#nontoxic products

[homemakinghippie]

All Purpose Cleaner

There are many ways to approach all purpose cleaners. Technically you could use just water to clean something. As long as there's no grease or dirt particles on something it is clean, but that doesn't mean we should really be comfortable with that level of clean 😂 I use vinegar most often because it's the most simple, but I have a few recipes to choose from.

Vinegar Cleaner:

This really is the most simple option, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work extremely well!

1 part Vinegar (I love infused vinegar)

1 part Water

15 drops Essential Oil (optional, if using infused vinegar you may not find this necessary)

Castile Soap Cleaner:

If you don't feel like things are clean without a bit of soap this recipe is perfect for you! It's still incredibly simple to make.

2 cup Filtered Water

2-4 tablespoons Castile Soap

15 drops of whatever essential oil (optional, if you buy a scented castile soap you might not find this necessary)

These are great cleaners for basic cleaning to get the grime off, but neither have real sanitizing power. Isopropyl alcohol (also called rubbing alcohol) is amazing for disinfecting.

Disinfecting Cleaner:

This is great for cleaning with a bit of disinfecting power, but this is also an amazing glass cleaner!

1 cup Filtered Water

1/2 cup Vinegar

1/2 cup Isopropyl Alcohol

15 drops Essential Oil (optional, if using infused vinegar you may not find this necessary)

[breadsticksandcheese]

smh when will americans realise that not everyone lives in america

[milkteamoon]

Have u ever done an experiment with imperial measuring

I HAVE NOT!! Tho most lab work is done veeeeeery small scale for stability reasons, like gram or less, so I think trying to do any sort of experiment with like. A tablespoon or greater would result in something exploding or catching fire depending on what you're working with. Or maybe both. So it's probably not best to test it

[excomingback]

How Do Breast Enlargement Patches Work? Safe Nontoxic Way

I’ve always felt unsure about my breast size. I would look at ads and infomercials for products that promised a lot. These products claimed to be easy and safe. But, I always wondered if they truly worked or if they were safe. A study by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons shows that many people choose breast augmentations. This surgery makes breasts bigger. Yet, it has big risks. So, some…

[random-lyy]

HOW TO CHOOSE SAFE & BEST BABY PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN MARKET

Every parent wants to give their baby a better environment with a whole new experience. They always want to do everything that will help their baby to grow without any obstacles. And it starts with choosing right products for them as the following:

CONSULT WITH BABY’S PEDIATRICIAN:  Before going to buy the food products for your baby, always remember to take doctor’s advice. They can tell which product will be chemical-free, has certain amount of required protein, fiber, calcium,

BATH PRODUCTS:  You have to keep it in your mind that your baby needs something mild, chemical-free for daily uses. For the shampoo and hair oil while taking care of these things it would be really great to test if it is suitable for your

CHOOSING THE DIPERS:  Do not go for the advertisement. Pick up the best diapers that will be comfortable for your baby. Choose the one which has soft cotton material and great absorbing quality, otherwise it can create rashes and itching in your baby’s skin.

FEEDING BOWLS:   Many says that it would be great to use silver bowl for feeding your child but there are a lot of foods that shouldn’t serve in the silver. So, I will to particularly suggest to use that cause it’s not important which type of material we are using. But the bowl or plate should be clean, hygienic and germ-free and do avoid plastic bowls because plastic is not the safest choice for you baby.

TOYS: Parents should be very cautions about toys before bringing it home. Do not go for furry soft toys because as the baby is growing, he/she will begin teething which is when you will buy a handful of chewing toys for your little one. Chew toys are mostly made with non-toxicmaterials. As the toys will be inside your baby’s mouth most of time, it will cause no harm for your child’s health.

While choosing which products will be the best for your baby always remember to buy from prestigious market and branded product. Your baby needs the utmost protection and parents should take the responsibility to keep your baby safe and sound. We all know parenting is not as easy as it sounds. It takes lot of carefulness and awareness. Here's my small knowledge which I shared. I hope it can be helpful and if you have many more things to know you can always talk to your doctor.

[thefoodiesfithome]

Unique Baby Gadgets on Amazon

Unique Amazon Baby Gadgets You Can't Skip Over

The access we have to baby goods today is simply amazing. That holds especially true for unique baby gadgets. I’ve found so many solutions to everyday parenting hiccups on Amazon. This is my collection of the best, unique problem solving items I’ve found on Amazon in my first four months of parenthood. Travel Formula Container For my fellow formula feeders, you can’t leave the house without it.…

[thesleepyskipper]

Six Sentence Sunday!

