Knock me over with a feather.......

[wellie]

Snohare, so actually, you're 'a resting genius'.
I'd employ you. I hope you find what you want soon. X

[hamsterqueen]

Hmm...just as well that I'm lazy and try and stick this years labels over last years sticky mess!!

you can build up quite an interesting 3D effect over the years and it provides endless entertainment as you pick away at teh breakfast tab;e trying to guess what has been in said jar before..

[snohare]

it provides endless entertainment as you pick away at teh breakfast tab;e trying to guess what has been in said jar before

With my preserves I think for most folks taste buds it would be more a matter of survival finding out exactly what is supposed to be in the jar this year - I don't so much caramelise things as char...
Although of course as a "resting genius" I am actually quite well preserved !
And someday soon I hope to manage to learn how not to burn my porridge every morning.

[HeyWayne]

I just soak mine in hot water for 5-10 minutes...

[organic]

Snohare
I've had my suspicious about clearning products for a while now. Interesting stuff.

I'm not sure I'd want to use baby wipes on babies when I have some. Much of the "done things" with kids, cleaning, beauty and the likes tend to involve stuff I'm a bit wary of for the very reasons you outlined.

[snohare]

When you consider that much of our current way of using chemicals was begun by chemists finding or creating new chemicals as a byproduct, and saying, "What can we do to make money with this ?" or "How can we use this up ?" - the latter a very good question in a time when toxic effluent typically went untreated straight into watercourses or unsealed landfills - you start to appreciate that sometimes, the old, simpler chemicals work fine, and there is little real advantage to their modern successors.
A classic example is soap. It used to be that soap was made using lye, and when you got the ingredients right you would get froth when you mixed it with water. Later on different types of soap were invented using petrochemicals, but they didn't have the telltale frothing side-effect. Housewives didn't trust it (or to be more accurate, they didn't trust the salesmen, which was right enough but for the wrong reasons.)
So the manufacturers had to put in sodium lauryl ether sulphate, a chemical that does nothing other than make water froth up. Suddenly the soap companies were considered trustworthy, by dint of chemical chicanery. Which is pretty typical.
And to this day, SLES is in virtually every form of soap, and a large part of the reason why shampoo or washing up liquid (almost identical, btw) taste so awful and why you get those warnings about wearing rubber gloves and rinse thoroughly if you get it in your eyes. Apart from being toxic to aquatic organisms, it is pretty safe - but it can cause permanent damage to eyes if left in.
Everybody uses it...because everybody else does. I sometimes think that will be the epitaph of the human race.
Regulatory agencies such as the FDA tend now to have revolving door arrangements with the industries they regulate - you regulate us as we like, we'll give you a nice job when you leave/oh, you have experience in this field, welcome to the agency ! This is what is known as self-regulation, as propounded in the City by Mrs Thatcher and in the States by Reagan, and now eagerly accepted by virtually all political parties, although they won't say it to Joe Public; with a touch of groupthink it makes for very nasty consequences as we are currently finding out with the economy.
Personally I use a lot of vinegar and Ecover products where possible, but then I got interested in this sort of topic by reading up on Love Canal in the USA. That's seriously the sort of thing that makes grown men swoon.
Oops <lecture mode off> <back to burnt porridge>

[organic]

Everybody uses it...because everybody else does. I sometimes think that will be the epitaph of the human race.

Nicely put.

I did often wonder about SLS in everything and for some reason (I can't for the life of me think why) I always thought it was a bad thing to see on a label. It was a few years before I heard anyone say anything negative about the stuff too.

I think I'm becoming more and more inclined to the older, more natural way of doing things. I've already stopped using normal "after sun" in favour of one that's almost entirely Aloe Vera with a few other minerals in there.
Aloe Gator if anyone's interested.

[smallblueplanet]

Am interested snohare & organic. We have recently stopped using stuff with SLS in, even Kingfisher toothpaste (which I bought cos its veggie) has it in!

Do you got a link to Aloe Gator? What do you use as a 'sunscreen' (and what do you think of those snohare?)?

[SueA]

'Love Canal' Snohare? Is that why you don't get out much, sounds a bit dodgy?!
I can well believe that something as simple as an anti-bacterial wipe contains more chemicals than Glaxo SmithKline, I don't use them as they seem an unnecessary waste although if they're the only thing to shift sticky stuff off your jam jars maybe they do have a use for some people!

[smallblueplanet]

Oh dear, not very much fun at all Sue - I couldn't resist a google.

