Author: Cretan-Garden

Født i Nederland i 1948; gikk på grunnskolelærerutdanningen ved Fontys University of Applied Sciences, og ble uteksaminert i 1968; nye livsstier og nye livsretninger brakte åndelig fordypning (start i 1980), som skapte et annet syn på liv og velvære, og studiestart (1996), opplæring (1996) og arbeid som sertifisert naturmedisinsk terapeut ( 2000-2010 med: soneterapi, terapeutisk massasje, medisinske urter, og Bach-blomster terapi. Emigrasjon til Norge fulgte i 2010. Studiet og fremstillingen av håndlaget såpe startet i 2018. I 2022 nettbutikken Cretan-Garden (urteolivenoljesåper) åpnet - Antoinette Janssen, Norge

#13. About lather

Did you know that 99.5% of liquid soaps are not real soaps?

99.5% are cocktails of synthetic detergents that have many undesirable long-term effects on the body. This is denied worldwide due to the billion-dollar revenues of large multinational corporations. Sodium Lauryl (Laureth) Sulphate (SLS) is currently Western Civilization’s leading foaming agent. SLS is found in shampoos, bath gels, car washes, dishwashing detergents, soap bars, laundry detergents, etc. It is a wetting and dispersing agent, emulsifier, degreaser and foam booster. It also increases the permeability of the skin by about 100 times and is used in lotions to increase the absorption of micronutrients into the skin. And there is a big danger there!!

10 reasons to use products without SLS or SLES:

  1. It is used in toothpaste to make it foam, and also to hold the paste together when it comes out of the machine. Unfortunately, it also worsens gum irritation. A report from the University of Oslo (Norway) shows that in people with gum disease, symptoms disappeared 40 times faster when toothpaste without SLS was used.
  2. It can worsen hair loss and stimulate skin and scalp irritation in people with sensitive skin. It can also cause damage to the skin and hair, including cracking or inflammation. SLS is known to irritate the skin and is used in lotion tests. First, the skin is irritated with SLS – then the soothing effect of the lotion is tested.
  3. Due to its low molecular weight of 40 (anything under 75 passes through the skin and into the blood), this substance enters the body very easily and is stored in the eyes, heart, brain and liver. This substance is usually listed on the label as the second ingredient after water, indicating that it is present in large quantities.
  4. Both SLS and SLES can potentially form carcinogenic (cancer-causing) nitrates and dioxins by reacting with the other ingredients. Large amounts of harmful nitrates can enter the body through a single shower.
  5. SLS can damage the immune system, cause skin peeling, and irritate the skin. – Journal of the American College of Toxicology; Vol. 2, No. 7, 1983
  6. SLS penetrates deeply into the skin and eyes and is also retained in the brain, heart, and liver. A single drop remains in the brain and body for days. – The Doctor’s Concern: Is Your Baby Safe? Almost All Baby Products Contain SLS!!! – David L. Kern, New Health and Longevity.
  7. SLS Changes the Proteins in Eye Tissue – Permanently Affecting Eye Development. -Dr. Keith Green, PhD, D. Sc., Medical College of Georgia
  8. SLS is a mutagen. It is capable of changing the genetic information in cells. SLS is used in research to cause mutations in bacteria. – Higuchi, Araya and Higuchi, School of Medicine, Tohoku University: Sendai 1980, Japan.
  9. SLS is carcinogenic when it comes into contact with nitrosamines. Research has shown that a large number (85%) of 209 nitrosamines tested toxicologically were found to be carcinogenic. For cosmetics, N-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA) and 2-ethylhexyl 4-(N-nitroso-N-methylamino)benzoate (NMPABAO) are mainly important. The presence of nitrosamines in cosmetics is undesirable given their potential health risks. -FDA report 1978
  10. Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLES) is the alcohol form of Sodium Lauryl Sulphate. Concerns regarding SLES are much the same as for SLS. SLES is slightly less irritating to the skin, but causes more dehydration and therefore faster ageing of the skin.

In conclusion: Soap has been used for thousands of years. Chemical surfactants (foaming agents) have only been used for less than 100 years. You can infer from this what is best described as “natural”. The possibility of a potential loss of 16 trillion dollars per year in the soap industry will ensure that multinational corporations continue to deny the dangers of SLS and SLES.

From: “De Online Zeepwinkel” – https://www.online-zeepwinkel.nl/c-1259894/over-sls-en-sles/

Important to know: Cretan-Garden soaps and Cretan-Garden liquid soap concentrate do not contain SLS or SLES. Cretan-Garden liquid soap concentrate will be available in the online shop during 2025, maybe 2026: lavender, oregano, rosemary and sage.

#12. The difference between essential oils and extracts

Original article published on LinkedIn, also on his website, 23 June 2021, by: Nuqo Trading

“With the increased awareness of natural products, more people are asking questions about the difference between essential oils and extracts. Both play an important role in natural wellness products used in everything from aromatherapy to teas, and the right process is essential to get the most out of these natural substances.

The main difference between essential oils and extracts is the process. While both are extracted from different parts of the plant, the process is very different. Essential oils must be extracted through distillation, while extracts are steeped in a liquid to isolate the flavor.

Oils collected from the aromatic parts of flowers, roots, and leaves are known as essential oils. These oils are concentrated in nature and prepared by steam distillation. The plant parts are placed inside a steam chamber, steam is released over the plant parts, and the oils are collected by squeezing under steam pressure. The extracted substances are collected in the vapor chamber and cooled in a condenser. The condenser creates water and separates the oil into a concentrated form.

With extracts, the plants go through a steeping process, where the collected substance is concentrated. This can also be done by pulverizing the plant. The most common extraction process is herbal tea, while tinctures require the plant material to be steeped in alcohol for a long time to remove the essential compounds.