Well, I had a very productive Sunday and managed to finish this post-canon wedding one-shot WITH ALL THE FEELS today! This one's for @firenati0n ❤️ with a special shout out to @caterpills for helping me with it!

Thank you to @suseagull04, @sophie1973, @tailsbeth-writes, @onthewaytosomewhere, @iboatedhere for today's tags

and @miss-minnelli who tagged me while I was writing this post!

Here's a little taste:

About five hundred of those five hundred and ten days had been spent planning how to ask Henry to marry him. Alex needed the perfect proposal spot, the perfect ring, the perfect plan. Henry was a prince, for fuck’s sake, and he certainly deserved perfection as far as their engagement was concerned. Alex was nothing if not a perfectionist by nature to begin with, so it should have been easy. He was also a workaholic who was willing to put in a hundred and twenty percent to make sure everything was exactly right. (One hundred and ten was enough for your typical run-of-the-mill overachiever, but not for Alex Claremont-Diaz.)

You can read the rest here on AO3: yours, forever by thesleepyskipper

Would love to see what everyone's been up to this weekend! So consider this an open tag and more tags below the cut!

@welcometololaland, @cricketnationrise, @myheartalivewrites, @kiwiana-writes, @orchidscript

@rmd-writes, @celeritas2997, @noahreids, @alasse9, @cha-melodius

@henryspearl, @tinyarmedtrex, @leaves-of-laurelin, @14carrotghoul

@three-drink-amy, @stereopticons, @smblmn, @lilythesilly, @blueeyedgrlwrites

@nontoxic-writes, @indestructibleheart, @maxbegone, @clockwrkpendrxgon, @piratefalls

@anincompletelist, @anchoredarchangel, @emmalostinwonderland, @littlemisskittentoes @sparklepocalypse,

@judasofsuburbia, @heysweetheart-writes, @bitbybitwrites

@jmagnabo92, @wordsofhoneydew, @run-for-chamo-miles, @zwiazdziarka, @getmehighonmagic

@hgejfmw-hgejhsf, @dragonflylady77, @agame-writes, @nocoastposts, @lightningboltreader

@inexplicablymine, @na-dineee, @notspecialbabe, @benwvatt, @cactusdragon517

@onetwistedmiracle, @ninzied, @porcelainmortal, @bitsnpisces, @theprinceandagcd

@kordeliafawkes, @stratocumulusperlucidus, @idealuk, @stellarmeadow, @eusuntgratie

@lizzie-bennetdarcy, @dreamtigress, @duchessdepolignaca03, @kj-bee,

@priincebutt, @stellarmeadow, @softboynick, @fullsunsets,

@firstprincefairytale, @rachelica9, @readstheroom, @anti-homophobia-cheese, @thighzp

@mikibwrites, @swearphil, @flowerfan2, @rarelyrad, @letloverule1111

[stereopticons]

Thanks for the tags, @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @kiwiana-writes @ninzied! One day I’ll actually finish something, but for now, here’s more than seven sentences of something new.

Ever since he insisted on tagging along to June’s beginner ballet class, so much of his life has been spent in front of a studio mirror, pushing himself to be just a little bit better—to make his lines cleaner, his turns neater. Over time, the dance studio became a sort of refuge for him, a place where he could pour himself into perfecting his technique to distract himself from his own reality. The day his dad left, Alex spent hours at the barre rehearsing the same eight-bar combination until June showed up and dragged him back home.

June worries, but Alex knows that it’s all of that hard work that led him here. All the countless hours rehearsing and perfecting are what allowed him to become a member of the New York City Ballet, and now, if he wants the lead in Rafael Luna’s newest production of Swan Lake (and he absolutely does), he has to work even harder.

Which is why he’s here, in Studio 3, well after the streetlights have come on and everyone else has gone home, trying to perfect the series of fouettés in the coda of the Black Swan pas-de-deux. If he can get this right, Raf will have to give him the part of the Swan.

“Oh, sorry.”

Alex slips and stumbles at the sound of the voice coming from the door. From the round English vowels, he knows who it is before he even turns around.

