Making your own soaps, scrubs, tooth paste, detergents etc., has always been of interest to those who are environmentally conscious and health conscious. DIY household items address two main environmental issues, among many others: It helps to reduce usage of items that are high in synthetic chemicals which are at times, toxic or unsafe to use over long term. This in turn, serves the dual purpose of using safe products on your body and produce harmless waste. Here is an example of how we are responsible for harmful pollution caused by using everyday household items.

The second main reason for adopting DIY practises is because it helps us to buy less of products that resource intensive in the production-manufacturing stages, thus reducing demand of such products. Not to forget, DIY solutions are usually more easy on the pocket.

But, time and effort is required! I had been putting off making my own DIY soaps/scrubs for a while. I think I was just lazy. But the lockdown changed that. I used sometime to read up on this and decided to start on something simple. Often you draw inspiration from people who practice environmentally conscious actions in their everyday life. One such person is Assavri Kulkarni. Once, when I had visited her place, I saw a body scrub powder which was made of pulses, and had a citrus smell. Without hesitation, Assavri shared her amazing DIY scrub powder with me in a dabba. Back home, I relished and used that powder like it was some precious resource. When it finished, I had decided I would make some myself. But ofcourse my procrastinating self postponed this till recently.

So this lockdown, I tried out the recipe given to me by Assavri. She is someone who innovates in the culinary domain, because she does things intuitively*. And it was for this reason, she gave me approximate proportions instead of exact numbers. So taking her cue, I went on.

Whole Masoor, Green Moong (clean and sun dry), Oats and Orange Peels (also dried). These should be roughly 1 : 1 : 0.5 : little. Dry and make coarse powder. Add a bit of Rakt Chandan.

I improvised at this stage and added some dried badam skins (which were going to be thrown away otherwise). The badam skins adds more scrub to the mixture.

Image: The final mixture is to be used a paste, by either adding milk or water.

Acknowledgements: Assavri Kulkarni
* Incidentally, if you haven’t already seen it, check out Assavri’s YouTube Channel where she shares traditional Goan recipes made from ingredients fresh from her garden and farm.

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