DIY Natural Face Time!

Ok, so I've been reading more about what ingredients are in the products we use in the shower, put on our face and skin and I honestly, it sounds scary and toxic so I'm taking the bull by the horns and diving into making my own. I don't like creating more waste and more things I have to recycle, so hopefully making my own shampoo, conditioner, body wash, shaving cream, face stuff and lotion will help reduce the packaging consumption for us!

I've mastered what works for my face, and I happened to run into a lovely couple at whole foods that was in the soap isle looking for coconut oil. I knew where it was so I said I'd help them find it, and the gentleman said he wanted to use it (and vitamin E) on his face. I told him that I use coconut oil as lotion and promised them I would email them my recipes. Since they're all typed out nice and neat, I wanted to share them with you too! This has been a long time coming and I'm so excited to have all of these things made and they make my face feel really healthy.

Here's my email to her:
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I've got a couple of things I use for my face. These recipes for the following skin care items are below: Makeup Remover, Soap/Cleanser, Face Scrub, Lotion and Invigorating Clay Mask. Witch hazel is an excellent astringent too, if you feel like you need or want one (I just squirt some witch hazel from the bottle onto a cotton ball and apply).

Makeup Remover:

The lotion and the makeup remover I use are basically the same recipe. In the makeup remover, it's

Makeup Remover
2 oz. Coconut Oil

4 oz. Shea Butter
1 T Grapeseed oil
1/2 T. Olive Oil
Optional 1/4 t. Local Honey

You may need to melt the coconut oil if you keep your home cooler. Whip together all ingredients with mixer or whisk and put into pop top squeeze bottle (to keep sterile).

Directions: put some on a cotton ball or onto clean fingertips and gentle remove makeup from your face.

For a soap, I make my own castile soap (follow the recipe here: http://gfbff.com/tips-and-tricks/diy-100-olive-oil-castile-soap if you want to make your own); otherwise, you can purchase dr. bronner's castile soap at whole foods.

Exfoliating Face Scrub:

Put some dry powder onto wet hands and lightly exfoliate your face in circular motions, paying more time to problem areas (for my around my nose and chin). Repeat until you’ve exfoliated your whole face (gentle around the eyes!). Rinse with warm water.

Exfoliating Face Scrub

Blend or Grind: (I used our coffee grinder to make them as fine as possible – the finer the better).

1 C. Epsom Salt

½ C. Oatmeal

½ C. Dried Organic Lavender

Place in jar (I used a 16 oz mason jar)

Lotion:

This is my lotion recipe, I use it for my face, hands, and I just read that it’s good for stretch marks so I think I’ll give that a shot! I use this lotion for my hands and face so it’s double the makeup remover recipe (but you can experiment with batch sizes, depending on how much you use). The oils choice is up to you, I use a love of lavender and tea tree is all of the things I make for myself and our home because they’re reasonably prices, antibacterial and antimicrobial – both fantastic for your skin too.

Lotion
4 oz. Coconut Oil

8 oz. Shea Butter
1 1/2 T Grapeseed oil
1 T. Olive Oil
Optional 1/4 t. Local Honey

Optional 10-20 Drops Essential Oil (lavender, tea tree, lemongrass, grapefruit, ylang-ylang)

You may need to melt the coconut oil if you keep your home cooler. Whip together all ingredients with mixer or whisk and put into pop top squeeze bottle (to keep sterile).

Directions: rub in!

Invigorating Clay Mask:

For softening, drawing out toxins, just as a pick-me-up or a wake-me-up, put onto face avoiding the eyes, and leave for 15 minutes, wash off with warm water. Remember to moisturize afterward.

Invigorating Clay Mask

I know this is going to sound crazy, but one of the ingredients in this is clay pellets, and natural clay cat litter is the least expensive form of it. I picked up a 7 lb bag for 98 cents and plan on making this clay mask for everyone I know for Christmas so that I can use up the bag!

Store in 16 oz Glass Container:

Grind 1 1/2 cups clay pellets in coffee grinder until they are powder like; pour warm distilled water in just enough to make a thick paste. Add 10 drops lavender oil. Stir completely making a gritty paste. This will last a while and if it’s dried up a bit by the next time you use it, just put a little more warm water in.

I love this mask, it makes my face feel alive!

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So, that's it, that's what I've been doing lately. Today I spent 6 hours making Matt part of his birthday present which is all natural (all hand-made) home cleaning products (and some stuff for the bathroom). I made: laundry soap, fabric softener, shampoo, conditioner, linen/bed/pillow spray, floor cleaner, surface cleaner/all purpose, bath/sink/tile scrub, mop bombs, air freshener, fruit/vegetable wash, dish soap, window cleaner and hand sanitizer. Now that I type it out, it sounds like I was on speed today, but it really went by quickly; I was glad to get it all made and now my task is to come up with some cool apothecary labels for them and put the recipe right on the bottle so I will always have the recipe to make more when the bottle is getting low.

Enjoy!