So what are exactly natural ingredients?
Many of today’s commercial products contain natural ingredients of some
sort, but a truly natural product to me is the one that have only 100%
pure natural ingredients and no preservatives or synthetic additives.
For manufacturers, the lack of preservatives means shorter shelf life,
which makes the cosmetic products unsellable. You can find here many
beauty tips based on natural products.
What are the natural ingredients?
A natural ingredient is
obtained from nature with minimum disturbance and simple processing.
Think about our ancestors 2000 years ago. What could they obtain from
nature? Olive oil of course – cold pressed organic olive oil, but not
only that. Most of the cosmetic products are using ‘natural’ refined
oils and butters because they have longer shelf life and don’t have an
intense smell. All that’s good but during the process of refining, these
ingredients lose their healing and rejuvenating powers given them by
nature. Every natural product has its unique properties that can be
beneficial for your skin and hair. Also, what makes the things even
better is the possibility to combine those natural ingredients to
produce a perfect and unique product with specific qualities adapted to
your needs.
The secret is not only in using natural
ingredients but in the knowledge how to combine them in the right doses
and combinations, as well as the process of preparation.
This is why I want to share with you my
experience how to make you perfectly awesome natural cosmetic products
for best skin and hair health. I have read a lot about each and every
ingredient and have dedicated significant time in experimenting with
different recipes until I came with some greatly performing recipes for
different needs. All the recipes I present here are absolutely safe and
already tested with proven efficacy.
Ingredients for natural homemade cosmetics
Natural beauty tips with essential oils
These are my favorite ingredients, and I
pay them maximum attention when I prepare my products. Essential oils
are simply magical. They contain the life force of the plants. The term
“essential oil” is a contraction of the original “quintessential oil.”
This was described by the Greek philosopher Aristotle that matter is
composed of four elements; fire, air, earth, and water. The fifth
element, however, is the quintessence, which is the spirit or life
force. The essential oils, depending on the type of the plant, are
obtained through distillation or cold pressing. Both methods are natural
with no synthetic ingredients added. They are highly concentrated
extracts of the plants.
The essential oils were long used for
various health problems and in spa therapy for body and mind relaxation.
But another less known application of the essential oils in beauty
procedures. Yes they have amazing benefits for your hair and skin when
properly combined and diluted in the right carrier oils. Each essential
oil has its unique properties for skin, hair, or emotional healing. The
right choice of essential oil is very important. Often, I use more than
one essential oil in a given recipe and, in this case, the right
combination and proportions of essential oils is also critical in order
to achieve the best results. I often come upon good recipes for natural
cosmetics but when it comes to the part for adding essential oils, it is
usually written “add essential oils to your preference.”
Essential oils should not be mistaken
with fragrance oils. They have intense fragrance, but their magical
power is in their healing properties. You should not choose them by
fragrance but according to their properties.
Healing properties of some essential oils:
Carrot seed essential oil: has a rejuvenating effect on the skin. It not only works to help smooth skin but assists with cell regeneration.
Frankincense essential oil:
has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory benefits to the skin, making it
ideal for acne-prone skin. It is also a natural toner, decreasing the
appearance of pores and evening skin tone.
Geranium essential oil:
helps regulate oil production and reduces acne breakouts. It also helps
improve skin elasticity and tighten skin, reducing the appearance of
wrinkles.
Lavender essential oil: is
maybe the most popular essential oil. It helps you relax and reduces
the stress. In cosmetics, lavender oil is widely used for its abilities
to regenerate skin cells and improve hair growth.
Myrrh essential oil:
greatly benefits aging skin. It has strong anti-inflammatory properties
that help improve skin tone, firmness, and skin elasticity, reducing the
appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Myrrh can also help heal sun
damage, chapped skin, rashes, and eczema.
Neroli essential oil: is great for oily, sensitive, and mature skin. It helps to smooth fine lines and tone sagging skin.
Patchouli essential oil: is particularly great for aging skin. It promotes new cell growth and smooths the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Rose essential oil: is
especially great for dry or aging skin. It helps refine skin texture and
tone, and can be helpful with managing skin conditions such as
psoriasis and dermatitis.
Tea Tree oil: essential
oil is best for acne-prone skin. Its antibacterial properties help ward
off acne-causing bacteria. It also helps to regulate oil production,
which can decrease the severity and incidence of breakouts. In many of
my cosmetic recipes, I use tea tree essential oil as a preservative. It
increases the shelf life of my cosmetics without adding harmful
preservatives.
Ylang Ylang essential oil:
helps to control oil production and minimize breakouts. It also helps
regenerate skin cells, smoothing fine lines and improving skin
elasticity.
One thing that you should always keep in
mind is that the essential oils are very concentrated and should not be
directly applied on your hair or skin (except maybe chamomile essential
oil). This is where come the vegetable carrier oils to dilute and give
the consistency of the essential oils.
