Dealing with the source of mould is the first step

What about commercial versus natural methods?

Cleaning Your Shower

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I love colour, so do my kids, but we’ve learned over time to appreciate the softer shades that natural colours give us. In our home when we DIY, we mostly avoid micas and artificial food colouring. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use brighter colours; depending on the recipe, it can be way more fun to have colours that pop, for sure. It’s up to you to decide which colourings meet your needs.

Despite our love of all things natural, and our appreciation for softer natural hues, in our house we adopt the 80/20 rule; basically, we try to do the absolute, very best we can 80% of the time, and we give ourselves 20% grace for those things we can’t control or that we choose to take shortcuts with. This makes a natural life much more doable, fun and relaxing! I encourage everyone else to adopt a similar approach – this means that you can relax if you only have regular, artificial food colouring in your cupboard, and you want to colour your Lip Balm or Stretchy Spotty Sticky Goop hot pink! Be proud and focus on the fact that you’re doing such a great job of making natural goodies. Also, with my recipes, you won’t be eating the final products, so you might not be as worried about the colouring you use.

Let me help you navigate your way through the world of natural DIY and colouring, with some helpful guidance and suggestions.

What are the main types of colouring?

Natural powder – typically come from spices, fruits and vegetables. Here are some examples:

🎃 Yellow/orange – turmeric, paprika, pumpkin, ginger

🍅 Red – tomato, paprika

🥬 Green – green spirulina, kale, spinach

🌸 Pink/purple – beetroot, pitaya (dragon fruit), hibiscus

☕ Black/brown – activated charcoal, cocoa, cinnamon, coffee

💙 Blue – blue spirulina

Natural Liquid – sometimes you need to use quite a lot to get a good punch of colour. There are many brands on the market selling natural liquid colours.

Artificial (liquid and powder) – typically used in cooking and cake-decorating, usually very bright, and you may not need very much to get a big result.

Cosmetic micas – minerals naturally formed from rocks and used to add shimmer and colour to recipes. Many are coated in bright, artificial colours. Always handle these with caution, never inhale them, and make sure you’re using cosmetic-grade micas that are designed to be used on the body.

Here is a useful colour comparison chart for you (I coloured some Fun Dough from my kids DIY recipe book, Make & Play):

Which colouring is best?

Depending on which recipe you’re making, you might need to use a powdered or liquid colouring. Sometimes, a specific colouring really is the better choice and, in these cases, I’ll point it out. Feel free to have a play around though; you are most welcome to experiment, in fact, I encourage it. Just keep in mind that some natural powdered colours and spices don’t mix perfectly well into oils and waxes, and in some recipes, liquids just aren’t a good choice.

If I haven’t suggested a quantity, that’s because it doesn’t matter and it is up to you how much colouring you use to get your desired outcome. It’s always advisable to add a little bit at a time – you can always add more, but it’s near impossible to take it away!

Can you make your own colouring?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: You can dehydrate (dry) and blitz, or boil down, many fruits and vegetables to get natural colourings. Although these types of colourings can work in natural DIY, from my experience, the liquids just don’t last very long, the powders are often too lumpy and gritty, and I think they are best left for colouring icing, cakes and other food-based recipes.

So there you have it. Lots of guidance on colouring your natural DIY goodies. Click this link for lots of suggestions on suppliers of natural ingredients, plus discount codes (many of them sell colouring too).

Happy colouring!

Well, you have now and it’s time to get excited. Because, for the countless landfill issues plaguing our country, this concept is a game-changer. In a nutshell, ShareWaste is an app that connects you to people who have signed up in your area to collect food waste.

I discovered it about 12 months ago but have only recently signed up. After several failed attempts at home composting, and no intention of setting up a worm farm just yet, this is a great interim solution. I have connected with a lovely lady, a five-minute drive away from me, who has 3 worm farms and a compost system – BINGO! Now, not only am I donating my scraps, I have my neighbour and a good friend on board too! We arrange for our scraps to be collected every Friday morning. It’ll either be collected from my porch, or I drop it off at her place (just a bucket by her front door). It’s as easy as that!

