Do It Gorgeously review and book giveaway

I recently received a review copy of Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products a few weeks ago and have been thoroughly going through it and plan on using many of the suggestions in the book. I've already mentioned one knock-off recipe I created from what I read, the Homemade Diaper Cream recipe.

Review
I've also tried author Sophie Uliano's recipe for tile and grout cleaner - a mix of baking soda, borax, table salt and essential oils. Since I don't have a child in diapers, I can't test the diaper cream and it will be a few years before I'll be needing it myself, I hope. My success with the tile cleaner was less than spectacular. It didn't clean any more than using plain water but, then again, I have some serious tile cleaning to undertake. She claims that this recipe is "better than all the brand-name scouring powders", to wit I would heartily disagree.

Anyway, this book shows you how to "make nearly everything you would otherwise purchase: From the kitchen to the nursery, from your medicine cabinet to your makeup drawer, you'll be astounded by how easy and inexpensive it is to make safe and eco-friendly products for your family". While these alternatives may be cheap, I wonder how many of these substitutes are as effective? I only wish the author had better tested how these homemade concoctions compared with the store-bought, toxic versions.

The chapters in this book cover:

• Homemade beauty products
  
• Baby and toddler
  
• Frugalista (covering clothing)
  
• DIY in the Kitchen and around the Home
  
• Gardening
  
• Being Thrifty around the House
  
• DIY Dog and Cat
  
• DIY Mind/Body/Spirit

I found this book to be super inspiring and it will get you excited to start all sorts of new projects around the house, but there still remains the issue of whether some of the suggestions are worth the time and (minimal) expense. But, you'll need to check that out for yourself. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and going through her book (all the dog-ears prove it!) and I'm sure you will too.

Book giveaway
If you are interested in winning a copy of this book (U.S. residents only), please enter your name in the comments of this post by Friday, June 25th at midnight PST. I will do a random drawing and announce the winner this weekend.

Good luck!