Each method removes the most important compounds from plants and concentrates the best of nature into a simple, easy-to-use substance.”

My question to Nuqo Trading:

In my handmade soap production1, I use olive oil, which has been infused with 720 grams of herbs such as rosemary, oregano, sage, lavender, in 15 liters of olive oil. The infusion time is half a year. Then the soaked herbs are filtered out, and powdered in the food processor, filtered again and returned to the added oil, so that everything that is possible to extract from the soaked herbs is retained and used in the soap production. The infused olive oil looks black when the grinding and back-filtration are done. The smell is extraordinary. Next to that, I use a tea from the same herbal extract (for many days), which is also very dark. I use this tea to create a lye with sodium hydroxide. Later, when the liquid starts to saponify, I add the necessary amount of essential oil of the same herb for that batch.

My question is: is the result of infusion, and the way I make the oil, also a kind of extract?

Answer on LinkedIn, by Nuqo Trading:

Most likely! Your soaps sound amazing!

In the video you can follow the creation of (in this case) lavender soap, from lavender fields to infusion, to cutting and packaging:

Footnote

  1. Cretan-Garden webshop ↩︎

#11. Loofah and skin care

The official name is Luffa aegyptiaca, or Egyptian Luffa. It is a cucumber-like fruit, but belongs to the gourd family. When the fruit is ripe, it can be eaten. If it is left hanging and overripe, it gradually dries out and a fibrous substance is left behind. Once the fruit is harvested, the skin can be removed and the fibrous material can be cut up, sold and used as a bath sponge.

The sponge feels hard when dry, but soft when wet. The sponge then feels like a firm terry cloth, which is still rough enough to remove old skin cells. Using the sponge while massaging activates all skin functions and increases blood circulation in the skin, which slows down the aging process of the skin. Regular use of the loofah keeps the skin young, fresh, shiny and radiant. The loofah can also be used for a facial scrub. 

The skin

The skin is an organ, just like the heart, kidneys, and liver. Its total weight is one sixth of the body weight. The skin is a complex and active organ, a mantle, which acts as a protective layer between the body’s sensitive tissues and everything outside the body. The skin is not only a barrier, it is also involved in maintaining body temperature and internal moisture, neurosensory functions and natural resistance to infection and disease. The aging process affects the skin in several ways. The epidermis thins and the rate of renewal decreases dramatically as we age, and in women especially after menopause. Most skin care is primarily aimed at slowing down the aging process, slowing down the formation of wrinkles. When we start real skin care on time, our skin stays healthy much longer and skin diseases and wrinkles are less likely.

Skin care

The skin can be nourished both from the outside and from the inside. Since the skin is a natural tissue, it is logical that a natural oil is the best product for caring for the skin’s surface, that is, the outside. An oil that has everything in it for that care is olive oil. You can apply this oil directly to the skin, but you can also add 10 drops of essential oil, of your choice, to 10 cl of olive oil. You can buy essential oils at a health food store. After washing and scrubbing with the soapy loofah, rinse your body. Then put a little olive oil in the palm of your hand, and spread the olive oil over your still damp body. Then dry your body. The oil penetrates the skin quickly because it is warm.

Skin Care Products

A. The Exterior of the Skin

Let’s look at the following image. We will see an enlargement of the skin surface. A natural soap, such as Cretan-Garden soaps, is an excellent remedy for removing sebaceous gland fat, sweat, body odor, dirt, bacteria, fungi and viruses.

Skin, with hair, dead skin cells, clogged pores, bacteria and viruses (iStock)

When you use a fatty soap, such as an olive oil soap 1, a very thin layer of olive oil remains on the skin after washing and drying. That is excellent, because that layer protects the skin. Using olive oil also as a body oil after washing, showering or bathing, the skin is supported even more in its elasticity, moisture and condition. Olive oil is high in vitamins E and K, both of which are very important in skin care. Olive oil is also a panacea after sunbathing, or even sunburned skin. Daylight is very healthy for the skin, but it is necessary to protect yourself from excessive direct sunlight. Even then, olive oil is a good way to protect your skin additionally.

B. The interior of the skin

By eating healthily and regularly, drinking enough water, green tea and fresh fruit juice, you keep your skin healthy from the inside out. Fruit, green organically grown and unsprayed vegetables and also organic olive oil are good for healthy skin. Alcohol dries out the body and skin. As a result, the skin can age and premature wrinkles can appear. 

Skin condition

By being active every day, being in the fresh air, and getting enough sleep, living in a well-ventilated house, you give your blood enough oxygen and that oxygenated blood is very necessary to prevent rapid skin aging. In the next picture we see young skin on the left and older skin on the right. You can see that the older skin is thinner, contains less fat in the lower layers and the blood vessels contain darker blood: it is blood with little oxygen.

Adapted from Characteristics of the Aging Skin – PMC (nih.gov) with permission from Dr. Miranda A. Farage

Antioxidants protect the skin from aging

Oxidants (free radicals) are aggressive substances which are created in the body by stress and subcutaneous tensions, among other things. These aggressive substances are also produced by radiation from cell towers, Wi-Fi, smart meters and all other wireless devices.

An excess of free radicals or a lack of antioxidants causes oxidative stress: damage to healthy tissues and cells in our body. The result is uncontrolled cell division, faster aging of the body and a greater risk of health problems [source]. Oxidants, free radicals, cause tissue and skin damage. Antioxidants fight oxidants, but electromagnetic radiation reduces the effect of antioxidants. This has been scientifically researched and proven in several studies. Latest study: see here. Avoiding radiation as much as possible is therefore a good choice. In addition, it is important to support antioxidants with vitamins A, C and E, and the mineral magnesium.

