4 DIY skin care recipes to get you started
I started dabbling in DIY household recipes as well as DIY skin care two and a half years ago. Although information, advice, and recipes are abundantly available on the Internet, navigating them can be treacherous.
Oily Starters is the second of three posts to ease others simplify into the DIY skin care revolution. Also check out Oily Pantry (a list of staple oils, butters, and waxes for DIY skin care) and Oily Personals (oil information to help you choose the best ones for you).
If navigating the plethora of information wasn’t sufficiently daunting for me, the recipes were. Even when I cook or bake, I can’t bring myself to faithfully follow a single recipe. I review three, four, sometimes more, recipes, and then go to the kitchen to synthesize or “process.”
Cooking by process in lieu of recipe allows me to use of what I have in my pantry and make substitutions. It also gives me the freedom to tweak whatever I’m preparing based on my mood or hankering. Extracting the process from skin-care recipes, however, took me longer than usual because the ingredients were not as familiar as garlic and tomato paste.
The first process I adopted was for dry, itchy skin, and it has become my most popular post: Dry Itchy Skin? Try This First.
The four processes provided here are a synthesis of recipes and information from some of my favorite DIY sites. Whether you need a jump start to launch your DIY adventure or a little affirmation or redirection for the journey you’re on, I hope these Oily Starters along with the Oily Pantry and the Oily Personals help you develop your own, personalized creams, lotions, and washes.
1. Basic Cream: Whipped Face/Body Cream
Getting the right consistency and texture for lotions, creams, and body bars is a challenge. I followed some recipes faithfully and ended up with lotions that separated. Sometimes the bars were more like creams, and the creams more like bars. Finally I found posts about a process that works for me:
melt → mix → chill → whip
The first recipe I found and tried was from Trash is for Tossers. Now I use a similar process for most of my lotions and creams.
2. Eye Cream
Although the Basic Cream process can be tweaked to make eye cream, I generally prefer a simpler eye treatment.
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3. Face Wash Oil
I still remember the scent of my grandmother’s cold cream. As a child I had wondered why she would use creams to clean her face. Shouldn’t she use soap? But cream- and oil-based cleaners are actually very effective, even for skin with acne problems.
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4. Foaming Face Wash
This recipe comes from one of my favorite DIY sites, Body Unburdened.
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Copyright © Pennie Nichols, 2016. All Rights Reserved.
It’s lovely yo know more and more recepies from differnt people. Thanks for sharing yours! I’ll try to make one.Keep well!
Thanks Pennie, these are some really good essentials! I already have a lot of the ingredients so it’s a great way to save money versus buying conventional products. And healthier too!
Thanks, Loren! That means a great deal coming from you. You’re on old (albeit very young!) pro. I love your website.