chapter 2

Ingredients

The ingredients required for these recipes are not particularly out of the ordinary. For the most part we’ll be using items (mostly fruits, vegetables and typical cooking ingredients) you may already have in your kitchen!

Just like I would suggest that you select high-quality, organic produce for your diet, I recommend the same for your beauty recipes. Don’t worry: The recipes call for small amounts, so you’ll have plenty of produce left over for meals or additional recipes. (I also really enjoy snacking on my ingredients as I make products . . . it’s a win-win!)

There are certain recipes that require some specialty items such as beeswax, shea butter and other not-so-common supermarket finds, but these can easily be found at craft stores, health- food stores or online. Amazon.com is a veritable treasure trove of DIY beauty supplies, and Mountainroseherbs.com has tons of high-quality essential oils, among many other specialty beauty items. I love NOW Solutions for its wide variety of high-quality carrier oils, which can be found in health-food stores or online.

As far as castile soap, an extremely gentle oil-based soap that you’ll see mentioned in a number of recipes, I love Dr. Bronner’s Unscented Baby-Mild Castile Soap, but you can find a variety of brands online or at your local health-food store, and even at many grocery or beauty-supply stores.

Again, just as you would if you were eating it, be sure to wash all produce required in recipes and check that any other food-grade items are not past their expiration date—this can drastically affect the outcome of your recipes!

Specifics on Recommended Ingredients

• Coconut oil—unrefined virgin (Nutiva is my personal favorite brand)
• Olive oil—extra-virgin
• Apple cider vinegar—raw, organic (Bragg is my favorite brand)
• Castile soap—Dr. Bronner’s Unscented Baby-Mild Castile Soap
• Yogurt—always use plain yogurt. I prefer any type of Greek yogurt, but as long as it is plain and has active cultures, it will be effective.
• Honey—raw, organic honey is best and can be found at your local health-food store or farmers market. Most regular honeys are cut with corn syrup, which won’t do your skin any favors. Even better is if you can get your hands on some local honey, which helps support your area’s beehives and has countless health and skin benefits (swallowing a tablespoon of the stuff daily will enormously ease pollen allergies!). I definitely recommend purchasing liquid raw honey, as opposed to the solid kind. It’s much easier to work with, but both will do—you’ll just have to be sure to melt your solid honey before including it in any of the recipes.
• Tea tree oil—a lot of tea tree oils are sold as blends, so be sure you purchase 100 percent tea tree oil.
• Shea butter—raw, unrefined (I purchase from Amazon and other online retailers)
• Cocoa butter—raw (also purchased from Amazon and other online retailers)
• Beeswax—pure, yellow. I prefer working with pellets so that you don’t have to shave or chop a big block (and pellets are a lot easier to work with). I also purchase this from Amazon and other online retailers.
• Vegetable glycerine—can be found on Amazon, at health-food stores or at other online retailers