Vegetable Carrier Oils
When we speak about some professional
beauty tips for making natural cosmetics it is very important to chose
the right ingredients in the right combination. Vegetable oils are not
only as diluents of the essential oils. They have their own unique
healing, moisturizing, and rejuvenating properties. The vegetable oils
are produced by some plants parts containing fats of course. Mainly
seeds and kernels, but in some cases other plan’s parts as pulp, fruit,
and so on. However, it is very important to look for NATURAL vegetable
oils, which means that they are obtained with minimum disturbance of
nature. These are the cold-pressed, unrefined oils and butters. If you
can afford organic is even better. Most cosmetic companies use refined
oils and butters to reduce the intense flavor (coconut, shea, mango, and
so on). But like everything in nature as more you process them more
they lose their beneficial, healing properties. So use unrefined, cold
pressed oils and butters.
The vegetable oils in cosmetics are also
called carrier oils. however their role is not only as carriers. They
have their own properties and benefits. I will go through more details
about their specific properties in dedicated posts.
Physical properties of the vegetable oils
You need to be aware of the vegetable carrier oils’ physical properties in order to make good natural cosmetic products. In cosmetic preparation, they serve a variety of purposes. Here’s a quick list:- Making bulk
- Consistency
- Speed of absorption
- Texture & melting point
- Special features & benefits (here are the health and moisturizing benefits)
Consistency:
According to their consistency I prefer to divide them into:
Hard butters: They can be very
hard at room temperature and melt after heating at a higher temperature.
Those are cocoa butter and kokum butter. They are very hard at room
temperature and need additional heating to melt.
Soft butters/oils: Well, they
are soft at room temperature and start melting on skin contact. Here we
have oils and butters such as shea butter, coconut oil, mango butter and
so on.
Liquid oils: are, as you can imagine, liquid oils. Think of olive oil, grapeseed oil, argan oil, castor oil.
Speed of absorption of some carrier oils:
The carrier oils need to carry the
essential oils, and their skin absorption speed is critical to the
product you make and the effect you want to achieve. If you want a
lotion that you can use on a daily basis, you’ll want oil that absorbs
quickly into your skin and not into your clothes. If you’re making a lip
gloss, or a moisturizing cream for dry skin, you’ll want one that
absorbs slowly.
Fast absorbing speed: grapeseed oil, safflower oil, hazelnut oil, canola oil, apricot kernel oil.
Medium absorbing speed: olive oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil, argan oil.
Slow absorbing speed: castor oil, avocado oil, flax seed oil, cocoa butter.
So, you can see that consistency and
speed of absorption are not linked. Adding to this the different health
properties, it makes hard but unique choice which oils to combine for
needed effects; and on top of that with the right combinations of
essential oils.
In order to make it simplier, I have posted a lot of tested recipes for different skin and hair needs.
What else will you need to use for making your own natural cosmetics?
We love good beauty tips, so I have made
up lists of different natural ingredients and their properties. Also I
do my best to explain how to combine those ingredients in the right way
for better final results.
Cosmetic clays
There are a bunch of naturally derived
healthy clays with no adverse reactions for the skin. Cosmetic clays
have different mineral content with various effects on the skin. They
are the oldest natural beauty ingredients in the world and are cherished
for their high ability to absorb excess oils, and toxins from the skin.
While exfoliating the skin, cosmetic clays rejuvenate it and improve
the blood circulation. They are widely used in detoxifying masks in
combinations with hydrosols and few drops of essential oils.
Cosmetic Waxes
Natural waxes as the beeswax (my
favorite) are used to create consistency. They are highly resistant to
oxidation and microbial degradation and give consistency and long life
to the homemade beauty products. Cosmetic waxes have a protective and
emollient effect on the skin. Also, they are good natural emulsifiers
when you need to create emulsion – a combination of oils and water.
TRUSTED COSMETICS RECIPESHow difficult is it to make you own natural cosmetics?
First and foremost, you want to know if
making natural cosmetics is a hard thing to do. The answer is YES and
NO. The difficult part is to choose the right combinations of
ingredients and the proper mixing procedures. But once you have the
recipe and the instructions, it’s not a complex thing to do, and you
don’t need to have a master’s degree in chemistry to start working
through this. Not only that but it is a big fun and an excellent hobby.
You’re going to find that the ingredients are easy to source, can
provide effective coverage, and can even help you live a much more
“natural” lifestyle. You will be able also to prepare unique and
original gifts for friends and family.
Are Homemade Natural Cosmetics Expensive?
The one thing that holds a lot of people
back from making natural cosmetics is, simple, the cost. The notion of
expensive equipment and having to purchase expensive ingredients is hard
to really answer for some. The truth is that you’ll find that this
whole process is not expensive as you may think. If you are completely
new to this, you probably don’t have even coconut oil at home. In this
case, you will need to invest an initial amount in buying some starter
bulk ingredients like essential oils, carrier oils and butters, clays,
and so. Well, it will barely cost you a hundred bucks. Buying a bulk of
organic sweet almond oil of 16oz for 15$ may look a lot but you are
going to need 3oz in an anti-aging face cream recipe for
example. Also, you will use one ingredient in many different recipes.
So once you pass the initial period, and you build a stock of natural
ingredients, a facial cream with top quality and properties will cost
you 5-6$. As efficacy, it can compare to the top commercial offerings of
at least 50$ for the same quantity, but you will have 100% natural
product made by yourself.
Finally, I really hope my natural beauty
tips to help you create your perfect beauty procedures and products
that you will enjoy.
such a great recepies, thank you so much for sharing
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