Got milk? You don’t have to just drink it. 

Love it or hate it, milk has a place not only in your diet but also in your tool box and cleaning closet as well as among your toiletries. Raw goat milk, in its unadulterated and probiotic-heavy state, is the best to use. But seeing that unpasteurized milk is outlawed for sale almost everywhere in the U.S., pasteurized goat milk is second best. While not all milks are created equally, you can use any animal milk to successfully benefit from these tips. From curing a hangover to tending to those stained linens, milk has got your back.

Appetite Suppressant

To prevent overeating at mealtime, drink a glass of milk 15 minutes beforehand. Milk fills you up and gives you enough protein – 1 cup of non-fat milk contains 8.26 grams of protein – to keep you feeling fuller and less inclined to go overboard when food is served.

Hair Conditioner and Mask

With its vitamin and mineral content, milk works great on smoothing and shining your hair. Rinse your hair with fresh milk and let it sit wet for a few minutes before rinsing with water. You could also mix powdered milk with water to form a paste and then comb through hair, letting it to sit for at least 5 minutes before washing out.

Hangover Cure

Milk helps to settle the stomach, rehydrate the system, and raise blood sugar levels. These make it a great morning-after hangover cure. Additionally, milk contains the amino acid cysteine, which is known to neutralize a lethal dose of acetaldehyde, which is an alcohol metabolite.

Fish Freshener

Place frozen fish in a milk bath and let sit until the fish thaws. The milk makes the fish taste fresher.

Make-Up Remover

Mix powdered milk with water until a paste forms. Apply the paste to skin to remove make up. Rinse thoroughly.

Crack Eliminator

Before you toss Grandma’s beloved china, enlist milk to the rescue! The protein in milk reacts with the mineral kaolin in china to close cracks. All you have to do is place china in a pan, cover it with milk, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer for up to an hour.

Silverware Polisher

For glistening silverware, take advantage of milk gone sour. Simply soak silverware in sour milk, cover it completely, and let it soak over night. The next day, wash the silverware as you normally would. If the milk isn’t sour already and you want to make your own, for every cup of milk, mix in one tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of vinegar and let it sit for five minutes before use.

Bug Bite Soother

Mix milk powder with enough water until it resembles a paste. Apply the paste to the area affected by the insect bite to relieve pain. The enzymes in the milk will neutralize the venom.

Facial Cleanser and Mask

Milk is a natural cleanser. It contains vitamin A, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins B6 and B12. The alpha-hydroxy acids in milk exfoliate the skin, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and discoloration. Use a cotton ball to dab milk all across your face. Let it sit for a few minutes and then wash with water before moisturizing. For a mask, take 1/4 cup powdered milk and add enough water until it becomes a paste. Mix thoroughly and apply to the face. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before rinsing.

Ink Remover

To remove ink from clothing, take the affected garment and soak it in a milk bath overnight. The next day, wash the garment as usual. The stain should be gone. To boost the milk’s effectiveness, mix two parts milk with one part vinegar as the soaking solution.

Body Skin Moisturizer

The butterfat in milk moisturizes the skin. And because the pH of milk is close to the skin’s natural pH, the skin is more receptive to the moisturizing effects of the milk. Pour a few cups of fresh milk or 1/2 cup powdered milk into your bathtub, Cleopatra style.

Dry Hands Softener

To relieve dry and chafed hands, rinse them in milk a few times a day. Over the course of a week or two, your hands will begin to feel softer and less Winter rough.

Leather Cleaner

Dab worn or dirty leather with milk and buff until clean. The milk removes debris and leaves the leather shiny and looking brand new.

Corn on the Cob Flavor Booster

Boil corn with some milk in the water – about 1/2 cup – and the corn’s sweetness will heighten and its flavors will become more developed.

Shaving Cream Replacement

Run out of shaving cream? Nothing powdered milk and water can’t fix. Mix enough water with powdered sugar to produce a paste. Apply the paste to your face, underarms, and legs and shave. This simple concoction is smooth enough to resemble the real thing.

Poison Ivy Soother

To reduce the itch from an unintended stroll through a poison ivy bush, dab fresh milk or a powdered milk and water paste on the affected area. The milk will reduce the itchiness, redness, and irritation.

Sunburn Soother

Delicately pat sunburned skin with fresh milk. The milk cools the burn and the enzymes in the milk help to offset the pain.

Fertilizer

A tip from farmers and seasoned gardeners themselves – use milk as a fertilizer. Milk has been used as an organic fungicide and fertilizer without harming the plant.

