Thursday 28 June 2012

Using Hydrogen Peroxide for Cleaning

Hydrogen peroxide is a great way to clean all sorts of things. It works well at killing germs, whitening items, cleaning, and even fighting mould and mildew. In fact, it is a good replacement for bleach and can be used in all the ways that bleach can without the harmful side effects, dangerous fumes, and harm to the environment. You can use bleach all over the house and in a wide range of methods for a very sparkling home that has less bacteria.

Surfaces. Put hydrogen peroxide 3% into a spray bottle and use it as an all purpose cleaner. This can be used for appliances, counters, sinks, dish racks, and other surfaces in the kitchen. In addition, it can be used as a cleaner in the shower, tub, toilet, and the bathroom sink. Spray the surface, leave it for a few moments and wipe it clean for a fresh smelling and clean surface.

Floors. Use your spray bottle to spray the floor down and wipe it clean. Or add 1 cup of peroxide 3% to 1/2 gallon of hot water and give your floor a really good scrubbing.

Toilets. Pour hydrogen peroxide 3% from the bottle up and around the rim of the toilet. Pour additional hydrogen peroxide 3% on your brush. Scrub the toilet as usual. This will kill bacteria and clean it sparkling. It is also a good idea to spray down any surfaces on top, down the sides, and around the base with hydrogen peroxide 3% from your spray bottle for a very clean effect.

Mould and mildew. Hydrogen peroxide 3% will kill mould and mildew without the harsh results of bleach. Spray on heavily to mould and mildew spots or stains and let sit for ten minutes. Scrub clean.

Dishes. Add 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide 3% to your dishwasher or dish water and have cleaner dishes. This will aid in the cleaning, add a sparkling touch, and will kill bacteria. Plus if it is used in a dishwasher it will help keep the dishwasher cleaner longer.

Laundry. Add a cap full (the white cap on the bottle) to the laundry with about 1/2 the normal amount of soap and you will have cleaner laundry that is also whiter. If you use bleach on your whites then replace the bleach with peroxide 3% and wash as normal for white whites without the harm of bleach.

Stains. Peroxide 3% can help remove organic stains from grout, cloth, and carpet
It can bleach so test the material in a place that isn’t as easily seen. Then use it on the stain. Pour directly on stain, scrub clean with a brush and rinse well.

Sponges. Keep your sponges clean by soaking it in hydrogen peroxide 3% and then letting it dry. You will want to leave it in a dish of peroxide 3% (it can be diluted for making it go father, use 50% water and 50% peroxide 3%). Let soak five to ten minutes (or more). This will kill the bacteria in the deepest parts of the sponge. Then let it dry in the air. Let it dry thoroughly before using again.

Hydrogen peroxide 3% is inexpensive, easy to use, and can keep your house clean. Use it all over and you will have fewer bacteria without adding dangerous chemicals to your house. It is safe for people and their pets, won’t harm the environment, and will still keep your house clean.


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Created by Mistral Pure Chemicals. View website

Using Hydrogen Peroxide for Ailments

Hydrogen peroxide has many different medicinal uses.  It has been used over the years in home remedies, listed below are a few of these remedies.
  • A mixture of half 3% hydrogen peroxide and half water can be used to treat canker sores (mouth ulcers). Use a cotton bud to apply the mixture directly to the canker sore.
  • Swish your toothbrush in 1 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution prior to use. If you don’t like the taste of hydrogen peroxide, you may rinse your toothbrush with clean water prior to use, but if you choose not to rinse the peroxide mixture off before brushing your teeth, in addition to disinfecting your toothbrush, the hydrogen peroxide will help whiten your teeth.
  • Hydrogen peroxide for foot fungus may work, although scientific studies have not been done to confirm its usefulness. Use a 3% solution, as the stronger preparations are less safe and may cause skin reactions. Approaches include soaking in the peroxide, wiping onto the affected areas several times daily, or spraying it on and allowing it to dry. It is likely to produce results much faster for athletes foot fungus than for a nail infection. On thing is undeniable: as a foot fungus remedy, it is one of the cheapest.
  • Remarkable results can be achieved in curing colds and the flu within 12-14 hours when we administer a few drops of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) into each ear. The H2O2 starts working within 2-3 minutes in killing the cold or flu. There will be some bubbling and in some cases mild stinging might occur. Wait until the bubbling subsides – usually a few minutes – then drain onto a tissue and repeat with the other ear.
  • If you have a toothache, put a capful of 3% hydrogen peroxide into your mouth and hold it for ten minutes several times a day. This will relieve the pain.
  • Put half a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide in your bath to help rid boils, fungus, or other skin infections.
  • If you like a natural look to your hair, spray a solution of half 6% hydrogen peroxide half water on your wet hair after a shower and comb it through. You will not have the peroxide burnt blonde hair like the hair dye packages, but more natural highlights if your hair is a light brown, faddish, or dirty blonde. It also lightens gradually so it’s not a drastic change.
If you have any of your own home remedies using hydrogen peroxide, please feel free to post them up in the comments section.
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Created by Mistral Pure Chemicals. View website

Using Calcium Hypochlorite Instead of Bleach to Disinfect Water

Many outdoorsmen, survivalists, and households preparing for emergency disasters rely upon common household bleach as a disinfecting agent to make water safe to drink.
Bleach will destroy most disease causing organisms (boiling water to make it safe to drink is always the best method).

