Natural Homemade Beauty E-Book

Leoniek Bontje

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 141

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

A beautifully designed instructive guide to creating luxurious, safe and effective beauty products using ingredients from nature.  In this charming book you'll discover how to prepare an abundant range of products using plants and flowers, many of which you'll be able to find around you or grow yourself. It includes comprehensive, easy-to-follow recipes for:  - Rich moisturising cream with daisy extract - Camomile based shampoo for glossy hair - Sugar and honey body scrub - Ginger oil for blemish controlYou will find a wealth of other delights such as body butter, hair conditioner, lip balm, deodorant, bath oil and even toothpaste. Also included is a selection of fragrance products for your home, such as a lavender and pine room spray made with vodka. Each easy-to-follow recipe gives a complete description of the product-making process so you can't go wrong. There are handy visual guides to the plants you'll be using, accompanied by ravishing photography. Armed with this book you'll be able to create a whole beauty counter of products, both for yourself and for gifting, and you'll save money too!

Leseprobe

Contents

Title

Contents

Introduction

The Benefits of Making Your Own Beauty Products

Plants For Your Skin

Natural Basic Ingredients

Hydrolates

Other Basic Ingredients

Using Food as Beauty Products

Looking After Your Face

Masks

Nourishing Masks

Scrubs

Looking After Your Eyes

Looking After Your Lips

Looking After Your Mouth

Looking After Your Hair

Conditioners For Your Hair

Masks For Your Hair

Hair-Care Boosters

Looking After Your Body

Deodorants

Bathing, Showering And Scrubbing

Looking After Your Hands

Looking After Your Feet

Beauty Comes From Within

Products For Your Home

Protective Herbs

Index

Acknowledgements

Copyright

Guide

Cover

Start

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE BENEFITS OF MAKING YOUR OWN BEAUTY PRODUCTS

PLANTS FOR YOUR SKIN

NATURAL BASIC INGREDIENTS

HYDROLATES

OTHER BASIC INGREDIENTS

USING FOOD AS BEAUTY PRODUCTS

LOOKING AFTER YOUR FACE

MASKS

NOURISHING MASKS

SCRUBS

LOOKING AFTER YOUR EYES

LOOKING AFTER YOUR LIPS

LOOKING AFTER YOUR MOUTH

LOOKING AFTER YOUR HAIR

CONDITIONERS FOR YOUR HAIR

MASKS FOR YOUR HAIR

HAIR-CARE BOOSTERS

LOOKING AFTER YOUR BODY

DEODORANTS

BATHING, SHOWERING AND SCRUBBING

LOOKING AFTER YOUR HANDS

LOOKING AFTER YOUR FEET

BEAUTY COMES FROM WITHIN

PRODUCTS FOR YOUR HOME

PROTECTIVE HERBS

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

Do you enjoy nourishing your skin with natural products containing wonderfully aromatic plants and flowers? Or how about bathing in flower-scented water and pampering your hair with natural haircare products? It really is the ultimate indulgence, particularly if you can make those products yourself!

Many everyday medicinal plants and flowers are nourishing and replenishing; ideal for looking after your skin. Marigolds and camomile are healing, soothing and calming, while yarrow helps wounds to heal. Oats are nourishing — for your hair too — and restorative for skin suffering from breakouts, rashes and chickenpox.

Your skin is your body’s largest organ and its primary function is protection, forming a barrier between you and the outside world to keep out harmful substances. The ingredients in care products that you apply to your skin also enter your bloodstream, so making sure that they are pure, natural and non-toxic is essential.

The average pH of skin is 5. If that value changes, it means that your skin’s protective function has been disrupted and it will lose moisture, dry out and become more sensitive to external irritants. You should always try to keep your skin in good condition and avoid applying too many irritating chemicals.

Products that you buy in the shops are often full of ingredients with long, unpronounceable scientific names – and some of them may be harmful to both your skin and the environment. Other ingredients are simply far from natural!

Another issue is that beauty products are often tested on animals; something you might want to avoid when choosing your care products. And, last but not least, good natural skin care tends to be pricey. The solution is to make your own beauty products. You can do this using nourishing medicinal plants growing around you or in locations that are easy for you to access, as well as incorporating natural basic products like olive oil, apple cider vinegar and pure honey from your local beekeeper.

Some people go so far as to say that anything you put on your skin should be pure enough for you to be able to eat it. This applies to things like oil pressed from fruit seeds and vegetables, including carrot oil, broccoli-seed oil, avocado oil, tomato-seed oil and cucumber-seed oil, but you can also use raspberries, sea buckthorn berries, rosehips, coffee and cocoa on your skin.

It doesn’t matter how many nourishing products you apply externally; if you want beautiful skin, it is just as important to eat a healthy and balanced diet. You need to take a holistic view of both aspects because your skin reflects how you are feeling and how healthy you are. If I’ve been eating chocolate or French fries with mayonnaise, then I can tell that my skin looks much worse than when I’ve been eating fruit, vegetables and grains.

The book that you are holding describes the plants that are good for your skin and gives recipes so you can use them to make your own care products, from marigold ointment to carrot oil. I also share my conversations with various experts along with their recipes. The result is a book that you can use to nourish and nurture yourself, from top to toe.

