One thing almost anyone can do to pamper themselves and help take care of their body is to make your own lotions, with ingredients specifically chosen for their own bodies and issues.
There are a few things to keep in mind when first starting to try and come up with formulas for lotions.
First find a good, unscented base lotion. Don’t worry about ‘for dry skin’ or anything of this nature; you can add things for just about any issue you want to address. Keep in mind that even completely ‘unscented’ lotions will still have a scent of its own, based on what the components are, so find one that agrees with you and with any scents you plan to add to it later. My own personal choice is the Equate (Wal-Mart brand) Advanced Healing unscented lotion; it has a blue label/top.
Keep it fairly simple. Try just a few additions to your base lotion at first, then tweak it little by little until you find the right combinations for you. Along these same lines, only make a small amount of any variations at first, so that if it doesn’t turn out like you hoped, you won’t have wasted much of your ingredients.
All you need to do is place the base lotion in a container slightly larger than the amount you intend to use, preferably not metal, and add any other ingredients to it that you wish, then mix thoroughly; a handheld mixer or a whisk work well for this.
Find ingredients that work for you. While some website you find may say that a certain ingredient is safe for sensitive skin, that may not always be the case for every person’s skin. Allergies, personal tastes, interactions of the ingredients, and various aspects of your own body may make a given ingredient unsuitable or undesirable for a person.
Above all, have fun. Making your own bath and body products can be vastly enjoyable and fun, not to mention rewarding.
Here are a few ideas for ingredients to add:
Vitamin E- wonderful for any kind of healing for the skin, also highly nutritive; can be obtained in a bottle, or you can get a more ‘pure’ form from dietary supplement capsules which you can break open
Evening Primrose Oil- another additive wonderful for healing and nutrition of the skin, also very good for anyone with joint or muscular problems; most easily obtained as a dietary supplement capsule which you break open
Essential Oils- these are some of the most important ingredients for homemade lotions. Not only do they add scent to your lotion, they also have a whole host of healing properties themselves. Until you get more familiar with essential oils and their interactions with one another, only choose three or so whose scents you like and which you think will smell pleasant when mixed. You will find many essential oils will show up in more than one ‘category’; this is an easy way to create blends to target more than one goal. With essential oils, keep in mind the rule ‘a little goes a long way’; you need only a few drops for a strong effect.
Essential oil ideas:
For dry skin:
Sandalwood
Lavender
Rose
Geranium
Patchouli
Chamomile
Rosewood
Orange
Palma Rosa
Tea Tree
For oily skin:
Lemon
Lavender
Ylang-ylang
Tea Tree
Cypress
Bergamot
Cedarwood
Juniper
Rosemary
Orange
General skin toning:
Carrot
Cypress
Juniper
Lavender
Marjoram
Mandarin
Tangerine
For relaxation/Anti-stress formulas:
Clary Sage
Lavender
Chamomile
Geranium
Rosewood
Cedarwood
Ylang-ylang
Bergamot
Rose
Rosemary
Juniper
Tangerine
Sandalwood
Frankincense
Petitgrain
Neroli
Vetiver
Uplifting/anti-depressant:
Bergamot
Clary Sage
Melissa
Geranium
Eucalyptus
Orange (or other citrus)
Peppermint
Rosemary
Basil
You can find some of my own blends on sale at:
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