There are many reasons to make your natural products. Here are just a few. Reduce your family’s exposure to harmful chemicals. Reduce how much you spend on skincare - making your own will cost you less. Maybe you are concerned about the effects some of the ingredients in your existing brands have on the planet. It could be that the product you need just doesn’t exist in the marketplace at the moment, so you need to create something new. Making your own means you can choose which ingredients you use and why. Whatever your motivation when you make your natural products, you are likely to create a better product than one you can afford to buy from the store and you have complete control over what goes into it and why.
Your Drive, Your Choice
For me, making my own natural products is about being empowered by the choices I make and taking control of what goes on to, and into, my body. I am thinking just as much about the ingredients of my laundry detergent as I am about the lotion I apply to my skin.
These days people are becoming more concerned about what ingredients they use and where they come from. Where possible people are more likely to want to source locally or to choose ingredients that have been sustainably produced.
There are also budget constraints to take into account. We can’t all afford organic, locally sourced artisan perfume. But we can make our own.
When you cannot find what you want, or need, in the store, you can make your own products, tailored to your exact needs. Let us look at some of these points in more detail.
Ingredients
For many of you, researching how to make your own natural products is usually triggered by some type of need. Often that can be skin issues like dry skin acne, or eczema for example.
I began my journey into natural skincare because I had hypersensitive skin and acne as a teenager. Over time, my interest has also expanded into natural home care. These days I make most of my skincare, home cleaning, and scented home products myself.
Reduce Chemicals and Toxicity
Many of you want to make your own natural products because you want to reduce your exposure to chemicals and potential toxins. There is a huge push towards more natural deodorants at the moment and more eco-friendly and natural laundry care products.
Today, organizations like the Environmental Working Group are raising awareness about unnecessary chemicals and toxins in our skincare and body products. Their Skin Deep® project allows you to search a huge database and compare and evaluate your store-bought beauty products. Try it out here - EWG Skin Deep.
When you make your own natural products you can take care of your skin, reduce harsh chemicals, and in the long run kick unnecessary synthetic ingredients into touch.
I find it empowering to design a product from scratch and be 100% confident that every ingredient is there because I decided it could be.
These decisions don’t just apply to what we put on our skin, but what we use in our homes too.
Commercial air fresheners and scented products for the home can be rife with toxic chemicals. When VINEVIDA developed their own range of fragrance oils they needed to be free from Parabens, Phthalates, SLS, and SLES to reduce exposure to these in your home environment. You can have control over everything from the reed diffusers you use to scent your rooms to surface cleaners and tumble-drying sheets.
For me, it is also important that the ingredients I choose have not been tested on animals either, and VINEVIDA ingredients are all cruelty-free.
Moving Towards More Natural Ingredients
Most people who explore organic skincare and organic ingredients eventually decide to make their own natural products. Since natural ingredients like essential oils, carrier oils, and cosmetic butters and waxes have their own active ingredients, it makes sense to use them to add more properties to a blend.
Whatever I make, whether it is skincare, body care, or cleaning products for the home, I want them to be stuffed full of wonderful natural ingredients, even better if they are organic.
Projects like laundry detergent, fabric softener, and multi-purpose cleaners might seem like challenging projects to make yourself at home. But they are actually relatively easy, not to mention, extremely cost-effective.
Tailormade
As I said before, researching how to make your own natural products is often in response to a particular need or desire. Or, not being able to find something suitable commercially.
Addressing Needs
If you have sensitive skin it can be liberating to learn how to make homemade skincare and beauty products. No more staring at store shelves wondering if you should take the gamble on something that could irritate your skin further. Make your natural skin care products, (or even your natural cosmetic formulations and makeup to meet the specific needs of your own skin.
I recently needed a soapy hand wash for hypersensitive skin after some detergent caused an outbreak of dermatitis. It was my fault for not using rubber gloves! Just because I needed it there and then, I looked at commercial options and found nothing suitable at all. I came home and made my own!
If you need something and cannot find it, simply make it! All you need is a little know-how and a professional tutorial you can trust.
Find over a hundred projects and professionally written tutorials in - Unlock The Power Of Aromatherapy: 100 Ways To Use Essential Oils (and Fragrance Oils).
Of course, It might not be your own needs motivating you, but those of someone in your family. Perhaps one of the kids has eczema, or your partner has psoriasis. You can reduce some allergenic skin conditions by simply reducing your exposure to harsh chemicals. Swapping out soaps, detergents, surface cleaners, and air fresheners can make substantive improvements for some people.
Create Something Unique
I know that some of you out there just don’t want to follow the crowd. Your motivation comes from the desire to create something exclusive and unique for yourself. Create sublime moisturizers or luscious Luxe Créme and give yourself a special treat once in a while.
VINEVIDA essential and fragrance oils allow you to come up with your own variations and make your own personal scents. With our huge range of oils, you can easily create incredible perfumes, aftershaves, and colognes. They can be a true thing of beauty and give those expensive designer brands a run for their money!
