Making your own beauty products often seem impossible. The thought of having to source all the ingredients and then combining them into one uniform mixture seems like an arduous task for many. On the other hand, it is a no-brainer task for a chemist. We are often psyched think that beauty products contain a complex and long list of ingredients. But if you study more about cosmetic science, you would learn that many of these ingredients are artificial and they function as stabilisers or preservatives to prolong the shelf-life of the product.
When it comes to DIY beauty products, you only need a few natural ingredients. People living in ancient times have done so with just one or a few natural ingredients to beautify themselves so I don’t see why we can’t create our very own beauty products right at home too.
Last weekend, I attended a DIY Natural Skincare workshop conducted by Balm Kitchen at Mahota Commune. They taught us how to make our own body butter using just natural oils, essential oils and mango butter. It’s pretty amazing to know that you would only need a few simple natural ingredients to make a moisturising body butter that could last up to a year.
The founder of Balm Kitchen, Teresa shared with us the various types of oils and other natural ingredients which are used for Bodycare products. She also recommended us to read this book titled ‘Carrier Oils for Aromatherapy and Massage’ if we wanted to know more about the various types of natural oils which are beneficial to our skin.
After a short introduction, we had a hands-on session where we make our own body butter using Mango butter, essential oils and a carrier oil of our choice. I went with grapeseed oil as I wanted an oil which is light and could penetrate into the skin easily. Like any recipes, the quantity of the ingredients matters. We had to refer to the body butter recipe and measured out the exact quantities of each ingredient using a scale. Then I mixed them well in the glass jar using a spoon.
Here’s the recipe:
Nourishing Body Butter (Cold-Blended)
Ingredients:
35g Organic Mango Butter
14g Carrier oil
0.5g Vitamin E
0.5g Essential oil blend
I’d made my own body butter before. But I use a handheld blender instead of mixing it manually with hand. It was a little messy because an equipment is involved and there was a lot of washing up to do. I actually prefer this form of cold-blending technique where it is more simplistic. It wasn’t difficult to whip the butter by hand as the mango butter is rather soft and it was easy to mix all the ingredients together.
It took me about 10 minutes to whip the butter into a smooth and creamy consistency. Then I scooped up all the butter and transferred it to a small plastic jar. You could also use any recycled glass jar for this purpose. And that’s how you go zero waste too – making your own products and recycling containers.
We were also given stickers to label our containers. It’s cool, isn’t it? There goes our very own body butter which is customised using our favourite scents! It’s easy to make and eco-friendly. It might also save you some bucks.
The workshop ended quite quickly and I really wish it was longer! And just before you leave, remember to drop by Mahota Pantry for some cold-press juices and pastries. I tried their Tiramisu and it was pretty legit.
Also, do check out Mahota Facebook page for more workshops and upcoming activities on health and wellness!
Have you tried making your own beauty products before? Let me know in the comment box below.
809 French Road
Kitchener Complex, Level 3
Singapore 200809
