I’ve talked a lot about using various natural ingredients,
most you can find in your kitchen, to make your own skincare products. As with everything else, homemade skincare
care products have pros and cons too.
The pros include that you can tailor the product to your own skin type
and skin condition; you control the ingredients quality; and no artificial
preservatives, coloring, and flavors.
Homemade skincare products also have a few pitfalls. The number one issue is to keep the product
sterile and fresh. Make sure you use
clean container and equipment. I
recommend dishwashing everything before using.
Keep raw materials refrigerated.
After making a formula, either keep it in the refrigerator or make small
quantity and use up the product within two weeks.
The second issue relates to choosing the ingredients. I recommend researching the ingredients and
know your skin condition. For example,
if you have acne prone skin, you should avoid the ingredients that are known to
cause acne such as lanolin, coconut
butter, coconut oil, corn oil, soybean oil, wheat germ oil, olive oil, grape
seed oil, avocado oil, almond oil, sesame oil, evening primrose oil, tocopherol,
and vitamin A palmitate. If you have allergy
prone skin (such as mine), it becomes very hard to predict which ingredients
would work or not work for you. For
example, yeast extract is a great anti-aging ingredient. However, I’ve learned that I am very allergic
to it. A few other common herbs also
cause allergic reaction on me. So,
because you use a new ingredient, make sure you try the ingredient on the inner
side of your arm. If the ingredient is a
powder, make a paste and rub the paste slowly onto the test skin.
The third issue is the inconvenience. You have to make your own product, which is
certainly more cumbersome than buying stuff off the shelf. Remember that many ingredients in the mass
produced products are there not for your benefit but for the sake of commercial
convenience. That lovely shade of green
or pink does nothing for your skin but to attract consumers to the product. That lovely smell? Well, lots of those are there solely for the purpose
of driving sales. Of course, I don’t
even need to nag about preservatives. In
addition, you wouldn’t be able to make formulations that are easy to use. I use
face wash powders. Yes, they are messy
to use. But, no, they do not contain any
preservatives, artificial surfactants, artificial coloring, and artificial fragrance. They are not over drying and they clean very
well-- providing me clean, balanced and moisturized skin that is essentially
acne free.
The last thought is that do use store-bought products as
needed. For example, I do not make my
own sunscreen—the amount of work for making my own is simply too much and the scientific
progress in sun-screen products is simply too fast that I choose the other
side, the convenience. So, the last
layer product that I put on my face is store-bought.
Just remember that there will be tradeoffs in home-made
skincare product. However, once you get
used to the practice, you won’t regret it.
Thanks for reading.
Connie
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