Tagging @hippolotamus @indestructibleheart @magicandarchery @myheartalivewrites @inexplicablymine

@rmd-writes @welcometololaland @jamilas-pen @filet-o-feelings @treluna4

@lizzie-bennetdarcy @smblmn @nontoxic-writes @tyfinn @beaiola

@ships-to-sail @chelle-68 @missgeevious @mostlyinthemorning @likerealpeopledo-on-ao3

@celeritas2997 @wordthieve @dinnfameron

[theprinceandagcd]

wip wednesdayyyyy :)

happy hump day my dudes!! thanks for the tags @onthewaytosomewhere @suseagull04 @sophie1973

I'm still working away on a lifeguard!ACD fic that is growing in outline faster than it grows in written words, soooo bc i'm an academic who bases my value on my productivity, I'm working on something else I hope to post this weekend just to bridge the gap until i can get that finished!

opening lines of the fic below but it's firstprince early post-canon sneaking off to... well.

People will probably start asking where they are soon.  Alex and Henry are pretty notable guests at this event—it’s not going to go unnoticed that they’ve disappeared. If Nora is feeling generous, she can buy them some time.  He just didn’t have the foresight to let her know before they snuck off.  But Henry’s tongue is sweeping into Alex’s mouth, his fingers gripping Alex’s hip almost firmly enough to leave a bruise, his dick hard and pressing into Alex’s thigh.  And Alex doesn’t give a single fuck about who might be missing them.  Right now, they aren’t the First Son of the United States or The Prince of Wales.  Right now, they are two boyfriends who haven’t seen each other in a little over a month and have discovered that a random conference room on the third floor of this building has no windows or cameras.  Right now, Alex is drunk on the wine he can taste on Henry’s lips, drunk on the press of their bodies, drunk on being in the same room as Henry for the first time in fucking weeks. 

tags under the cut!

@adreamareads @agostobuwan @anincompletelist @blueeyedgrlwrites @dragonflylady77

@dreamtigress @everwitch-magiks @fckngyrs @firenati0n @fullsunsets

@henryspearl @heysweetheart-writes @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @inexplicablymine @itsmaybitheway

@jmagnabo92 @kj-bee @myheartalivewrites @ninzied @nocoastposts

@nontoxic-writes @porcelainmortal @priincebutt @read-and-write- @softboynick

@stellarmeadow @thesleepyskipper @thinkof-england @tinyarmedtrex @wordsofhoneydew

[andsewingishalfthebattle]

SiliNOT! Testing and Review

Since I run a lot of casting workshops, I've had several people in the costuming/maker community ask me my opinion on SiliNOT!, a relatively new product advertised as a budget- and eco-friendly moldmaking alternative to silicone, urethane, and other single-use materials.

I finally bought a couple of bottles to play with, so I did a test project. My experience and findings are below! (It's not a recipe blog, but if you want to skip the play-by-play and get to the TL;DR, it's under the big "In Summary" header near the bottom.)

First, if you aren't familiar with this material, SiliNOT! is a remeltable, reusable medium for making molds. Though its exact ingredients are not disclosed, it purports to nontoxic, food-safe, and compostable. It melts in a household microwave or double boiler and solidifies at room temperature (or in a refrigerator/freezer for faster results). The website is https://silinot.com/.

(I am not an affiliate, and have no connection to this company apart from having made one retail purchase from them. I just have a lot of casting experience and like trying out new products.)

The Positive Original

I’m still in the middle of a Vincent Valentine build, so I decided to test the SiliNOT! on his custom buttons. My original is a stack of various nonporous materials: an antique (probably Bakelite) coat button, an epoxy resin dome I cast using a mold I already had in my library, and some engraved Worbla’s Pearly Art for the raised detail. The button shanks won’t be added until the final casting, so the original can be mounted flat for the moldmaking process.

Sample Worbla on the left; completed button stack on the right:

The Mold

I built the mold container the same way I do for silicone pours, with the flat back of the button fixed to a styrene plate and a cylinder (actually a small paper cup with the bottom cut off) surrounding it for the walls. The lip of the cup is sealed all the way around with Monster Clay to prevent leaks.

Heating and Pouring

The SiliNOT! didn’t take long at all to heat up; I did maybe four or five 20-second bursts before it was completely fluid. The bottle does get rather warm, so hand protection isn’t a bad idea. If you have heat-resistant gloves, you can use those; I was working in my kitchen (yay for nontoxic stuff!), so I just grabbed an oven mitt with a silicone grip.