What is not well known is Calcium Hypochlorite is far better for chemically disinfecting water.

Old Way: Using Bleach to Disinfect Water

Some people who have emergency preparedness stocks of survival food and survival gear often keep a gallon or two of unscented household bleach on hand for making safe drinking water in large quantities. Bleach is often the chemical of choice because it is commonly available and frequently mentioned when discussing the how-to’s of drinking water.
Typical fresh household chlorine bleach has about 5.35% chlorine content (be sure to read the label).
To use household bleach for disinfecting water:
1. Add two drops of bleach per quart or litre of water.
2. Stir it well.
3. Let the mixture stand for a half hour before drinking.
If the water is cloudy with suspended particles:
First filter the water as best you can.
Double the amount of bleach you add to the water.

Why Using Bleach to Disinfect Contaminated Water is a Problem

A little known problem with long term storage of bleach in your disaster emergency supply cache is that it degrades over time. A bleach manufacturing representative produced this statement:
“We recommend storing our bleach at room temperatures. It can be stored for about 6 months at temperatures between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. After this time, bleach will begin to degrade at a rate of 20% each year until totally degraded to salt and water. Storing at temperatures much higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit could cause the bleach to lose its effectiveness and degrade more rapidly.”
So if bleach is unreliable for long term storage in emergency preparedness kits then what other commonly available chemical methods of disinfecting water are there? As it turns out a better solution is easily available.

Use Calcium Hypochlorite for Disinfect Water

A 500g bag of calcium hypochlorite in granular form will treat up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water
Calcium hypochlorite is one of the best chemical disinfectants for water, better than household bleach by far. It destroys a variety of disease causing organisms including bacteria, yeast, fungus, spores, and viruses.
Calcium Hypochlorite is widely available for use as swimming pool chlorine tablets or white powder that is much more stable than chlorine.

Where to Buy Calcium Hypochlorite online in the UK

How To Make Your Own Perfume

What you will need:
  • Distilled water
  • Perfumer’s alcohol
  • Coffee filters
  • Strainer
  • Coloured glass bottles with stoppers
  • Dropper
  • Funnel
  • Wooden spoon
  • Non-metal bowl
  • Essential oils (see recipes below)
Instructions
1.  Pour the alcohol into your bowl. Add the essential oils one drop at a time into the alcohol in the bowl, stirring slowly after each addition. Make sure that you stir slowly, but long enough to completely disperse the oils
2.  Allow the blend of oils and alcohol to stand undisturbed for 48 hours
3.  Add the distilled water. Stir it slowly until it is completely dispersed.
4.  Place the mixture in a cool, dark place where it won’t be disturbed for at least three weeks. This will allow the perfume to mature.
5.  Filter the resulting pure perfume through a coffee filter to remove any sediment that may have formed. Bottle your perfume into glass bottles with a stopper. Enjoy it as you would any commercial perfume.

Recipes
Here are a few recipes for you to try.  These will help to start you off, but don’t be afraid to experiment and tweak them as you see necessary, or if you are feeling adventurous you could try creating your own blend.  If you have any recipes of your own please feel free to post them in a comment.

Rain Shower
5 drops Bergamot
3 drops Sandalwood
5 drops Cassis
1 cup distilled water
5 teaspoons of perfumer’s alcohol

English Country Garden
5 drops Valerian
5 drops Chamomile
3 drops Lavender
1 cup distilled water
5 teaspoons perfumer’s alcohol

Amaze Perfume
2 cups distilled water
3 tablespoons perfumers alcohol
5 drops hypericum perforatum essential oil (St. John’s wort)
10 drops cypress essential/fragrance oil
10 drops rosemary essential/fragrance oil

Citrus grove
5 tsp perfumers alcohol
1/2 tsp distilled water
15 drops lemon oil
10 drops bergamot oil
10 drops bitter-orange oil
5 drops grapefruit oil
5 drops lemongrass oil
4 drops benzoin oil
2 drops cedarwood oil

