Ethics Trading has been selling through eBay for almost five years now and this week hit the heady heights of a feedback score of over 1000. There’s a permanent link to the feedback page on the links on the right as I do think it’s important for online businesses to show they can be trusted.

More and more people are shopping online these days and without some sort of feedback system you really don’t know who you can trust. Ebay does help with that, building up a reputation as a seller or buyer and you get a feel for the sort of person you’re dealing with.

So, Ethics Trading has a score of 1002 today, made up from 1147 positive points from 1007 people, slightly offset by 4 negatives but none of those in the past year.  

Our skin is the face we show the world isn’t it?  By using soap nuts we can start to control the amount of chemicals our skin is exposed to all day every day. Some of us might want to think about a more natural source of make-up too. More on that another day but if you’re interested then a visit to Janey Lee Grace’s Imperfectly Natural forum will yield plenty of information for you!

When things aren’t quite right in the body then symptoms are often expressed through or on the skin and this does tend to lend itself to a holistic approach in treatment.

This Article comes to Ethics Trading courtesy of Fiona Dilston, a qualified Homeopath.

Skin and Homeopathy

The skin is the largest human organ of elimination and it is our interface with the world as well. Skin complaints unlike other ailments are immediately visible to those around you particularly if they are on the hands or face which can often be prime sites for their eruption. The skin will seek to push out any toxins in the body and this is acutely obvious with teenage acne and as well with food and other reactions in some individuals.
Sometimes though there can appear to be no real reason for a skin complaint and if after trying the usual avenues of looking at washing detergents ,skin care regimes,diet and the fibres in the clothes you are wearing there is still no change there is frequently a sense of despair.
Homeopathy can help often where other treatments fail or merely give partial relief. A major factor in skin ailments is often stress or emotional upset which can trigger a low level seemingly manageable condition to the point of major aggravation. The Homeopath will seek to identify the things that worsen and ease the condition and take an individual approach asking about effects ranging from food to family to weather and the particular time of day or night that the skin is at its best or worst. It is an individualised approach that the Homeopath takes to choose from a range of suitable remedies and match them up to get what is the most appropriate for the case.
One particular case which I will mention is that of a mum of three small children who had the most awful eczema on her hands to the extent that doing even the most basic of things around the house and for her children was virtually impossible.The eczema was on her palms and causing the skin to tighten. When she approached me it was as a last resort and she was not finding life easy at all.Her telephone consultation with me revealed that the problem with her hands had come on after a family row where she had experienced lots of grief and upset. I explained to her that the hands can often be a prime site for “emotional release” as the hands are very connected in terms of energy flow to the heart which is where we feel emotional hurt and grief. It is also the hands with which we connect with others and can be affectionate ie holding hands. I found myself in fact looking at remedies more associated with the heart than with the skin and it was with a “heart remedy” that this lady found relief from the painful condition. She now enjoys lots of knitting and says “I couldn’t move my hands never mind do stuff I would never have been able to knit before having treatment.”

Fiona Dilston is a homeopath and counsellor based in Scotland she offers homeopathic treatment by phone and internet . Her website can be found at http://www.moonlightessence.co.uk .

Fiona Dilston - Homeopath, Healer and Intuitive Counsellor
BA LLCHOM
Cert Couns.
Dip ITEC
Reiki and Seichem Master
tel 01309 641221
http://www.moonlightessence.co.uk

Thank you for that Fiona. If anyone wants more information on Homeopathy then please get in touch with Fiona.

Soap Nut Information

Published by Ethics Trading 

www.ethicstrading.com

First published Feb 2008

© Copyright Sarah Barnard 2008

The moral rights of the author have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. You may print this information only for your own personal use.

Soap Nut Information.

Imagine you could get away with using no chemicals in your Laundry. Now imagine there is a single product that would help you with all the cleaning in your house – with no chemicals. Now take the leap and imagine the product I am describing is natural and grows on trees, Sapindus mukorossi, the soap berry tree.  Soapnuts are also known as Soap berries or soap pods - as seen in Autumn 2007 on channel 4’s How Toxic are you?

Soap Nuts are actually not nuts, they are a shelled seed or berry - it’s the shells that we use. They grow wild in Nepal and India and are a natural source of high quality Saponin.

The wrinkly brown part is the berry or shell, and is also known as the soap nut, or soap berry. That is the part that is dried and is packed full of natural saponin for you to use round your home. You shouldn’t find any of the round black seeds in your delivery of soap nuts because I believe that if you pay for a cleaning product then you should get that product with nothing else taking up the weight of your purchase. They have no saponin and are useless for cleaning, but great if you want to grow a Soap Berry tree. The seeds are useless unless you want to grow a soap berry tree, although they do have uses other than cleaning, but they contain no saponin.

To use them you take about half a dozen soapnut shells and chuck them in a draw string cotton bag. Bung the bag in the washing machine drum with your dirty washing and set it going. They are odourless so if you want fragrant washing then add a few drops of an essential oil of your choice to the bag.

Soap Nuts contain no bleaching agents and no optical brighteners - so if you like your whites dazzlingly white you might want to add a box of Ecover Laundry Bleach to your basket!  

Soap Nut Juice

Pour approx 1 litre of water into a cooking pot; add about 50g cracked soap nuts; cover and boil, then simmer for approximately 10 minutes. The boiling process extracts the saponin from the nut shells and combines with the water. Let the infusion cool and you can use it immediately, or let it steep overnight.  The soap nut infusion is theoretically suitable for every kind of cleaning - even wash your car with it!

100 grams of soap nut will make approximately 2 litres of Soap Nut Juice.

Soap nut juice can be used for many purposes. Laundry (approx. 3 tablespoons full per laundry load); In your dishwasher (approx. same amount & you can use vinegar instead of rinse aid); Your floors ; Bathroom ; Instead of shampoo ; Use as window cleaner together with vinegar (2 tablespoons Soap Nut Juice to 3 tablespoons vinegar).

When you think you’ve extracted all the saponin, throw the Soap Nuts in the blender with a bit of water and you’ll have a wonderful ‘liquid’ soap for the hand basin. Leave the shells in to get the exfoliating effect after blending - add essential oils if you wish.

If you need or want to know more then please do ask a question in the comments and it’ll be answered as honestly as possible.  

Phew, that was a lot of work. But worth it I think, and I learned loads along the way!

I finally uploaded everything this afternoon and it all seems to be working well. If anyone finds anything that doesn’t work properly please do let me know and it can be fixed as soon as possible.

Honest, constructive or positive feedback always welcome - but if you just want to nit pick then go and make yourself a cuppa and then browse ebay.  

Happy browsing!

Sarah 

Welcome to the new Ethics Trading blog where you’ll find articles, information, hints and tips on living in a more Earth friendly way. You might find ways to use soap nuts, uses for essential oils or information about holistic remedies. You’ll also find product announcements and news, advice on recycling, reducing waste and managing a more sustainable lifestyle in this modern, high speed world we live in. 

We will also be featuring Guest articles from time to time so please do get in touch if you think you have something we might like to use.  

So, a very warm welcome to those who found this early and as soon as the new design of the Ethics Trading site is complete and this blog is fully integrated, I’ll be posting more.

Regards,

Sarah