The melted SiliNOT! looks a bit like Luke Skywalker’s blue milk. It’s about the consistency of a yogurt smoothie and likes to pour in a thicker stream compared to silicone. While silicone can be stretched into a thin ribbon for delicate pours or chemically thinned with solvent for really tricky jobs, SiliNOT!'s viscosity is dependent on temperature and never seems to get quite as thin as silicone.

I’d automatically made my mold compact to conserve material (not really a concern with a reusable moldmaking material like SiliNOT!, but after using silicone for more than a decade, I’ve trained myself to be as efficient as possible), so the walls of my mold container were only about half or three quarters of an inch from my object. Because the target was so narrow, I found it difficult to accurately fill from the lowest area of the mold with the SiliNOT! The heavier pour also means more air can get trapped in or under the material.

Bubbles are one of the areas in which SiliNOT! is decidedly inferior to silicone. SiliNOT! has higher viscosity, so bubbles don’t want to rise to the surface without vigorous tapping, which can distort the mold edges or affect leveling depending on your mold container. The bubbles that do make their way to the surface are difficult to pop, even when poked with a sharp implement. Heat gun degassing doesn’t have much effect.

Since the bubble surface cools and skins over quickly, I actually had to use a tool and scoop some large bubbles completely out of the mold to allow the surface to level. Critically, the SiliNOT! is opaque, so you can’t spot bubbles clinging to the surface of your original. (This is why my first mold was a reject, and I had to repour. More on that below.)

Hardening

Once the surface had set, I carefully moved the mold into the refrigerator to cool faster. Here’s another area where some types of silicone can have an advantage: I typically use fast-curing Smooth-On products (because I always have random quantities left to use up after our casting workshops), so I rarely have to wait more than half an hour for a silicone mold to cure, regardless of its size or mass.

The SiliNOT! has to chill completely before handling, though, and discharging that amount of heat requires a fair amount of time even in a cool environment. My mold was pretty small, maybe 2 1/2” wide by 1” deep, and it still took around 40 minutes to cool completely. A larger, deeper mold could hold considerably more energy in the center, and might have to be left in the freezer for a couple of hours before use.

Demolding the Original

When the mold was completely chilled, I removed it from the refrigerator and popped it off the plastic plate I’d used for the base of the mold. The texture was very different from what I’d expected: Unlike other meltable materials (Monster Clay, et al.) that have a firm surface when cool, the SiliNOT! remains tacky, which means it promptly collects any debris that crosses its path. In my case, this meant I had to pick dog hair off the surface throughout the casting process (and I don’t want to think about what would happen if glitter had contaminated the work space).

I’d used a paper cup for my mold walls, which usually works fine with fast-curing silicone. But the SiliNOT! must have a high oil content, because the cup absorbed some of it:

Lesson learned; use only nonporous containers with this stuff.

The SiliNOT!! really wanted to cling to the edges of my original, so I had to go slow at first to avoid tearing the thin flanges of the mold off. However, it did demold nicely from the smooth surfaces, and preserved texture very well. You can see the Worbla pebbling and the engraving channels clearly in the mold (as well as some dust and dog hair, because I made the mistake of setting it down briefly):

Unfortunately, as you can see, a large bubble had stuck to my original and created a pit in the mold, so I decided to do a second mold pour. I figured I’d tear up the failed mold and put the pieces back in the bottle to remelt… and discovered I couldn’t. The mold would stretch and twist, but not tear. It also seemed to return to its original shape relatively faithfully. Here’s a video of me manhandling the mold:

As you can see, the SiliNOT! has much better stretch and recovery than many silicone products (there are silicones that stretch well -- some of the Dragon Skin products come to mind -- but they’re not typically marketed for moldmaking). This means it’s likely well suited to casting objects with moderate undercuts or oddly-shaped bits that need the mold to stretch during demolding.

You can cut the SiliNOT! easily with scissors, which is the recommended method for getting it back in the bottle when you’re ready to remelt.

Take Two

Using what I’d learned from the first pour, I did the second one inside a hard plastic ramekin. This gave me a bit more room to pour into the floor of the mold, reducing the bubble risk, and also eliminated the porous paper cup that had absorbed oil. I still had the issue with bubbles that didn’t want to pop, but there were fewer of them this time.

The ramekin made for a much cleaner mold, buuuuut there was ANOTHER BUBBLE right in the middle of the design. >.<

Take Three

Lather, rinse, repeat. Or in this case, melt, pour, chill.

