Nouveau movement, which can been seen in the luxurious black packaging and gold etchings.”
Preserving Your DIY Skin Care
A rule of thumb is to prepare small batches of skin care weekly and store them in the fridge.
Refreshing facial toners can be kept in a freezer to give you a quick minilift in the morning. If you use
a mild natural preservative, such as my own Silver Vitamin Blend (recipe in Chapter 7) or plain
grapefruit seed oil or extract, you may store your products on a bathroom shelf for up to a month.
Keep a watchful eye out and discard any product that shows signs of contamination (smells spoiled,
develops discolorations, or changes its texture).
While most soaps and shampoos with added parabens, phthalates, or formaldehyde preservatives
usually remain fresh for up to two years from the manufacture date (who uses a soap that long, mind
me asking?), the shelf life of paraben-free beauty products is much shorter. Mascara, lip balms in
pots, and eye creams will remain uncontaminated for three to four months; facial and body
moisturizers can last up to six months, depending on the ingredients; shampoos and mineral
sunscreens have a shelf life of two years if kept in a cool, dark place; and natural alcohol-based
deodorants will stay fresh for up to one year. Anything that has no water in it will remain fresh for
longer, but many body oils may go rancid nine to twelve months after being opened or blended. Some
essential oils act as natural preservatives, so your citrus-smelling organic products have more
chances of staying fresh.
No matter whether you prepare your beauty products from scratch or buy them in a store, make sure
you keep them away from direct sunlight. The ideal place to store your organic skin care is a cool,
dry cabinet. A refrigerator isn’t always the best option, since cold temperatures may reduce the
efficacy of certain ingredients.
Where to Buy Ingredients
Clays, witch hazel, vitamins in pill and liquid forms, herbal teas and extracts, as well as organic
sugar and sea salt are available from most good health food stores. Rose and orange waters are
available in better supermarkets and groceries. Many online stores sell natural ingredients such as
aloe vera juice, borax, citric acid, essential oils, and almond meal for scrubs. You will find some
useful resources in Appendix A.
When choosing plant ingredients, ask the seller about the origins of their extracts and juices. “When
plants are grown in their ideal region, they contain the optimum amount of nutrients,” says Kristen
Binder, the founder of Saffron Rouge (www.saffronrouge.com). “Take a cactus and try to grow it in
northern Canada. The plant will struggle to survive and therefore be in life and death mode, instead of
being focused on flourishing. This plant will be depleted of many vital nutrients because the soil and
sunlight are not what it needs. In the same way, if you tried to grow a rose bush in the middle of the
desert, the soil wouldn’t provide the rose with what it needed in order to make rich oil. I find it so
hard to compare lemongrass oil from plants grown in a greenhouse to oil from lemongrass grown on
the mountains of Bhutan, where this plant naturally flourishes.”
Many organic skin care brands grow their own plants for use in their products. Weleda, WALA