PIXABAY
Homemade beauty products are growing in popularity as consumers are becoming more conscious of the skincare products that they use and the ingredients that they contain.
The environmental impact and sustainability of our beauty routines are also becoming important considerations in our purchasing decisions.
Sustainability is all about avoiding the depletion of natural resources as much as possible so growing, making and re-using are key in contributing towards living sustainably.
I started making my own beauty products because I wanted to have control of what I use on my skin and attempt to reduce my impact on the planet at the same time.
Taking a DIY approach to skincare products means that you can choose the ingredients that you want to use and avoid ingredients that are not sustainable. One natural ingredient that stands out in the world of handmade beauty is palm oil. The production of this cheap oil has had and continues to have a detrimental impact in Indonesia and Malaysia where vast amounts of pristine rain forests are cleared to make way for palm oil plantations.
Making your own simple and natural beauty products is rather like baking a cake. It is very therapeutic and very satisfying to make a product from scratch with carefully selected ingredients and then have the pleasure of pampering your skin without the guilt of piling on the pounds!
An easy project to start with if you have never made any skincare products before is a simple lip balm. Homemade lip balms are a much nicer alternative to the petroleum based lip balms that are widely available on the high street. Some of the ingredients that you can use to make an effective balm might already be stocked in your kitchen cupboard like sunflower oil or coconut oil.
Many beneficial skincare ingredients such as flowers and herbs can be easily grown in your garden or even on a balcony or windowsill such as chamomile, rosemary and lavender.
Keep your air miles low by sourcing local ingredients wherever possible. Visit plant nurseries, local growers, markets and farm shops. You will be able to find an abundance of locally grown ingredients if you search and the benefit of this is that you can often visit the supplier and see where and how their produce is grown. Local growers are very enthusiastic about their produce and are a great source of inspiration. It's a wonderful excuse to visit a herb farm.
For the ingredients that you can't source locally always look for fair trade so that you know that they have been grown using sustainable methods of agriculture and you can rest assured that the producers will receive a fair price.
Making your own beauty products is extremely rewarding and is one small step towards self-sufficiency and sustainability. Reducing our impact on the environment is something we can all benefit from. By carefully considering each ingredient that you use you can play a huge part in the future of our planet.