This time I heated the SiliNOT! as much as I dared and did the absolute slowest, narrowest pour I could manage, giving the air extra time to escape as the mold was filled from the bottom. The risk with stringing out the pour like this is that in a thinner stream, the heat escapes faster, leading to uneven viscosity as the liquid fills the mold. I don’t think that’s a major problem for this particular piece, but it’s something to pay attention to as regards leveling and degassing, especially for larger molds that will take longer to fill.

The result of pour three:

/siiiiigh/ Well, at least the bubbles are smaller, this time. They may not show up enough to matter in the final cast. I’ll give it a try.

Casting

I had leftover workshop resin that was getting on toward the end of its shelf life, so I used Smooth-On Smooth-Cast 300 for my initial resin trial. It’s an opaque white resin with about a 10-minute cure time (the fast turnaround is why we use it for workshops).

Before pouring, I had to do a little mold cleanup where the SiliNOT! had managed to sneak under the edge of the Worbla (I think I’d loosened the corner of the star from prying it out of so many molds), but since the SiliNOT! stretches so well, it was pretty easy to invert it to get little scissors down into the bottom of the depression.

For the first cast, I didn’t use anything but the resin in order to get a baseline. Ideally I’d like to cold cast or dye the resin so I don’t have to worry about paint chipping, but since I’m doing a trial here (and need multiple buttons anyway) I figured some plain white extras wouldn’t hurt.

So, my first cast…

…smacked into a big problem, which I probably should have seen coming: The resin I’m using is a fast cure formula, which means it discharges a fair amount of heat as it's going through that rapid chemical reaction -- enough heat to melt the SiliNOT!, as it turned out. When I tried to demold it (after giving it a few extra minutes beyond label time to be sure it was done), the surface of the mold had melted to the resin and even embedded itself in a few places. It’s difficult to see the resin detail in the photos (my camera went into white balance panic mode with all the shades of white and blue), but you can see how pitted the formerly-smooth mold surface is.

In fairness to the SiliNOT!, the bottle does say that you should put the mold in the freezer for half an hour before casting high-temperature materials. But I assumed high-temperature material was something like candle wax or melted chocolate, rather than ordinary resin. (And the mold had just come out of the refrigerator.)

So, on to pour FOUR of the SiliNOT! mold…

Take Four

NGL, this is getting a little old. >.<

Fourth mold definitely needed some cleanup around the edges, and there are still a couple of tiny bubbles I can’t seem to get rid of, but it’s good enough for a test. (I’m starting to despair of using these for actual production, given how many times I’ve had to redo the molds because of bubbles...)

Deep in the recesses of my basement, I found some transparent epoxy resin with a 24-hour cure time -- much slower and lower-temperature than the Smooth-Cast. Since it cures clear, I went ahead and mixed in some metallic powder pigment on the off chance that I get a usable button out of this one. I had excess resin after mixing, so I poured that into my first mold, which has a bubble in the design but is otherwise fine. Two test pieces are better than one, right?

Results

Here are the results of the slow-curing resin out of mold #4:

Finally, a (mostly) clean cast!

As you can see, the detail reproduction is excellent -- certainly on par with the pulls from the silicone mold I ended up making while waiting on this set to cure (purely for time reasons; I couldn’t afford five days to cast the buttons using slow-curing resin, and with a silicone mold and fast-curing resin I could get them all done within a couple of hours).

However, you can also see a few spots where bits of the SiliNOT! embedded themselves in the final cast. Part of that may be due to design flaw in the original; I didn’t want to glue anything permanently to the antique button, and that resulted in a tiny gap between the button and the resin hemisphere. Silicone has enough strength to resist tearing out in that kind of area, but apparently the SiliNOT! doesn’t. The bits of mold around the outer edge seem to have stuck just to be difficult, as there was no structural reason for those to have become embedded in the resin. This means the mold could be damaged by successive casts, reducing its usable life and accuracy.

Still, the mold definitely produced decent results for a first cast, and a different shape might not have had as much of a problem with tearing off mold parts. The slow-curing resin is a bit of a limitation, but not a unique one (I use this same epoxy resin for any glass-clear casts I do, and only use the Smooth-Cast 300 for opaque items or things I need very quickly). I don’t personally use UV resin, but I’d be curious to learn how it performs with the SiliNOT!

IN SUMMARY:

Here’s the TL;DR on SiliNOT!

