DIY: How to make your own natural deodorant at home

Did you know you can make your own deodorant? It’s not difficult, and you can save money over buying pricey natural deodorants. Best of all, you can mix and match essential oils to create a scent that you really love (or make it unscented). Whether you have sensitive skin or you’re just picky about body care products, making your own natural deodorant is a fun and easy DIY project you can complete in under an hour.

Step One: Gather your materials

Most of the ingredients listed below are available in the bulk purchase area of natural food stores or co-ops, as well as online. There are a few ingredients below that can be swapped out, though doing so may slightly change the color, texture, or scent of your deodorant. The recipe listed below makes one batch of deodorant – simply double or triple the recipe to make a larger batch, create different scents, or to share.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil

1 Tablespoon Shea Butter (or Cocoa Butter)

1 Tablespoon Baking Soda

1 Tablespoon Arrowroot Powder (or cornstarch)

1 Teaspoon Bentonite Cosmetic Clay (or kaolin)

6 Drops Essential Oil – we used Lavender and Tea Tree

Tools:

Measuring spoons

Mixing spoons

Small bowl

Small jar or tub to store deodorant in

Step Two: Measure coconut oil

Measure out one tablespoon of coconut oil and, if it is hardened, mash it in the mixing bowl.

RELATED: How to make a summery coconut-sea salt lip scrub

Step Three: Measure shea butter

Measure one tablespoon of room-temperature shea butter into the bowl and mix it well with the coconut oil. You may substitute room-temperature cocoa butter as well, but it will have a stronger scent. Shea and cocoa butters are a bit harder than coconut oil at room temperature and will help stabilize the deodorant mixture.

Step Three: Add baking soda

Measure out and add one tablespoon of baking soda.

Step Four: Add arrowroot starch

Measure out and add one tablespoon of arrowroot starch. This rather unusual ingredient can be found in some larger natural food stores or bulk co-ops, as well as online. If you can’t find any, you can also substitute cornstarch, though its absorptive properties may be slightly lower.

RELATED: DIY homemade insect repellent sprays and lotions

Step Five: Add clay powder

Measure out and add one teaspoon of finely ground cosmetic clay (bentonite or kaolin – found in the bulk or body care section of a natural foods market). Thoroughly mix the deodorant into a thick paste, making sure there are no lumps.

Step Six: Add essential oils

Add six drops of your favorite essential oil. We used a blend of 3 drops of tea tree oil for its antibacterial properties and astringent odor, in addition to 3 drops of lavender oil for its soothing aroma.

Step Seven: Jar it

Use a spoon or butter knife to scrape the deodorant into a small jar or other container. You can leave it at room temperature in your bathroom. To apply, simply swipe two or three fingers across the surface of the deodorant and gently rub it into your armpits after a shower. You can put some into a smaller container for travel as well. If you’ve been using commercial aluminum deodorants, you may notice more wetness, but give it a week for your body to adjust. The essential oil blend serves as a deodorant, and the baking soda, arrowroot starch, and clay serve to prevent and absorb perspiration.

All photos by Emily Peckenham for Inhabitat

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Chicago drinking fountains have been running non-stop for months, and the reason why is infuriating

For the past few months, drinking fountains in Chicago have been running non-stop because the water pipes there contains “dangerously high” lead levels. Ingesting excess levels of lead  (and just to be clear, health officials say no amount of lead exposure is safe) can cause symptoms such as constipation, vomiting, developmental disabilities, hyperactivity, irritability, insomnia and memory loss. So to address the issue, the city has simply disabled the “push” buttons to let the fountains flow freely, reducing the hazardous levels of lead that actually make it into the water.

In April of 2016, WBEZ began investigating the suspicious act of allowing the faucets to flow freely. This week, investigative journalists finally received answers. Reportedly, 450 Chicago park fountains contain “dangerously high” lead levels — with some spouting water with levels 80 times higher than the EPA limit. As a result of the action taken, 450 fountains met EPA standards. However, 107 were still contaminated with lead, which is why officials plan to keep them flowing until mid-fall. An additional 100 or so will be running round-the-clock for “spring flushing” to clear the pipes after winter.