When it comes to your and your family's needs, you can create unique and individual natural organic skincare products, personal care, and cosmetic products, entirely suited to all of your needs.
Imagine pulling out a beautiful vintage compact or perfume atomizer in front of your friends, full of your own unique and magical creation. No need for a crystal ball to see envy in your future!
Reduce Waste
Bespoke products also cut out unnecessary waste. If you are making your own natural products because you have a long-standing condition, then it makes sense to make a bigger batch. But, if your blend is something like a skin injury that will heal in time, it is much more cost-effective and resource-friendly to make a small amount instead.
Try not to fall into the bulk buying trap unless you have a plan to use these products up in their given shelf life or have a group of people you can share the cost with.
Some natural ingredients, like carrier oils, have a limited shelf life and can go ‘off’ or rancid relatively quickly. It pays to buy these in smaller amounts and replace them regularly.
Buying a kilo of Shea Butter because it saves you $5 when you only need 100 grams, that's a false economy. Only bulk buy if you are going to use things up quickly.
When Organic Gets Out Of Hand
At some point, many of us formulated have been there, in the ‘I’m only making organic products' zone’. You soon learn that choosing natural ingredients to suit your budget is key. It’s all very well and good to say that everything needs to be organic, but if that makes the end product prohibitively expensive to make, is it worth it?
You need to question its value to YOU!
I find a happy balance between the natural and the organic, that suits my budget and needs.
For example, I don't buy organic Soy Wax for making candles, but I do buy it for making Massage Candles because I am using it on my skin and will use organic Shea Butter too.
Don’t Confuse Cheap With Poor Quality
One thing I LOVE about creating my natural products is that I can do it cheaply with quality ingredients and I want you to take this on board when you learn how to make natural products too.
You do NOT always have to compromise quality to suit a limited budget.
Just let that sink in a moment.
We have this idea that homemade is quaint, endearing, and not as good as commercial products. Get that notion out of your head right now! Homemade is often far superior to anything you can buy in the store. Retrain your thinking on this, please.
You can make your homemade skincare, beauty products, natural cosmetics, and personal care products on a limited budget without compromising quality.
Bulk Buy as a Community
If there are expensive ingredients you want, why not gather a group of like-minded people and do a bulk buy instead? You simply portion out the ingredients between you all and split the cost. This will save you money and allow you to maintain the quality of the product.
For example, on this day, 10 ml of Ylang Ylang essential oils is $9.99 and 120 ml is $39.99.
If you split this between the four of you, you still pay only $9.99 but get 30ml each instead. It can really pay to bulk buy sometimes.
If you struggle to find a local community, start one! Build it and they will come, as they say.
Sustainability
When you first start to make your own natural products, you will no doubt soon become interested in the provenance and sustainability of your ingredients. Take your time to research suppliers, manufacturers, and producers, and buy directly if need be. Maybe, you want to source more locally, more ethically, and more sustainably. You will certainly make better choices for yourself, your family, your local community, and the planet if you do!
When we are using the Earth’s resources we need to be asking if we can keep doing this sustainably. Take hardwood essential oils for example, can we grow them at the rate we are cutting them down for oil production? We need to be planting as many as we are taking for the oil industry. Given that the industry is booming of late and demand is ever increasing for natural products we need to be responsible and ask these questions before purchasing.
Even essential oils like Rose take so much raw material that we have to consider how much we use them and what for. They are precious resources and we should be using them thoughtfully and with the greatest of consideration.
There are some essential oils like som Sandalwoods, Rosewood, or Palo Santo which are made from endangered woods. I don’t buy these unless I can absolutely justify doing so, which usually I cannot. The environmental cost is just too much.
Ethical Choices
As a consumer, when you start to make your own natural products, you might want to source them from local suppliers to cut down the carbon footprint. But we have to be sensible. I live in the UK for example, so the chances of me finding a local manufacturer of Cinnamon essential oil locally is going to be zero! By their very nature, natural products are global and traded around the world. There are other ethical choices that you could make, though.
When you buy Shea Butter, for example, try and buy from cooperatives supporting indigenous producers or their suppliers like the one VINEVIDA supports. The fair trade agreements that have been put in place have mutual benefits for you as a consumer and for the producers. You enjoy a first-class product and they enjoy a fair, living wage in return.
At VINEVIDA, sustainability is at the heart of our sourcing of essential oils and natural products.
The Final Word On Why Make Your Own Natural Products
Whatever the reason you want to make your natural products, it’s generally a good choice!
It gives you complete control over your ingredients and where they come from. It allows you to reduce synthetic ingredients, harsh chemicals, and potential toxins in your skincare, toiletries, and home products.
You can make your own natural products that not only suit your exact needs but also within your budget and in line with your conscious buying practices. You and your family can benefit from all of your careful and considerate choices.
I hope that when you make your own natural products, you find peace of mind, a product that suits your needs, your budget, and the size of your cupboard!
