Storing your DIY Bath and Body Products
February 24, 2009 by Colleen Coplick
Filed under Bath & Body
Now that you’ve had a chance to grab all the stuff you need to actually make your bath and body products at home, at least from an equipment standpoint. So, before we get into recipes and ingredients, let’s talk about how you’re going to store all this stuff you make and where to source your green ingredients.
Image: sxc.hu
Think about going as green with your packaging as you are by making your own beauty products. Sustainable glass jars – which you can get from second hand stores, eBay or sometimes even Ikea – not only look beautiful in your bathroom, but they’re easy to clean, reusable and you’re more likely to use an herb-smelling goo from a vintage, lead-free crystal jar rather than from a disposable plastic container. The jury is still out on whether phthalates leaching into food and water from plastic containers, and aluminum making its way into products from aluminum tubes, but until the verdict is delivered, why take the risk?
One of the sticking points to making your own bath and body products is storage. Some of them need to be stored in the refrigerator, unless you find a way to include a mild, natural preservative. There are a few options, including grapefruit seed oil or extract and silver. Those will store for up to a month on bathroom shelves. No matter what, make sure to store your products out of direct sunlight as it breaks down the ingredients dramatically.
Keep an eye out for good health food stores to find some of your ingredients like vitamins in liquid form, witch hazel, organic sugars and salts, or essential oils. There are several online stores you can find aloe vera juice, borax, citric acid, essential oils and almond meal.
Be sure to ask the seller about the origins of their extracts and juices – plants grown in their ideal region contain the optimum amount of nutrients because their native region is where they flourish.
The more that I delve into the ideas of making my own bath and body products, the more I realize how much there is to know about the ingredients, the balance of the products required and such.
Next, we’ll start to look at some of the fantastic recipes so you can start making your own concoctions.