Vitamin E is abundantly present in olive oil and rosemary2 (herb). In addition to vitamin E, olive oil also contains vitamins A, K and the minerals iron, calcium, magnesium and potassium. Daily use of olive oil in meals, but also as a skin care product 3 4, is therefore recommended. 

More recommendations

….that help reduce stress include:

  1. Therapeutical massage:
  2. Acupuncture
  3. Walking
  4. Hiking
  5. Sport
  6. Gardening
  7. Yoga
  8. Meditation
  9. Phytotherapy:
  10. Aromaterapy / videos:
    • essential oils like lavender, orange, pine, cypres, Ylang Ylang, sage
  11. Dr. Bach flower therapy:
  12. Disable / turn off
    • all electromagnetic radiation from wireless devices at night by using airplane mode on laptop, and your phone
    • turn off WiFi and Bluetooth

Additional information

Footnotes

  1. Cretan-Garden soaps are pure olive oil soaps, enriched with herbal extracts and essential oils ↩︎
  2. Cretan-Garden Rosemary soap ↩︎
  3. Recipe for a home made skin conditioner ↩︎
  4. Recipe for a footbath ↩︎

#10. The colour of lavender soap

The first time I saw and smelled a real lavender 1 plant was in the year 1986. The plant was growing against the outside wall of the gîte rural 2, where I stayed for some weeks together with my family. It was the only plant there. The gîte was located in the surroundings of the (then) small village with the name La Roche-de-Glun 3 in the department Drôme 4 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 5 region of southeastern France.

The small shrub where I found the name of later, was bathing the entire day in the heat of the sun, and despite that it never looked as if it was in a need for water. Used to the wealthy-leaved shrubs in Dutch gardens, I was touched by the heat-resistant leaves of this one, and their colour: greyish green. The unique, fresh, strong, uplifting, relaxing, wonderful, charming smell has since then become my favourite one. The colour of the lavender flowers is light purple, violet 6.

Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels
Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels

Since I am working with herbs from Crete, I searched for Cretan lavender, and found on the website “Wild Herbs of Crete” 7, a blogpost about it 8. According to this blogpost there are two different kinds of lavender: the Lavandula Stoechas, which seems to smell sweeter, and the Lavandula Vera. I assume that Lavandula Vera [“vera”, which is Italian for “true”] is the same as Lavandula Angustifolia 9, also known as Lavandula Officinalis. For my Cretan-Garden.shop I use Greek lavender, the Greek Lavandula Angustifolia.

The colour of natural lavender soap

When one googles on images with “lavender soap”, one is overwhelmed with the colour violet, or purple, not only because of the purple wrappers or boxes, but also because the soaps are purple or violet. When I started to make lavender soap, by infusing 15 litres of organic olive oil with 720 grams of dried lavender flowers, I was curious how the colour of the olive oil would become after three months of infusing, pulverising the filtered-infused lavender and adding the result back into the infused oil. The colour is black. Not purple. The liquid soap is as all herbal soaps this colour, and dried it has a beige / khaki colour. Not purple.

When the infused oil becomes soap during the saponification process the almost black colour turns into orange/brown, sometimes, that depends on the herb, it is red/brown. The colour of the lavender soap becomes even lighter than the colour of the other herbal soaps. The smell however is not lesser strong. On the contrary. Important to know is that the skin-nourishing ingredients of extra virgin olive oil, organic herbs, and essential oils are not affected in the saponification process.

Whenever you would like to have a violet coloured bar of lavender soap, and you find one, be aware that the colour is not natural, but synthetic. Often even perfumes, which contain synthetic fragrances, or pure synthetic fragrances have been added  to mislead you even more.

Handcrafted lavender soap smells the same as the lavender plant. How does lavender smell? The scent of the lavender plant is strong, charismatic, and intensely botanical. Underlying its floral sweetness are green and spicy notes, and a woody accent 10. When a herbal soap comes in a contact with water the smells of the ingredients become more active. After washing, showering or bathing the smell slowly disappears: natural smells evaporate quickly when they are exposed to the air. Only when you would use your own body-oil, in this case your own lavender body-oil 11— the smell of the lavender essential oil will accompany you for a longer time, in a modest way, and will not —like a strong “cloud” of perfumes and fragrances that fill the air— disturb others: not everybody likes the same smells. Be aware of what kind of smell you “wear” when you are going to spend time in nature. Perfumes and fragrances do not fit there.

The toxic truth about perfumes and fragrances

“The toxic truth about perfumes and fragrances” is the title of a blog post, written by Karen Kingston. Since I agree with every word and sentence, I would like to recommend this blog post. You can click here to read the post.

Footnotes

  1. Lavender – Britannica dictionary ↩︎
  2. Gîte rural – Wikipedia ↩︎
  3. La Roche-de-Glun – Wikipedia ↩︎
  4. Drôme – Wikipedia ↩︎
  5. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – Wikipedia ↩︎
  6. Violet (colour) – Wikipedia ↩︎
  7. Wild Herbs of Crete – Website ↩︎
  8. Greek Lavender – Website Wild Herbs of Crete ↩︎
  9. Lavandula Angustifolia – Wikipedia ↩︎
  10. Lavender – Cretan Garden, Page Lavender ↩︎
  11. Body oil – Cretan Garden recipe for a home made skin conditioner ↩︎

#9. Sappho, and the origin of soap

The following article is a machine-translation of “Η οικογενειακή επιχείρηση του Οδυσσέα Ελύτη που έφτιαχνε σαπούνια”, “The family business of Odysseas Elytis who made soaps”, published in News on July 21, 2017. Odysseas Elytis (1911-1996) was a Greek poet, essayist and translator.1 His real name is Odysseas Alepoudelis. The name Alepoudelis[Αλεπουδέλης] is also the name of the soap factory in Heraklion, Crete.

