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Post by chaoticwitch on Jun 12, 2015 15:20:39 GMT
I have found my new passion, something I enjoy doing and can totally focus on, but I need a little help. You see I love making products for skin and hair care and cleaning products. I am making things that are environmentally friendly, free of chemicals and much kinder for us, our families and our pets. There is one thing I am missing, an understanding of chemistry! I have done an aromatherapy course and use a lot of essential oil in both my cleaning and beauty products, but I would love to know more about what is happening, the chemical reactions and stuff. I have tried reading many books but they are very confusing, you know lots of words and graphs and stuff Then I had a thought, maybe someone else with ADHD may be able to explain things to me in a way that I can understand. So if there are any chemistry students out there who would be willing to try and help me understand what is happening when I make products I would love to hear from you
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Post by blaze on Jun 12, 2015 18:16:23 GMT
I suck on the chemistry front but bicarb & vinagar works for most things- toilets, drains, stains, sinky towels
Lemon juice can be useful for smtings too- cleaning cause it freshens things and smells nice, and its great for exfoliating your skin too- skins ph is acidic. Diet coke cleans the toilet amazingly too, although its not natural, and coconut oil is great for skin/hair. I'm guessing you might know this basic stuff already, but if not you do now!
If you need to know basic chemistry can you take a course? GCSE level stuff doesn't normally cost much?
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Post by contrarymary on Jun 12, 2015 18:48:51 GMT
sorry about the lack of chemistry expertise to share... i tend to read up on new ideas as i learn, but don't necessarily hang onto the chemistry, just remember the basics and then adapt.... one or two small explosions but nothing major .... i recall that the about.com website has a whole chemistry sub-section which was very readable. but i'm really replying because i love home-making toiletries and cleaning products too i also love the stuff that blaze suggests above - using salt helps with lots of things too. and i use coconut oil and lavender oil with a drop of lemon juice for the most gorgeous furniture polish. and a gazillion ways to make toiletries with coconut oil - facewash, hand wash, serum, moisturiser, hair treatment, hair styling... add some lavender oil and it's a treatment for dry skin/eczema etc...add some sugar and it's a body scrub... coconut milk powder with dried lavender and a little coconut oil makes a fab bath soak, add some epsom salts for aching muscles, or some bicarbonate of soda for some fizz. i started making toiletries for christmas presents three years ago. initially my family thought i was weird. now i have requests
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Post by chaoticwitch on Jun 12, 2015 21:05:18 GMT
I have my own brand of multi-purpose cleaner using infused vinegar and castile soap. I also make a scrub for bath tubs and kitchens with baking soda and coconut oil, there is a super scrub which has a super secret ingredient which is great for burnt stuff.
I love making these products and have lots of recipes for both cleaning and beauty products, but I am really interested in understanding things like what I can put baking soda with that will hold it's reaction to vinegar, how ph levels change and how that affects cleaning or caring properties of substances and how the chemical reactions can change the performance of some substances.
I have been very interested in how the chemicals that we bring into our houses and put onto our bodies, can affect us, i think there is a lot to be said for getting rid of as many chemicals as possible.
I now only use homemade cleaning products and beauty products, not only have I saved myself quite a lot of money since starting this, but I have also helped a friend with terrible eczema and helped my own skin with bespoke cleansing products.
If I could make a living, busying myself in my kitchen producing this kind of thing I would be more than happy.
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Post by JJ on Jun 15, 2015 0:19:22 GMT
What do you want to know?
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Post by chaoticwitch on Jun 15, 2015 0:43:22 GMT
Ooh that's a question.
I am interested in how baking soda changes when mixed with different substances.
I have read that the reaction that you get when you mix baking soda with vinegar means that they cancel each other out.
I understand about PH levels but I am unsure how it effects the performance of a product if the PH balance is neutralised. For example, I make a shampoo which has a base that is baking soda and castile soap, but I don't want such a high PH level. I know I can rinse with vinegar, which is what I do, but I didn't know if the shampoo would become completely useless if I added something to bring the PH level down.
That's a start. I have quite a lot of questions but putting them down in text is so much harder than I thought it would be.
