.

Launching Evorganics line of personal care products

Ha ha, it's next to free so I don't bother to market it.

Step 1: Greasy

Coconut oil.  First of all it's a kind of reverse conditioner for hair or skin.  You massage straight into your scalp or skin, then you try to rinse it off as much as possible.  So it is self equalizing.  People have been looking for the conditioner just right for them.  That's a wrong or expensive approach.

Some use it to kill bacteria responsible for dandruff.  Some use it to repair damaged hair.  Some use it to soften tough skin.  In any case, I don't advice to leave it on for more than a few minutes.  It should also work if you do it more often.

The research is to dilute oil with glycerin and then water.  You can apply a lot less that way and feel better in the process.

This step is optional of course if you hair don't need conditioner.  I used to but I don't after switching to Evorganics.

Step 2: Soapy

I would suggest Dr Bonner's liquid soap.  The best part is that it can be diluted with water to a concentration that you like.  Avoid this step if you can.  The body should produce the right amount of body oil given the chance.  You don't want to strip off all the body oil. But if you put oil in your hair, probably you want to use soap to feel better.

As with all other steps, you should feel good about it.  But don't judge when you are wet.  It will not be squeaky clean as we are all brain washed to feel.  Say when your hair are dry, you should feel like having shampoo and then conditioner.  That's why you don't need them because you will feel the same with Evorganics.

Step 3: Salty

Baking soda solution in purified water (or tap water of course).  One teaspoon per cup is salty enough for your tongue.  Use it to rinse your hair.  Baking soda can dissolve grease in bulk, which is different than soap that only works on the surface.  It is pretty safe, used in and out of the body in medical applications.

Rinse thoroughly with water after each step.  If they can be combined I would have combined them.  Combine Greasy and Salty will result in soap.  That's why some morons on youtube cry foul, generating skunk in their hair.

This step is optional if you don't feel that your hair is dirty at all.

Step 4: Fruity

One teaspoon of citric acid crystals for several cups of water to suit your own taste.  If you can drink it, it won't be too harsh for your hair and skin.  This is an alternative to the more common vinegar rinse.  It's acidic but smell nice.

People use citric acid (or vinegar) to cure or prevent dandruff.  I think it's believable but don't leave it on over a minute.  It has cleaning properties at opposite of the pH scale of baking soda.  So you will have best of both worlds.  Mixing fruity and salty will give you carbon dioxide bubbles, and cancels each other.  But that's what some morons do in their washing machine.  Citric acid is also an excellent water softening agent.

I think I feel a lot of difference between vinegar and citric acid.  With citric acid, I feel my hair is shiny, fluffy, and the greasy feeling on my face disappeared at an instant.  But maybe that's just psychological.

This is optional if you don't feel your hair or skin dirty, and you don't need to prevent dandruff everyday.

People use lemon juice to lighten their blond hair and skin.  I agree that lemon juice contains more things and the process is more complicated.  I don't think that dilute citric acid and immediate rinsing will do anything to your hair or skin.

Step 5: Sweety

One teaspoon of glycerin per cup.  It's extremely common in personal care products as a water soluble moisturizer.  You know if you wash with just water, you will feel bad and dry.  I was hoping to compensate that by adding a moisturizer.  I'm not sure it do anything but I don't feel bad at all washing my hair and body with just glycerin water.  You can even leave it on as a moisturizer or conditioner.

Sweety combines with fruity to produce a little bit of polyester for making cloth fibres.  So don't combine.  This is the only essential step, or otherwise you are not even washing anything.  Glycerin also dissolves oil so it has it's cleaning powers.  It is also used in washing out ear wax.

You must add enough water to glycerin, say half and half, or it will take water from your skin.  Otherwise, the more glycerin the better but this is the only ingredient that cost some money.

Glycerine - the universal ingredient for personal cleaning

Using baking soda for a while, my hair is OK.  I thought of getting rid of body wash too.  But I can't do without moisturizer lotion, even if I use Dove for body wash.  I also suspect my dandruff is due to dryness.  I wash my hair everyday so the flakes are carried away without too much visibility.  But if I don't wash for a few days, the flakes come off in large visible pieces.

So I thought of adding moisturizer to my formula.  Glycerin fits the bill.  It's used in many many personal cleaning and cosmetics products.  You can get it easily online.  It's not expensive for the amount you need.

