Green Beauty Recipes
Easy Homemade Recipes to Make Your Own Natural and Organic Skincare, Hair Care, and Body Care Products
Copyright Julie Gabriel
Published by Petite Marie Ltd
Published by Smashwords
***
Green Beauty Recipes
No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them. The author hereby expressly disclaims any responsibility for any adverse effects that may result from use of advice and recommendations contained in this book.
Copyright © 2010 by Julie Gabriel. All rights reserved
Published by Vital Media
Etzelstrasse 18, Wollerau 8832
Schwyz, Switzerland
www.vitalmedia.com tel. +41 789 307865
ISBN 978-0-9563558-1-2
INTRODUCTION
You are reading the much asked-for sequel of my first book, THE GREEN BEAUTY GUIDE: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skincare, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (HCI 2008). My first book gives you quite a lot of theory: it tells you about artificial ingredients to avoid and why, which natural ingredients to look for, what makes them superior compared to synthetic counterparts, which organic products are truly green, and what makes them effective and enjoyable to use.
This book is all about practice. I am very proud and anxious to share with you my findings about how organic beauty course of things really works; what makes natural cleansers so gentle, and how do the organic moisturizers actually moisturize - and what’s more exciting, how can you create them all by yourself, at very little expense at home.
The Green Beauty Guide revealed some of the most dangerous sides of conventional, artificial, “junk food” beauty products. It told you what not to do. A collection of natural recipes and a manual in one, this book provides you with a blueprint on how to make the green leap and formulate your own cleansers, toners, moisturizers, and body products from scratch. You can use the finest organic raw materials, all-natural bases premixed by conscientious organic labs, or use kitchen staples directly from your cupboard. It’s all up to you. No matter how much or how little you invest in your natural beauty ingredients, I am absolutely sure that the result will be gorgeous, green, and amazingly beneficial for your health and for our planet.
In 2007, I have founded Petite Marie Organics (www.petitemarieorganics.com), a lovely line of natural beauty products formulated by me and loved by thousands of people worldwide. During my work, I have triple tested each of the recipes. Many of the recipes presented in this book are currently used to make Petite Marie Organics cleansers, moisturizers, treatments, and baby products.
Green beauty is all about ingredients, not the media hype or sleek packaging. That’s why using pure, raw, or minimally processed ingredients is very important. While it is tempting to me to give you a shopping list with some of the most expensive essential oils, peptides, and vitamins that could easily cost up to $1000 per ounce, I understand that this seemingly easy way will not work for all of us.
Some of the most effective recipes in this book cost only a few cents to make, and the ingredients are right there, in your kitchen cupboards, in your local grocery store, or maybe in your garden. My favorite facial oil is made from jojoba and tea tree oils; my favorite body polish is nothing but olive oil and fine sea salt with a sprinkle of mandarin essential oil for that uplifting fragrance; the most effective hair rinse and shine booster I have tried is simply apple cider vinegar. I make my own shampoos and baby bubble baths with castile soap and a few affordable botanical ingredients.
Most of the recipes include a few optional ingredients which add value and aid performance but may be more expensive. You can add them or skip them; the result will be just as good. Remember: you don’t need to spend lots of money to look pampered, healthy, and gorgeous.
Ten Things that Make these Recipes Different
If you choose organic, you do that because you care for your health as well as the wellbeing of our planet. However, with the abundance of organic frauds and gimmicks it may be hard to tell the genuine organic or natural product from “green-washed” wannabe that puts a word “organic” on the label without any true relation to the contents of their tubes and bottles. Today, a company can call their products “natural” even if they use 0.01% of natural ingredients in their product! Many of the recipes in the natural realm are full of artificial ingredients.
Here are ten things that make these recipes and the resulting products different from organic recipes out there:
1. I want you to be able to create environmentally friendly, toxin-free beauty products that will make you healthier and improve your wellbeing. There’s not a single artificial or harmful ingredient suggested for use in these recipes.
2. Whenever possible I recommend using raw or minimally processed ingredients that have been grown without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and stored without use of irradiation.
3. Whenever possible I recommend using ingredients that have not been genetically modified, especially when it comes to vegetable oils and soy-derived ingredients.
4. These recipes rarely contain ingredients from animal sources, such as gelatin, collagen, animal-based emulsifiers, and animal fats. Some of the exceptions include milk, yogurt, and beeswax.
5. At Petite Marie Organics we do not support or commission testing of raw materials and finished products on animals. If possible, you should not purchase cosmetic ingredients from companies that do not have a clear policy against animal testing.
6. The recipes in this book contain absolutely no ingredients derived from petroleum.
7. I do not recommend using synthetic preservatives, penetration enhancers, talc, artificial dyes or fragrances in any of these recipes.
8. Some recipes in this book call for the use of alcohol. I do not recommend using rubbing or denatured alcohol because of the presence of highly toxic and carcinogenic substances such as isopropyl alcohol and acetone required by law to make ethanol undrinkable. I recommend using pure ethanol, distilled grain or grape spirit such as vodka or grappa. Please make sure you have reached the legal drinking age for your country before purchasing alcohol to use in recipes in this book.
9. Each recipe contains a recommended shelf life. To extend shelf life you may refer to the segment on natural preservatives. Do not use the products that are past the expiry date which you should clearly indicate on the packaging of the product, even if you plan to use them yourself.
10. These recipes have been thoroughly tested; some were approved by a dermatologist (doctor-vetted recipes are used in the production of Petite Marie Organics beauty products, yet I cannot offer you exact formulations for these products; there’s such thing as copyright.)
