It is so important to use quality ingredients in all your DIY projects. The right products can make all the difference in the quality and texture of your creation. The following are my suggestions for the most common ingredients in my recipes.
- Shea Butter
- Witch Hazel
- Glycerin
- Aloe Vera Gel
- Vitamin E
- Beeswax
- Emulsifying Wax
- Meadowfoam Seed Oil
- Rosehip Seed Oil
- Lavender Essential Oil
- Carrot Seed Essential Oil
- Geranium Essential Oil
I understand that purchasing all the ingredients for a certain DIY can get expensive. Amazon often offers fast, free shipping so if you’re in a pinch and need to save on ingredients, I have created my list of Amazon products that I have experimented with and liked. (FYI-I always prefer Mountain Rose Herb and Spark Naturals over Amazon when it comes to quality.)
Mountain Rose Herbs have quality organic ingredients. They are a great company to order ANY ingredients from! I can rest easy knowing this company sources the best possible ingredients that are certified organic, fair trade, ethically harvested and cruelty free. They are my first choice in all oils, essential oils and other ingredients.
Equipment:
Hi Jenni,
I discovered your site a few days ago when a friend posted one of your serum recipes on Facebook. I’m obsessed with your site!!! To the point that I wanna dive in to some of your recipes but there’s so many options and info and things to consider that I don’t know where to start! I have too many questions…Like, how to store individual ingredients. You’re quite thorough on explaining how long you can keep one of your recipes before it starts to grow bacteria but what about each individual ingredient like aloe vera gel, beeswax, emulsifying wax, etc?? And coconut oil. It melts at only 24 degrees celsius (sorry I’m from Canada, not sure what that is in fahrenheit but basically, it melts at only a slightly warm temperature and within days of purchasing my coconut oil, it always goes from that thick white texture to liquified oil). Does that mean it’s no good? or that it’s lost some of it’s awesome properties? And since it says to store in a cool place, what does that mean? Is my fridge too cold? I’ve already started to make my own baby wipes and detergent and I’m excited to continue to learn more and create safe, pure and effective products for my family but I want to make sure I’m taking care to do it properly to waste less and keep my ingredients fresh. Help please! Thanks sooo much. Again, love your site!
Stef
Stefanie! Thank you so much!
First, Oils have a very long shelf life and when they go bad, you can smell it. I store mine in a dark cabinet. Beeswax and Emulsifying wax last forever-like at least a year probably more. Aloe Vera Gel, if it’s a high quality one, it lasts a couple of months and should be kept in the fridge.
Coconut oil does not loose it’s wonderful properties unless you heat it at high temps. Don’t worry-coconut oil has a long shelf life! You don’t need to store it in the fridge, a dark cabinet will work fine. But-a fridge won’t hurt it either.
Great question-I might have to make this into a post!
Do you sell your eye stick already made??:)
I would love to buy!
Thanks, Iove this.
Yes I do! You can find it HERE!
Hello Jenni 🙂 I’m super excited to have found your site! I’m interested in DIY skin care, specifically a super hydrating eye cream to start. I love the idea of your hyaluronic serum (it’s kinda my favorite ingredient :), but I was wondering if the Kokum Butter is something you could add to thicken it up, to make it more of a cream?
Your site is a lot of fun to search… so much information! Thank you!!! 🙂
Hi Pam! I wouldn’t add Kokum butter to this-It’s a water based product and it won’t emulsify with the butter. You’ll have a separated mess. It seems like different hyaluronic acid brands gel up differently. Mine was plenty thick so I’m not sure how you could thicken yours. You could make it a spritzer? I will be doing a cream recipe where we add the hyaluronic acid to the water phase-stay tuned for that!
Thanks for providing basic products with simple ingredients I can buy online for cheap and make my own products – I don’t even really need to know much about skin care to mix a few oils and rosewater together. I love Natural Skin Care products and I dont mean go be rude I just feel like you’re really over charging. And coconut oil…. Not really a good main feature ingredient. Read why https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/coconut-oil-may-not-be-right-for-you/
Regina-I don’t mean to be rude either but I didn’t ask your opinion on the price point of my products for sale. Making your own skin care is actually not cheap unless you choose to buy low quality ingredients. I have a small handful of products that contain coconut oil because it is extremely beneficial when it comes to healing. I’ve never claimed to be a professional skin care maker all though I am an aesthetician so I have a lot of experience with skin. This blog is about sharing what works for me and my Etsy shop came from a growing interest from my readers in buying my recipes already made.
It’s nearly impossible to find experienced people in this
particular topic, however, you seem like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks