DIY Natural Personal Care Products

A friend of mine with a beautiful, glowing complexion recently confessed that she uses a high-grade olive oil as a daily moisturizer. The other day, a woman who has given facials in spas for 25 years mentioned that she rubs herself down with olive oil before going in the sauna to keep her skin soft and supple all winter long. She also takes real milk baths. And even though she sells cosmetics, she said you could do just as well with olive oil as a moisturizer and bananas and avocadoes for facial masques.  This helped to confirm my long held belief that nature knows best without the toxicity risk of expensive beautifully packaged cosmetics.

According to The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, “Because of major loopholes in federal law, companies are allowed to use nearly any ingredient in cosmetics and personal care products – even chemicals that are known to harm human health and the environment.”

Begin reducing your risk by reading labels on your prepackaged personal care products. Fragrance and parabens on the label are a red flag.  Studies say that they are chemicals that interfere with the normal functioning of our hormones and may cause reproductive and breast cancer, infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. Parabens appear with a prefix and then the word “paraben”. Phthalates appear on labels as dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diethyl phthalate (DEP) and “fragrance”.  

Better yet, make your own.  The benefits of DIY (do it yourself)  personal care products include:  saving money, keeping left-over grocery items out of the waste stream, no packaging to toss, and knowing that you are using all natural ingredients because you assembled them.    

I am always experimenting with sensual new natural ingredients to keep my skin and hair looking good.  I look for certified organic produce and dairy products because I know that they have had no chemical additives and were grown without pesticides.  I also try to buy locally grown items when I can because that means that less energy was used in getting them to me.  I will more often splurge on seasonal items like exotic vegetables and fruits for experimental masques in the summer when they are more likely to be grown locally and are cheaper.

Just be careful to strain solids out of your products when you rinse them from your skin, hair or bath.   An avocado-mash-drain-clog creates a whole different set of problems!   

Go on, give it a try!   Draw a warm bath 102-4 degrees and mix 10-15 drops of orange essential oil into bath water essential oil and allow orange slices to float on top of the water.  Take petals off of rose and float them.   Orange essential oil eases digestion, stress and anxiety.  Rose is uplifting and an aphrodisiac.  Light some soy candles, get in and enjoy!