The vast majority of beauty products are petrochemical based. With the soaring costs of oil and the modern woman's focus on making healthier choices, reinventing your beauty regimen will not only save you money, it will reduce your exposure to toxins and it is eco-friendly. You may not want to make your own beauty products at home all the time but it is such a fulfilling way to pamper yourself; like having a spa treatment in your own home. Put on some soft music, dim the lights, give yourself a homemade facial and enjoy.
Masks
I love to clean my pores with a facial mask every two weeks but I don't like paying the exorbitant prices for commercial masks. I make my own. The primary ingredient in many of these commercial masks is
French green clay. I buy it in bulk from
Lavender Lane (a cottage business grown up - a great resource for containers, too). It costs about $7.00 for 16 ounces which should last you for at least 6 months. Mix 1/2 cup clay with 1 tablespoon of honey and a little water for a basic mask. Sometimes I add an egg yolk for the vitamin A or essential oils or even fruit pulp: Avocado for dry skin, strawberry or banana for oily skin.
Astringents
The next step in facial skin care is the astringent. A simple mixture of equal parts distilled water (boil your own, don't buy it) and witch hazel extract found at the drug store for $5.00 will suffice. Essential oils can be added appropriate to your skin type. The classic and time-tested addition is
rosewater, which is not as expensive as you might think. Many times it can be found at the grocery store at $5.00 for a 4-ounce bottle. Many women use rosewater alone. If you have never tried a rosewater facial wash, do so: It is a real treat.
Moisturizers
The final step is the all-important moisturizing. I must confess I all too often resort to commercial preparations here as making homemade lotions and creams sometimes takes more time than I have. However, when I do make my own, I always prefer them and they are infinitely less expensive than what I can buy at the store. There are three steps to making your own lotion:
Heating, mixing and bottling.
- First, melt 1/4 cup of a solidifier such as beeswax or coco butter in a double boiler.
- Then add 1 cup of oil, such as olive, almond or grapeseed and warm it through. Have 1 cup of distilled water whirling in a food processor and pour in the heated oil slowly until the water and oil combine.
- Bottle your lotion using a funnel while it is still warm. You can add things to the oil before mixing like vitamin E oil, evening primrose oil or my favorite, carrot seed oil. Essential oils can be added before mixing for fragrance and further moisturizing. You may need to shake your lotion from time to time to prevent it from separating.
Essential Oils
Speaking of
essential oils, there are myriad uses for them, from cleaning or nourishing your skin to steaming your face to disinfecting scrapes and burns. You can even make your own perfumes for an individual fragrance all your own. Essential oils are used drops at a time so they are an efficient use of your money. Besides the physical qualities essential oils impart, their scents have different effects on our brain chemistry. The study of these effects is called
Aromatherapy.
If you can buy only one essential oil, buy lavender. You can get 1/2-ounce for under $10 and a little goes a long way. It is antiseptic and healing to the skin, it has a calming effect on most people and is one of the few essential oils that can be used undiluted (the aromatherapy term is neat) directly on the skin. I bathed both my babies with a few drops of lavender added to the bath. My daughter, now 15, uses the oil to help her sleep.
Next, discover rose geranium, a surprisingly delightful alternative to the very expensive rose essential oil. Want something deeper and earthier? Try vetiver oil; a nice option to the stronger and more common patchouli oil with a gentle, sedative effect. For a more meditative feel, experiment with sandalwood and frankincense. You can buy small, roll-on perfume bottles for $1.50 from
Lavender Lane and mix your essential oils a drop at a time with carrier oils such as olive or almond oil.
Want more? Here are a few of my favorite books:
Jeanne Rose's Herbal Body Book,
Jeanne Rose's Kitchen Cosmetics, Rosemary Gladstar's
Herbs for Beauty and
500 Formulas for Aromatherapy.
Tina Bailey has treated herself, her children and her friends herbally and homeopathically for over 16 years. She has studied with Shatoiya de la Tour and David Hoffman and lives in the country in the Sierra foothills where she and her partner run their own business, New Stirling Arms.
