Natural Preservatives for Cosmetic Recipes

When I first started making cosmetic products, i.e. lotions, lip balms, sprays, scrubs, etc., I was very hesitant , in the beginning, on which ingredients to use that were all natural and yet effective for preserving all my hard work from going rancid.

After years of working with many types and lots of research, here is a list of helpful and useful natural ingredients that are safe to use for preserving your cosmetic recipes:

thanks so much to  http://eroscent.com/blog/resources-and-guides/natural-preservatives-for-your-cosmetic-recipes/ for the useful tips! They match my own findings!

Making your own natural cosmetics allows you to control the ingredients and produce recipes created specifically for you. The downside to this is that natural ingredients tend to have a limited shelf life. Learning what ingredients are natural preservatives, and how to use them, will prevent rancidity and anti-oxidation in your homemade cosmetics.

Here’s a list:

• Benzoin
• Borax
• Honey
• Jojoba
• Vitamin E Oil

Benzoin Resin (also called Styrax) is a less well known preservative and fixative. For centuries, it has been an important ingredient in the making of incense due to its fixative qualities. Benzoin has a rich sweet scent that is quite distinctive. Because it is easily absorbed through the skin, it should be diluted in alcohol before use in cosmetic recipes. Benzoin resin is often found in facial toning and facial oil recipes to improve their shelf life.

Borax is a common ingredient that used to be found on the laundry shelf of most grocery stores. It is a natural cleaner and preservative, and it often found in lotion, cream, bath salt and bath scrub recipes.

Honey is a marvelous natural preservative. One teaspoon to one tablespoon of honey can be added to most any natural cosmetic recipe to improve its shelf life. My personal facial elixir has honey as an essential component, but I also add it to salts, scrubs, facials, creams and lotions.

Jojoba is one of my favorite natural preservatives because, like honey, it is just so very versatile. Jojoba is often combined with those oils that are known for having a limited shelf life, such as almond oil, apricot kernel oil, and rosehip seed oil. Get in the habit of substituting a tablespoon of jojoba oil for the more fragile carrier oils to improve the shelf life of your home made creations.

Vitamin E Oil is another natural preservative that I use quite often. If you are making a preparation for the skin, add a teaspoon of vitamin E oil to prevent rancidity and as an anti-oxidant. Vitamin E oil has the additional benefit of being safe to use for recipes for babies and small children.

When creating my own cosmetic recipes, I tend to use a two-pronged approach. Benzoin and vitamin E in a facial oil, for instance, or jojoba and borax in a lotion. Incorporating these natural preservatives in your own creations will enhance your cosmetics making repertoire considerably.

Recipe for Rose Lotion

Rosewater & Glycerin Hand Lotion

This lotion is great for those that prefer a less oily type.

rosewater

I’ve adapted it from various attempted recipes over the years.
I love the way it feels as the cornstarch really works as an oil absorber,
and almost feels like an exfoliant the first few times you use it.
I’ve tried making this into both a sprayable type lotion and a cream type lotion.
Both ways are great, it just depends on how you intend to use it
…more waters for thinner, and less waters for thicker product.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tsp – 1 Tbls melted beeswax (depending on how thick you prefer)

• 1 Tbls cocoa butter melted

• 2 Tbls Vegetable Glycerin

• 2 Tbls Cornstarch

• 1 Cup Distilled or Purified Water

• 2 – 4 Tbls (more if you like thinner) Rose water (I usually use 3)

Mix first three ingredients together in heat proof glass bowl – place in a water bath or use double boiler.
Warm waters and add cornstarch, blend thouroughly,
Add oil/wax mixture slowly to water mixture and blend well.
Make sure to completely cool.
Once everything is the right consistency, add essential oils if you prefer, but no more than 10 dps of essential oils total for this recipe. Mix well, and put into clean jars or spray bottles.
Note: If the lotion is too thick – thin with water or rose water using one tablespoon at a time, stirring thoroughly.

Also, If it is too thin, add melted wax into warmed oils/water mixture
(blast in microwave on low setting for 15-20 sec. intervals.
And always, always, add your essential oils last, after you have the consistency you desire in the lotion.
A thinner lotion you can use as a sprayable type, and a thicker lotion can be used as a cream.
By adjusting the wax/oil/water ratio you can create the type best suited to your purpose.
Try making both the spray type and the cream type and decide which works best for you.

If you’d like an even easier recipe, try this one: (though it’s a bit thinner than the above recipe)

1 1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup emulsifying wax
1/4 cup rosehip seed oil (or any oil you prefer, olive, safflower, sunflower, emu, etc.)
24-36 drops rose essential oil

In a pyrex measuring glass I combine the rosehip seed oil and emusifying wax and microwave for approx. 1 minute until it is all melted. The temperature on this reads about 155 degrees.

I have found that a coffee mug  holds almost exactly 1 1/4 cup of water, so I fill is up and microwave that for 1 minute or until about 120 degrees. While that is heating up, I add the essential oil into my melted wax/rosehipseed oil mixture.

Then pour the hot water into the wax/rosehipseed oil mixture and watch it turn milky white. At this point the temperature is about 125 degrees. I then pour the hot lotion into wide mouth pint size jars and let cool overnight. The next morning you’ll have a fresh jar of homemade natural hand lotion!

Oh and of course, you’ll need decorative labels to put on your jars, which you can download here. Remember, when you print these out onto Avery Sticker Project Paper in Adobe Reader, it often automatically reduces the size of the original document, make sure that you click on the setting to print these at full size. These labels fit on the wide mouth pint jars. Enjoy your new soft skin!

Thanks to

h t t p : / / a s o n o m a g a r d e n . w o r d p r e s s . c o m

for the great pics and label downloads!!!!

Essential Oils Can Help Erase or Reduce Stretchmarks, Scars and Keloids

Don’t you hate unsightly scars, stretchmarks and/or keloids?

Read the following article to learn how to make your own all natural remedy including an essential oil blend to use in a massage, or a salve recipe and the techniques used to erase or reduce them.

How to Erase or Reduce Stretchmarks, Scars and Keloids with Essential Oils

 

 

How To Go Green Without Spending Too Much Green; How to Make Eco Friendly Air Fresheners and Household Cleaner Recipes

Green

How to Make Environmentally Friendly Air Fresheners & Other Household Cleaners

With the sagging economy, industrial pollution, wastefulness and uncaring going on in the world; life can really get you down sometimes.But, we can decide to make it better, even if only a little at-a-time. With everyone trying, even a little bit can make a big difference.

When we do our best to live “green” or “eco-friendly” by taking care of our surroundings we are making a difference, and who wouldn’t want to do that without breaking the bank?

Making your own natural cleaners and organic home products is not only fun, but really easy. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you’ve done something good for yourself, your family and future generations. Who knew cleaning naturally could be so rewarding and at the same time so much fun?

Air Freshener

It’s so simple to make your eco-friendly air-freshener , but first you must first choose which essential oils you’d like to use. This will be the biggest expense of your homemade products. Any /all of the essential oils listed below are excellent for purifying and cleaning the air; freshening it naturally.

You may choose a combination of your favorites, or use only one of them. It won’t really matter, they all work brilliantly.

To make your choices easier, I’ve listed the essential oils most used for air freshening in descending order of their antiseptic/anti-bacterial qualities;

Thyme, Tea Tree, Clove, Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, Rosemary, Eucalyptus and Cinnamon.

(as for the order of which is most antibacterial, etc… this list  is only typical and approximate as many times depending on the specific essential oil’s originating plant material, chemotype, growing conditions and other factors; for instance; Eucalyptus, Cinnamon, and Rosemary may actually be higher on their antiseptic / anti-bacterial list of attributes at any given time.)

Dissolve 30-40 drops of your chosen essential oils into 10 ml of grain alcohol (not isopropyl); or instead of the grain alcohol you could use 10ml of mentholated spirits.

Add that mixture to

approx. 500 ml (16 ounces) of distilled water (or a little less so as to fit into a 16 ounce spray bottle).

Shake well to mix (and be sure to shake before each use) and spray wherever you want a fresh scent while cleaning the air.

