- Electronic weighing scales (mine are vintage and manual yet precise—for the fun of it)
- Glass measuring glass
- Gas or electric oven (not microwave) for heating, melting, and boiling
- Small stainless-steel cocktail shaker (for no-mess blending)
- Double boiler or a small saucepan with a heat-proof glass cereal bowl that fits inside to create
a double boiler (for, well, boiling). Alternatively, you can use a small enamel pan with a
wooden handle that would fit into another, larger pan. - Glass cereal bowl (for mixing and whipping)
- Eggbeater or small whisk (for blending)
- Small coffee press (for steeping herbs and teas)
- Wooden spatulas (similar to those used during sugar waxing)
- Antique silver baby spoon (a brilliant local charity shop find, excellent for transferring creams
and scrubs into glass jars—silver is a natural anti -bacterial agent) - Plain medicine glass dropper (for dropping tiny amounts of vitamins and herbal extracts)
- Baby medicine feeder (syringe-style, for very precise measurements)
- Plenty of cobalt blue glass jars, as well as pump and spray bottles (to store, sell, and/or give
away)
All this equipment fits nicely into a sturdy medium-sized storage box (mine is from IKEA, complete
with a nice lid and a metal window). I frequently sterilize my equipment in a baby bottle sterilizer
and store droppers and spatulas in airtight, biodegradable plastic bags. Whenever I have the urge to
try a new recipe, I have everything at hand.
Choose Sustainable Packaging
I maintain my supply of reasonably priced cobalt blue jars and bottles by purchasing them by the
dozen on eBay. I also reuse glass jars from old creams and masks. Mason jars make excellent
containers for bath blends and salts. As the jury is out on phthalates leaching into food and water from
plastic containers, and aluminum making its way into products from aluminum tubes, I made it a rule
to decant all my ready-made and homemade beauty creations into glass containers. Using a pretty
container for your homemade goodies is very important, because you are more likely to enjoy using
herb-smelling goo from a vintage lead-free crystal jar rather than from a disposable plastic container.
Glass containers can be washed, sterilized, and reused, which reduces the amount of plastic that goes
to landfills.
Vintage perfume and cosmetic bottles make gorgeous frames for your cosmetic creations. Jo Wood
said that luxurious containers were an important part of her organic fragrance collection. “For years
I’d been searching for organic beauty products that were beautiful and smelt fabulous; it was
important to me that what I put on my skin was just as natural and chemical-free as what I was putting
in my body,” says Jo Wood. “When it came to packaging, I was hugely influenced by Biba and the Art