My objective is different from many other home made product blogs.  It have to work better, saving time and money are bonuses.  I believe in evolution work best, or sufficient.  I don't want to change the texture, smell, of my hair or skin.  I just want to give my body the chance to adjust and balance itself.  It also have to work for the kids.

Basically I wash everything with diluted Glycerin, roughly one teaspoon per cup of purified water (or tap water).  You must dilute Glycerin with water or it will absorb water from your skin.  If the whole family uses one teaspoonful per day, the 32 oz bottle will last for 3 months, which is pretty good.

I didn't add any other thing because you could leave it on your hair or skin.  People use it as hair detangler and it works pretty good.  But if you don't use shampoo to strip all the body oil, you can just wash with Glycerin water  and then rinse thoroughly with water.  Yeah, I use Glycerin water like shampoo.  After "washing" the hair will feel sticky when wet, but after the hair dries, my hair feels better than having shampoo and then conditioner.  It looks better.  And the next day I don't really need to wash my hair in order to make it tidy.  So basically I could have wash my hair once every several days, not dedicated by the morning look.

My skin feels good too without using any moisturizer.

If money is no object, you can just pour a cup or two Glycerin water (diluted) on your hair, and spray yourself all over the body.  $10 per bottle per month isn't bad at all.  But my cheap shampoo and conditioner probably last longer.

To save Glycerin, I use a 97 cent Walmart spray bottle to wet my hair, which works pretty good.  For the body wash I created a gel.  I dissolve one to two teaspoon of tapioca starch per cup of purified water and heat in the microwave to boil.  When cooled, you have a translucent gel.  When you squeeze it out from a bottle, it just look like a clear gel.  Of course, I also dissolve the Gycerin before heating.

Actually the best delivery bottle is probably the cheap squirt water bottle with a valve.  The water won't come out even when upside down, until you squeeze the bottle a little.  To get a proper and cheaper one, it's called (medical) cleansing bottle, or perineal irrigation bottle.  It's also very good to squeeze out gel.  It's easy to use for the kids, and water can't easily get in inside the shower even when the valve is open.  That's kid safe.

I also tried to wash my hair with the gel.  It doesn't make noticeable difference.  But I just don't feel right adding a lot of sticky starch onto my hair.  Though the gel can easily be rinsed away.

If I feel dirty, I'll spray myself with baking soda water first.

I also brought some Dr Bronner soap just in case.  The liquid soap can be diluted so it's not expensive.  But I don't think I need it except for my face and neck area.

I think vinegar rinse on hair may be useful.  Acid can remove some oil (and dirt).  It can neutralize the residue baking soda in solution form absorbed at the scalp.  But it assumes leaving the hair slightly acidic is better than slightly alkaline.  But I don't want one more step everyday for the kids.  I also tried diluted lemon juice rinse.  I think there's some difference from vinegar.  Lemon juice is a lot easier and smells good.

My hair looks and feels great, and still do waking up in the morning.

Hair care update

I use 1 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of reverse osmosis water and put them in a large juice or milk bottle.  Then pour them into an old shampoo to apply to dry hair, until they are thoroughly wet.  You can dissolve a lot more soda but the taste is shockingly salty.  I don't suggest more concentrated solution because it's alkaline (base) after all.

I rinse with water thoroughly before vinegar rinse.  I don't use apple cider vinegar because I use white vinegar for clothes and white stuff is cheaper.  I mix 1/8 cup of vinegar to 1 cup of soft water.  This is mild enough not to stink your eyes.  Again I put the mixture in a large bottle and pour them into smaller shampoo bottles to rinse my hair.  In winter, you can make double concentrated solution and dilute with warm water when use. 

Always rinse thoroughly.  It's not a good idea to leave alkaline or acid in your scalp.

I've been using this for over a week and very happy with it.  I have to wash my hair because of the desert climate and to bring my hair strands down.  During wash, the hair felt a bit oily.  But when my hair is completely dry, it's the same feeling after I shampoo and then apply plenty of conditioner.  What a waste of time before.  The clean feeling last a day or may be too.  Since I have to wash hair everyday it's perfect.