Furniture Polisher

Sour milk makes for a great furniture polisher. Apply sour milk to furniture surfaces through a disposable spray bottle and wipe clean. You can also make your own sour milk, outlined above.

Milk Carton Bird Feeder

No, we didn’t forget about offering you a way to re-use the milk carton! Here is a tutorial on how to turn the carton into a bird feeder.

Images: Muffet, Striatic, Sshreeves, Jenny Downing, Gagstreet, Markusram, Robert Benner, The Living Room

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“˜Tis the season for bikinis, tank tops and baring it all. And yes, while some of our serious sisters will eschew shaving altogether, many of us will be reaching for recyclable razors. But how to get the best summertime shave with said razors? Let’s look at how to get the best shave via blade.

First, you can check out our review of some of the best natural and/or organic shaving products for women. (Men, don’t worry, we have products for you as well.) When you look for shaving products, pick products that contain ingredients like aloe vera, avocado oil, chamomile, green tea, Echinacea, rosemary, shea butter, vitamin E oil. These natural products can often be found in organic form – even better! And (un)naturally, you want to avoid common ingredients in shaving creams such as benzocaine, DEA (Dietanolamine), petroleum, parabens, stearic acid, and more.

Before shaving, consider scrubbing up with a good exfoliating soap. The same goes for your bikini line, but be careful of too many suds near your delicate parts. Some soap contains fragrances which can irritate. So once or twice a week, scrub up with to remove dead skin cells. This will rouse your hair closer to the surface and make it easier to shave. Have a look at these exfoliating soaps from Alpine Naturals.

For the ultimate in at-home spa pampering, soak in a bath of warm water. You can even wet a couple of wash cloths with warm water to drape over your legs. Leave the wash cloths on for several minutes and then apply your shaving cream. To avoid ingrown hairs, be sure to shave in the same direction of your hair growth.

Want to make your own aftershave? Take one teaspoon dried chamomile, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of ginger, and one tablespoon of vodka. Bring one cup of water to a boil. Add the chamomile, ginger and cinnamon. Steep for eight minutes and strain. Mix with vodka and chill. Spritz or swab all over your shaved parts with a clean cotton pad.

Image: suzettesuzette

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The Greenest: Dr. Bronner’s Tea Tree Organic Fair Trade Shaving Soap Gel
This product has a fantastic tea tree smell. It is also the greenest of the bunch. It’s a gel, so there’s no real foam action going. But it does give a close, moisturized shave. Dr Bronner’s points out that this product is certified by the same National Organic Program that certifies food. Free of synthetic ingredients, this product is USDA Organic, Certified Fair Trade and cruelty-free.

The Best Smell: Nature’s Gate Creamy Cucumber and Mint Shave Gel
This cream is very fresh with a light peppermint smell. It’s clean smelling, and not overpowering or perfume-like. There wasn’t much lather to it, but it gives a smooth, very close shave. The only downside was that it was hard to get off. As our tester tells it, “I actually had to wash my face. Usually, I just wipe off shaving cream with a towel. But maybe that’s why it worked so well.” This product is certified organic by Quality Assurance International, Oregon Tilth and more. It is also certified vegan and cruelty free.

And the other good stuff”¦.

Depth Bay Coconut Shave Cream
This has an interesting, almost fruity scent. (Which makes it a good cross-over product for women.) It’s highly moisturizing after shaving and does allow for a close shave. This product is 70% organic, contains 100% natural aroma blend, and it is free of artificial colors and SLS. It is also 100% vegetarian.

Burt’s Bees Natural Shave Cream
Our tester was ambivalent on this product. It is musky but not too heavy. It goes on creamy but doesn’t provide the closest of shaves. My tester protested that he had to shave every day, as opposed to every other, when he used this product. 100% natural but not organic, the product contains anti-inflammatory calendula. It is free of SLSs, parabens, and phthalates, and it is also cruelty-free. For $8, it’s a good bang for your buck. Not to mention, the tube is 23% post consumer recycled material.

Burt’s Bees also has an aftershave which gets high marks from the girlfriends of our testers. Frankly, it smells great. It is ph balanced and free of parabens and phthalates.

JASONS All Natural Shaving Lotion
Unfortunately, this product didn’t fare as well as some of the others. Our tester found it grainy and seedy which wasn’t a great texture for getting a smooth shave. Also, it needed a large amount to lather properly. In fact, it hurt and wasn’t a smooth shave at all. This is because it is soap-free and propellant-free and contains several naturally sourced ingredients.