While a temporary solution has been found, one cannot ignore the environmental travesty which is occurring by allowing hundreds of faucets to flow freely for not just days, but months on end. For every spigot that is left on, nearly 600 gallons of drinking water are wasted each day. It’s exactly because of this expense that Chicago spent hundreds of thousands of dollars installing on-and-off buttons on the fountains in 2003. Unfortunately, city officials did not plan for lead contamination.

Related: Abandoned fountain transformed into a pop-up urban spa in Mexico

For now, district officials say they will continue testing and monitoring mountains throughout the summer with rapid detection tests. Fountains that are found to contain high levels of lead will have their samples followed up with additional lab analyses. All in all, plan on packing some purified, spring water if you intend on visiting a Chicago park in the near future.

Via WBEZ

Images via Pixabay and Deposit Photos

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HuskeeCup is an eco-friendly cup made entirely from coffee waste

HuskeeCup isn’t your typical cup for joe. Reusable, recyclable, and chip-resistant, the ceramic alternative is made entirely from discarded coffee husk, a byproduct of the milling stage of java production that has scant economic value. The average coffee fiend is responsible for the annual production of some 6.6 pounds of husk waste, according to HuskeeTech, the Australian company that developed the cup. Globally, this translates to more than 1.35 million tons of husk waste every year.

HuskeeTech is fresh off a successful campaign on Kickstarter, where it raised nearly $91,000 in funds for an initial manufacturing run of cups.

Related: Edible Scoff-ee cups let you have your coffee and eat it too

Saxon Wright, a co-founder of the firm, is intimately familiar with the problem of husk waste. As part owner of Pablo & Rusty’s Coffee Roasters, a coffee supplier based in New South Wales, Wright encounters an abundance of husk waste each harvest season.

“With mountains of beautiful organic material piling up around us and no sustainable way to deal with it, we asked ourselves the question, ‘What can we do with this?'” he wrote on Kickstarter.

After consulting with industrial designers and engineers, Wright realized coffee husk had a number of desirable qualities, such as the ability to retain heat. A number of prototypes later, the HuskeeCup was born.

Designed to last for years, the HuskeeCup doesn’t just do good but it looks good, too. It’s available in several sizes and features an elegant pleated design, a one-size-fits-all saucer for dining in, and a universal lid for carrying out. Bonus: You can toss it in the dishwasher during cleanup.

HuskeeTech is far from finished. Wright and company have plans, for instance, to eventually use carbon-capturing microbes to produce the bio-polymer that binds the husk material.

But even as it stands, HuskeeCup is taking a big bite out of waste.

“By using coffee husk in the creation of HuskeeCup, we are recycling hundreds of tons of waste material from the production of coffee,” Wright said. “Our dream is to realize sustainability for cafés and home users while achieving zero waste at the farm. HuskeeCup is the first step in fulfilling this mission.”

+ HuskeeCup

[Via Springwise]

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Salvaged materials from devastating fire take new life in a British pier

A British seaside pier destroyed by a devastating fire in 2010 has made an incredible comeback in the hands of dRMM Architects. After a seven-year process, the century-old pier in Hastings, England was transformed from its decrepit and dangerous state to a vibrant new public space clad in reclaimed materials. Crafted in collaboration with the community, the Hastings Pier is an inspiring story of sustainable restoration and craft, earning it a place on the shortlist for the 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize, UK’s top architecture award.

Originally constructed in 1872 and later topped with a pavilion that survived until the fire, the Hastings Pier enjoyed its heyday as an entertainment destination in the 1930s but later fell into disrepair and ultimately closed in recent decades due to neglect. Rather than restore the Victorian pier to its original design, drMM wanted to craft a pier better suited to the 21st century and focused on designing an attractive multipurpose space with few buildings. The architects not only redesigned the pier, but also wrote the brief and helped raise funds with the Heritage Lottery Fund that paid for structural repairs below deck and partially covered the costs of rebuilding the pier above deck.