Love Canal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, which became the subject of national and international attention, controversy, and eventual environmental notoriety following the discovery of 21,000 tons of toxic waste buried beneath the neighborhood by Hooker Chemical...

[organic]

smallblueplanet - I know for sure you can get it from an online surf shop called magicseaweed.
Magicseaweed Surf Shop :: Aloe Gator Green Stuff

For sunscreen I actually use a couple of things from the same company.
Magicseaweed Surf Shop :: Aloe Gator SPF 40+ Gel
Which is a gel - really good for surfing/swimming and presumably hard work as it's unaffected by water. You could swim all day and it won't wash off. Just use a bit of soap in the shower though and it comes off no bother.

That can feel a bit like running yourself with vaseline though so I also have the normal lotion too.
Magicseaweed Surf Shop :: Aloe Gator Lotion

That said, I can't remember whether or not they have any nasties in them. Most likely they do, but the main reason I bought them was because they are waterproof. The last thing I want to be doing when I head off surfing is carrying lotion all the way onto the beach or having to keep trekking back to the car to re-apply after it washes off in the water. Most other lotions are just "water resistant" which translates roughly to "useless".

The after sun is magic stuff. Super soothing on burns too.


EDIT:
http://www.agsbrands.com/index.html
That's the company's website, I think. There might be some info on there.

[Flummery]

I often get sticky stuff off with a little dab of perfume. I don't use perfume for its usual use - it makes me feel a bit sick - but it's great when I get given it as a present (by someone who doesn't know me or can't stand my natural smell!) so I use to to remove labels.

[smallblueplanet]

...The last thing I want to be doing when I head off surfing is carrying lotion all the way onto the beach or having to keep trekking back to the car to re-apply after it washes off in the water...

Ta for the info. On a slightly OT note can you tell me what the plastic 'combs' in board shorts pockets are for?

[snohare]

sounds a bit dodgy?!

I was so unworldlywise when I first heard of Love Canal Sue, it always conjured up in my mind the image of a fairground attraction - you know, like the Ghost Tunnel but more fun ! That idea is totally spoiled now - I think toxic waste probably has a universal romance killing effect, as the inhabitants of that part of NY no doubt discovered.
The sad thing is that the manufacturer bent over backwards to get it right, and officialdom just screwed up. And now you get people like CFACT cherrypicking the facts with funding from Exxon et al, so the Superfund money has evaporated.
Organic,I think I might buy the Aloe Gator just because I love that type of humour so much
I do nature conservation work, and the group I go/went out with has a policy of supplying suntan lotion. Not that we used any at all this year, but I having looked at the issue of parabens (aka the devil's mouthwash) and the DNA altering properties of some conventional sunblocking keystones (reduce your risk of skin cancer with a chemical that increases your risk of...cancer - hmmm) I thought I'd see if I could be a bit ahead of the learning curve and get some that didn't have all the nasties in it. SPF40 Jason (the a has a flat line above it, the o has an umlaut) Sunbrellas sunblock in the local whole food store was to my surprise just about the same price as standard stuff, when it isn't reduced. It is a no brainer.
The reason you so often see suntan lotion reduced by the way is that the government subsidises the discounts, in order to promote kids using sunscreen. So you are still paying for it. It was the only way they could get the manufacturers to reduce prices when they started worrying about the effects of ozone depletion in the Northern Hemisphere; and given the amount of ozone depleting pollutants in the atmosphere over Europe, and the increased tendency for the necessary reactions to happen as the greenhouse effect holds in normally re-radiated energy, I'd imagine we will be wearing sunscreen for a long time to come.
Well, chance would be a fine thing...I'm more worried about getting eco-friendly midgie repellent !

[organic]

Ta for the info. On a slightly OT note can you tell me what the plastic 'combs' in board shorts pockets are for?

I certainly can.

When you surf you put wax on the top of the board so your feet have something to grip.

You apply the wax in one of three ways, the normal ones are "nose to tail, rail to rail" or in circles, others just scribble it on like a 4 year old with crayons.
Whatever you do you end up with bumps of wax all over the board. The best bumps are somewhere between the size of half a BB and half a glass marble.

The wax melts a bit in the sun (and in warm water) and with you putting your feet on it and with lying down to paddle it goes flat and a bit slippy.

You use the comb to bring back the bumps and let you ride for longer without needing to reapply the wax. Some also use the comb to rough up the existing bumps before they apply fresh wax.


With the comb (and even some wax) in your boardies there's no need to even come in to the beach to freshen up the wax... just do it while waiting for the next set!