When was the last time your whole mailbox smelled pretty?

I was just tickled to receive a box of goodies from Graham Gardens, one of KS’s sponsors for this month. I’ll get to talk about their soap (which we love) later on, but two GG products are related to last week’s Monday Mission, Get Natural Outdoors. I challenged you to upgrade one product that you use for outdoor issues like bugs, sunshine, and scrapes, seeking out a totally natural and safe alternative to petroleum and chemicals you can’t pronounce.

Since I get the luxury (responsibility?) of testing out some products that you may have never heard of, I also get to tell you what I think.

Graham Gardens Salves

Graham Gardens sent three different salves:

• Healthy Skin salve (with lavender and peppermint)
• Rugged Relief (with eucalyptus and peppermint, good “manly” scent)
• Creature Comfort (not just for animals!)

My husband gets super dry, cracked hands after mowing the lawn or playing hockey (under the nasty gloves/gear they wear) and has even had prescription creams for this eczema-related annoyance. I gave him the rugged relief and creature comfort to use as often as he could, and I’ve heard no complaints! The oils are a rich moisturizer and the herbs provide the speedier healing.

My son and I have both used the Healthy Skin salve on minor cuts, and although it’s hard to compete with Neosporin’s clinical trials to prove that things heal faster with their product than without, I’d say it was definitely after I applied the salve that the persistent paper cut on my finger stopped bugging me and re-cracking every. single. day.

Any of these salves is also for use on burns and mosquito bites (and any other skin issue, really), but we just haven’t had enough of those to go around! (more below from Gina of Graham Gardens…)

A quick note on the Creature Comfort: it’s marketed for animals partly because it works for them, but it also works for people (and a small company can make more claims on “how” to use it and what it works for when talking animals instead of people. Silly FDA!). It’s the strongest “go-to” for major wound healing and antibiotic properties.

The only thing I wish I could find in a natural solution is one in a tube. I’m pretty lazy and find it a minor annoyance to have to use one finger to retrieve the salve from the tub and put it on the offending place. I said I was lazy!

Using Clay to Heal

Who in their right mind discovers she has a mosquito bite on her ankle and cries with glee, “Yesssss! I have a bug bite!”

Probably just me.

Using the Redmond Clay First Aid Cream on my kids was great, but it’s hard to get a good review from a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old, even though I grilled them:

“Did it stop itching?”

“Does it feel tight?”

“How long did it take to dry?”

I was pretty excited to try it for myself.

At first I thought that the thickness and wetness of the product was a huge downfall, since you’re supposed to put it on very thickly. However, even though it’s not super convenient to keep a piece of skin from touching anything for a couple minutes, it dries just like calamine lotion and actually quite quickly, so I don’t think it’s anything new.

The really interesting part, in my opinion, is that it stayed on the skin for more than a day, and that’s pretty impressive! It also really did stop the itch, although in a way that takes a little patience: the first sensation is that of an increased stinging/itching sensation for a few minutes because of the property of clay that draws out toxins. It doesn’t hurt, but it makes you want to scratch off the cream before it dries – easy for me to tolerate, but might be tough for my 3-year-old.

After the initial drying period, though, the itch went away. Score for Redmond Clay!

The clay also works for cuts and scrapes, and we tested it a bit more extensively than the Graham Gardens salve on the summer boo-boos. My son had a pretty nasty wipeout on rough cement, and the hydrated clay under a bandage for two days absolutely knocked it out. Not that I expect things not to work, but I was actually totally, pleasantly surprised! Score two!

And – it comes in a tube. You can also buy the clay in a tub and mix your own with water for various uses.

Naturally Keeping the Bugs Away

I listed a bunch of essential oils in the Monday Mission that battle the bugs, and I have collected nearly a dozen natural insect repellents to test out. Come on, Michigan, bring on the mosquitoes!

So far after two tests, I’d have to say they’re working acceptably. I think they smell great, and I even noticed that both kids necks still carried the smell of the oils at bedtime, even after swimming, running in the sprinkler and playing all day. Wow!

The MadeOn Bug Block bar that we used last summer was a big hit, and there’s a pretty good deal over there right now: Buy a Bug Block and get The Family Camping Handbook for free!

For the sunshine issue, be sure to check out my all natural sunscreen reviews from last summer, updated often!

How Graham Gardens got Started with Herbs & Oils

I say it often, but I really love working with small companies run by real people. There’s someone to ask questions of about the products, and usually a pretty neat story behind how it all began. Here’s the Graham Gardens background (I can totally relate to the first sentence!):

I grew up a total skeptic about anything herbal being able to actually do anything useful.  About 8 years ago, my daughter began with eczema.  I felt weird about rubbing her down with steroid creams.  I started researching.

I was already a plant/weed/gardening nerd, so when I saw claims that “jewelweed can stop itching”, I knew right where to find some and I decided I was going to find out if what they said was true.  My daughter’s eczema was so, so itchy.

I went through several herbal books and compiled a list of herbs that are supposed to calm the skin and alleviate itching.  I went to the woods and my gardens and dug them up.  I carefully made some salve with the herbs.

All the while, my chemist Hubby and I were VERY dubious and my family thought we’d gone nuts.  Once the salves were ready, I used them on my daughter with boldness because I really wanted to know if it would help.  The salve absolutely calmed the itching!! (But it did not take the eczema away, unfortunately.)

I used salve on us, after we would get mosquito bites.  Hubby began using it.   We were completely amazed – really.  It’s not like instant magic or anything, but we found that if anything was itchy or sore from a bite or scratch, if we liberally applied the salve, in a few minutes, we found we had forgotten all about it!

My parents became convinced after watching a cold sore on my Dad go from just starting to completely GONE in two days.  Hubby’s co-workers began requesting salve.  We tweaked with the recipe to make sure each herb was really useful.  We have, in fact, replaced any and all “first aid” ointments with our salves. We use it on everything.

This approach is the same one we take with everything we sell.  We read the claims.  We buy the stuff/make the stuff.  We test it out on ourselves.  Sometimes, herbal stuff doesn’t work. One. Bit.  Other times, we are amazed.

We are pleased as punch to find solutions that are wholesome and allow us to “treat ourselves” effectively without supporting Johnson & Johnson.  If you find we are selling something, you can bet we’ve been using it for a while and have found it to be effective.

Do you love Gina as much as I do now? Visit her and ask questions, if you have any, at Graham Gardens and pat yourself on the back for any positive swap-outs you made in your first aid cabinet since last week! If you’re still wondering where to start, you might have the ingredients for some of the home remedies from this post, and check out the comments, too – tons of helpful DIY ideas there!

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If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Disclosure: Both Redmond Clay and Graham Gardens are June sponsors, but this isn’t even their complementary mention. When I try a great product, I like to share details with my readers, so this is just one of those good posts. I am an affiliate for MadeOn, because I love their stuff, so I earn commission from sales there.  See my full disclosure statement here.