The colloboration between 
and 
has been ace this week! I've been really excited about some of the solutions people have to a world driven by consumption of product at the expense of health - of the planet, and ourselves - so this week we're celebrating some of those fabulous posts.
In case you were wondering how we chose posts to be featured in these curations, we favour:
- original articles
- a blend of personal stories and facts/research (either anecdotal or otherwise) to engage the reader
good images or photos - novel or interesting approaches to self care through natural remedies
- content that makes us go aaaaaaaaahhhhh
If you'd like help making your posts pop, please let us know - we're here to help you succeed!
Did you know that shea butter contains latex, so if you are allergic to it, it's not the best choice for you? Regardless, 
Hard lotion bars and lip balm - super easy, super effective product! I live in Colorado, which is considered high desert - that is to say IT'S DRY. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize is the name of the game here. I used to be one of those people who had lotion in seven different varieties just frikkin' lying around everywhere. In the bathroom, in the bedroom, in my backpack, in my desk or apron at work, in my locker at school - just everywhere. And lip balm! Don't even ask how much lip balm I would use. Then I discovered homemade, and I was in love. It worked better than any of the Bath and Body Works or whatever random stuff I had before (possible exception for Crabtree & Evelyn Gardener's Therapy, which I got as a gift once and also fell in love with). Hard lotion bars are like soap bars in texture, and you rub them on your skin like you are applying soap. The warmth of the rubbing/your skin will soften some off, like it does when you rub a lip balm on your lips. They last a lot longer than the other lotions I was using before, and are WAY more effective.
Oh my giddy aunt. Every now and then Steemians come up with a post that blows you away with both content AND effort. 
One thing I have been doing for a few years now, is making washing detergent out of wood ash. Wood ash contains Potash, otherwise known as potassium carbonate. Potash is great for dissolving grease, acts on most stains, is gentle on clothes, and has absorptive properties. It is super easy to make and costs nothing. Unless you wish to add lavender essential oil which is great for the smell or bicarbonate soda if you are washing white clothes. Each wash needs about 100ml of the liquid detergent.
If you haven't caught 
Before you get too excited and start eating mountains of the yummy mangosteen fruit, the exciting phytochemicals are found predominantly in the pericarp (thick bitter rind) and the seeds. Hence the tinctures. You CAN simply liquefy a whole mangosteen and try to drink it down and access the botanical goodness that way, but I'm here to report (personal experience!) that it is so astringent and bitter that afer the first thick mouthful, it is almost impossible not to gag. And so I brew my whole mangosteens in pure white spirit and simply take a dropper full, squeezed as far back down my throat and on the back of my tongue as possible, and have a strong black coffee at the ready. It is still tongue-curlingly bitter and astringent, but is passes in a moment. I believe the best natural medicine is prevention. So whether you have an official diagnosis of one sort or another to treat, or simply want to live your allotted time to the full - with great memory and an alert, healthy brain! - it makes SENSE to add in a "mangosteen tincture week" here and there. If I'm working intensely hard (as I am at the moment) or feeling a bit 'under the weather', I take a dropper full, twice a day, till my little bottle is empty (about 6-7 days). And then wait a week. Repeat if still not bouncing off the walls.