Tips & Warnings
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with a fragrance recipe. Learning how to make your own fragrances is as much about experimentation as about following recipes. Just keep a notebook of everything you do so that if you do discover how to make the perfect perfume, you can duplicate the results. Remember that one less or one more drop of an essential oil can change the fragrance of a perfume entirely.
  • Be sure to test the ingredients by placing a single drop of each on a discreet area of skin to check for any adverse reactions. If redness or irritation ensues after 24 hours, reformulate the ingredients to suit you.
  • Be sure to use coloured glass bottles, this is because the coloured bottle serves the dual purpose of both looking attractive and helping to shield the contents of the bottle from UV light that can eventually cause a fragrance to deteriorate. The perfumer’s alcohol acts as a preservative/fixative but coloured bottles add just one more layer of protection.
Where to Buy Perfumer’s alcohol online UK
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Created by Mistral Pure Chemicals. View website

Using Perfumers Alcohol To Make Perfume

Using these perfumery methods will help you take your homemade fragrances to a more professional level, in fact, if you use these techniques, you could actually sell your end result! The basic professional perfume making process is the same as the amateur perfuming process, but the materials are not.
  • Use pure ethanol or perfumer’s alcohol instead of vodka. Perfumer’s alcohol makes a great solvent for even the most resinous oils. It is what all commercial perfumes are made with, except some boutique brands that make roll-on scented oil or solid perfume.
  • Use different fragrance materials, not only essential oils. There are many more fragrance materials available other than essential oils. If you only use essential oils, you limit your perfume blending possibilities. It’s like wanting to paint a mural, but only having red and yellow paint.
  • In addition to essential oils, there are also absolutes, fragrance oils, and isolated aroma chemicals, all supplying scents that can’t be produced with essential oils.
Absolutes are stronger and smell more like the plant than essential oils, and are used extensively in perfumery. Some plants are too delicate to be pressed or steam-distilled; making an essential oil out of them is impossible. Jasmine is one of these plants. The absolutes are expensive, but a little goes a long way. They are much more concentrated than essential oils.

Fragrance oils, despite what you may have heard, aren’t merely cheap substitutes for essential oils. They are a completely different spectrum of scent, containing a combination of absolutes, essential oils, and synthetic aroma chemicals. Fragrance oils give you access to scents that you can’t get naturally, for example strawberry, peach, and watermelon.

Fragrance oils also have the benefit of being skin-safe (as long as you get cosmetic grade.) If you want to create an entire line of perfume and bath and body products in a favourite scent, you can use the same skin-safe fragrance oil to scent all of them.

Aroma chemicals are isolated fragrance molecules that are either synthetically produced or refined from plant sources. For example, the compound vanillin is what gives vanilla its characteristic odour and flavour. Artificial vanilla flavour is usually pure synthetic vanillin. Natural vanilla has many more compounds than just vanillin, which is why it tastes better!

Strawberry fragrance oil, one of the most sought-after scents in the cosmetic and fragrance industry, is a combination of strawberry aldehyde (Ethyl methylphenylglycidate) and other compounds to round out the scent.

Using Fixitives

Use fixatives in your perfume. If you’ve experimented with essential oils such as mint and bergamot, you’ve probably noticed that they disappear within an hour. This is because they evaporate quickly, aided by the heat of your skin.

Fixatives are a way to help make fragrances last longer. They are natural or synthetic substances that enhance scent and slow down the evaporation of scents that tend to disappear. Why do fixatives work? They are very high in scent molecule count, often with no distinct odour of their own. They just blend with the key fragrance and make it seem stronger.

For example, musk, a traditional fixative, can enhance the scent and make its perceived strength stronger. It only takes a small amount for a big effect – with effective use of musk, you won’t smell it, but the entire perfume will last longer and smell stronger. (Musks have been synthetic since the 1970s due to cruelty and endangerment laws.)

Plant fixatives include many resinous, sticky oils and absolutes like benzoin, frankincense, vetiver, and orris. They often have an earthy scent that “deepens” a blend. With a little experience, you’ll have a good idea of what fixatives can enhance and give subtle character to your perfumes.

As you can probably tell, using professional methods are not much more difficult than what you may have tried already. However, I must say that the techniques given here are more expensive than the home-brewed. They require the use of specialized, more costly materials.

Using perfumer’s alcohol and absolutes are only for people who are somewhat serious about perfume, but it is a fun, fascinating activity. It is definitely possible to get started cost-effectively; Many botanical absolute suppliers have samples that you can use at first.

It’s also a good idea to try absolute dilutions before going for the real thing. Dilutions will help you work with the absolute without becoming overwhelmed by the un-concentrated fragrance, and they are also less expensive. Most dilutions are 3% – 5% absolute in jojoba oil, similar in strength to essential oils.