Panagiotis Alepoudelis

Odysseas Alepoudelis was born on November 2, 1911, in Heraklion, Crete and was the son of Panagiotis Alepoudelis, a businessperson from Lesbos2, who had one of the largest and most famous soap factories in Greece.

The Alepoudelis soap factory was founded in Heraklion, Crete, in 1895. At the time of World War I, Elytis’s father, Panagiotis, moved his soap factory to Athens, to the area of ​​Piraeus. The Alepoudelis family, and, of course, Benjamin Odysseas, also moved to Athens. However, the origin of Elytis’ father, Lesvos, determined the choice of a soap factory.

What we all know today is that a traditional soap, made from olive oil (a product that, remarkably abroad, is considered particularly valuable and a kind of luxury), comes, according to Greek mythology, from Lesbos. A legend tells that the women of ancient Lesbos washed their clothes in the river (as all women did at that time). So they noticed that the animal remains, along with the fat from the animals that were burned as sacrifices in the ancient sanctuaries near the river, swept away the ashes and formed a pale yellow stream that ended up in the river. On the days when the yellow stream flowed into the river, the clothes were washed better. And the soap was made! According to ancient Greek legend, the soap got its name from the famous poet of Lesbos, Sappho 3 4.

[The word soap is related with the Latin word “sapo”, the French “savon”, the Italian sapone, and the Spanish “jabon” 5. Those who have studied medicinal herbs and their active ingredients know about the so-called saponins 6, which have indeed characteristics of what we name soap. The word soap, and the term saponification 7 are therefore without any doubt only related with the term saponin. Admin]

Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BCE)

Until the time of the industrial revolution, all over the (known) world, soaps were produced in the Lesbos way. There have been soap factories on the island all these centuries. After the revolution of 1821, until the destruction of Izmir 8 (1922), soap making was a very lucrative Greek productive activity, with Lesvos soaps being exported from Constantinople 9 to Alexandria 10 and New York.

It should be noted that shortly before the Asia Minor 11 catastrophe, over 50% of Greek soap exports were from Lesbos. It was also the settlement of 1 or 2 soap factories in the country.

One of the most famous soap factories (originating in Lesbos, based in Crete and then Piraeus, as mentioned above) was the company “Alepoudelis”, owned by the family of the poet Odysseas Elytis. “Alepoudelis” soaps were known all over the world, thanks to the pure olive oil they contained and the softness they offered. The “Alepoudeli” factory was one of the most modern at that time (in the first decades of 1900), and at the same time it was a huge export company, since most of the production was exported to Egypt, Turkey, England and the USA. When Elytis’ father died in 1925, the business passed into the hands of Pangiotis’s younger brother and co-founder of the soap factory, Thrasyvoulos Alepoudelis, Elytis’s uncle, had the business idea to establish a separate department in the company, for the production of soaps that used only excellent olive oil and coconut oil, something that then put them at the top of European quality standards.

The Alepoudelis soap factory in Heraklion.

The company “Alepoudelis and Co.” also had branches in Crete, Corfu, Thessaloniki and – of course – Mytilene (Lesbos). The production of the soap factory continued unabated, surviving the enormous obstacles of World War II. Despite the huge business and commercial success of the company that bore his ancestral name, however, Odysseas did not want to deal with it. In fact, according to the information regarding his biography, the main reason that he changed his name to “Elytis” was precisely to separate his position and his … fate from the family business. The rest is history, of course, for the Greek poet … As for the family business, Alepoudelis soaps are produced until today. If you take a closer look at the well-known green soaps that are sold in many tourist shops throughout Greece, you will see the brand “Alepoudelis” in them.

The family soap-business lost Odysseas, but Art welcomed him.

Odysseus Elytis 12 13

Note: The name Alepoudelis reminds me of the name Aleppo14 15 , the Syrian city where the world famous Aleppo soap 16 is made. The addition “delis” is used in more family names in Greece. It would be nice to find out if the family is originally from Aleppo, Syria, and that their ancestors were soap manufacturers in Aleppo. According to sources 17 Greeks have lived in Syria, Aleppo.

Aleppo soap is similar to Castile soap, Savon de Marseille, and Nablus soap, and also to the handmade Cretan-Garden18olive oil soaps, especially “Daphne“, from the Greek name “Δάφνη” [Daphni], the name of the Laurus Nobilis tree: the berries of this tree are used for the production of oil, known as Bay Laurel oil. This oil has made the Syrian Aleppo soap, and the Palestinian Nablus soap world famous. The Daphne soap is the Norwegian variant.

Additional information:

  1. Alepoudelis Soap Factory – Blog In Silencio
  2. Documentary: Αθηνά & Σαπουνοποιίες στο Ηράκλειο / Athena & Soap Factories in Heraklion – YouTube

Footnotes

  1. Odysseas Elytis – Wikipedia ↩︎
  2. Lesbos – Wikipedia ↩︎
  3. Sappho – Wikipedia ↩︎
  4. Guide to the classics: Sappho, a poet in fragments – The Conversation ↩︎
  5. Soap – Online Etymology Dictionary ↩︎
  6. Saponification – Merriam Webster dictionary ↩︎
  7. Saponin – Wikipedia ↩︎
  8. Izmir – Wikipedia ↩︎
  9. Constantinople – Wikipedia ↩︎
  10. Alexandria – Wikipedia ↩︎
  11. Asia Minor / Anatolia Wikipedia
    Asia Minor Greeks – Wikipedia ↩︎
  12. Odysseus Elytis – Geni ↩︎
  13. Odysseus Elytis – Wikipedia ↩︎
  14. Aleppo, Syria – Wikipedia ↩︎
  15. Aleppo, Etymology – Wikipedia ↩︎
  16. Aleppo soap – Wikipedia ↩︎
  17. Aleppo, Greek and Roman periods – Wikipedia ↩︎
  18. Cretan-Garden olive oil soap – collection ↩︎

#8. Shampoo

Shampoos are, they say, liquid soap. Did you know that 99.5% of liquid soaps are not real soaps?

