this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Buy it for Life

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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!

Guidelines:

Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!

Unlike that other BIFL place, Home-made and DIY items are encouraged here, as long as some form of instruction is included in the body of the post.

Videos links are not allowed as post titles, but you may use them in a text post.

A limited amount of self-promotion is accepted, IF the item you are selling aligns with this criteria:

  1. The item must be made with sustainable or recycled materials.
  2. If electronic in some way, the item must be open-source.
  3. The item must be user-serviceable (if applicable).
  4. You cannot be a large corporation.
  5. The post must be clearly marked with a [Self Promotion] tag in your title.

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Oh my goodness, it's so much better than petroleum jelly (and it won't degrade latex/rubber). Put it anywhere, you can even eat it, it's safe for nursing babies.

Other than nipples, it has thousands of uses. I use it under my nose where my CPAP machine rubs me raw. Oh, and it's a great moustache wax too!

Just try it. I costs a bit more than PJ, but it's like owning the best quality product of it's type. Nobody can buy anything better.

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[–] Cris_Color 7 points 15 hours ago

For anyone curious about the ethical discussion folks are having

Crude lanolin constitutes about 5–25% of the weight of freshly shorn wool. The wool from one Merino sheep will produce about 250–300 ml of recoverable wool grease. Lanolin is extracted by washing the wool in hot water with a special wool scouring detergent to remove dirt, wool grease (crude lanolin), suint (sweat salts), and anything else stuck to the wool. The wool grease is continuously removed during this washing process by centrifuge separators, which concentrate it into a waxlike substance melting at approximately 38 °C (100 °F).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin?wprov=sfla1

It seems like lanolin is typically extracted from the shorn wool, so I assume the comments about ethics are with respect to harvesting that wool in the first place, so if you're interested in learning more, that's where you'd want to research. I'm not intending to debate whether it is or isn't ethical (I know next to nothing about the wool industry), I just had no idea how lanolin might be obtained from a sheep, so I looked it up and figured I'd share since it's relevant to some of the conversation here

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm not sure a product which you can and will run out of really fits this community.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Guidelines:

Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!

[–] Cris_Color 4 points 15 hours ago

Sure... But consumable items typically wouldn't be described as "durrable". Like a well made cheeseburger isn't an investment in your ability to continue having a good cheeseburger on an ongoing basis. There is no durable lotion. It's nice if a little goes a long way, but it's still consumable. If you want a candle that lasts longer, the solution is just to buy more candle.

Like shoes being well made means you can buy nice shoes once and have shoes for longer, even if they do eventually wear out due to being an item that sees a ton of wear and tear.

That being said, I really don't mind the occasional post that isn't really a fit. This got a lot of people talking and engaged with this community as a social space and that's kinda the point of social media. But I don't think this post is quite the right fit for the comm (and that's okay :)

[–] over_clox 13 points 1 day ago

Plot twist: They'll never use it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

What if I don't have lanolin nipples, though? Do they have a human skin nipple lotion?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago

For what it's worth, lanolin is not vegan, despite the pictured ad claiming it's ethically sourced and implying that animals are not harmed. Lanolin is produced from wool, and if you care about such things, often a result of unpleasant (to say the least) farming conditions for sheep. Probably there are some sources that aren't so bad, but apparently there are reports that wool industry practices are pretty horrific to the sheep. (Read more here and here if you like.)

On the positive side though, there are plant-based lanolin alternatives, including vegan nipple creams. I couldn't find any source that weren't also ads for a product, so I'll leave the search up to whoever is interested in them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

FYI lanolin (or "sheep grease") is an animal product that is obtained through violence, cruelty, and at industrial scale, atrocity. This may not concern you, but just in case it does.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

I did not know that. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lanolin? L-Lanolin. Like sheep’s wool?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Yes wool oil, ovine sebum.

[–] over_clox 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good for nipples, babies, and moustaches, gotcha.

Now what about those other thousands of uses? 🤔

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] over_clox 8 points 1 day ago

Vegetable oil, motor oil, WD-40, KY Jelly...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Omg yes. Learned that on a sailboat. Lanicote. Not just for bolts.

[–] over_clox 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

nipples and nuts, yes.