Pros

Cost effectiveness. This is the most obvious advantage of SiliNOT! over silicone; it’s (theoretically) infinitely reusable, and even with natural attrition/inevitable contamination from use, you can likely get over a hundred pours out of a bottle. That's a lot cheaper per use than silicone.

Non-toxicity. SiliNOT! is touted as food contact-safe, so you don’t have to panic if you get it on your skin or kitchen counters. While platinum-cure silicone is also relatively harmless (some varieties are labeled for food or life casting), other common moldmaking materials such as tin-cure silicone or urethane are not. (NOTE: Since the company is very hush-hush about what actually makes up the SiliNOT! secret formula, I do not know if it might release any vapors or fumes that would be irritating or harmful to pet birds. In general, I advise not doing any kind of casting around birds.)

Eco-friendliness. This is the biggest draw for me personally: Given the number of casting workshops I run and all the things I sell commercially, I have constant guilt about the amount of waste I generate for creative projects. In most areas of life I’m an aggressive reduce/reuse/recycler and try to use organic materials instead of synthetics whenever possible, so a mold that’s reusable and compostable is very appealing.

Ease of use. It’s honestly pretty hard to mess this up -- just microwave according to the directions and pour. No measuring, no A/B mixture, no concerns about chemical contamination from latex or sulfur, etc.

Shelf life. Unlike silicones, which have a shelf life of anywhere from six months to three years depending on storage conditions, the SiliNOT! purports to be shelf-stable. It's compostable, so don’t bury it in your yard, but otherwise it appears that it could be kept on hand for years.

Cons

Bubbles. Honestly the most irritating thing about this stuff for me. I’m used to being able to see bubbles forming as I pour, tap them to the surface, and remove them. The fact that I poured four molds of the same object and never once got one without bubbles is super irritating.

Stickiness. I’m not a big fan of the tacky surface texture, and while I haven’t done any cold casting yet, I can imagine that it would be very difficult to clean out any pigment or mica powder that got where you didn’t want it. I probably wouldn’t use this for any kind of cold casting that required isolated colored areas or changing colors between casts.

Set time. The SiliNOT! may take longer to cool than a fast silicone would to cure when dealing with larger molds, so it’s not ideal for projects with a really tight turnaround. (But cosplayers would never be casting something the night before a con, right? We always plan ahead and never, ever procrastinate!)

Library life. The SiliNOT! may or may not structurally degrade over time the way urethane, latex, and tin cure silicones do, but I noticed even in my very limited casts that it was prone to having tiny bits of the mold (particularly at edges) stick and pull off. While I keep most of my platinum silicone molds for years and reuse them, I don’t feel that the SiliNOT! molds would hold up to repeated casting, and they’re far more sensitive to ambient temperature, so they’re probably best used for short term only. (I also wonder about the possibility of oil leaching out in long-term storage.)

Comparative Ranking

Ranking it against other mold-making materials, I’d place SiliNOT! below platinum-cure silicone in terms of performance, but maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of urethane and tin-cure silicone. It's definitely superior to latex. (Though to be honest, I'd rank Play-Doh above latex. I hate working with that stuff.)

Factoring in cost and environmental impact, it beats out urethane and tin-cure silicone. I'm still not sure if I'd rank it above platinum-cure silicone, though... Silicone costs much more and isn't eco-friendly, but the performance and lifespan is significantly better, so it still makes more sense for some projects.

Alginate is another type of material entirely, but in some ways SiliNOT! is comparable to it -- both are more cost-effective than silicone, both are biodegradable, both are skin safe, and both have long shelf lives. But SiliNOT! is easier to use for beginners than alginate, which has to be mixed to the right consistency and has an extremely short lifespan once poured.

Overall, I would recommend SiliNOT! for:

People who want accurate, non-shrinking molds but don’t have the budget for platinum-cure silicone

People who are committed to eliminating waste from single-use materials, and are willing to trade off a little performance for a more eco-friendly material

Projects with smooth surfaces and no indentations/sharp edges/undercuts where bubbles might stick (e.g. cabochons; simple geometric forms)

Projects where you need only one or two casts of something, rather than many casts from the same mold

Casting oddly-shaped pieces around which the mold needs to stretch in order to demold

Use with slow-curing resins that do not generate much heat

I would NOT recommend SiliNOT! for:

Extremely complex or detailed pieces, or pieces with a lot of surface texture that bubbles might stick to