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Post by JJ on Jun 15, 2015 16:36:39 GMT
The pH level is a measure of how acidic or alkaline something is. The scale goes from 1-14 and 7 is neutral. Below 7 something is acidic and above it's alkaline.
The lower the number below 7, the stronger the acid and above 7, the stronger the alkali. (An alkali is a base that's dissolved in water.). Being stronger or weaker isn't the same as how dilute something is, you can have a very dilute strong acid or a very concentrated weak acid.
As an overall rule, when you have an acid mixed with an alkali, they react chemically to produce a salt and water. This is called a neutralisation reaction - because the acid is acidic and the alkali is alkaline, and when they react together, the salt and water products are neutral. This is what you've read about them cancelling each other out.
Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in water is a weak alkali and vinegar is a weak acid. So they react together in a neutralisation reaction.
But, even though the products of the reaction are neutral, the mixture you actually end up with will only be neutral if you start off with the right quantity of acid and alkali.
In this case 1 measure of acid will react with 1 measure of alkali. So if you have 3 measures of acid and 1 of alkali, all the alkali will be reacted with 1 measure of acid and there will be 2 measures of acid still there with no alkali to react with. So your resulting mixture will be acidic.
The salt produced in the reaction between baking soda and vinegar has some special properties when it's in a mixture with the vinegar and the pH will probably stay around 5 ie slightly acidic.
If you mix your baking soda with any acid you will get the same essential reaction. The proper name is sodium hydrogen carbonate and mixing this with an acid will produce the sodium salt, water and carbon dioxide. The specific salt you get will depend on what acid you've used and different salts may have different properties, but if you mix something whose proper name ends in 'hydrogen carbonate' you will get the salt plus water plus carbon dioxide.
As far as how the pH affects shampoos is concerned, below is from hairfinder.com - it appears to me that the pH level won't really affect the cleaning ability of the shampoo, but will affect its effect on fizziness or softness or shine - but that's just my impression from skimming the info.
Does this help you?
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Post by chaoticwitch on Jun 15, 2015 19:23:24 GMT
Thank you JJ, I have only skimmed what you have written as I haven't slept well for a while and my brain is translating it into Japanese right now! I will have a more detailed read as soon I've worked out how to get a good nights sleep.
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Post by Wavey75 on Jun 29, 2015 13:39:01 GMT
I was browsing this thread and thought that maybe a video showing you, instead of text you have to read, might be better, as I prefer to be doing something and to ask if this is right as I do it, and the expert next to me confirms it or not, etc. So, I found this link to free video chemistry here. Then I thought about the online free learning from Open University, and searched their site for and found chemistry here. Hope this helps, very interested in the scrub for the bath tub by the way, will it worth on one of those fibre glass tubs with the smooth rounded nobbly bits to stop you from slipping?
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chrispy
Member's posted somewhat
Posts: 81
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Post by chrispy on Jun 29, 2015 14:56:29 GMT
There is no point in adding baking soda, and then rinsing with vinegar to change the PH all you are doing destroying the baking soda by making it react with the vinegar.
It is because baking soda and vinegar are reactive that makes them good cleaners, the resultant salts when they mix together are not reactive so are no good as cleaners
Soaps clean in a different way, so they can have a neurtal PH and still clean.
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Post by chaoticwitch on Jun 30, 2015 8:54:16 GMT
Thanks Wavey75 I will have a look at those later, I'm supposed to be getting ready for work right now!! You are a font of knowledge Hi chrispy, I have heard on a lot of sites that the reason to use a vinegar rinse after a baking soda shampoo is to balance the PH level of the hair, otherwise the baking soda alone can cause the hair to become brittle and eventually it will start breaking. Also the scalp can be affected by the high PH level of the baking soda if it is rinsed of. Recently I have been using a normal shampoo as I have decided to have a break from making shampoo, I have found it hard to get one that doesn't leave my hair greasy. But I am still using my vinegar and aloe vera rinse instead of conditioner as this works amazingly. I was wondering if you might now how baking soda is affected when it is mixed with coconut oil?
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