I always write on the bottle “Shake & Spray Air Freshener” and the ‘scent’ I’ve used with a Sharpie so I won’t forget to shake the contents each time and with a glance can see what the ingredients are. It helps to add the date as well so you know when to make a fresh bottle. It’s best to discard unused portions after a month or so and start fresh.

Natural Floor Cleaner

When we had our new Pergo floors installed, the salesman gave me this great recipe for homemade floor cleaner. He told me how great it had worked on his own wood flooring. And since then, I’ve used nothing else.

This fantastic floor cleaner can be used on everything from ceramic tile to Pergo; on natural wood and even on linoleum it works brilliantly.

Just get a 16 oz. spray bottle, ( I like to recylcle them or get them at the dollar store)

Fill the 16 oz. spray bottle with:

• 1/3 distilled water,
• 1/3 distilled white vinegar,
• 1/3 alcohol (I use rubbing alcohol and it works fine, but better still would be grain alcohol for a less strong smell),
• Add about 3 drops of liquid dish soap and
• about 25 drops of Lavender, Lemon or Orange essential oil.

Shake well before each use. Spray small sections of floor from about 18 in. away, and clean as you go (works best if you spray and let sit for about 30 sec. to a minute). For tougher spots, spray and let sit for 1 minute and re-spray right before cleaning. Smells great! Cleans great! And best of all it doesn’t hurt you, your family or your environment! This bottle usually lasts me about a month or so and is so cost effective; you’ll never have to purchase one of those expensive brands ever again.

Natural All Purpose Cleaner

I use this all purpose cleaner on almost everything. It works just as good as more expensive natural brands.

• 2 teaspoons borax
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid soap
• 2 cups hot water
• Optional essential oil blend (lavender, orange, lemon or whatever scent you like) approx. 5-25 drops

Combine the washing soda, borax, and soap in a spray bottle.

Pour in the hot water (it will dissolve the minerals), screw on the lid, and shake to completely blend and dissolve.

Just spray and wipe away. For touch to clean surfaces, leave the cleanser on for a few minutes before wiping it off.

Shake well before each use.

Storage: Leave in a labeled spray bottle

Soft Scrub Cleaner

This great cleaner is so simple to make and you probably have these everyday items in your kitchen handy enough to make this whenever needed.

This scrub can be used on the bathtub, sinks, shower, even delicate marble or Formica counter tops.

Just use ½ cup baking soda with enough liquid soap (organic castile soap is the best) to make a frosting like consistency.

You can add 5 to 10 drops of an antibacterial essential oil, such as lavender, lemon, or orange (optional).

Scoop your soft scrub mixture onto the surface that is to be cleaned with a sponge, then scrub, wash, and rinse. Make only as much as you will use at the time as this recipe will dry out in a short time.

Mold Cleaner / Inhibitor: Tea Tree Treasure;

This mixture can last for months and is super easy to make.

Just add 2 tsp. of Tea Tree Oil (5ml = 1 tsp) to

2 cups water (16 ounces = 480ml);

Shake well before use and spray on problem areas. Do not Rinse. The strong odor will dissipate in a day or so. Store in a cool dry place with an appropriate label.

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I hope you find many wonderful uses for these natural recipes in your ‘green’ home. Try them once, and see how much you save…you’ll go back to these recipes again and again after you realize they work just as good if not better than their more expensive counterparts. Plus, isn’t it great knowing you’re doing something good for future generations by helping to keep our world beautiful instead of adding more pollutants and toxins?

A great place to find organic oils, herbs and such is Mountain Rose Herbs as they are world renown for their fresh ingredients. Also, Young Living Oils is a wonderful company for the best therapeutic grade essential oils in the world.

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Sources;
http://www.organicreverence.com/id6.html

http://reviews.ebay.com/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Organic-Pergo-Floor-Cleaner_W0QQugidZ10000000006170856

Information on Ingredients for Natural Products

I’ve compiled a list of the top five resources for consumers who are looking to find out what exactly is in those products you’re using and what to look for when purchasing ‘natural’ products.

See more at
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1577913/information_on_ingredients_for_natural.html