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Recipes for Homemade Lotion: |
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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
See
also:
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