A FEW SAFETIES AND GOOD PRACTICE RULES
Making your personalized natural cosmetics means that YOU choose the exact ingredients and you decide what will or will not be included in your product. YOUR skincare will be highly effective, adapted to your specific needs and of superior quality. Making your cosmetics or synergies is truly fun, exciting and within everyone's reach provided some crucial good practices rules are followed.
We come to you with a large choice of natural ingredients. Carrier oils, essential oils, hydrosols, butter, clays, waxes, bases and active ingredients, all may be used in your cosmetic creations. Please follow each ingredient recommendation for use AND users, and adhere strictly to safety rules and cautions. Be sure to check each ingredient technical sheets before use.
Our homes are not sterile environments. That is a fact. Most of us do not wear hazmat in our kitchens nor live in hermetic bubbles, with decontaminations sass, complicated ventilation and automated sanitizing systems to keep all external molecules at bay. So, the first crucial point to remember is that essential hygiene measures must be followed. It is only good sense. The same hygienic attention you keep when you cook for your family and friends apply when making your cosmetic. That includes the quality and freshness of your ingredients and the cleanness of the tools and recipients that you are going to be using. The second is to be aware of the conservation issues of homemade cosmetics. Here again, the comparison with homemade food is relevant, assuming you are going to be using natural ingredients with no added chemical preservatives. Finally, you need to be aware of the recommendations and cautions stipulated on the label of our products and included on each products page.
- KEEP IT CLEAN (Think home cooking…with a bit extra!)
Making your products is certainly fun, easy, interesting and empowering... but it comes with crucial and unavoidable hygiene rules, especially when it comes to cosmetics or mixes that require water or hydrosols (natural high content in water) making them more sensitive to contamination.
- Disinfect your tools and containers before each use. Do a first wash with hot soapy water, rinse and then disinfect with alcohol (70%). Let dry before using or filling. Alternatively, sterilization is a safe way to eliminate all microorganisms: after you wash your tools or containers with soap, rinse them well, put in a pot, cover with water and boil for 20 minutes. Start counting the 20 minutes when the water starts boiling. Leave to dry on a clean cloth before use.
- Clean and disinfect your work surfaces (worktop, trays…)
- No need to say to wash your hands thoroughly, avoid contact with the ingredients as much as possible or even use gloves.
2 STORE AND KEEP IT LONGER-ish
For many of us, the point of making our own cosmetic, aside from interest and fun, would certainly be to obtain a pure FRESH natural product that suits our personal needs exactly, full of efficient and beneficial properties, a product of the highest quality, that contains none of the things we do not want. All fresh natural products have a limited shelf life (1 week to 3 months or more depending on the ingredients used). Homemade “fresh” cosmetics are no different. To reap the full benefit of your homemade cosmetics, make your products when you need them, by small batches and use them daily. You can keep your homemade cosmetics fresh for longer by following these simple rules:
- Know that all your aqueous base creations will have a shorter life if you do not add alcohol or a chemical preservative. Those are water-based products or include ingredients with high natural levels of water, like hydrosols, aloe vera, milk and natural gels. Knowing that water or milk left unkept are breeding medium of for bacteria, moulds and fungi, make smaller quantities of your product, use it daily and keep it refrigerated (think of them as you would consider freshwater or milk). Should you wish to keep those formulations a little while longer (for travels…) without chemical anti-bacterial, you may choose to add some natural preservative grapefruit seed essential oil combined with palmarosa essential oil and vitamin E.
- Essential oils, while high in natural antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties are not considered as an ideal preservative for homemade cosmetics. The concentration or dosage required to keep a product for more than 3 months would be unsafe. Adding a few drops of essential oils might extent your shelflife.
- On the other hand, your creations that are rich in oils-low in water like creams, balms and butters, as well as dry formulas like scrubs, salts, clays and powder, will keep for months at room temperature. Oil Blends and essential oils will keep for years.
- As a rule, keep your products out of the light, cool and dry.
- Respect the recommended dosages
- Discard your product if you notice a change in appearance or smell. Natural butters melt in warm temperatures (35C). This is normal. They will recover their solid-state as soon as temperature drops.
- As a measure of caution, label your product, date it and make sure to keep them out of the reach of children.
Always perform a skin tolerance test
By making your products, you can choose the right ingredients to avoid allergic reactions,
Nonetheless, some natural ingredients contain natural allergens. It is therefore advisable to always perform a patch test before using your creation. A slight irritation means that you are probably allergic to at least one of the ingredients in your mixture. Or that the dosage is not suited for you.
Homemade cosmetics do not reduce the risk of allergy ( if you are allergic to nuts, chances are you may react to almond oil), However, by knowing exactly ( and labelling) what went into the making of your product you can identify the allergen and leave it aside for future preparations.
Use tools dedicated to your ingredients. Clays, for instance, are not to be manipulated in or with metal utensils!