Your personal body chemistry is the only way to make sure that these recipes would work for you. Your skin may react to certain ingredients especially if you are taking prescription medications that may increase the sensitivity of your skin or if you have a family history of allergies. This is why patch test is the best way to make sure your homemade beauty preparation is compatible with your body chemistry.
How to do a Patch Test
How many times have you purchased a much-hyped product only to discover that caused almost blistering pain until you hurriedly rinsed it off or produced a cluster of pimples overnight? Just like it’s nearly impossible to find a perfect beauty product that will faithfully serve you for many years, in winter and summer, in sickness and in health, it is even less possible to create a beauty product that would be perfectly tolerated by everyone.
Due to the massive amount of chemical sensitizers bombarding us on a daily basis, we are more prone to allergies than ever. That’s why I encourage you to perform a patch test each time you encounter a new ingredient or try a new formulation, especially if your skin is sensitive. Here is how to do the patch test properly:
1. Choose an area in the crook of your elbow where your skin is more sensitive and sweat glands are abundant.
2. Dilute the raw material with carrier oil or filtered water approximately in the same concentration as in the recipe. Do not apply essential oils or vitamins to your skin undiluted.
3. Apply two drops of the mixture or a raw ingredient with a cotton bud or a glass spatula. Cover with a band-aid and leave overnight.
4. Next morning, carefully leave the bandage and look for any signs of an allergic reaction. Common symptoms include redness, warm feeling to the skin, rash, raised bumps, and itch.
If you are sensitive to an ingredient or a prepared product, please do not use it to avoid further reaction. You can always skip this ingredient in the recipe or substitute it for something similar. Many recipes suggest optional ingredients that you can use.
We are astonishingly ready to suffer in the name of beauty. As I was reading about the history of cosmetics, I was amused how happily women used the known poisons to achieve a “must-have” look of the day. In XVIII century, they smeared their faces with lead and mercury, lined their eyes with lead salts, scrubbed their teeth with pumice, and painted their lips with carmine. We are astounded by their willingness to suffer and even die in the name of beauty.
But are women that different today? Today, to look and smell pretty women are using poisons more technologically advanced but equally toxic. Parabens, formaldehyde, toluene, quaterniums, aluminum, phthalates, ethoxylated dioxane-contaminated chemicals – all these beauty ingredients are just as toxic and deadly as lead, mercury, and ground marble. Maybe fifty years from now our daughters and granddaughters will be equally amused at our willingness to spend untold money on synthetic cosmetics and paint our eyes and lips with makeup containing lead and synthetic pigments; fragrance our bodies with gender-bending phthalates; douse ourselves with lotions, shampoos, and shower gels containing parabens, formaldehyde, placenta, and vinyl. This book is an introduction to making your own, personalized skin care products using all-natural ingredients suited precisely to the condition and concerns of your skin. You can make these products as natural and green as possible using certified organic, home-grown, or locally sourced ingredients.
For centuries, beauty products have been prepared from natural ingredients. Some of them, such as mercury or arsenic, were detrimental for your health; other, like rose oil, beeswax, and olive oil, have withstood the test of time and are successfully used in conventional and organic skincare today. But natural beauty products are so much more than olive oil or rose water. Today thanks to the achievements of organic trade, we have access to thousands of exciting elixirs, extracts, essential oils, natural vitamins, powdered plants, and distillates that offer tremendous benefits for our skin, hair, and overall wellbeing. To make our homemade creations more appealing and easier to use, we can add all-natural, plant –derived emulsifiers, humectants, and subtle penetration enhancers. To keep our creations fresh for longer, we can add a few drops of all-natural preservatives that protect from bacteria, fungi, and oxidation without toxic impact of conventional, synthetic preservatives such as parabens.
Some products simply call to be made from scratch, while others require a bit of extra effort and time. As a working mom of a toddler daughter, I have very little time to concoct my moisturizers every week, so I use store-bought organic creams or the testers from my own organic line, Petite Marie Organics. But cleansers, toners, masks, scrubs, body oils, and hair treatments are incredibly easy to prepare, and if you make them at home, you are saving lots of money since you only pay for ingredients which normally cost a few pennies in a conventional skincare product. The rest pays for the packaging, storage, logistics, and multiple premiums that pay salaries to hordes of managers, sales people, and marketing professionals whose aim is to sell you another synthetic-smelling shampoo, not to make you healthier.
Another great thing about making your own skincare products is of course the unlimited possibilities to adjust the product to your current beauty concerns. When you know which plant ingredients work for your beauty concerns, you can twist and turn the recipes in this book to make sure they suit you precisely. You can make only an ounce of winter-specific facial oil to take you through the winter months, and for the summer time you can make another skin conditioner which will be better suited for hot weather and inevitable sun damage. This way, you get two perfectly natural products for the chunk of a price of a store-bought facial serum that will only deal with one or two skincare concerns. By making your own cleansers, toners, shampoos, and skin treatments you can use only the ingredients that are helpful in this particular situation and skip the rest. You have complete control over what goes into the product (and what doesn’t). Of course you can make a product that will harm absolutely no animals since you’ll be testing them on yourself. If you use all-natural ingredients, there’s little risk animal suffered in their testing, too, because only synthetic cosmetic chemicals require thorough testing that kills rabbits and rats. Even if you rub olive oil onto rat’s skin, I doubt it will suffer much.
And if the recipe doesn’t work for you, it’s easy to wash it down the drain and make another version. When you become your own cosmetic chemist, the waste of time and money is minimal, while you become increasingly more mindful about your skincare and beauty in general.