“99,5% are cocktails of synthetic detergents that have many undesirable long-term effects on the body. This is denied worldwide due to the billion-dollar revenues of large multinational corporations. Sodium Lauryl (Laureth) Sulfate (SLS) is currently Western Civilization’s leading foaming agent. SLS is found in shampoos, bath gels, car washes, dishwashing detergents, soap bars, laundry detergents, etc. It is a wetting and dispersing agent, emulsifier, degreaser and foam booster. It also increases the permeability of the skin by about 100 times and is used in lotions to increase the absorption of micronutrients into the skin. And there is a big danger there!!” Source

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Shampoos, all sorts of shampoos and all sorts of brands are claiming to be the best for your hair, offering for every hair type another shampoo, another conditioner, another hair mask. I have used pH-neutral shampoos, hair conditioners, and hair masks, for as long as they became available, but my hair was, despite the neutral pH of the shampoos, and the beautiful natural conditioners and masks, never really okay. My hair is thick, curly, dry, fluffy, and my hair is becoming dryer because of becoming grey as well. I have tried everything. Because of the mentioned characteristics of my hair, it is impossible to have it long. Not even half long.

Herbal olive oil soap as a shampoo bar

I have started lately to use my own herbal olive soap for hair washing, to see what happens. It looks better and better. . The most significant difference is that I do not need to wash my hair more than once per week. My hair looks and feels normal, it is so much easier to be dressed. I was wondering why. 

Though pH-neutral shampoos can be used every day, the question is if washing your hair every day is really okay for hair and scalp. My thoughts go far back in time when hair was washed just once per week. That had a reason: the skin on the scalp is not the same skin as on the rest of your body. Every single piece of hair grows out of the scalp-skin, and it is the skin that keeps the hair in good condition. We indeed need hair conditioners and hair masks when we wash our hair daily. But if we offer the skin of the scalp the time to do their work in their own natural way, and if we do not immediately destroy their work, by daily taking away what the skin itself produces, namely sebum, we do not need hair conditioners as we do now. Daily washing the hair is maybe okay according to shampoo manufacturers, but it is a matter of logic that the natural resistance of the skin and the hair will decrease because of exhaustion, or will become overactive at the very beginning, when the daily shampoo attacks start, even when the shampoo is pH neutral. Using a neutral shampoo once per week was for me not the solution. Reason to use it more. And that did not work either.

A natural conditioner: olive oil or cocos oil

My own experiences with my oily cold process herbal olive soaps are that washing my hair with it once per week is really enough. After making my hair well dry, I use some drops of pure olive oil or cocos oil, or a mix of both, and spread it over and through the towel-dry hair and massage it into the scalp and hair. I let my hair dry naturally. My fluffy, dry hair is gone, but I expect that the condition of my hair will improve more. [Update July 20, 2025: my hair is curling again, shining, and looking healthy.] 

To make it more personal, I added about 20 drops of essential oil to a small re-used 50 ml bottle with pump, filled with olive oil, and stirred it very well.

Additional information

  1. What ages hair? – PubMed
  2. Hairloss due to electromagnetic radiation from overuse of cellphone – ResearchGate

My personal experiences with EMF and hair loss: during the time that I was not aware of the impact of EMF on my health, not informed about symptoms of overradiation, I was indeed losing so much hair that I was wondering what was going on. I have written about this on my blog Multerland, in several posts[Archives 2017-2018]. It was the start of a private study on EMF. The consultation of an osteopath was helpful in stopping my bad physical condition: she worked on my scalp and neck, and it felt as if a layer of glass had broken and my scalp was back to normal again. After several treatments, my hair was growing again. The new hair looked like baby hair, but after some months it was back to normal. The only way to get rid of the effects if wireless radiation is to live in an EMF-free environment. I bought the Acousticom2. This calibrated device is able to measure EMF. In this way, I could find the rooms where the radiation is almost zero, or at least the less, where to put the bed, where the desk with computer. Of course, all the wireless is turned off, the smart meter is turned off, the Wi-Fi is turned off, also in the computer and printer. All is Ethernet cabled. I do not have the internet on my cellphone and mostly the cellphone is on Flymodus.

#7. Rosemary-infused body oil

The benefits of the herb rosemary, or rosmarinus officinalis 1 2 3, were already hailed in the Minoan Civilisation 4. Rosemary is a kitchen herb, but a medicinal herb as well. Medicinal herbs 5 6 7 8 are available as tinctures, tablets, pills, teas and essential oils. These are for internal use and oral use. Essential oils, however, are also used externally. The term medicinal is an indication that nobody should use these without consulting a well-trained professional therapist, or a medical doctor who also studied these herbs and/or their oils, how to use these, when, for which health problems, and what the dosage should be.

Rosemary is known for its benefits for the skin. It is present in almost all skin products, like shampoos, creams, massage oils, and body oils. Four out of seven Cretan Garden soaps are made out of rosemary-infused olive oil 9, oregano-infused oil 10 and sage-infused oil 11.