Why bother?

Did you know that Aussies waste 3.2 million tonnes of food per year? This costs the economy 20 billion dollars. When food waste decays in an anaerobic environment, methane is formed (which is 25x more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming).

Think about the amount of food that you throw away each week. Whether it is the tops and tails of veg, the peels or cores of fruit, it all adds up. Rather than send it to landfill, consider checking out ShareWaste and helping to feed someone’s worms or chickens!

There is some good info on the ShareWaste website to help you work out what can and can’t be collected, but a chat with your local ‘collector’ will clear up any confusion too. For example, onion skins and a few citrus peels are ok for Jane, my ShareWaste contact, plus she’s always after cardboard and paper so I give her egg cartons and any boxes I’ve gathered during the week.

Here’s a general idea of what I do:

🥕 I collect any fruit or veg scraps, eggshells and coffee grounds, on my bench each day.

🥕 I pop them all into a dedicated container and keep them in my fridge, adding to it daily.

🥕 My friend and neighbour drop their buckets onto my porch on Friday morning, and I pop mine out there too.

🥕 Jane swings by, empties the buckets into her giant bucket, and off she goes.

🥕 Rinse and repeat (physically, and figuratively!).

So there you have it, ShareWaste is an easy way to make a real difference. Don’t ever discount the impact you, as an individual, can have; every little bit counts. Just imagine if everyone did something small, the impact would be huge! If ShareWaste still isn’t your thing, YET, share this article with someone who might be keen to give it a go.

I walked past a stand at my local supermarket, and the ‘natural’ look of it made me stop and check out the products: Aeroguard’s range of insect killers.

On the front, I noticed the wording “100% Plant Based Active Ingredient”. Then I noticed that this ingredient accounts for 3% (3.0g/L), so 0.3% of the total formula.

I flipped it over to see exactly what was inside. It said: only the ingredients you need; for more information visit www.aeroguard.com.au

That was my first flag. Why not tell us on the label what is inside?

So. I jumped online and this is what I found.

Let me break down my observations based on my research and knowledge:

👁️ BHT, also known as butylated hydroxytoluene – EWG.org states that it causes moderate irritation of eyes skin and lungs (read more) and this study, which compares BHT, BHA and Vitamin E, states that although concentrations in food, drugs and cosmetics are probably harmless, specific toxic effects to the lungs have only been observed with BHT, and BHT induces liver tumours in long-term experiments.

👁️ Geraniol as fragrance – this is naturally occurring and found in plants like Neroli and Geranium, however, I do wonder if it is synthetically produced. I believe it is used for its insect-deterring properties.

👁️ Parrafin – petroleum-based.

👁️ Peg-40 – made by combining castor oil with ethylene oxide (highly toxic, known carcinogen; concerns over contamination within the ingredient).

👁️ Alkyl alcohol ethoxylate – impurity concerns with this synthetically produced ingredient and among other issues, is believed to be toxic to aquatics (you’ll note the ‘environmentally hazardous’ image on the bottle). Read more.

👁️ Methylisothiazolinone, benzisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone – these preservatives have some heavy use restrictions and been associated with lung toxicity, skin allergies and toxicity to wildlife.

I talk more about some of these ingredients on my list of questionable ingredients, here.

As usual, I’ll stress the importance of moving through this journey of awareness, and awakening, at your own pace. If you want to empower yourself with the knowledge to read product labels with confidence, sign up for my Becoming a Label Detective online short course.

If you want to use this product, please do so – at least you’re somewhat informed of some potential risks. 

Me? I wouldn’t touch it. I wouldn’t spray it around my home. I wouldn’t allow it to spread over anything my family, or my pets, walked on, sat on, ate, drank or touched.

I wish all manufacturers (cleaning and home care) were required to fully disclose their ingredients at the point of sale, like cosmetic manufacturers are. That would allow us all to make our own conscious, and informed, decisions when shopping.

You can join over 11,000 other people who are passionate about these laws changing, and sign my petition here. Please 🙏