You can't go wrong with baking soda because it's a deodorizing agent.  It can dissolve grease and calcium deposits.  I doubt if the vinegar does anything, but most people suggest that as rinse.  I read an article that the optimum hair condition is acidic.  That looks like a technical article.  It may be bluffing but as long as it has claims, somebody can fact check it sooner or later.  But I won't try to leave any trace on the hair.  Maintaining a certain pH without exact control of the amount of materials is tricky. 

The alternative to vinegar is citric acid.  It's a good chelating agent, meaning it can prevent calcium from depositing on your hair.  It won't have the vinegar smell.  You can get it in powder form or lemon juice.  I don't know how much to dilute them for use.  It could end up quite expensive than vinegar.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredients - oral

The two ingredients are of course baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  But using them carelessly you can do great harm to your teeth and gums.  Many commercial oral care products contain the same ingredients, safer, but not perfectly.  Some warned that you cannot use the whitening toothpaste for more than a week, and some cautions for whitening mouth wash.

I won't use dry baking soda to grind you teeth whiter.  It has to be a very precise process to avoid grinding your gums.  At most I would spread dry or paste baking soda on the surface of your teeth to apply them effectively, and make them wet for whatever cleaning effect they have on your teeth.

Or you can mix baking soda solution with glycerin so the paste can stay on your teeth, but all baking soda are dissolved.

Baking soda can remove water stains, which is calcium deposits.  But I doubt if it can dissolve your teeth away by just brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth.  There are whitening mouth rinse that contains baking soda.  The salty taste is a dead give away.  The concentration doesn't really matter as long as you rinse your mouth thoroughly after.

Baking soda will definitely whiten your teeth but a simple rinse could prevent your teeth from getting more and more stains.

Baking soda is slightly alkaline while sugar caused tooth decay is an acidic process.  It might protect your teeth against decay.  But I will still use a fluoride toothpaste for my kids as we don't drink fluoridated water, we have reverse osmosis.

Baking soda is a deodorizer, so it would help to combat bad breath.  Daily rinsing may cure bad breath.  For emergency I would rinse mouth with concentrated solution and then rinse thoroughly.  You can also work baking soda powder gently into the voids of your teeth, to go where your tooth brushed or flossing missed.  And rinse thoroughly.  Although baking soda is only slightly alkaline, I won't suggest to leave anything in your mouth.

Hydrogen peroxide attacks anything organic (living or once living) and then some.  Certainly it will remove most stains.  Certainly it will attack your gums and anywhere in your mouth.  You pay a lot of money at the dentist to protect your gums while remove stains in the most rapid way.  But a diluted mouth rinse should not cause any harm.  Indeed, 3% peroxide solutions are diluted with equal parts of water for mouth rinse, to reduce bad breath, for first aid, and to kill germs.

Somehow concentrated hydrogen peroxide can dig deep into your teeth around the gum line if you don't rinse after use.  So be very careful what you are using and following instructions.

I use daily a mouth rinse made up of at most 1/8 part of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution and 1 part water, saturated in baking soda.  That is suppose to reduce stains, kill germs, prevent tooth decay, and cure bad breath.

I suggest to use whitening tooth paste unless you are prepared to make your own "pure" toothpaste using glycerin.  If you want a boost, you can stick baking soda to your tooth paste.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredients - skin

For "body wash" I use the same thing as my "shampoo" - saturated baking soda solution in tap water, or the softest water you can get.  That's about one teaspoon per cup.

You can pour the solution on your body with an old body wash bottle.  Or you can simply put the baking soda into a bath.  First clean yourself with a little water in the bath, then add water to whatever level you desire.

I don't suggest to use another vinegar rinse as that's too much trouble with no reason.

I hope I don't need skin moisturizer in the long run, at least not everyday.

I suggest corn huskers lotion on a as needed basis or on trouble spots.  It solved all my skin troubles as the alcohol in it makes it medicated.  I use it for after shave, and moisturizer after I removed tough skin on my heel with "floating stone".  The formula has been used for just less than 100 years and all the common ingredients are said to be safe.

Some people suggest to use it for moisturizing your hair too.  But I use it on my scalp when there's something like an insect bite, or where there are some dry spots.

You may turn your solutions into lotions or gels if you mix glycerin with it.  You can make your body wash solution into something like body wash lotion.  It is easier to apply for kids and it can last for a week instead of a day or two.