Your home-made body oil and body scrub

Body oils are expensive. You can make your own body oil. Your skin will love it, and your wallet as well. Follow the next steps and enjoy the result.

  1. 500 ml organic extra virgin olive oil
  2. 30 grams dried organic rosemary leaves
  3. Put the dried rosemary in a casserole that is big enough for the half-litre olive oil plus the 30 gram rosemary leaves. Warm the oil up to 38–60 degrees Celsius and keep the casserole at this temperature for about 48–72 hours. During this time, all the goods are extracted from the leaves into the oil. This process is called infusing. Another method: add the olive oil and herbs to a bowl, or casserole and keep it for some weeks in a warm sunlit spot in the house. Stir the oil-rosemary mix during the infusing time every day. I infuse olive oil as well, for making soap, but I offer the oil more time to infuse. At least three months. 
  4. When the oil is infused, you can filter the herbs out, by using a sieve. If you want to make rosemary pulp, you can add the oily herbs to the kitchen machine and pulverise them. 
  5. Take an empty bowl or casserole, and put a cheesecloth in the sieve. 
  6. Put the rosemary-olive-oil pulp from the kitchen machine cup into the cheesecloth, and let it leak out for a while, till all the oil has disappeared. 
  7. Make this process more efficient by pouring the filtered oil for the second time over the pulp. At the end, you can take the rest of the oil from the pulp when you take the four points of the cheesecloth together and press the oil out. Your hands will become very oily, but you can remove this with kitchenpaper.
  8. Fill an empty, well-cleaned and dried fluid soap dispenser and add about 20 drops of rosemary essential oil, or an essential oil of your own choice.
  9. The rest of the infused oil can be stored in a cold place, for instance in the refrigerator. Put a lid on it.
  10. The left-overs of the rosemary pulp in the sieve can be used as a body scrub. You can store it, for instance, in an empty, clean, glass jar in the refrigerator. Before using a body scrub to exfoliate your skin, read my blog post: Exfoliating the skin 12.

How to use the body oil

The best moment to use body oil is after a shower or bath, before drying your body with a towel. Pump some body oil from the dispenser into the palm of one of your hands and divide the oil over both hands. Apply the oil on the entire body. Massage the oil onto the warm and wet skin. In this way, you do not need so much oil, the oil is easier to spread, and because the skin is warm, the oil is easily absorbed. Then pat the skin dry. You will discover that the skin is not oily, and after drying the skin shines and looks younger and healthier. In case your skin is really dry, it will take some weeks before your skin is back to normal again. You can use body oil every day.

Instead, you could massage the entire body from head and hair to toes according to the Indian abhyanga massage before taking a shower. Read more about this massage in my blog post “The skin” 13. The used oil is also an herbal-infused body oil.

Other uses: after a day at the beach, in the sunlight, in the hot dry wind, the salty seawater, or in winter when being outside in the cold, or 24/7 in a warm dry room. You can use the rosemary body oil also as a hair mask.

Attention: the rosemary aroma is uplifting, stimulating, energising, and therefore best not to be used before sleeping. If you would like to create a body oil for a good night’s rest, use lavender instead of rosemary.

Benefits of rosemary-infused body oil

  1. Anti-ageing
  2. Improves elasticity
  3. Moisturises
  4. Protects the skin
  5. Can be used in cases of eczema and acne 
  6. The aroma of rosemary uplifts the psyche.
  7. The aroma creates a beneficial effect on the central nervous system.
  8. The aroma stimulates the 3rd chakra, balances the 5th chakra 14
  9. Photo: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Additional information

  1. Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  2. Lavender-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  3. Patchouli-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  4. YlangYlang-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  5. Lavender soap – Cretan Garden
  6. Oregano soap – Cretan Garden
  7. Sage soap – Cretan Garden
  8. Exfoliating the skin – Cretan Garden
  9. Rosemary harvest in Morocco – Medicine Hunter
  10. How to Make Herb-Infused Oils for Culinary & Body Care Use – Mountain Rose Herbs
  11. Effect of Olive Oil on the Skin – ResearchGate
  12. Virgin olive oil as a fundamental nutritional component and skin protector – ReasearchGate
  13. Olive Oil in Botanical Cosmeceuticals – ResearchGate
  14. Enhancement of antioxidant and skin moisturizing effects of olive oil by incorporation into microemulsions – ResearchGate
  15. The foundation for the use of olive oil in skin care and botanical cosmeceuticals – ResearchGate

Footnotes

  1. Rosmarinus officinalis L. (rosemary) as therapeutic and prophylactic agent – Journal of Biomedical Science ↩︎
  2. Gallery Rosmarinus officinalis – Flickr ↩︎
  3. Rosemary essential oil – New directions Aromatics ↩︎
  4. Herbs for Health and Beauty in Minoan Crete of 2000 BC – Explore Crete ↩︎
  5. Historical review of medicinal plants’ usage – PubMed ↩︎
  6. Herbs – Multerland ↩︎
  7. Herbal medicine – Multerland ↩︎
  8. Chinese Traditional Medicine – Multerland ↩︎
  9. Lavender soap – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  10. Oregano soap – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  11. Sage soap – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  12. Exfoliating the skin – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  13. The skin / Abhyanga massage – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  14. A Beginner’s Guide to the 7 Chakras and Their Meanings – Healthline ↩︎

#6. The Minoan Lady

In September 2015, I was for a week on the island of Crete, Greece, and visited Knossos, and the Minoan Palace, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site 1. I had already seen many pictures of the palace on the web, but when there I was touched by the atmosphere in a surprising way. Because thousands of tourists visit this site day after day, and so many tourist buses and cars fill the parking spaces, I expected that it would become a noisy, stressful experience, but the visitors were silent, calm, and did not even talk with each other. The atmosphere was so intensely peaceful that it is justified to compare the site with a sacred place. I remember what I once read about powerful energy spots on earth, in the magnetic field of the earth, in the soils, and all the layers beneath the surface.

