We all love sourness of flavored vinegar. Have you noticed that a lot of people are going pro-zerowaste? and if you are one of the enthusiastic ZeroWaster, vinegar will come very handy. In case you didn't know, vinegar can be a great skin toner, hair conditioner and cleaner of your greasy oven. How? 

We learned about pH in school, right? anything lower than pH 7 is called acidic and the more acidic it becomes, it can be a very dangerous thing which can literally melt concrete or metal. But! Did you know our skin especially, facial and vaginal skin stays at slightly acidic? to prevent unwanted overgrowth of bacteria, it is our body's natural immune system. So it tend to stay at pH 5.5. 

It is a good practice in my opinion, if you have trouble-prone skin, especially acne, to accompany some type of toner in your skincare routine. As you may have noticed, a lot of people are going against toners containing alcohol. However, it's debatable, some dermatologists actually recommend using toners containing some form of alcohol for people who suffer with acne. Vinegar can come in handy which is not super drying, as alcohol strips away moisture, on the other hand vinegar softens and melts sebum gently and hydrates skin. It also helps safely removing dead skin.

So if you are a Pro-zerowaste then I personally suggest making your own vinegar, that is healthier than store-bought and containing healthier bacteria grown from your own bacterial/micro-bial flora of your kitchen. The process is rather SO EASY!

You can also, as you may already know!, add a few spoonful of vinegar into a bucket of fresh water to rinse after washing your hair with soap (which has alkaline nature) to rinse your hair as a replacement of chemical hair conditioner. If you haven't tried it, don't worry about the acidic vinegary smell, it evaporates as your hair dries! and it is much healthier and it promotes hair growth and soothes any scalp itchiness or inflammation. 

Here are my easy recipe to make home made vinegar!

☘️Ingredients:

Any fruit, veggies, herbs of your choice

Water 

Vinegar or Over-processed vinegary Kombucha

Sugar

🌿How to Make:

If you are using fruits and veggies wash thoroughly and cut them into smaller pieces. If you want to use a juicer = much better! If you are using herbs, I personally have tried this method and worked for me amazingly so far. I brew thick tea out of it and use the tea as if I am making Kombucha. In fact, I have discovered this method when I failed to make a batch of kombucha. ;) I let my kombucha stay long inside the fridge and it became extremely sour! and I took advantage of this to making it into homemade vinegar =)

Add 1/2 amount ratio of sugar and add water equal to the total mixture.

then add 1/3 amount of vinegar compared to the whole mixture.

close it with breathable cotton linen or paper towel so the mixture can breath but repel any bugs or flies.

I personally think it is your own judgement to decide when it is proper to store it inside the fridge. Depending on my apartment's temperature, I store it on my lower cabinet away from sunlight for 3-6 months. This very recent one I have made was during cold winter, so I opened it in June and it was a success! Have a litmus paper ready to measure the acidity of your vinegar. Vinegar is pH 4 or less. If it had some mold floating on surface, skim it out and you should be fine. 

My recent batch was making Astragalus Vinegar. Oh, I was so satisfied with the final product as its aroma was so pleasant; potent earthy smell of Astragalus and slight note of sweet vinegar scent! 

You can use any homemade vinegar as an additive to your coffee, tea, soup (YES! it adds really delicious flavor! in fact, it kills fishiness of any fish soup, it is an old Korean cooking trick), you can rinse your hair, you can clean your kitchen, fridge or sink without inhaling harmful chemicals, you can wash your fresh veggies and fruits with a few drops of it, also you can dilute it to water your plants to avoid fungi as vinegar is a natural fungi-fighter and bacteria-fighter. Also, you can add a few drops into water bottle to rinse your vaginal area to prevent or overcome any overgrowth or fight yeast infection or prevent vaginal odor from bacterial vaginosis. ;)

Let us know which is your favorite vinegar of all time and share your recipe!