I recently attended a ‘make-your-own’ skin care workshop and took my girlfriend along to share the fun with. Talk about a blast!

I had no idea how easy it is to make your own eye shadow, lotions, essential oils, body wraps, soaps and so on, and I didn’t appreciate either that there is a entire community of people conjuring up their own beauty potions and saving a small fortune while they’re at it.

My friend and I started in the ‘Beginners’ group and were gobsmacked by the seemingly infinite list of beauty products you can make yourself at home with uncomplicated to understand recipes and all the ingredients listed and easily obtained.

As a starter, I decided to try my hand at a conjuring up little lip balm while my buddy decided she would cook up some bathroom products.

My welcoming and incredibly knowledgeable coach took me aside to potions cabinet and explained that we only needed a a small number of simple ingredients required to produce a moisturizing, all-natural, lip balm base equivalent to any you would get from a beauty salon.
I’m not about to give any trade secrets away here so let’s have a look at the ingredients.

· 1 ounce Jojoba
· 1 ounce Fractionated Coconut Oil
· 2 ounces Mango Butter
· 1 ounce Beeswax
· 1 - 1 1/2 tsp. Flavour Oil, Peppermint Essential Oil or Organic Spearmint Essential Oil

If you have any issues about where to get the ingredients, don’t be concerned she whispered, they’re all easily obtainable on the net along with all the recipes and other hints and information that go with it.

Ok, that appears straightforward enough I commented. As simple as pie she said smiling as if to say “Yup, so soooo easy that everyone can do it”.
Wasn’t long before we had a batch all set for bottling but get this! For something like $20 worth of ingredients, I prepared enough moisturizing, all-natural, lip balm base to fill:

80 Mini Lip Balm Pots
Or,
10 1/2 oz. Silver Tins
Or,
20 1/4 oz. Clear Dome Jars

My companion created some wonderful soaps shaped from a selection of moulds and fragranced with a rich variety of wonderful fragrances.

We had such a fantastic time that we’ll certainly be going back for another session.

But you do not even have to physically be present at a workshop to get happening, you can learn on-line and I have found a few websites that offer an awesome array of recipes, help from the experts and community forums where you can swap ideas and hints with other wizards of the beauty kitchen.

My introduction into making my own beauty products has been a real eye opener for me. When I think of the $100’s and hundreds of dollars I have dished out to retail labels when I could have been making them for myself using the same ingredients, the same portions and basically the same methods... wow! My mind boggles.

The great news is that now I know how straightforward it is for anybody to do, and how much cash I can save, I won’t have to buy over the counter again, ever.
Anyway, guess what we’re doing next weekend. We’re going to take a batch of our natural soaps and balms along to the local market to make a bit of additional pocket money.