Vermont Soap
Environmental journalist and blogger, Debra Atlas writes: Cold winter weather wreaks havoc with our skin. Over the years I’ve tried numerous remedies — from moisturizing skin lotions to using mayonnaise for dry cracked hands. Thankfully, I’ve found better, healthier solutions. Vermont Soapworks, whose organic products I’ve profiled before, has a great solution to help heal dry winter skin. Its Shea Butter Bar, a moisturizing bath and body bar, is made from a base of organic oils such as palm, coconut, olive and palm kernel and raw shea nut butter. Read the article here.
You may consider yourself an expert on alcohol and experiment with it daily. But did you know that TOPICAL alcohol must always be poisoned before it is bottled and used? Recreational drinking alcohol or ethanol is a huge source of tax income for Federal and State Governments and is taxed accordingly. But when alcohol is for EXTERNAL use only, it is taxed at a substantially lower rate. External use ethanol is usually sold as Rubbing Alcohol. In order to make sure that the alcohol cannot be used internally it must be poisoned first. This is called denaturing the alcohol, and…
Vermont Soap makes the list on Organic Eater’s “Top 12 List of Things to Buy” VERMONT SOAP ORGANICS is my absolute favorite soap now! They have completely won me and my family over! The Lemongrass Zen is THE best smelling lemongrass scented soap we have ever found! Lemongrass is our family favorite, and this one smells divine, and makes the kitchen sink area smell so good. Another reason we LOVE this soap is because of the way it feels. I know that sounds weird, and it’s very difficult to explain in this post, but when you try it you will immediately…
Vermont Soap’s organic palm oil supplier – Agropalma Brazil – scored at the very top on Greenpeace’s Palm Oil Producers’ scorecard. Click here for more information.
Presented by Larry Plesent and Sandy Lincoln with assistance from Ezra Nkrumah This manual was created based on experience in the field at Asawinso Village, Western Region, Ghana, with the Asawinso Cooperative Oil Palm Millers Association (COPAMA), and sponsored by Self-Help Foundation, Winrock International, SHOPS Liberia, ACDI/VOCA and USAID. This manual is intended as a guide to the creation of a village-based liquid and bar soap operation; basically a small factory. All equipment is made from generally available materials and all ingredients are locally sourced. It is most important that the group learn to approach this endeavor with a spirit…
Just below the Great Sahara Desert lies a broad swath of the African Savannah lands. Outside of the rainy season, this is one of the harshest, driest, dustiest places on earth. Brutal sun, wind, and the Hamatan dust take a terrible toll to exposed skin. Women of this region long ago learned how to extract an oil from the kernel of the nut of the Shea tree. Because it is solid at room temperature this became know as shea butter. While most people use shea butter as a valuable food oil, a few women and men began rubbing it into…
Previous “Ingredient of the Month” columns have focused on topical ingredients to avoid, generally petrochemical based materials and specific preservatives like Triclosan ™ and Butyl Parabens. Let’s talk some GOOD ingredients to look for, like plant-based vegetable oils. Remember; “Good ingredients” are non-irritating, healing; renewable/plant based and remain stable in product formulations. Some oils are solid at room temperature; we call them stearins or butters. Shea butter, coco butter, pig fat (if that is all you have); you get the idea. These oils melt when applied to skin and help to keep one smooth skinned and young looking. In Africa,…
Our organic foaming soap was awarded the These Are Great Seal of Approval! The combination in this foaming organic soap makes your skin soft and best of all, you are not using anything toxic! You clean all of the germs away with the best organic ingredients. The foam was a lovely addition to the excellent product and we loved the size of the container as well. You can purchase refills so that makes it economical too. You and your kids will love both the fresh scent and the foam. It makes cleaning your hands fun.
And today’s secret ingredient is….Everything made from petroleum! Oils are mostly carbon and chemists know that carbon is carbon is carbon- wherever it comes from. So why is that if I rub vegetable oil on my skin for 20 years I will have soft, healthy, young looking skin; but if I rub diesel fuel oil on skin for 20 years I will be at a high risk for cancer? To answer this and other of Life’s poignant scientific questions I went crabbing with Mark Doughty. Mark is a scientist trained in chemistry and biology. Luckily he lives right up the…
Take a look at the ingredients in your shampoo right now, even those touted as “natural”. Chances are the of those ingredients is DEA or Diethanolamine. This foaming chemical is found in combination with fatty acids (bits of oil molecules) as cocoamide DEA, lauramide DEA, and also as TEA (triethanolalamine) etc. DEA is yet another common shampoo ingredient that can dramatically increase your risk of cancer. It is part of the SLS, DEA cocobetaine detergent combination that forms the base for almost 90% of the cosmetic foaming products, and is uses both in shampoos and non-organic bodywashes. There is some…