Important Disclaimer
The information published in this book is not intended to replace the advice of a medical care provider. Before making any decision affecting your personal health please consult with your doctor, general practitioner (GP), or a similar medical practitioner. Please seek medical advice before using any herbal products, essential oils, or vitamins, especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, suffer from chemical sensitivity, take prescription medications, or suffer from a long-standing medical condition. The statements in this book are provided for general information only. They are obtained from a variety of sources including the research and personal experiences of the author. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The products described in this book are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease.
Please keep in mind that certain essential oils and herbal extracts may alter the performance of your medication. Please report any side effects to your medical practitioner. If adverse reaction occurs, please discontinue using the cosmetic product immediately.
*Recipes marked with an asterisk are used to formulate Petite Marie Organics skincare products (available at petitemarieorganics.co.uk). Please note that recipes in this book serve only as guidelines and are not exact formulations of Petite Marie Organics products.
CHAPTER 1. HANDMADE BEAUTY BASICS
In this chapter we will look into the initial steps of handmade beauty creation. Whether you are a DIY enthusiast or a salon professional looking to expand your product range, you will find useful tips and techniques on how to choose the ingredients, melt, blend, pour, store, and preserve your handmade green beauty products.
When I was starting my own beauty range, I was astonished how little information is available on the sheer technicality of the process. You can find dozens of books on how to start your own fashion label, but there would be zero on how to launch your own beauty line. My findings and revelations would have probably amused the industry veteran by their naiveté coupled with complete lack of respect to traditions and customs of the trade. I think it’s all for better. If you don’t know the rules of the game, you have no fear, too.
I learn new things every day. While I am grateful to the technology for the progress in chemical-free sterilization and efficient storage, I may never leave it completely up to the machines to blend and homogenize my creams and lotions. Most of Petite Marie Organics products are made by hand in small batches, and I’d love to keep it that way as long as possible.
To become a cosmetic kitchen chemist, all you need is a clean space, a storage rack or a cupboard (better yet, some clean space in your garage since it’s naturally colder) for your ingredient stash, an electronic scale, a set of glass beakers, some Pyrex pans, and a stove. Helena Rubinstein and Estee Lauder started their brands right in their kitchens, so there’s nothing wrong with following their example.
No matter where you plan to use these recipes - in your kitchen, garage, a home office, or an FDA-registered lab - cleanliness comes first when you deal with beauty products. Not only does your work space need to be sanitized and free from debris, but the equipment that you use must be sanitized at all times.
I do not encourage use of chlorine or triclosan-based disinfectants, including those containing chlorhexidine. Alcohol (ethanol) makes an excellent germ buster, but I do not recommend using rubbing (denatured) alcohol or any medical spirit because of its content harmful volatile chemicals. You can buy a whole bottle of cheap vodka to cleanse your surfaces and equipment for much less than any brand-name sanitizer with tons of chemicals added for color and scent. To make the scent of the spirit less drinkable and therefore help you comply with the legislation, you can add at least 3 percent tea tree, eucalyptus, or peppermint essential oils to the blend. These oils will further improve the antibacterial action of your super-simple cleanser. For surface cleansing, vinegar is an excellent quick refresher.
I recommend using utensils and equipment made of stainless steel or medical glass. Wooden or rubber spoons or spatulas cannot be sanitized properly. Your utensils and equipment should be cleaned after and before every use. If you can afford it, an UV sanitizer is great, but microwave oven is a convenient alternative. Microwaving kills all the living matter - including germs. Do not put your steel spatulas in a microwave, though. Use alcohol to cleanse anything made of steel. To quickly cleanse the utensils you may wish to keep a spray bottle filled with vodka and a few drops of tea tree or eucalyptus essential oil. If you plan to decant the product into jars or bottles, sanitize them by microwaving or exposing to UV radiation and then add a quick wipe with alcohol just before pouring in the product.
Your working area must be well lit and ventilated. Ventilation is especially important if you plan to make more than an ounce of a product at a time. After dealing with various essential oils, especially when they are added to a heated product, you may feel a little woozy or even nauseous. If you feel unwell, quickly stop whatever you’ve been doing (even if it means that the cream would become stiff and require re-heating) and get a gasp of fresh air. If possible, lie down for a few minutes with windows open wide. Essential oils are no joke; they can provoke quite powerful reactions. For example, a certain blend of essential oils used in one of our bestselling products makes us all giggly and jittery for a few minutes, as we blend the product.
If you make beauty products just for your own use, you can skip the protective gear, but if you plan to sell your products, you must wear hairnets, gloves, and aprons or lab coats every time you handle supplies, equipment, products, or packaging.
Even though you will be using quite a lot of kitchen staples in your beauty preparations, ideally you should not consume food and drinks anywhere near your “organic beauty lab”. If you work from your kitchen, this is not always possible. Please keep in mind that many essential oils are poisonous when taken internally, so you should keep them away from kitchen utensils, cutting boards, pots, and pans.
How to Melt, Heat and Boil
To make creams, balms, salves, and soaps, you will need to heat and even boil a lot of natural waxes and butters. Some waxes and butters can be heated directly over the low or medium heat but this process may destroy some of the valuable phytochemicals and vitamins in the oils. Double-boiling to direct boiling is the same as steaming vegetables is to deep-frying. Boiling water rarely becomes hotter than 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). Not only double-boiling preserves most of the important microelements in the ingredient, it also allows for more controlled mixing and blending as you heat the butter, wax, or oil.
