Selling my soapy soaps!

Made in Brighton from olive oil and other natural ingredients.  All soaps I make are derived from natural sources and therefore contain no chemical nasties.  They are biodegradable, so your wash water becomes more earth friendly.  Olive oil is also good for all skin types but is particularly suitable for those suffering from eczema, sensitive or dry skin because instead of irritating damaged skin it soothes and moisturizes.  Each bar has its own qualities as well.



Milk soap is known for making skin smoother.

Orange juice soap acts as a natural astringent and therefore as toning qualities.

Peppermint is ever refreshing.

Chamomile leaves skin feeling clean.

I have loads of soap to off load. I started making them as a hobby.  It was a dangerous hobby because I still have a mountain of soaps.   Links to ebay listings below if anyone's interested.

Milk soap
Peppermint soap
Orange Soap 
Chamomile Soap

Shaving the electricity bill

Those costs just keep rising.  It is getting harder then ever to prevent the money from leaving our pockets. I've complied a list of ways in which to save on your electricity bills.  Some require money, so require none.  Hopefully there will be a suggestion here everyone can use.  Of course, if anyone has suggestions to add, feel free to leave a comment.

1)  If it's not at use, the object goes off at the wall.  Most important tip there can be - as this automatically cuts down on consumption.

2)  Question whether you need to run the item or not. eg. tumble dryer - Clothes will dry just as well on a clothes line or an airier.  Vacuums - do you need to vacuum?  On hard floors sweeping is just as effective.  We have so many electrical appliances at our disposal, quite often we forget that there are other ways of getting things done.

3)  See what other companies are offering to sell kilowatt hours at.  Do your research, the quickest way to a lower bill is to switch to a cheaper Company.  A note of warning however, make sure you do your research on the companies reputation as well.  The last thing you need is to end up in a  contract with a cowboy company.

4) See what alternatives you can get hold off.  Solar power generators are quite easy to get a hold of and will run quite a lot of you electrical appliances if it is placed in sufficient sunlight.

*  If you own your own property it is well worth seeing what alternatives you can have installed on your land.   Solar power is good by wind turbines can be better.

5)  Make sure your property is well insulated and that windows are thickly glazed.  These will cut down on the cost of heating/air conditioning.

6)  Heating or cooling your property/room.  Have your heater set to the lowest temperature you can stand and rug up.  Conversely, set your air conditioning unit to 25 degrees and find other ways of keeping cool.

7) Moderate the temperature of your bathes/showers and use less water.  The less water used and the lower the temperature you desire the water to reach, the less electricity is used heating the water.

8) Upgrade any electrical appliances to newer appliance with good energy use ratings.  The older alliances and electrical are the less energy efficient that are likely to be.  Items made in the last decade have had to pass much stricter codes then their predecessors.  Again this an area in which you will want to do your research.  Just because it's new does not mean it is the better option.

9) Upgrade all your light bulb to more energy saving versions.

Water Conservation.

Simple tips for saving water and reducing environmental harm.

Water is a vital part of our life.  We drink it, we cook with it, we wash and clean with it, and flush it down our dunnies.  However the problem, is not how we use it, but the state we leave our water in when we flush it back into the environment.  Each year the cost of producing clean drinking water increases, thanks as much to consumption as to environmental contamination.  Now there are a lot of plumbing feature that could be installed to save water.  The problem there is not everyone can afford to make these changes.  This said there are a lot of changes that we can make to the way in which we use water that will reduce usage and environmental impact.

These are some of the ways we can help:

1) Toilet. Don't flush the loo so often - urine sitting in the toilet will not do any harm.  Depending on the size of the cistern, each flush can use anything from 5-13 liters per flush.  This is 5 days worth of drinkable water that is go straight down the drain, since we do not use gray water systems.
2) Bathing.  Avoid using the shower if possible or switch the shower on and off as necessary.  Showers can use 158liters in a 10minute period.  Rinsing, at most, takes a minute.  Arguable, depending on the volume of a bath, less is used in a bath tub.
3) Dishwashing.  If you leave the rinse tap running as you wash dishes, then using a dishwasher can actually reduce water consumption if the dishwasher is run when full.  However, if you have only one sink in which to do dishes, it is best to fill up a bucket or tub with hot water in order to rinse the dishes, rather then rinsing the dishes under a running tap.  I always found this idea of rinsing dishes under a running tap laughable until i had to deal with only have a single sink in the kitchen.
4) Laundry.  It is very had to cut water consumption here.  This first tip is to make sure loads are always full and always run on economy settings.  There, of course, is the option of hand-washing.  However, that would be a long, difficult process.

The above tips only tackle water consumption, however we face the bigger problem of environmental contamination of the water we do use.  These are a few ways to reduce the environmental impact:

1) Bathing.  A lot of the chemicals we use to clean our hair, skin, teeth, ect. are all damaging to the environment and make it difficult to clean water for further use.  We can switch to more environmentally friendly brands that are made from organic components which actually break down naturally.
2) Cleaning.  Culturally, we tend to be on the ocd side when it comes to cleanly homes.  All the products we use to clean our house are not chemicals we want released into our drinking water.  It is very easy to switch to more friendly solutions.  A good brand is Ecover.  The company produces everything from toilet cleaner to laundry liquid and dishwasher tablets.  It is well worth investing in cleaning solutions that bio degrade naturally.