Background: Washing our hair is arguably the aspect of personal care that we are least likely to go totally homemade and environmentally friendly on. Perhaps this is vanity, or perhaps there just hasn’t ever really been a good enough alternative available. This is a shame, as shampoos are one of the worst culprits when it comes […]
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Toothpaste – Tub vs Tube
Once upon a time, all toothpaste was sold in jars. Nowadays, almost all toothpaste comes in tubes made of plastic laminate, a substance known as a “monstrous hybrid” by environmentalists as it is almost impossible to recycle. The composite parts, made of different types of plastic, are incredibly hard to separate (as they must be […]
The dirt on soap, part 1
The history of soap is long and fascinating. Soap has been made and used for thousands of years in various forms and by various people and much has been written about them all. However, it was really only from the 1800s onwards, as people began to understand the link between cleanliness and health, that the […]
Easy, homemade, edible glue
It’s amazing how kids love to stick things together, and how many craft projects just wouldn’t be possible without glue. Glue can be, and is, made out a wide range of materials including cassein (milk protein) and animal hides. But for the most part nowadays, if you have glue around the house, called anything like […]
Spotless turns FIVE – and how to clean copper effortlessly
It was five years ago today that Spotless was born, and as I thought about that today it made me happy to think that I am building a legacy of tried and tested tips, encouragement, reflections and useful information that I hope and believe will help make the world a better place than it otherwise […]
Meditating on the meaning of growing a vegetable
I was recently considering what images to use in a post I wrote about organic food. I thought the point I was making might best be illustrated by contrasting an image of a pre-packaged bag of shop-bought organic salad leaves, with a shot of a lettuce growing in my garden. It really got me thinking. […]
All you need is love
I had a chat with a friend today that really got me thinking more deeply about something that I have been trying to work out for a while. My friend is a thoughtful, caring person who tries hard to do the right thing. She’s also a busy working mother of three. She was saying that while she cares about […]
Toothsome Toothpaste – why try it?
I’ve been working on some new toothpastes to flesh out my range at The Apothecary, and I realised I had so much to say about them that I needed to devote a whole post to the topic! I use the Spotless toothpaste as my base recipe for The Apothecary toothpaste range. I wrote quite a […]
Wood & leather part 1: Why to avoid commercial wood and leather cleaners and polishes
Commercial polish and cleaners for use on leather and wood are things you really want to avoid. They consist mainly of hydrocarbons distilled from crude petroleum oil, such as naphtha, as well as synthetic waxes, solvents, artificial fragrances, preservatives, surfactants, and propellants if they are in an aerosol form. Is this cocktail of hazardous ingredients and likely carcinogens really something we […]
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Welcome back
Hello. Well, it has been a while. Two years in fact, since I last put up a post, and four since we launched on 10/10/10. What has happened in the interim? On a personal front, my family life has been all-consuming and I needed to immerse myself in it thoroughly for a while. There have […]