Leoniek

THE BENEFITS OF MAKING YOUR OWN BEAUTY PRODUCTS

More and more people are researching how to make their own beauty products from plants that they either find growing in the wild or grow themselves. They are turning their backs on all those little pots filled with complicated ingredients that they don’t recognize and going back to basics. To making things with pure, simple ingredients.

The main benefit of making your own beauty products is having full control over what you put in them, what type of texture they have and which essential oils you use to make them smell wonderful. Homemade products are also more affordable and the recipes in this book will show you just how easy it is to make your own face, hair and body-care products. Many of them even use products you’ll find in your kitchen cupboards and pantry.

Taking responsibility for what you put on your skin feels good; after all, you know what works best, don’t you? One of my personal priorities is to choose ingredients that have been grown in an environmentally friendly manner. Many beauty products contain palm oil, for example, which tends to be chemically processed, with the derivatives listed on the packaging. The oil is then processed further into lots of different chemical ingredients, making it difficult to work out whether a specific beauty product actually contains palm oil. If you choose to make your own beauty products, you can replace palm oil with organic coconut oil.

It’s often difficult to establish where aloe vera comes from but I try to find organic options for that as well, and the honey I use comes from a local beekeeper.

Another priority for me is making sure that products haven’t been tested on animals and I always use medicinal plants, ideally ones that grow in the wild. And on that note, familiarize yourself with what can legally be picked in the wild and make sure you never pick in abundance or strip out a plant in any one location.

PLANTS FOR YOUR SKIN

There are lots of plants with healing and/or soothing properties that you can apply directly to your skin:

•  Camomile is soothing and you can add the flowers to boiling water for a steam bath, for example.

•  Use ground ivy on minor wounds to speed up healing; briefly chew a leaf and then apply as a poultice. You can also rub the leaf on insect bites or nettle stings.

•  If you've cut yourself, simply place a leaf from the ribwort plantain on the wound as a kind of dressing. Alternatively, rub it on insect bites or nettle stings.

•  Leaves from the dead nettle are another remedy for nettle stings; simply rub them on your skin – they also have soothing properties.

•  You can apply yarrow leaves directly to a bloody scrape (if it is bleeding lightly) or rub the juice into pimples and blemishes.

•  Marigold has healing and disinfectant properties for minor wounds.

•  You can use St John's wort as a kind of iodine and it will soothe sunburn.

•  Rose petals have an astringent effect on your skin, so they will help wounds to heal.

•  Cucumber slices are perfect for easing tired eyes and cooling sunburnt skin.

•  Adding oats or oatmeal to your bathwater will soothe conditions including chickenpox and eczema.

Other plants to use on your skin include heart's ease, sage, witch hazel, common poppy, cornflower, pine, eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, rosemary, borage, common comfrey, chickweed, catchweed (cleavers), horseradish, arnica, oats, aloe vera, greater celandine and lemon balm. And for your hair, birch, stinging nettle, oats and greater burdock.

Warning

Although many of the plants in this book are good for your skin and hair, not all plants are harmless. When writing this book, I have assumed that readers are physically healthy, even though I refer to some skin conditions and plants that may help resolve them. If you suffer from severe skin problems, your first port of call should always be a doctor; this book is intended to supplement mainstream healthcare, not to replace it.

Be cautious in the plants you use if you are pregnant or take prescription medicines, or if you are using the products on babies. As a rule of thumb for all plants, stop using something if it doesn’t feel good or if you have an allergic reaction.

GETTING STARTED

How do you get started with making your own beauty products? I begin by choosing a nourishing or healing plant and then exploring what I can make with it – tinctures, oils or ointments – and how I can use it. I think about whether I’ll dry the plant or use it to prepare an infusion. You can also begin at the other end and think about what you want to make – a day cream, for example. The next step is to find a suitable plant, like marigold. You can either follow the recipes in this book to the letter and use the plants I specify, or you can decide which plant works best for you and use that one instead. If you want to replace marigold with mallow in your cream, or combine both, then that’s completely up to you. Play around with ingredients and create your own personal products.

Materials

Make sure that all your materials and equipment are clean. If you spend a lot of time making your own beauty products, then keep a separate set of kitchen equipment for this purpose: a hand-held blender, bowl, measuring jug, precision weighing scales, spatulas, stirring rods and so on.

Other helpful tips include collecting all the cosmetic, jam and other pots you can get your hands on, along with their lids (clean them thoroughly by putting them through the dishwasher and boiling them); buying labels or making your own; collecting bits of string and elastic bands; and buying muslin to strain your products. Finally, always label each pot with the product name, ingredients and date.

Basic ingredients

Your ointments and creams are based on tinctures, infusions, oil macerations and oxymels. These are all prepared using plants so the healing properties of those plants are absorbed into the alcohol, oil, water or vinegar. Read on to find out how to do that. I’ve used ‘plant parts’ as a term throughout because you use the leaves and stems of some plants and the flowers or roots of others. The plant descriptions further on in this book tell you which parts of each plant to use.