The most defining building on the new pier is the new visitor center, that’s not positioned at the end of the pier but rather on top of the damaged pier’s weakest section. The cross-laminated timber structure is clad in reclaimed timber salvaged from the fire and is topped with an accessible viewpoint rooftop that doubles as an events space. The only other structures are a pair of circular extensions that house a kitchen, staff facility, and toilet; a group of hut-like trading stalls; and deck furniture built from reclaimed materials as part of a local employment initiative. The 266-meter-long deck was rebuilt with sustainably sourced African Ekki hardwood.

Related: Light-filled cancer center harnesses the healing power of nature

RIBA wrote: “From a conservation perspective, this project has reinvigorated a fire-damaged historic structure and facilitated a contemporary and appropriate new 21st century use. The project has been mindful to integrate material from the original pier in the new design, and the process of restoration was used to help train a new generation of craft specialists.”

+ dRMM

Via Dezeen

Images © Alex de Rijke

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Thousands of plastic bottles transformed into an inspiring tower of hope in South Africa

A million plastic bottles are purchased worldwide every minute, with annual consumption set to top half a trillion by 2021. In a bid to bring awareness to the problem of plastic bottle use and pollution, artist r1 led a project to transform over 7,000 plastic bottles into an incredible sight to behold: a 20-meter-tall permanent art sculpture. Created in collaboration with the local community, the environmental art piece, called the iThemba Tower, symbolizes hope and inspiration in Troyeville, Johannesburg.

Artist r1 used a redundant communications tower as the base of the iThemba Tower, which derives its name from the isiZulu word that means trust or hope. The diverse local community was involved in all aspects of the design process, from plastic bottle collection to construction. Locals were also invited to fill each bottle with a “message of hope,” thus creating a symbolic communications tower that “broadcasts” the community’s diverse hopes and dreams.

Related: 1,000 recycled CDs transform an abandoned farmhouse into a shimmering work of art

“It is estimated that in South Africa alone, nearly over 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped into our environment every hour,” says the narrator in a video about the iThemba Tower. “One plastic bottle will take up to 700 years to completely break down in a landfill. The iThemba Tower project raised awareness the importance of recycling through workshops and various community activities.” LEDs were also inserted inside the bottles to turn them into “lights of hope.” The lights bring the tower alive at night and create a magical twinkling effect. The iThemba Tower is a permanent art piece at the Spaza Art Garden, a safe haven for creatives in Johannesburg.

+ r1

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Maryland grad turns recycled plastic bags into eco-fashion

Plastic is Trisha Cheeny’s bag. A recent graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she majored in interdisciplinary sculpture, Cheeny is looking to launch Pälemer, a line of clothing and accessories derived from used plastic bags and other recycled materials. Cheeny created Pälemer to “challenge ‘fast fashion’ and eliminate consumer waste,” she wrote on Kickstarter, where she’s raising funds for her inaugural collection.

Cheeny has created several prototypes, including a winter jacket made from 214 castoff carryalls and insulated with recycled fleece. She also constructed a windbreaker from roughly 90 used bags, then lined it with mesh made from recycled materials.

Related: India’s capital of Delhi just banned plastic disposables

For stuff-schelpping, there’s a book bag, which Cheeny assembled from roughly 80 used retail-shopping bags for extra durability.

“Our planet is facing huge changes, so we need to be making huge changes,” Cheeny said. “Pälemer is changing how we use our planet’s resources and our planet’s waste. We hope you join us.”

Related: Plastic-eating caterpillar could revolutionize waste treatment

She won’t have a shortage of materials to work with: Roughly a trillion single-use plastic bags are produced and used every year, according to the Earth Policy Institute—that’s nearly 2 million per minute.

Cheeny is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Open Works, a maker’s space in Baltimore where she’ll spend the next six months developing her line further.