Two-part molds

Projects requiring many identical casts out of the same mold

Molds that you intend to add to your library for future or repeat casting

Use with fast-curing resins, melted wax, melted Monster Clay, or any other material that emits heat

Cold casting with precise color application

My Overall Opinion

It's... okay? I will almost certainly keep SiliNOT! in my toolkit for certain specific applications. It's MUCH cheaper over the long term, I love the idea of recycling mold material, and there are some projects for which it will likely perform very well (those listed in the above bullet points). I will also admit that three days of working with it does not constitute a comprehensive familiarity with the product, and it might be the sort of thing that you get better at working with after more practice. (Just learning how to eliminate bubbles would go a long way toward making me adopt this for more projects!)

However, I don't quite buy the "better than silicone" tagline. It's definitely more difficult to get a perfect result, and there are some projects for which platinum-cure silicone is always going to be more reliable (e.g. high-temperature casting, mass production, large-scale life casting).

For those looking for a recommendation of whether or not to buy, I'd say look at your project budget and the applications for which you're going to be making molds, and let those factors guide which mold material you go with. People doing some kinds of projects are likely going to find this a godsend, while those doing different projects would probably hate working with it.

[homemakinghippie]

Floor Cleaner

I try to mop my floor at least weekly. Avoid using steam mops on laminate, it can ruin the flooring. Swiffer mops are convenient, but the solution they use tends to build up and attract more dirt. I think there are brands that make their own version that you can refill now, and that would be fine if you're using a good cleaner. I use vinegar diluted in filtered hot water in an OCedar spin mop and love it. You can also use 70% Isopropyl alcohol if you want a little bit stronger of a disinfectant.

Vinegar:

1/2 cup Vinegar

1 gallon Warm Water

Alcohol:

1 cup 70% Isopropyl Alcohol

1 gallon Warm Water

[shentheauthor]

Since slugcats are descended from cleaning slugs, their slime is actually a cleaning agent. It’s nontoxic, and actually kinda tasty depending on the organism, which is why animals try to eat them.

As a result, scugs don’t actually have to bathe themselves unless they’ve been rolling around in the dirt. Most of the time their cleaning agent is enough. If they’re particularly dirty, though, tongue baths are necessary.

Tongue baths are also a pup thing. Pups haven’t started secreting the cleaning agent quite yet, and if they have, it’s not enough. So it’s up to their mothers, siblings, or colony mates to clean them. Abandoned pups usually get dirty fast, and it causes all sorts of problems with cleaning agent production in the future due to clogged glands.

In the stepping stones au, Pebbles has to get bathed by Rivulet, but he hates it and insists on cleaning himself. The problem is, he also hates THAT, because he has to lick dirt and grime. It’s a vicious cycle of “cranky pup is upset bc he’s dirty, but he hates being cleaned.”

Also, the production of the cleaning agent is different between scugs!

Gourmand produces more since they need the extra lubrication to get through small spaces.

Artificer’s is actually slightly toxic due to its flammability, but it mostly makes her taste spicy. Her saliva and cleaner both contain explosive compounds, which is how she gets that explosion boost. Flicking her tail is enough to ignite the cleaning agent, allowing her to jump higher. That’s also why she has a cooldown on the explosions, needing to give her slime production a minute to catch up.

Rivulet actually produces less since the moisture they need comes from the water. As a downside, they get dehydrated way faster.

Saint also produces less cleaning agent, being so far removed from the original pipeslugs. Their skin doesn’t dry out, and they’re actually the closest to actual cats (or rats if we take the fact that they’re rodents into account) out of all the scugs!

Slug Pebbles would have a similar effect to artificer in that his cleaning agent is spicy. He’s very conductive to electricity, meaning you get a little zap if you try to lick him.

[indestructibleheart]

Okay, so... I wrote this bit at 2AM and then waited to post it until it was a reasonable hour, so it is very much not Wednesday, but time is fake and we're all in different timezones anyway, so... To quote Miss Sabrina Carpenter, my give-a-fucks are on vacation.

Thank you to @magicandarchery, @thesleepyskipper, @firenati0n, @cha-melodius, @three-drink-amy, and @kiwiana-writes for the tags this week! Love y'all!