Where to Buy Perfumer’s Alcohol online UK
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Created by Mistral Pure Chemicals. View website

How to Make Ear Wash for Dogs

Things You will Need:
Instructions

1.  Mix 1 part white vinegar to 2 parts water for general cleaning. If the dog has an active infection, mix the witch hazel, gentian violet, and boric acidpowder and use this as the wash.
2.  Shake the solution well before each use.
3.  Apply the wash outdoors or in a bathroom. Washing dog’s ears can get messy, and gentian violet can stain.
4.  Dip a clean cotton ball into the wash, squeeze out the excess liquid and apply to the ear. At this point, the dog will probably shake his head to get rid of the excess liquid in his ear. This is okay.
5.  Dip the end of a cotton swab into the solution. Apply the swab very carefully to the narrow parts of the ear, but don’t go in too far.
6.  Repeat this cleaning ritual every day for active infections, and once a month for general cleaning.


Tips & Warnings
  • If you can’t see the end of the swab anymore, you’ve inserted the cotton swab too far into the dog’s ear.
  • Consistently handle your dog’s ears while petting it to get it used to you touching his ears. This will make the cleaning process much easier.
  • If you notice any abnormal changes, inflammation, discharge, strong odor, or sensitivity in your dog’s ears, go to the veterinarian. Some ear infections won’t respond to ear wash, and they need to be treated as soon as possible to avoid long-term side effects.
Where to Buy Boric Acid powder online UK

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Uses of Boric Acid

What is Boric Acid?



Boric acid (also known as boracic acid or orthoboric acid) is a naturally occurring compound containing the elements hydrogen, boron and oxygen (H3BO3). In nature, the element boron does not exist by itself. Boron is combined with other common elements, such as sodium to make salts like borax and with oxygen to make boric acid. Boron is considered to be an essential micronutrient for plants and perhaps humans. Boron in the diet most commonly comes from the boric acid naturally present in most foods. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts are particularly high in boron. In fact, the average person eats between one to three milligrams of boron each day as part of a normal healthy diet. Boric acid also occurs naturally in water and soil.
Boric acid crystals are white, odourless, and nearly tasteless. It looks like fine table salt in the granular form or like baby powder in the powdered form. Borates (the general term associated with boron containing minerals such as borax and boric acid) most commonly originate in dried salt lake beds of deserts or in arid areas or other geographic regions that expose similar deposits

Uses of Boric Acid

  • Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics: boric acid is a mild antiseptic as well as a mild acid that inhibits the growth of microorganisms on the external surfaces of the body.  It can also be used for minor cuts and burns. It is commonly used in contact lens solutions, eye disinfectants, vaginal remedies, baby powder, anti-aging preparations and similar external applications.
  • Nutritional Supplements: boric acid and other borates are increasingly being used in over-the counter nutritional supplements as a source of boron. It is thought that boron has a potential therapeutic value in promoting bone and joint health as well as having a limiting effect on arthritis symptoms. It is very important to note that the health effects of boric acid and boron-based supplements are based on very new studies and/or are based solely on the claims of the manufacturers’ of the supplements. It should not be implied that boric acid should be directly ingested as a supplement or for any other reason.
  • Flame Retardants: boric acid inhibits the release of combustible gases from burning cellulosic materials, such as wood, cotton, and paper-based products. Boric acid also releases chemically bonded water to further reduce combustion. A carbon char is formed that further inhibits combustion. Futons, mattresses, upholstered furniture, insulation, and gypsum board are common consumer items that use boric acid as a flame retardant. Plastics, textiles, specialty coatings, and other industrial products also contain boric acid to strengthen their ability to withstand exposure to flames.
  • Glass and Fibreglass: heat resistant, borosilicate, and other specialty glasses rely on boric acid and other similar borates to increase the chemical and temperature resistance of the glass. Halogen light bulbs, ovenware, microwavable glassware, laboratory glassware, and many everyday glass items are enhanced by the addition of boric acid. Boric acid also aids in the manufacture of fibreglass, which is used as insulation as well as in textile fibreglass (a fabric-like material commonly used in skis, circuit boards, and other similar applications).
  • Wood Preservatives: boric acid is a common source of boron compounds when used in the formulation of products that control fungus and insects. Fungi are plants that contain no chlorophyll and must have an outside source of food. Boron compounds inhibit the growth of fungus and have been demonstrated to be a reliable wood preservative. Similarly, boric acid is used in swimming pools and spas as a safer and “softer feeling” substitute for chlorine. Boric acid, borax, and other salts are commonly used to soften pool water and prevent contamination.
  • Pest Control: Boric acid is a natural and increasingly popular insect control product. Unlike hornet or ant sprays, boric acid does not kill bugs on contact using highly toxic chemicals. Rather, it acts as a desiccant that dehydrates many insects by causing tiny cracks or fissures in their exoskeletons. This eventually dries them out. The saltiness of boric acid also interferes with their very simple electrolytic metabolism.
  • Ear Wash for Dogs: Boric Acid can be mixed with vinegar, witch hazel and gentian violet to make an ear wash for dogs with a minor ear infection.
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