A pure soap BAR is the best soap choice for the skin and for the environment. You may prefer a liquid. Pump. Squirt. Scrub. Rinse. No mess. "Are bars not passé?" you ask.  And heaven forbid if you have to use the same soap bar as a stranger. But before you toss the bar idea, you need to know the difference between a liquid and a bar and between a soap and a detergent.  Real soap is natural.  Detergent is synthetic. Detergents became popular during and after the world wars, when animal and vegetable fats were in short supply and chemists were forced to use substances that were not all natural…

My two boys are 12 and 13 years old, and they are the rough and tumble type... especially my youngest. He has always been quite competitive with his older brother and all of his older brother's friends. He's spent most of his life keeping up, keeping active and being physical. I am the type of mother who says things like, "The dirtier you get, the more fun you're having", "Who needs shoes when you're running through the forest climbing trees?", and "Sure, you can climb off the balcony to the tree and up to the top." I can be over-protective in many ways, but when it comes to moving your body…

Perfect, natural oils can transform your skin.They are becoming the rage in our cosmetic world. In the past, they were touted as a no-no.  The reverting back to natural.When synthetics hit the market, synthetic oils became part of the package.  Minerals oils are comedogenic meaning they can clog and block the pores. Not a good thing.When we believed the adage “Don’t wear oils on your skin’, we tossed all oils, opting for the creams and other blends being offered on the market. MOSTLY SYNTHETIC.  But now we understand that natural oils do not clog the pores.  Oils contain fatty acids A healthy…

Lemongrass Essential Oil. The real thing, not the synthetic version. Fresh. Citrus blossom scent. Magic in every drop.  Added to a favourite carrier oil, or to a blend like our lavender linen spray satisfies many needs.   A customer called recently to share her experience with our lemongrass.  “I’ve experimented a little with your wonderful products. After stopping by your store and speaking to your staff (son-in-law) about adding Lemongrass to a few of your products I gave it a try.  I added several drops of Lemongrass Essential Oil to your Zinc Oxide while on holiday and it worked like a…

Sometimes two products work so well together it is shame to keep them apart.  Such is our emu neem soap and our organic rosewater facial toner.  A clean. A fresh. Our emu neem soap was one of the first products we made back in the early part of this century! We had just discovered emu oil and its phenomenal properties and were determined to make a healthy soap alternative to what was the common and popular liquid soaps on the market.  It was a ‘going back to the basics idea’ which is, of course, becoming more and more attractive to many. Laura was one of our first customers to try the soap.…

Take a venture with me, to my first balcony garden in celebration of Earth Day! Many years ago I built an entire vegetable garden all by my-small-self. Three tiered. Stones for stepping. The whole shebang. And did I mention it was my first gardening experience? Go big or go home, right? I was an all-or-nothing type of character, and in the end it was just too much. I started by digging up a huge patch of grass in my yard with a mere shovel. I rented a tiller to turn up the dirt. If you have ever used one of these massive machines, you know the sheer power and vibration. My arms were sore for…

Awww fingernails.  We may love ‘em or hate ‘em, whether long, short, stubby, split, oval, square, pitted, spooned, flawed or perfect. But no matter our relationship with our nails, they are necessary appendages and they do tell us something. Adding the toenails, we have 20 digits to care for. Have you ever lost a big toe nail by severely stubbing it, dropping something on it or even running a marathon? Running this long distance might be compared to stubbing a toe, where the nail is temporarily deprived of the blood flow, oxygen and the nutrition it needs to be healthy.  Thankfully, it grows…

Decision Fatigue  It's a real thing, and I am certain we all have it. Brains get tired. Decisions expend mental energy, reducing our ability to think straight. And since life is about choices, I wish I didn't have so many on a daily basis. I feel like an exceeding number of products are accumulating around me like an exponentially multiplying bacteria impeding my view on the rest of the world! Eggs alone. Organic, free run, free range, omega, cage-free, pasture-raised, humanly-raised, local, farmers-market, veggie-fed! Come on, seriously? Am I the only one who finds this overwhelming? It's…