Make Your Own Beauty Products!

This is such a fantastic idea, and something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and I finally tried it! Are you tired of all the scents you get in stores? What exactly is classic, or pacific breeze, or many of the ambiguously labeled shampoos and body washes? Do you wish you could have the scent of some particular herb or spice? I’m here to tell you that you can! If you can cook, you can make your own products, and customize them to just how you like them. I’ll focus on three products – shampoo, body wash, and exfoliant. I hope this will prove to be a great starting point for you!

The first (and possibly most complicated step) is deciding what kind of products you want to create – various herbs have a huge number of possible benefits. For example, rosemary is great is shampoo since it promotes healthy hair. Peppermint is good in most anything, especially if you like that refreshing feeling. Pineapple juice is almost essential for an exfoliant, since its natural enzymes break down dead skin cells. I’d concentrate first on what you want to smell like though – then look up these products and see what benefits they can give you. Some ideas other than those just mentioned are tea tree oil, citrus peels, sandalwood, jasmine, lavender, nettles, and sage. You might also want to consider getting some MSM (methylsulfonylmethane). It adds some sulfur to the mixture (which is good for hair and skin) and it doesn’t even smell bad!

Once you know what you want to put in, you need to create an infusion. First, take all your ingredients and put them in a nice big jar, and mix them up while they are still dry. Feel free to play around with proportions – experiment! That’s right, if you’re using liquids, don’t put them in yet. Any form of pineapple also shouldn’t be added. Now, boil a few cups of distilled water, about two for each product you want to make (so if you are just making shampoo, about 2. Shampoo and wash, 4). Bring it to a boil, then turn off your stove and wait up to about a minute (the temperature should be just under a boil – this is exactly the same way you should boil tea leaves). Now add 4 or 5 large tablespoons of your mixture. Be generous! If you want to add in MSM, now is the time – you should use up to 2250 mg. Now you should let this mixture sit until it is cool – this is the infusion you will be using for your mixtures!

For shampoo or body wash you should buy either unscented shampoo or scented castile soap – in either case you need to mix in about a proportion of ¼ infusion, ¾ base. So take some of your old bottles, fill them up, close them and shake well! If the resulting product is too watery, you can always buy some xanthan gum – use about a teaspoon per ½ cup. And you can always add in some essential oils to the mix at this step – it’s all up to you! Just make sure they aren’t going to dry out your skin. If you want to add in pineapple juice, this is the time to do it. See, pineapple juice’s enzymes are broken down if it is boiled, so you would miss out on most of the beneficial properties if you added it while it was still hot.

For an exfoliant, you essentially want to first create a body wash – you can use your infusion from before. Then you need to add two classes of products – a rough substance to scrape off dead skin, and an oil to moisturize the skin beneath. I’ve heard that rough sugar and salt are good choices – they dissolve slightly, so they aren’t too rough. If you use sugar though, be sure to clean off completely, or you might end up a little sticky. I’ve also heard of people putting the peel of a pineapple in a blender, grinding it up, and using it this way. On that note, it’s a great idea to add pineapple juice to this – pineapple enzymes break down dead skin, so it has the potential to help a lot. Soft sand can also be used, but be careful – it can be much more abrasive than your other choices! For moisturizing oil, I recommend olive oil. It’s easily obtained, cheap, and is great for your skin. I’ve also heard that you should use baby oil, honey, or even milk! I can’t say how much of these to mix though – you’ll have to experiment for yourself. The general rule is that if you have bad acne or skin, use more of the scrubbing ingredient, and if you have dry skin include more moisturizing oil.

Now in closing I just have one thing to say – have fun making your own beauty products, and have fun finding the good life!