Food grade glycerin is about 50 cents per oz online. You need to further dilute it into lotion. Glycerin is the main ingredient in corn huskers lotion, itself a good moisturizer and found in many personal care products and food as base.

I use it for the face too.  After washing I don't feel the face oily, nor dry.  But the oil free feeling don't last long, but not even the strongest face wash that I use last that long.  I repeat with the BS solution if I need to, or just wipe face with a wet towel.

For body scrub I sprinkle a little BS from a pepper bottle into my wet hands and rub it gently on my face or where it's needed.  Dry BS is very fine crystals and can cause fine scratch lines on glass when dry.  But it dissolves as soon as it touches water.  And it won't scratch your skin because the "floating stone" are many times tougher than that.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredents - hair

I have sensitive and problematic skin so I had tried a lot of things.  My recent experience of cleaning triggered me to research on cleaning myself, with safe and effective ingredients that I already have.

I use the most thick moisturizing body wash and that is not enough.  To sustain problem skin I need to cover myself with a good body moisturizer. 

After shampooing, I must use good conditioner or my hair will go crazy.

All these doesn't make any sense to me.  After I stripped my hair and skin of body oil, I reapply something else to re-moisturize my body.

So I found some common natural personal care routines that I can use.  I will concentrate on the simplicity of the process, the chemistry, and the safety.

For hair "shampoo" I use 2 cup of reverse osmosis water and saturate it with baking soda in a measuring cup.  That means roughly two teaspoons of baking soda dissolving in very soft water.  Then I pour the solution into an empty shampoo container and use it to apply to my dry hair thoroughly in the bathroom.  Then rinse THOROUGHLY before next step.

Over saturating the solution with baking soda probably won't do much.  If the solution don't have enough cleaning power you are the first one to know.  You aim to rinse off thoroughly so the concentration of the solution isn't critical.  You can use tap water.  But soft water itself cleans by dissolving hard deposits, and it dissolves more baking soda.  Baking soda also may have softening effects as in commercial softeners, where calcium (in water) is replaced by sodium (in Baking soda) and then extracted somewhat.  That's why people should not drink softened water, especially those who need to watch sodium intake. 

For the "conditioner" I use apple cider vinegar.  I dilute an oz or two of vinegar with reverse osmosis water in a measuring cup, giving the water pale colour but not too smelly in the bathroom.  Then I pour the solution into another bottle for use in the bathroom.  Apply to wet hair thoroughly and then rinse THOROUGHLY.

You can use white vinegar but the smell is stronger.  The two solution aren't really shampoo and conditioner as such, but the concept is never to mix them together.  They will start off a famous chemical reaction forming carbon dioxide bubbles and a temporary acid.  It may be good for carpet stains but not a good idea on your head.

Baking soda is a deodorizer and eatable, so it's fail safe.  You don't need to smell your own hair to be sure that it doesn't stink.   BS can remove grease and water scale effectively.  I would think the vinegar is optional.  But a lot of people tested it and it shouldn't cause any harm.  BS is slightly alkaline and vinegar is acidic.  So it may be cleaning in different ways.  Keep them on the dead hair and you won't go wrong.

As for the problem of dandruff, I suggest you do more research before trying.  I have no worries as my best shampoo and best conditioner still leave me with dandruff.  Every week or two I need to use medicated tar shampoo to treat my hair.  It isn't really treat but just a quick wash.  But I bet in my case it's drying of the skin under the hair so my alternative hair cleaning shouldn't get any worse.  I hope it gets better without stripping the oils everyday.  I tried other dandruff shampoo but they don't clean that good or the hair don't feel that good.

I'm happy with the effect so far, but not a long term test.  Your hair don't feel so clean during the washing, because you aren't removing all the oil.  After natural drying, my hair feels like I shampooed and conditioned as before.  So what a waste of time before.  It feels a little sticky at the end of day, but I have to wash my hair everyday because of the weather.

I have tried on kids very long hair.  It doesn't tangle that much without stripping the oil.  But it's not a long term test either.

For me the preparation is easy.  I just go to the kitchen and use the same measuring cup I use for cooking.  It's easier then making coffee.  And you can make more to use for a few more days.  For the whole family you may want to use two large milk bottles, put them high up in the shower, and fit taps on them.