Ohhhhhhh my…How uh-maaazing does this look?

cream

This is my DIY face cream. It looks meringue-licious edible, does it not? Don’t you just feel like diving right into this tub and licking it up with your naked skin! If you haven’t yet ventured into making your own toxic-free skincare products, you will be pleasantly surprised at just how EASY (and cheap) it is! Moisturiser is actually a very basic product, and should really only contain a small combination of some oils and/or butters. If your store-bought moisturiser contains a super lengthy list of ingredients, it is highly likely that it needs replacing with something more natural! It’s true, we all need a little more moisturisation to take care of our skin. But lotions aren’t just applied to the skin – they are RUBBED IN to make sure they are well absorbed! So if your moisturiser is full of lots of weird sounding ingredients, you should definitely check out what might be clogging up in your cells.

If in doubt, there are some really great resources out there. This free app is one of my favourites – www.thinkdirtyapp.com I like the clever name 😉 Just make sure you include ‘APP’ at the end of ‘think dirty’ when you type it into your browser as you may just find yourself on a, um, rather questionable site! I accidentally sent the link to a lady I didn’t know very well, and I absent-mindedly forgot to include ‘app’ in the url….Oops! She might have got a bit of a surprise!

Anyways…This app helps you work out which skincare products are clean, and which are dirty. You simply scan the barcode of your product with your smartphone, or type it into the search box, and it will rate your product on a score of 0 to 10 (0 being clean, 10 being dirty). It also gives detail of all the ingredients in the product, indicating any health hazards associated with the specific ingredients. To give you an example, here are some moisturisers as rated by the think dirty app:

moisturizers

When I started going chemical-free, I was shocked at how dangerous some of my skincare products actually were. By simply scanning my products using this app, I became instantly aware that even some ‘green’ skincare products that I was using (that, mind you, were pretty expensive because they were marketed as ‘natural’) were actually showing up as big, red, nasty 10’s! I actually felt quite duped that I had been pouring money into skincare companies that weren’t living up to their ‘clean,’ ‘green’ claims. This made me really very mad, because I thought I was doing good by my body by using more ‘green’ products on my skin, when in actual fact they may have been contributing to some of the health issues I had going on – not to mention clogging up my body with toxins. I would definitely encourage everyone to become informed about the ingredients in their products, and the health conditions they are associated with. The think dirty app is a great resource. So is this website – www.ewg.org – which has a very similar function and is free to use. The book, The Chemical Maze, is also a good resource, and also contains information about food additives and preservatives, and chemicals in household cleaning products.

If you’re coming along to my DIY Chemical-Free SKINCARE Workshop on Thur 29 Sept, 6:30pm @ Devonport Community House, it would be great if you could bring along the products you’re using (or were using) and report what clean/dirty rating they came up with using one of the above (or similar) resources. Once you become aware of how dirty a product might be, it’s a huge motivator to make the switch to a natural product, whether you make it yourself, or purchase it from an ethical and reputable company.

During the workshop, one of the products we’ll be learning to make is a Skin Perfecting Face Cream.   Lotion is SO easy to make, and you can choose your own essential oils for health benefits, depending on your skin type and health needs. Coconut oil and shea butter make the base for the cream we will be making. Coconut oil is extremely moisturising, and has been known to help with many skin issues, including acne, eczema, rosacea, fungal infections, and more! It also offers some sun protection. Shea butter helps to create a more creamier texture, and is a great natural source of vitamins A and E. It is another oil that helps with sun protection, reduces inflammation, and it also gives your skin nutrients to help produce collagen. Vitamin E oil is also very moisturising and restoring, and is most known for its ability to heal scars and damaged skin. Carrot seed essential oil is powerful for anti-­ageing and preventing wrinkles. It’s also awesome for healing any scrapes, scratches, scars, and for reducing the appearance of stretch marks. It also offers sun protection. Patchouli essential oil is for almost all skin ­types and conditions. It can help to improve acne, signs of ageing, scarring, oiliness, dryness and can improve elasticity of the skin. Elemi essential oil contains similar properties to frankincense, and has come to be known as “the poor man’s frankincense” (because it is much cheaper!). It is great for supporting tissue repair, and for healing chapped and cracked skin. Tea tree (melaleuca) essential oil is a strong antibacterial, and is especially useful for preventing and treating blemishes. In terms of skincare, it can also help treat athlete’s foot, cold sores, boils, chicken pox, dandruff, rashes, skin infections and inflammation. It is also an excellent deodoriser, and commonly used in natural deodorants.

You’ll get to take home a 120ml tub of face cream. I use mine everyday on my face, and it’s lasted me for six months. It only costs around $5.20 to make (not including the jar), and this is using amazingly high-quality, pure, therapeutic-grade Young Living essential oils. Pretty awesome value if you ask me, especially when I had been spending fifty or so bucks on a smaller container of face cream half the size, which turned out not to be that wonderful!

*****DIY Chemical-Free SKINCARE Workshop******

If you’d like to learn how to use essential oils to make your own natural, toxic-free skin care products, come along to our next workshop! If you’d like to attend but can’t make the date, please let us know and we can organise another workshop at a time that suits best.

When: Thur 29 Sept, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Where: Devonport Community House (10 Morris Street)
Cost: $30 (to make and take five skincare products)

During the workshop you will make:

Honey Lavender Face Wash – 250ml
Anti-Wrinkle Serum – 25ml
Skin Perfecting Face Cream – 120ml
Lemongrass & Ginger Salt Scrub – 250ml
Choc Mint Lip Balm – 10ml

All of the products will be made from natural ingredients, including 100% pure, therapeutic-grade Young Living essential oils. All ingredients and containers for the products will be supplied. You won’t believe how quick and easy it is to make your own skincare products! And it’s also super cheap – it is literally only $30 to make five high-quality, natural products, including the cost of the containers.

As spaces are limited, we would appreciate that you book in and pay prior to the workshop.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

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