A double boiler is simply a pot placed on top of another pot with boiling water in it, over a heat source. You can buy the pots already assembled or you can find two fitting pots in your kitchen. The pots should be cast iron, glass, or enameled steel. Never use aluminum or Teflon-coated pots and pans as they will leach carcinogenic compounds in your skincare.
Simple double-boiling technique:
1. Arrange two saucepans or a large saucepan and a Pyrex bowl (even a steel coffee pot would do), so that one fits loosely into another.
2. Fill the large pan with water so that the level of the water is approximately 3 inches below the rim of the smaller pan.
3. Place the wax or the butter into the smaller bowl.
4. As the water in the large bowl boils over medium heat, handle the large bowl with great care so that the water doesn’t get into the melting ingredients.
5. Remove the double boiler from the heat source once the wax has turned into a liquid.
Other method of melting your waxes or butters is microwaving. While I do not recommend cooking your food in a microwave, it is a viable shortcut to quickly melt an ingredient for cosmetic use. Just make sure to microwave in a glass container, never in plastic, and to stand really far back from the device while it’s working. Stir the liquid well to dissolve any hot spots.
Tip: to prevent grains from forming in your balms and butters, after heating and melting, cover your product and place it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.
Which Water toUse?
Water is the most abundant cosmetic ingredient. In an average moisturizer, water content reaches 80 percent! So if you care about the water you put inside your body, you should be just as careful about the water that will be soaked up by your skin.
Filtered tap water is perhaps the most economic and green solution. Jug filter like Brita will provide you with a reliable source of reasonably pure water to turn into toners, infusions, and moisturizers.
Mineral water can be tricky to work with. If you do want to add value to your products by using mineral water, make sure it is not too acidic because any variations in the pH can affect the viscosity of the finished product. Ideally, your mineral water should contain magnesium, silica, or calcium.
Flower waters and infusions are my favorite bases for cosmetic products. Flower waters, also known as hydrosols, are by-products of steam distillation of essential oils. Aloe water, however, is simply aloe juice squeezed from inner parts of the stem. Fruit and vegetable juices, especially orange, grape, and tomato, make excellent bases for your homemade face, hair, and body treatment masks and baths.
Botanical Ingredients
There are many ways to reap the green goodness of your plant ingredients. You can buy the extracts ready-made, or you can play with your herbs and teas to make wonderfully fragrant and effective skin and hair preparations from scratch.
The most straightforward way to use skin-friendly plants is poultice. Poultices are effective for boils, acne eruptions, and even skin marks and scars. The process is super simple: chop the herb, crush the seeds, and then add a dash of boiling water to make a pulp. Place the pulp in a piece of cloth and apply to the affected area while hot. It should be replaced when the mixture cools down.
5 Super Simple Poultices
Potato wedges placed directly under eyes may help lighten eye circles.
Cucumber slices placed on eye lids help relieve puffiness.
Lemon slices may help lighten skin pigmentation.
Sliced garlic helps shrink blemishes.
Juicy apple may help revive glow in tired skin.
An infusion is the most common way of preparing an herbal skin remedy. Infusions can be made with fresh or dried flowers, leaves, and soft stems. The simplest vessel to prepare an infusion is a china cup, a glass teapot, a coffee press, or a Pyrex bowl. Do not use a metal container! Place the required amount of the plant ingredient, fill the vessel with boiling filtered water, and put the lid on. Leave the mixture to steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain and use as directed in the recipe. If you need a stronger concentration of the active ingredients, increase the amount of herbs used, not the steeping period.
Plant bark, roots, and seeds are used to make a decoction. If you do want to extract active ingredients from hard plant matter, you will have to grind them with a pestle and mortar to break the cell walls, and then boil the coarse powder over medium heat for 8-10 minutes. As with infusions, strain and use as directed.
Infusions and decoctions can be used to make a compress. Soak a cloth in an infusion or a decoction, squeeze most of the liquid, out and apply the hot cloth to the affected area. Compresses can be very little, covering your eyes or acne outbreaks; they can be very useful to treat sunburns and eczema on large areas of the skin.
Steams are similar to infusions. Steaming is very useful for skin problems like acne and dermatitis. To prepare a facial steam, add a handful of herbs, tinctures, or essential oils, to boiling water, cover your head with a towel (optional), and carefully lean over the pan exposing your skin troubles to healing vapors filled with volatile phytochemicals. At Petite Marie Organics, we have an amazing Purifying Facial Steam Bath which is great for acne-prone skin and dilated pores. You can also use it to prepare your own homemade toner for problem skin. You can find it at www.petitemarieorganics.com.
A tincture is the most challenging way to extract the active ingredient from the plant. Technically speaking, tinctures are alcoholic extracts with ethanol percentage of up to 60 percent, but most often the concentration of ethanol rarely goes higher than 25 percent. I like working with tinctures because alcohol is chemically neutral and it offers an added bonus of being a mild preservative. However, for people who prefer not to deal with alcohol for medical, religious or moral reasons, non-alcoholic tinctures made with glycerin is a good alternative.
If you are lucky to have access to fresh skin-friendly herbs or simply want to flex your cosmetic chemist’s muscle, here’s how you can make your own tinctures for use in beauty products. Place the washed, roughly chopped herbs (you can mix and match them) into a medium-sized preserving jar and fill it with grain or grape spirit (vodka or grappa, ideally organic). Leave the jar to stand in a dark place for 2–3 weeks. Shake it occasionally to maximize the concentration of the active ingredients. When the tincture is ready, strain it and use to enhance your homemade beauty preparations. You can use this technique to prepare infused oils for massage and body care (replace alcohol with any unscented plant oil) or glycerin extracts, also called glycerites.