+ Pälemer on Kickstarter

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We've made enough plastic trash to bury Manhattan under 2-miles of the stuff

Whether you get an iced latte to-go in the morning, your restaurant leftovers in a plastic takeaway container, or forget to take a reusable bags to the store, there are numerous ways disposable plastic  adds up –  and that is a huge problem. According to the first global analysis of the production of plastics, humans now produce more plastic than anything else and, as a result, have created 8.3 billion tonnes of the stuff since the 1950s. If the trend continues, humans will eventually bury the planet in plastics, which require hundreds — if not thousands — of years to decompose.

The study was published in Science Advances and unearthed some dizzying facts. For instance, around 79 percent of the plastic produced ends up in landfills, where it is simply buried and forgotten. Additionally, a large percentage of this waste goes into the oceans where it contaminates the environment, often times poisons or chokes wildlife, and breaks down into tiny pieces, which later collect in giant convergences such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The study also found that only 9 percent of all plastics are recycled, and a further 12 percent are incinerated. “The only way to permanently eliminate plastic waste” is to burn or melt it down, the authors wrote. “Thus, near-permanent contamination of the natural environment with plastic waste is a growing concern.”

For the study, the researchers looked at various kinds of plastics, from resin to fibers. They deduced that production has increased from around 2 million tonnes (2.2 m tons) a year in 1950 to an astonishing 400 million tonnes (440 m tons) in 2015. Plastic is now the most produced man-made material, with the exception of items such as steel and cement. However, unlike those two industrial materials which are put to use for decades, plastic is single-use, therefore, is most often discarded right away.

The researchers make it clear that while it is not plausible to completely eliminate plastic from the modern world, production and use needs to decrease dramatically to benefit the ecosystem as a whole. “Most plastics don’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, so the plastic waste humans have generated could be with us for hundreds or even thousands of years,” said Jenna Jambeck, who co-authored the study. “Our estimates underscore the need to think critically about the materials we use and our waste management practices.” The advice is spot-on, considering a recent paper found the micro plastics were present in every marine animal which was sampled in Australia — even those thought to be inaccessible.

Related: Scotland bans plastic bags, spares landfill 650 million bags in just one year

To reduce your dependence on plastic, you can buy whole, unprocessed foods and biodegradable soaps in bulk and keep them in mason jars at home, remember to take your reusable bags to the grocery store and farmer’s market and take advantage of thrift store offerings (or similar apps which connect you with second-hand goods) to reduce waste and needless packaging. Making this effort will help reduce the amount of plastic in the environment and, as a result, ensure a habitable environment exists for future generations.

+ Science Advances

Via LA Times

Images via Pixabay

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Gorgeous modern home makes stunning use of recycled and salvaged materials

Architecture studio tenfiftyfive paired modern luxury with sustainable and nature-centric design in their design of this gorgeous house extension in Melbourne. Named the Park House, this Instagram-worthy dwelling is built around two mature gumtrees and clad in timber to blend into the surroundings. More than just a pretty picture, this stylish abode also boasts energy-efficient principles as well as a natural-materials palette largely foraged from recycled and salvaged items.

Completed as an extension to an old heritage house, the Park House sports a sleek modern facade with simple, clean lines and a strong attention to detail. The boxy, top-heavy structure features a cantilevered first floor punctuated by protruding black steel windows that contrast beautifully with the timber facade. Full-height glazing wraps around the ground floor to let in an abundance of natural light and blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living. Fencing along the lot provides privacy.

Related: Breezy addition keeps cool in Melbourne’s summers with smart passive design

A large open-plan living room with a kitchen and dining area dominates the ground floor, while bedrooms are placed in the more closed-off upper floor. The use of timber is continued inside the home, where it can be seen in an exposed recycled wood ceiling in the living space as well as in the furnishings, stairway, and feature wall support built from old Oregon rafter. Some of the red brick used on the kitchen wall was recycled from garden paving and is complemented by a Statuario marble countertop. A green wall above the windows in the dining area adds a splash of nature indoors. Concrete floors with in-built hydronic heating provide thermal comfort as well as a noise barrier between floors.

+ tenfiftyfive

Via Architecture and Design

Images via tenfiftyfive

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