Monasteries were also built on these special spots. Stonehenge 2  is another example. The Minoans who lived in the palace of Knossos were highly civilised, not only rationally, but also spiritually. Priestesses were also living in the palace of Knossos, an enormous complexity of buildings with even four storeys. The Minoan Lady, also named La Parisienne, was a priestess 3 . The text continues below the picture.

The Camp Stool fresco (reconstruction), c. 1350 B.C.E., from west wing of the palace of Knossos (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete) – Source: Smart History – Copyrights: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Cretan Garden

Cretan-Garden

When I decided to start a webshop to sell soaps made out of Cretan olive oil4, herbs and essential oils, and searching for a picture that could be used for the logo, the icon in the media and blog, my thoughts went almost immediately to that one picture 5 that I made in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion, in 2015. It was an intuitive choice. For me, the Minoan Lady was and is what I would like to represent in my products: ethics, values, respect, dignity, aesthetics, beauty.

It is a pity that I lost the article that I once read about Minoan priestesses in Knossos and their role in the herbal garden: only priestesses were allowed to pick the herb salvia fruticosa, or Greek sage. For that sage ritual, they had to wear a white dress, because that herb was holy. When I smelled dried Greek sage some years ago -for the first time in my life- I understood. Because of that intense aroma, I also understand why it is used in rituals to clean the atmosphere in rooms, in buildings with negative energies, graveyards, in a diversity of cultures, worldwide 6.

The use of soap in the Minoan Civilization

It is not certain if the Minoan Lady used soap herself. There is nothing written about the use of soap in the palace of Knossos, though the first soaps seem to have been made in Greece, during the Minoan times. Here are some articles with information that explain, for instance, the use of salt in bathing rituals:

“Before modern medicine, salt water treated patients as a healing remedy. Before the modern spa day, firm believers in its healing created the concept of therapeutic bathing. In order to cleanse the body, they infused salt with herbal blends, lavender and bay laurel leaves that extracted daily toxins. Another contribution salt progressed into was basic soap making. Dated around 2800 BC, the Greeks were one of the first soap makers who created mixtures of alkaline salts with local vegetable oils, animal fats and wood ashes to form soaps and detergents. By contrast, today an individual uses soap for bathing or personal hygiene. In ancient times, it was produced for cleaning cooking utensils, goods and medicinal purposes.” 7

“The oldest archaeological findings in Europe related to bathing habits date from the Bronze Age (2,400–800 BC). In the palaces of Knossos and Phaistos in Crete, the population of the Aegean Minoan civilisation left traces of special chambers devoted to bathing. Alabaster bathtubs excavated in Akrotiri (on Santorini Island), as well as washing basins and feet baths, showed how people from the Minoan civilisation maintained their personal hygiene.” 8

“Lustral Basins were first identified by Arthur Evans 9 at Knossos and consist of a sunken rectangular room reached by an L-shaped or dog-legged stairway. There is often a balustrade running alongside the stairway, normally ending with a pilaster supporting a column. All the examples at Knossos, like the one at Mallia (above), were lined with gypsum and so Evans thought they were used for bathing—a clay tub was even found in one of them. However, a few of them were found in areas of the palace; the Throne Room, for example, where relaxing in the tub seems unlikely. In those cases, Evans believed they were used for ritual purification through lustration—hence the name” 10

Additional information

  1. Minoan woman or goddess from the palace of Knossos (“La Parisienne”) – Khan Academy
  2. Appendix Two, La Parisienne – Erenow, Biographies and Memoires
  3. Journal article – Water, Fertility and Purification in Minoan Religion – Oxford University Press
  4. How ‘ritual’ were the Palaces? – The Secret of Civilization
  5. Minoan Religion, Ritual, Image and Symbol – Nanno Marinatos, Academia
  6. Hydro-technologies in the Minoan Era – IWA
  7. Minoan civilization – YouTube playlist
  8. Archaeological Museum Heraklion – Photo album Flickr
  9. Minoan Art, Archaeological Museum Heraklion – Photo album Flickr
  10. Herbs for health and beauty in Minoan Crete – Explore Crete
  11. The Minoan Harem : the Role of Eminent Women and the Knossos Frescoes [article] – Nanno Marinatos
  12. Cretan-Garden olive oil soaps – Webshop

Footnotes

  1. The archaeological site of Knossos, Crete – Photo album Flickr ↩︎
  2. Stonehenge – Wikipedia ↩︎
  3. Knossos and the Minoan Civilization – World History ↩︎
  4. Cretan-Garden olive oil soaps – Webshop ↩︎
  5. Picture Minoan Lady – Flickr ↩︎
  6. Salvia fruticosa and rituals – Scholarly articles ↩︎
  7. Importance of salt in Ancient Greece – Greek Boston ↩︎
  8. Ancient Greek and Roman bathing – Blog Stella ↩︎
  9. Sir Arthur Evans and Minoan Crete – Nanno Marinatos ↩︎
  10. Lustral Basins in Knossos – Odyssey ↩︎

#5. Exfoliation of the skin

What is exfoliation?

Your skin naturally sheds dead skin cells to make way for new cells. Exfoliation is the removal of dead skin cells from the surface of your skin using, for example:

Exfoliation can improve the appearance of your skin, but if not done correctly, it can do more harm than good. It is best to choose safe materials.