Oil infusions can be prepared by hot or cold methods. For the hot method, fill a jar with fresh herb and cover with olive, grape seed, or sweet almond oil. Place the jar up to the neck in a saucepan of water and bring to a medium temperature. Simmer for up to three hours. Strain through filter paper or cloth into a brown glass bottle. For the cold method, place the jar with herbs and oil on a sunny windowsill. When the oil reaches the desired consistency, strain through cheesecloth or coffee filter (unbleached) and decant the oil in dark glass bottles.
Working with Essential Oils
Essential oil is a volatile, strongly aromatic substance containing high concentrations of phytochemicals, or “essence” of the plant. Essential oils have a long history of use in healing practices (aromatherapy), cosmetics, and fragrance making. Essential oils are produced in one of three ways:
1. Water, or steam, distillation. In this method, heated steam passes through seeds, roots, bark, leaves, stems, or flowers, vaporizing the volatile compounds. The vapors then condense back to liquid which is collected and used in cosmetic or therapeutic purposes. The water passed though the plants is called hydrosol, hydrolat, herbal distillate or plant water essence, and makes an excellent skin toner or a water replacement in your cosmetic creations.
2. Mechanical (cold) pressing of the peel of citrus fruits. Lemon, lime, and orange essential oils are produced by pressing the peel which is a by-product of a fruit industry.
3. Carbon dioxide (CO2) extraction is used to manufacture oils from most delicate plants. This way, the supercritical (liquid) gas acts as a solvent which absorbs the volatile substances material and phytochemicals from the plants. When the “essence” is collected, the pressure is reduced and the carbon dioxide reverts back to a gas, leaving no residue but a highly concentrated essential matter that can be used in skincare and fragrances. This matter is sometimes called an “absolute.”
Essential oils have been used for cosmetic purposes for centuries, but most oils are too concentrated to be used straight, full-strength. Rose or jasmine absolutes are so overwhelmingly scented, one drop would be enough to turn a pint of vegetable oil into highly fragranced massage oil! That’s why some of the most concentrated and fragranced essential oils and absolutes are turned into dilutes, that is, diluted with neutrally scented vegetable oils such as sweet almond, jojoba, or apricot oils.
I recommend using only pure, all-natural essential oils in your green beauty creations. If the essential oil sold in a health food store or online contains a plant ingredient and an “aroma” or a “fragrance”, you should not use it. Manipulated or semi-natural oils are not good for your skin.
Ideally, the ethical seller of essential oils should be able to provide you with a country of origin and a method of growing of plants from which the oil was extracted. Lavender essential oil from France is more expensive than lavender oil from England, and rose absolute from Bulgaria smells differently from rose absolute from Morocco. When given a choice, I prefer to buy oils from small traders or even directly from community farms and cooperatives working on fair trade principles. This way, you can get the freshest product at a reasonable price. If you buy from a large retailer, there’s a chance that the oil may have been stored in a warehouse for many months, if not years, while small traders do not have the luxury of stocking very large quantities of products. On the other hand, large distributors and suppliers often carry their own product quality control and store their raw ingredients in appropriate conditions.
Your sense of smell is probably the most reliable and readily available tool to help you choose an authentic essential oil. It should not smell of alcohol or anything synthetic. If the smell is too harsh, then there’s a chance the oil was “enriched” with artificial fragrances to make it more appealing. If a store has a sample vial for you to sniff at, note whether this vial smells a bit “off,” and even stale. A natural essential oil will evaporate from being exposed to air many times a day. Semi-natural oil will smell bright and cheery, as if just opened. I can describe this smell as flat and lacking natural depth. If a plant ingredient has undergone a drastic chemical transformation with synthetic chemicals, especially petrochemicals, it is not natural anymore.
Essential oils possess many healing qualities working on your body and mind at the same time. Therefore, even if a recipe calls for use of certain essential oils, do not be forced to use them if you do not like their scent. Via your volatile preferences your body “chooses” the most beneficial substances for you to use at a particular moment. Trust your senses: if the oil smells offensive to you, do not use it, even if your recipe tells you so.
First and foremost, you should like the scent of your essential oils. Even if you think you cannot tolerate scents, most likely, you cannot tolerate chemical, synthetic fragrances. Almost everyone will eventually fine an essential oil to fall in love with. For example, I buy some of my hydrosols from a small supplier in France. When I open their canister of cypress hydrosol, it evaporates me with such a true goodness of sun-drenched, sea-kissed cypress grove at midday, I instantly feel like at holiday. A high quality essential oil speaks directly to your subconscious - and that’s the mystery behind all natural fragrances. After you get used to natural scents, synthetic fragrances in department stores will smell cheap and flat to you, like overpriced air fresheners.
Essential oils require little fuss with storage. Cold, clean place away from children and food is all you need. Ideally, your essential oil stash should have a lock on it because essential oils can be poisonous if ingested. Try to keep your oils in original cartons, if they were sold this way. Many essential oils are self-preserving and can be kept for up to two or three years. Most dilutes will go rancid after a year of storage, so try to use them up by this time.
Essential oils are power bombs of green skincare, and they must be used with great care. No matter which purpose you use them for, essential oils should never come in direct contact with your eyes or mucous membranes. Many essential oils are contradicted for use in pregnancy and during breastfeeding. If in doubt, consult your health practitioner, and consider avoiding essential oils during these exciting periods of your life completely.
