Natural Body Basics: Making Your Own Cosmetics

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Amazon rating of 4.0 out of 5, Amazon sales rank: 96788

A complete and comprehensive guide to making your own cosmetics with herbs, nutritional oils, clays and other natural products. Written by registered nurse and master gardener, Dorie Byers, this book takes you step by step from what you'll need to how to make your own natural cosmetics.

Reader Reviews:

I've bought a number of natural beauty books, and this is one that I use again and again. The recipes are simple enough to put together in 10 minutes, which is very important to me--I know it's lazy, but if a recipe takes too much prep work, I usually won't fit it into my schedule. Another thing I like is that the recipes are in small batches; I can try them out without wasting a lot of expensive ingredients if I decide I don't like the recipe (and because they're natural, they're less likely to do natural things like grow mold or go rancid before I'm done using them). I've had no problem finding all of the ingredients on the web--it would be hard to shop for them in a grocery store. The author gives you enough guidance to start as a beginner, with lots of encouragement to try out your own adaptations. The recipes are okay if you're just starting out, but her creams tend to be high on oil and low on water. I find that the proportions in her cream recipes don't work very well for my skin (but they could very well work for yours. Everyone's different). For this reason, I didn't rate the book very highly. There is nothing here that you wouldn't find in other more comprehensive books (e.g. Earthly Bodies, Heavenly Hair by Dina Falconi). I was also mystified by Ms. Byers statement that facial steaming was bad for everyone (or something to that effect). It has certainly been wonderful for my skin, although obviously, it is not something I would do everyday. I've also read in Beauty magazines that many supermodels steam their faces regularly. For the amount of money I paid for this book, I felt I didn't get very much.. . . (and there is always a but), it is not for those whose ambitious beginnings fall to ruin at the thought of working towards their hobby goals. This book contains marvelous recipes, but one must want to make them quite a lot to search out a good portion of the ingredients. Perhaps my experience is singular, but my well-stocked natural food store had never seen witch hazel that was bottled pure and without accoutrements such as aloe. Other obstacles were present as I tried to gather necessary ingredients, and so my interest slowly waned. The book is, however, well written, concise, and with all the information needed to use it arranged neatly for easy reference. This woman knows her stuff. In the back of the book can be found a few reputable companies from which to mail-order your products if they are not readily available. Once again, this takes patience. One more word of caution: the book contains very few "food" recipes; that is, no "avacado and banana masks" or "pancake batter miracles." It is a book of traditional herbal extract or fresh herb recipes. I say this simply to make sure you buy the home beauty book you desire. So, in conclusion, if you are willing to work a bit more to have your homemade radiance and NOT eat it too, this is the book for you.This is the neatest book. I'm allergic to most face cleansers and mosturizers so now I make my own with essential oils and carrier oils, and this is the book that showed me how. There are many blends to use. Very easy to understand instructions. Just all out a fine book!
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