Alcohol-based tinctures

You can add a tincture to your ointment or use it to make a compress, and you can also apply it like iodine to a minor wound – a tincture of St John’s wort, for example. Take a clean pot and fill it with plant material. Add good-quality vodka, gin or cognac (any spirit with at least 40% alcohol content will suffice) to cover the plant material. Label the pot with the date and contents. Leave for 4–6 weeks with the lid on, shaking occasionally, then strain through muslin. Decant the tincture into a small pipette bottle and it is ready for use.

Glycerin-based tinctures

If you prefer not to use alcohol, you can replace it with glycerin; a sweet-tasting, plant-based liquid. The method is the same as for alcohol-based tinctures, simply use glycerin instead of alcohol.

Tinctures have a shelf life of approximately two years.

Macerates and oxymels

You can leave plants to macerate in vinegar, cocoa (made with warm plant milk) or honey to create a simple medicine. If you want something more powerful, prepare an oxymel by macerating the plant parts in vinegar with honey.

Leaving plants to macerate in apple cider vinegar: Fill a clean pot with the plant parts and add good-quality apple cider vinegar to cover the material. Leave to stand for around two weeks, strain and it’s ready for use.

Leaving plants to macerate in honey: Repeat the above process, adding runny organic honey instead of the vinegar to cover the material. After a few days, the honey will become watery and your oxymel is ready for use.

Oxymels have a shelf life of approximately one year.

Infusions and decoctions

You can use an infusion on a compress or to rinse your skin or hair.

Making infusions: Fill a jug with plant parts, boil water, leave it for a few minutes to cool slightly, then pour over the plant parts in the jug. Leave the infusion for a few more minutes to cool further, then use it to saturate a clean cloth or dressing. Squeeze out excess liquid and place on the skin. Leave for at least ten minutes or overnight to absorb. You can also rinse your hair and skin (or even wounds) by pouring an infusion over them. You can leave some soothing plants to infuse in cold water – for example, mallow, marsh mallow and verbascum. Leave them overnight in cold water, then strain and use the following day.

Making decoctions: This involves boiling some plant parts along with the water, such as roots, bark or pine needles. Add two to three teaspoons of plant parts to 500ml of water, bring to the boil and leave to simmer gently with a lid on the pan for approximately 15–20 minutes. Strain to remove the plant parts and leave the decoction to cool before using.

Macerated oil

Infused – or macerated – oil is made by leaving plant parts in oil to infuse. You can apply macerated oil straight to your skin or use it as the basis for an ointment. You can macerate marigolds in oil, as well as camomile, yarrow and common comfrey – the process is the same for all plants, unless the instructions tell you otherwise.

Use almond, sunflower or jojoba oil that is neutral, organic, ideally cold pressed, and not strongly fragranced (see pages 19–21 for a list of oils). You can use fresh plant parts; try to pick them around midday on a dry day, once the dew has dried. Leave them to dry slightly before using. If fresh plant parts are not available, then you can also use dried ones.

There are different ways of macerating plants in oil.

Cold maceration: Pick the plant parts, dry them as thoroughly as possible and place in a clean jar (e.g. a jam jar). Pour oil over them to cover the material and mix properly to remove any air bubbles. Stick a label on the jar and cover with muslin and string or an elastic band. Place in a bright location (St John’s wort can be placed in direct sunlight). Stir briefly every day with a clean spoon or spatula. After four weeks, strain the oil and either decant into a dark bottle or keep in a dark place.

Warm maceration: Place the plant parts in a clean jar (e.g. a jam jar) and pour oil over them to cover the material. Place in a water bath and heat for 48 hours, stirring occasionally. A word of caution: don’t let the water boil, as that will fry the plant parts. With that in mind, turn the heat off at night and on again the next morning, so you can monitor it consistently. Stir regularly. After 48 hours, strain the oil through muslin or a fine sieve and decant into a dark bottle.

Macerated oils have a shelf life of approximately six months to one year (or as long as they smell good).

Ointment (oil- or fat-based)

Ingredients for approximately 250ml

•  200ml infused oil (see pages 12–13 for macerated oil recipe) or 100ml coconut oil and 100ml vegetable oil

•  20g beeswax

•  The more beeswax you use, the thicker the final product will be. For lip balm, use 40g beeswax for every 200ml oil (1:5). For a smoother ointment, use 10 or 20g beeswax for every 200ml

•  (1:20 or 1:10 respectively).

•  20 drops essential oil of your choice

•  10 drops vitamin E oil

•  A clean 250ml pot or jar with lid

Melt the beeswax in a water bath. Once the beeswax is fully melted (and not before), add the infused oil and mix (if you heat the beeswax and the oil together, the mixture may catch fire). Then add the essential oil and vitamin E oil, mixing thoroughly. Decant into the pot and leave to set. Then put the lid on the pot and add a label.

Ointments have a shelf life of approximately two years (or as long as they smell good).

Cream (oil- or water-based)

Ingredients for approximately 250ml

•  70ml organic oil of your choice

•  20g emulsifier such as glycerol monostearate (to make sure that the water and oil mix)