Natural Emulsifiers
Emulsifiers are substances that are used to blend oils and water together to create a cream or a lotion by surrounding oil with tiny droplets and forming a protective layer so that the oil molecules cannot stick together. This way, an emulsion is formed. You can make it thicker by adding more emulsifier or thinner by using less emulsifier. Sometimes you may even feel like adding an emulsifier to a facial toner so that you’d be able to add more essential oils without causing oil puddles at the surface! Egg yolk, honey, and mustard are common food emulsifiers.
Emulsifier is one ingredient that can make or break even the most natural product made with highest quality oils and mineral water. That’s why if you plan to make creams, lotions, cleansers, and body creams you need to make sure that your emulsifier is fail-safe and perfectly green.
Polysorbate and ceteareth (followed by a number) are frequently used in so-called organic beauty products, but these ingredients are not natural, and I do not recommend using them in your green beauty preparations. Polysorbate 20 is a polyoxyethylene derivative of sorbitan monolaurate, and ceteareth is a polyoxyethylene ether of cetyl alcohol or stearyl alcohol. You can use plain cetyl alcohol in your beauty products without any added petrochemical residue.
Emulsifying wax NF may sound natural but in fact, it is anything but green and is certainly not natural. In fact, emulsifying wax is made of cetearyl alcohol, Polysorbate 60 (a petrochemical), PEG-150 stearate (another petrochemical), and Steareth-20 (yet another petrochemical). There’s absolutely no reason to use this blend of synthetic chemicals in your natural beauty products!
Please note: if the ingredient name is followed by the initials NF, this means that it conforms to the specifications of the National Formulary, manual containing a list of medicines that are approved for prescription throughout the country. So far, 156 countries have national or provincial essential medicines lists and 135 countries have national formulary manuals. NF often appears before “Emulsifying Wax” which may add importance but not naturalness to this ingredient.
Another emulsifier to avoid is borax (sodium borate.) A recent research shows it may be carcinogenic, and evidence based research confirms that it is very irritating and allergenic. It also dries out delicate, mature skin, and is not recommended for use on children.
Bad news for vegans: most emulsifiers used in cosmetic products, organic or otherwise, are derived from animal fat. These days, legislation does not require listing the source of an emulsifier, just their chemical names, and these give no clue whether the emulsifier is derived from pig fat or not. So you can imagine how much pig fat goes into so-called natural and conventional beauty products! If you see the word “stearate” in your ingredient list, there’s a chance that the emulsifier was made from animal tallow, unless clearly labeled as vegetable. Making your own facial creams, lotions, and cream cleansers is the best way to avoid pig fat and petrochemicals in your beauty products. The best vegetable emulsifiers are derived from coconut or palm oils.
Glyceryl monostearate (glyceryl stearate) is a glycerol ester of stearic acid derived from shea or coconut butter. Make sure this emulsifier is marked as vegetarian before buying! Stearic acid can also be derived from animal tallow. If this is important to you, double-check with the manufacturer using contact information available online or on the packaging.
Cetyl alcohol is a popular natural emulsifier that is very easy to use. You simply melt it and combine with your oils and water. Or you can even skip oils to create an oil-free emulsion which will be still creamy and comfortable to use! Cetyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol derived from vegetable oils such as palm oil and coconut oil. It is petroleum-free and is completely natural. In general, it is more suitable for thicker creams intended for use on dry, delicate, mature skin.
Sucrose laurate, a sugar ester of plant fatty acids, is my favorite plant-based emulsifier, and it is amazingly easy to use! Simply pour into the oil and add some water to get a wonderfully runny cream for an oilier or mixed complexion. And the best thing, it is approved for use in organic products by Soil Association, an organic certifying body in the United Kingdom.
Sodium stearoyl lactylate is made with lactic (milk) acid, stearic acid (make sure it’s vegetable!) and then treated with sodium or calcium hydroxide. It must be used only in fat-in-water emulsions.
Cetearyl glucoside is made of corn-derived glucose and plant fatty alcohols. It is another failsafe emulsifier that is more suitable for products intended for use on mixed or oily complexions, and on the body. It will produce a lightweight, lotion-like texture with watery feel on the skin.
Vegetable Oils in your Beauty Products
Vegetable oils are the second most important group of ingredients in your green beauty products. If you shunned oils previously believing that they clog pores and make your skin oilier, this is because your skin has suffered from petrolatum and mineral oils so much, it reacts badly to all kinds of oils. Later on, I will introduce some of the most popular oils used in natural skincare.
Boiling is used to extract animal fats such as lard and tallow. I do not recommend using animal fats in green skincare.
The greenest method to extract a vegetable oil is cold pressing. During this procedure, seeds, nuts, and pulp are crushed and pressed. You can try and press a walnut in a garlic press at home: you will get a few drops of cold-pressed oil to use in your facial moisturizer. Cold pressing preserves all the vital benefits of plants in the oil. I only use cold pressed vegetable oils in Petite Marie Organics products.
Hot pressing is similar to cold pressing, but the plant matter is heated which helps it extract even more oil. However, most oils lose their phytochemicals and vitamins after heating, so hot pressed oils are good for mending squeaky doors, not in skincare.
When it comes to cosmetic use, plant oils can be soft and hard. In skin nutrition, saturated acids are heaviest, mono-unsaturated acids are medium-heavy and generally good for skin, and poly-unsaturated acids are thin, lightweight, and most beneficial.
The harder the oil, the less able it is to penetrate the skin, and more protective it is. Heavy, waxy oils form saturated acids in cocoa, mango, coconut, and shea butters, are used to nourish dry skin by preventing water loss from its surface. They also feed skin membranes with fatty acids and proteins.