  • Washcloth
  • Loofah
  • Dry brush

I find dry brushing – a bath brush that has the right strength for the skin – to be a very excellent daily aid in really improving the condition of my own older skin. In the figure below, you can see the difference between younger and older skin. One of the differences is the blood vessels: in older skin, they are darker red, which means there is less oxygen. When you brush your skin, blood circulation in the skin improves. 

Adapted from Characteristics of the Aging Skin – PMC (nih.gov) with permission from Dr. Miranda A. Farage

More :

  1. Blog Cretan-Garden: #10. Loofah and skincare
  2. What Does It Mean to Exfoliate? Why You Should and How to Start – Healthline
  3. Dr. Berkowsky’s Vital Chi Skin Brushing System™ – Natural Health Science
  4. Skin care in the aging female: myths and truths – PubMed
  5. The truth about dry brushing and what it does for you – Cleveland Clinic

#4. Skin and pH

When writing this post it is July 2021. We, humans all over the world, have an experience with skin and pH(power of Hydrogen) values, while knowing maybe not anything about pH and if not being aware of the fact, why the skin of the dorsal of their hands looks so incredible bad since the last year. Most probably this is caused by the antiseptic sprays (high percentage alcohol) at the entrance of all shops. Not one doctor, dermatologist, talks about it. However, when one uses a soap to wash hands it has to be skin neutral. They say.

pH scale / CC BY 4.0

Skin neutral?

The pH value of the skin is on all places of the body different. Therefore one uses an average pH value, which is about 5 or lesser. What exactly is causing the pH value of the skin? First one needs to know what exactly is “skin”. Skin is an organ which covers and protects all what is beneath the skin, and outside the skin. The skin is nourished by the food we eat. If we never eat a balanced food, concerning pH levels, acidic and alkaline, the skin will not be able to have a healthy pH level. The influence of too much acidic food, which is the most popular among humans in the “civilized” countries, influences of course the constitution of the skin, and its pH values.

Also influences from outside the skin, like air pollution, artificial electromagnetic radiation, burning sun rays, extreme temperature, contribute to the condition of the skin, and its pH. On health websites one claims that only soaps with a pH value that is similar with the skin pH are healthy for keeping a healthy skin. This would mean that swimming in the salty sea pH 8,2), or ocean (pH 8,2), even bathing in tap-water (pH value between 6,5 and 8,5) or taking a shower should be avoided.

The neutral pH level soaps are a mix of the normal alkalinity of soaps, and mostly several chemicals to achieve a lower pH level. These chemicals are more skin damaging than a normal soap ever can. With other words: a lot of industrial propaganda for their so-called neutral pH products should be suspected.

The term alkaline is a sort of curse in the ears of many, because of the industrial propaganda for their self created myths that a soap must have a neutral pH value. How can they explain the alkalinity of for instance breast milk(pH of 6,35-7,35)[1], the alkalinity of the skin of new-borns(pH value 7)[2], the alkalinity of the amniotic fluid(pH value 7,1-7,3)[3] in which the foetus swims before it is born? The foetus is extremely sensitive: imagine the damage that could be created in its development of organs, brains, eyes, blood vessels, nervous system, bones, skin…. Nature however found it better to let it swim in alkaline fluid, not in neutral fluid, neither in acidic fluid. The pH value of blood ranges between 7,35 and 7,45. It is the blood that nourishes the skin from inside, and the lymphatic fluid in the skin pours out the acidic waste to the surface of the skin. If the food habits of the human being are not healthy, unbalanced, too acidic, of course the blood will be more acidic and the skin as well. How high was the pH level of the skin of our ancestors? They washed with alkaline soap, without any problem. Skin problems occur because of an unhealthy life style, bad hygiene, the poisonous environment we live in, and the poisonous food people eat.

Healthy lymph have a pH that ranges between 7 and 10. The lymphatic system, part of the immune system, is a network of ducts that carry the lymphatic fluid (LF). LF also contains white blood cells called lymphocytes, fats, and proteins.[4]. The lymphatic system, made up of lymphatic fluid, tiny vessels, nodes and organs, is responsible for removing excess fluid, infections and acidic waste[5].

Viruses, and pH

There are several publications about viruses and how they react to low or high pH values. The most of the publications contradict each other. Some write: Viruses thrive, like bacteria, in an acidic environment. Viruses infect body cells by binding to the proteins in the cells and then multiplying. Scientific research shows that this process mainly takes place at a low pH value or in an acidic environment. An acidic environment has a pH of 0 to 7. As the pH becomes more basic, the activity of viruses decreases sharply. Scientists have established this in various studies in numerous viruses in both humans and animals. The relationship between pH value and infection-increasing activities has been demonstrated in, among others, influenza1, corona2, hepatitis C3, foot-and-mouth disease4 and other viruses in animals. By increasing the alkaline buffer in your body, which improves the pH value of your body cells, the sensitivity to viruses in the body could decrease[6][7] More: [8][9]

Since scientists are not unanimously concluding that alkalinity of food, or body care products, create a not virus-friendly environment it is necessary to wait for more research.

Sources

  1. pH value of breastmilk – ScienceDirect
  2. Skin pH of a newborn baby – PubMed
  3. Amniotic fluid has a pH of 7.1 to 7.3. – Healthline
  4. pH value of healthy lymphatic fluids – Portland Press
  5. About lymphatic fluid – PrairieNaturals
  6. Viruses are pH sensitive – Reelyse
  7. The influence of pH on SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity – ResearchGate
  8. Conditions Favoring Increased COVID-19 Morbidity and Mortality: Their Common Denominator and its Early Treatment – PubMed
  9. What do we know so far about COVID-19 and alkalinity? Health Desk
  10. Additional information about pH values – Scientific Research, §6
  11. The Skin – Cretan Garden Blog

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