Kiss My Face Cool Mint Moisture Shave
This cream suds up rather nicely, which allows a closer shave than some of the other brands. It contains no animal ingredients, artificial colors, or unnecessary chemicals. It was smooth, easy to lather and left my face feeling fresh. As our tester tells it, “it has me look forward to my next shave!” It is not organic and by no means the “greenest” of the bunch – but does contain natural olive and coconut oils.

Avalon Organics Peppermint Moisturizing Shave Cream
This product has a yummy, minty scent and goes on like a cream. It contains organic extracts of calendula, chamomile and green tea, with organic aloe, organic sunflower and flax oils. It is free of parabens, preservatives and grapefruit seed extract with 100% vegetarian ingredients. It is not USDA Organic, but it is certified organic with Oregon Tilth, among others.

Jurlique Purifying Foaming Cleanser
Jurlique recommends this product for after shaving. My testers tried it out and felt it just worked better as a straight up cleanser, not noticing any particular “after shaving” benefits. It has a very subtle floral scent. It’s pricey at $40 a bottle, but a little does go a long way. It contains several natural ingredients that come from the Jurlique sustainably farmed compound in South Australia.

Triple Razor by Preserve
This 100% recycled razor of #5 plastic has a reusable handle that is partially made from Stoneyfield yogurt cups. (It is also compatible with Personna® Acti-Flexx® and Gillette® Sensor® blades.) It’s durable and the maneuverable razor performs a close shave. It gets high marks and is worth the $8.95 for an original razor.

The post For the Guys: Best Natural and Organic Shaving Products appeared first on EcoSalon.

After checking out a few of the greener products on the market, it’s clear that many of us have been short-changing our shaving experience. After all, shaving cream is intended to prevent razor burn. But traditional creams usually involve a mixture of oil, surfactants and alcohol. No thanks!

The first natural shaving creams were made of wood alkali and animal fat. But we’ve come a long way, baby! Recently, I had the opportunity to check out some excellent girl-friendly eco-products designed to green up our hair removal regimes. And here’s what I found”¦

Triple Razor by Preserve

This 100% recycled razor of #5 plastic has a reusable handle that is partially made from Stoneyfield yogurt cups. (It is also compatible with Personna® Acti-Flexx® and Gillette® Sensor® blades.) It’s durable and the maneuverable razor performs a close shave, which is nice for certain arm-pitty areas on the body. I give it high marks and found it worth the $8.95 for an original razor.

Whish Pomegranate Shave Cream

This product smells yummy – it has an “easy” fruit scent few are going to dislike. It goes on smoothly and produces a knick-free shave. But there’s a definite waxy, sticky residue left over that actually dulled my new pedicure polish. It is free of parabens, petrochemicals, sulfates, DEA and TEAs. It also contains natural and organic ingredients and they use eco-friendly packaging. (No animal testing at Whish, either.)

Whish Hair Inhibiting Gel

This has a lovely almond scent and it felt cool and refreshing on my newly-shaved skin. But does it inhibit growth? I sampled it for two weeks, as did another green girl. At press time we were, ahem, not noticing any less hair growth. However, it does get high marks as a straight up moisturizer. Like the shave cream, it is free of parabens, petrochemicals, sulfates, DEA and TEAs.

Avalon Organics Lavender Moisturizing Shave Cream

This product contains organic extracts of calendula, chamomile and green tea, with organic aloe, organic sunflower and flax oils. It has a nice scent and goes on like a cream. It is free of parabens, preservatives and grapefruit seed extract with 100% vegetarian ingredients. It is not USDA Organic, but it is certified organic with Oregon Tilth, among others.

Kiss My Face Peaches and Cream Moisture Shave

This is certainly very peachy and creamy – using it is almost like eating a sundae, but without the guilt. And it suds up rather nicely, which allows a closer shave than some of the other brands. It contains no animal ingredients, artificial colors, or harsh chemicals. It is not organic and is by no means the “greenest” of the bunch – but does contain natural olive and coconut oils.

EOs Ultra Moisturizing Shave Cream

If you like perfumed products, you will like this cream. And if you’re using it for hard-to-reach spots, it can be a good choice. But it was a bit too strongly scented for my tastes. It’s non-foaming, paraben-free, and contains natural aloe and shea butter. It is not organic, unfortunately.

Erbaviva Organic Bath Oil
And when you’re done? This Erbaviva bath oil is actually a great way to keep your gams as moisturized as possible. (You can also use olive oil!) It is made from organic carrier oils with a blend of organic and wild crafted essential oils of grapefruit, orange and jasmine. It does keep you hydrated and the smell is to die for, (as in, it’s lovely). And it is USDA Organic.

The post Looking for a Clean, Green Shave? Best Nontoxic and Organic Shaving Products appeared first on EcoSalon.