Mono-unsaturated acids (also known as Omega 9) oils are also quite heavy but they can penetrate skin better than hard oils. Apricot, avocado, castor, macadamia, papaya, sesame, jojoba, and olive oils are used to lubricate and nourish dry to combination dry and normal skin, most often in face creams, body butters, body creams, and massage oils.
Thin and silky grape seed, sunflower, evening primrose, rosehip, pumpkin seed, walnut, and thistle oils form the poly-unsaturated acids group of oils that are most beneficial for delicate, mature, oily, and sensitive skin types. They are easily absorbed by the skin and leave no oily residue. Thin “dry” oils are non comedogenic (they do not clog pores.)
Beeswax is one of the very few non-plant ingredients that may occur in the recipes in this book. This hard and waxy substance is not absorbed by skin, but it creates a protective layer to protect from the elements. To make beeswax blend with your oils and water you need to heat it to the liquid point and then stir really well to make sure that it does not separate from the rest of the ingredients.
The heavier the oil, the longer it will keep fresh. Beeswax may keep fresh for up to ten years, although I do not recommend using it after five years of storage. Cocoa, coconut, and shea butters keep fresh for up to five years in cold, dark conditions. Most oils in mono-unsaturated group have a shelf life up to 4 years which can be reinforced with addition of wheatgerm oil or tocopherols, both natural antioxidants. Thin, delicate poly-unsaturated oils will only keep fresh for two years in dark and refrigerated conditions.
Natural Preservatives
This is a very sensitive subject for me. Currently, we at Petite Marie Organics only make products in small batches, we even write the Best Before labels for each of the products, like for cheese or meat. If I add preservatives (or as they like to call them today, antioxidants), it is for the sake of our customers. I like to make sure that my products will keep fresh for a year or so in homes of our customers who often live in (or travel to) hot climates or store their skincare in warm humid bathrooms.
Preservatives ward off bacteria, fungi, microbes, halt enzyme activity, and slow down the oxidation of natural ingredients. The more preservatives that are loaded into the product, the longer the product remains potent, effective, and safe to use. You can avoid accumulation of toxins in your body by avoiding synthetic preservatives in favor of effective broad-spectrum preservatives which pose very little if any risk to your health.
In most conventional beauty products, preservatives may be used in a concentration of up to 5 percent of the formulation. And even so-called “organic” beauty brands may sneak through loopholes in organic legislation and use synthetic preservatives that they think are safe to use, sometimes despite current scientific evidence.
Artificial Preservatives to Avoid:
Parabens
Triethanolamine
Phenoxyethanol
Ethylhexylglycerin
Denaturated alcohol
DMDM Hydantoin
BHT (butylhydroxytoluene)
BHT (Butyl hydroxytoluene)
BHA (Butylated hydroxyanisole)
Benzyl alcohol
2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol
Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate
Today, USDA Organics accepts only organic alcohol as a preservative in skincare products. I find this practice inappropriate. Products containing alcohol should not be used on babies because alcohol vapors may be seriously damaging to the fragile nervous system of babies and small children. To make alcohol an effective broad-range antioxidant and preservative, you need to use it in high concentrations up to 10 percent. This would make a cosmetic product too harsh for delicate, dry, and sensitive skin.
Disodium EDTA and tetrasodium EDTA are often used in “green-washed” products. While these chemicals are used medicinally, there’s no reason to use them in skincare. Both these preservatives are considered environmental pollutants, and in animal studies they appeared to be toxic to the DNA in living cells.
Another so-called natural preservative to avoid is sodium hydroxymethylglycinate. I know, it is hard to pronounce, and this is exactly the case: if you cannot pronounce it, don’t put in on your skin. This preservative may be quite irritating, and its manufacturing process involves a lot of petrochemicals and other pollutants.
At the same time there are many broad-spectrum natural preservatives that will surely suit your beauty chemist’s needs. They won’t assure two or three years of storage in a warehouse, as parabens do, but they will extend the shelf life of your homemade beauty products for up to one year, especially if you store your products in clean, cool place and avoid exposing them to heat and humidity.
Potassium sorbate is derived from a reaction of sorbic acid with potassium hydroxide. It is a commonly used food preservative favored by winemakers. As a preservative, it inhibits molds and yeasts, kills microbes, and has no known adverse health effects. Potassium sorbate is non-irritating and non-sensitizing. Today, it is the most popular alternative to parabens. You must use 0.6 - 1.0% potassium sorbate in your green beauty formulations.
Farnesol is a natural chemical found in citronella, neroli, cyclamen, lemon grass, tuberose, rose, and tolu. It is a popular fragrance component with a sweet floral smell, and it is very popular in traditional perfumery. It helps stabilize oil-based rich creams and massage oils, protects oils from going rancid, and has antioxidant and DNA-preventive properties.
Aspen bark (Populus tremuloides) extract is high in salicylic acid and may be useful as an additional preservative in your products for oily, congested, or unevenly pigmented skin. A powder that must be dissolved in water, aspen bark extract is good for emulsions, body mists, and toners. Due to the high content of salicylic acid, it is not suitable for people who are allergic to aspirin.
Geogard is the perfect preservative to use in serum and complex emulsions which can be challenging to keep stable. Containing naturally occurring gluconolactone and sodium benzoate, Geogard can be added to the water phase without the risk of separation of the finished product. This preservative is approved for use in natural skincare (by Eco Cert) and is great to use in lotions, creams, bath and body cleansing gels, and hair care products, as long as they contain no ascorbic acid. The recommended dosage of this preservative is between 0.8% and 1.5%.