Here is an epistolary piece from the actor/playwright au. I obviously have not named the play yet, lmfao:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW YORK (April 8, 2019) — The Okonjo Theatre Company is pleased to announce its latest theatrical triumph, 'TBD.'  This production is the long-awaited Broadway debut of Olivier-winning playwright, Henry Fox, and it promises to be a deeply moving journey ripped from the pages of his personal journal.  "I'm quite thrilled to debut this piece in New York," says Fox. "This work is closer to my heart than anything I've done before—and much of it is a tribute to my father. He was immensely fond of the city, and of North American theatre in general. So, it feels like this play is premiering precisely where it was meant to." Spanning a twenty-five year timeline, 'TBD' places the audience in the vivid imagination of a playwright attempting to write his life story. It will be led by Alex Claremont-Diaz, cast in the principle role simply known as The Author. 'TBD' will also feature a small, intimate ensemble—including two actors playing younger versions of Diaz's character.

Tagging some lovelies under the cut. If you have not been tagged and you want to be, consider this your tag!

@anchoredarchangel, @cricketnationrise, @kiwiana-writes

@guillermosfamiliar, @hgejfmw-hgejhsf, @hippolotamus,

@inexplicablymine, @itsmaybitheway,

@jettestar, @junebugclaremontdiaz, @lizzie-bennetdarcy,

@missgeevious, @mulderscully,

@myheartalivewrites, @ninzied, @nontoxic-writes,

@notspecialbabe, @priincebutt, @rmd-writes,

@treluna4, @vanillahigh00, @welcometololaland,

@orchidscript, @ships-to-sail, @stereopticons

[mindblowingscience]

Polyurethane plastics are ubiquitous, used everywhere from mattresses to shoes. But once these products are no longer wanted, these materials litter landfills and oceans across the world. Now, a group of researchers at Northwestern University has developed a new recycling method for polyurethane foams, one of the most common types of plastic, that uses nontoxic, greener catalysts, as described in a paper published Aug. 27 in the journal Macromolecules. The process involves chemical reactions that simultaneously reprocess and "refoam" polyurethane after heating in the presence of a zirconium-based catalyst and foaming agent is introduced. The recycled foam maintained its durability and structural and chemical integrity. The process is described in a related paper published earlier this month in the journal Advanced Materials.

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[cyancherub]

trying to get into "clean" / "nontoxic" (or at least less toxic) beauty products if anyone has any recommendations... ;v;

[positivexcellence]

towwn: score a perfect 10 with these natural + nontoxic nail polishes for fall. clean formulas nix harmful chemicals, while offering vibrant, lasting color. we rounded up our favs and asked simcha whitehill, a.k.a. @misspopnails, the go-to nail artist for @elleusa, @marieclairemag + more to spill the polish on her fav autumn trends. 💅

@zoyanailpolish toxin-free + vegan, this leading formula has a chip-resistant finish, but doesn’t have chemicals like parabens or formaldehyde. miss pop says wine is a timeless fall tone, and the anabelle shade is a “standout for its warmth and festive, iridescent sparkle.”

@mooncat mooncat’s eco-packaging & ethical production make it a green fav. (10% of sales help rescue cats!) miss pop says mixed metals are big for fall; we like witch hazel from the fallen collection. “you just can’t go wrong with a metallic mani. it matches every outfit and turns nails into jewelry.” 

@nailtopiabeauty nailtopia’s superfood infused–formulas are leaping bunny approved + chip-free for weeks. Per miss pop, the brand’s opaque shades are great for nail art. the color main squeeze is perfect to create hand-painted pumpkin designs.

@cotebeautyofficial cote dries fast + has a gel-like, glossy finish that lasts ~2 weeks. “back from the ‘90s,” miss pop says bright red nails in shades like stiletto are on point for fall. “you can’t go wrong with a classic red nail.” 

@habitcosmetics a standout black-owned brand, habit offers shades for all skin tones. using 100% post-consumer plastic packaging + recycled jars, 40% of sales help women + communities of color. “coffee nails are hot,” says miss pop. “all shades, from cream to taupe to caramel, even chocolate french tips and tortoise shell designs.”

@dazzle_dry this nail lacquer system air dries in 5 mins without uv lights and lasts a week+. ingredients are ethically sourced + chemical-free with a low carbon footprint. “fall’s the perfect time for a rich midnight blue,” says miss pop. 

@tenoverten tenoverten formulas feature safer solvents, essential oils, vitamin e + aloe to strengthen nails. “light-catching shimmer is a fun layer to add to any color mani,” says miss pop on flashy micro-glitter trend.