Tinosan (silver citrate and citric acid blend) is an easy-to-use broad spectrum preservative which uses an antibacterial action of positively-charged silver ions. Silver ions have broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and are effective against unwanted skin bacteria, yeast, molds, and pathogenic microorganisms. Silver citrate is not the same as colloidal silver and is not toxic because it does not accumulate in our tissues. “It is well established that only silver in its ionic or complexed forms is antimicrobially active, while the elemental silver, even in the so-called “nanocrystalline” state is not. Silver-containing compounds are attractive because of the fact that in the range of the applicable concentrations, silver ions do not exhibit toxicity and carcinogenic activities,” Canadian biochemists wrote in 2008 (Djokic, 2008). Tinosan is especially useful in water-based toners, shampoos, and deodorants. You should use it in a concentration of 0.3 - 0.6 percent.
If you are making products for your own use or to sell in a spa setting, you may be comfortable using silver citrate, but if you plan to sell online, please note that many countries and eBay.com do not allow silver compounds in skincare products, based on the tarnished reputation of colloidal silver.
All of these preservatives will extend the shelf life of your products by months if not years. If you aren’t looking to make your homemade green beauty creations by batches, you may wish to consider even simpler options.
Vitamin E (tocopherol) is a very useful antioxidant that can prolong shelf life of your products for up to 12 months if added in a concentration of 2%. It works synergistically with vitamins C (ascorbic acid, ascorbyl palmitate) and vitamin A (beta-carotene or retinols), both added at concentrations of 0.5 - 0.8%. These vitamins act as antioxidants and are very useful in anti-aging, anti-acne formulations or in homemade sun products.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) leaf extract and essential oil are good sources of antioxidant terpenes. They help protect the product from “premature aging,” that is, from oxidation. You may use 0.15 - 0.5% rosemary extract or essential oil in your formulations.
Grapefruit (Citrus sinensis) seed extract is often sold under the name “citricidal” which is a blend of grapefruit seed extract and glycerin. It is a fairly foolproof antioxidant that may help extend the shelf life of your products by six months or more. You can add this compound generously, but keep the concentration under 1.5%.
Many essential oils such as acai, caraway, cinnamon, clove, coleus, cumin, eucalyptus, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, niaouli, oregano, rose, rosemary, sage, sandalwood, tea tree, and thyme have antioxidant action and may serve as a natural alternative to preservatives. The chemical benzanthracene found in lemon and lime oils have potent microbial properties. If you use some of these oils in your formulation, you may need to worry less about added preservatives. You may even concoct your personal effective blend of antioxidant essential oils to use in your own beauty products.
Water-free, oil-based beauty products do not require preservatives at all. Face and body balms, beauty oils, oil-based body scrubs, body and hair butters, liquid soap (water-free), bath salts, body powders, and soaps can be stored for up to 12 months without any preservatives. And of course, you can carefully watch the way you handle your beauty products. Store your natural beauty products in cool, clean places, promptly close the containers, and if possible, use spatulas or Q-tips as applicators instead of fingertips.
Green Beauty Packaging
Nearly all organic and natural skincare brands continue using plastic containers despite the fact that plastic requires more natural resources to recycle than glass, and not all types of plastic containers can be recycled. Many types of plastic can leach plasticizers such as phthalates and vinyl to the products. Still, plastic containers have their benefits. They are lightweight which is good for travel and it keeps shipping costs low. If you choose to use plastic, look for polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are more ubiquitous but they can leach phthalates into the product, especially if there are acidic ingredients in the formulation. Some companies carry double-walled jars which have polypropylene inner container and a pretty glass-looking polyethylene terephtalate (PET) outer shell. These containers are great for prolonged storage of products but they may not be easily available in smaller quantities for a home beauty enthusiast.
While many proponents of plastic claim that plastic is better because it doesn’t break and therefore is safer than glass in the bathroom, I have not had a single broken cosmetic or baby feeding bottle in my bathroom with stone floors in three years of use. Glass does not leach chemicals into the products, and it is easily recyclable. For formulations with high content of essential oils I recommend using dark-tinted glass such as cobalt blue, amber, purple, or green. Lotion bottles with pumps are great for liquid serums and lotions, especially sun protection products. I have listed some good sources of glass bottles and jars in the appendix A.
Glass jars from kitchenware stores such as Mason jars have certain rustic appeal, but I found them too awkward to use in the bathroom although they look great as containers for body scrubs and bath salts. They are useful for soy candles and potpourri, too.
No matter which material you choose for your jar, keep in mind that cleanliness is vital. Sterilize the jars and bottles in a microwave or with a UV sterilizer for salon equipment if your homemade preparations do not contain any preservatives or additives. But since you most likely have great pride in your cosmetic achievements, you would want to use them often and generously, so you would finish the batch long before it has a chance of becoming rancid.
The greenest way to obtain containers for your homemade beauty products is to reuse glass and plastic containers that you already own. Take a good look at your existing skincare stash; chances are, some of your serums, creams, and masks are past their prime or have simply expired. Wash them thoroughly and sanitize with rubbing alcohol or grain spirit. For my custom-made products I use white glass containers from Crème De La Mer products and dark glass Estee Lauder serum vials even though I no longer use conventional skincare products. To prolong the shelf life, use a tiny spoon or spatula to retrieve the product from the container, instead of scooping it out with your fingers, and store the large batch in the refrigerator, decanting only the amount you need for week’s use in a small mini-sized container.