Theresa Couchman

Over the past few years, my skin has decided it’s too fussy to tolerate the lightest caress of chemicals, and I’ve had to make the transition to all-natural beauty products. It was a hassle at first because it’s hard to find natural products that are effective but not too expensive, but through research I realized what probably should’ve been obvious from the beginning: you gotta make that shit yourself, yo. It’s surprisingly easy and works out to be even cheaper than drugstore brands. Plus I enjoy it; it makes me feel like an old-timey apothecary.

These are some recipes for homemade personal care stuff I’ve used/am going to try—all from the same site* **, but I wanted them in one place for ease of clickyness.

Toothpaste —I’ve been using this for a few days and it’s already gotten rid of the extreme sensitivity in one of my teeth, plus a few translucent spots are beginning to disappear. I added a few drops of lemon essential oil, which tastes nice with the coconut oil.

Deoderant — I’ve been using a similar recipe that works great but irritates my skin, so I’m going to try this one with arrowroot instead of baking soda and see how that goes. (And yes, it really works. It’s not an antiperspirant, though, which I don’t mind because I’ve tried almost every commercial deodorant on the market and none of them kept me dry, so the hell with it. At least now my sweat smells like ylang ylang.)

Dry Shampoo — Trying this for the first time today. It works and makes my hair smell like chocolate, so, win.

Makeup — Gonna try this soon, but I’ll use turmeric instead of cinnamon to add yellow tones, as someone in the comments recommends.

Lotion — Gonna try this also, but probably not as soon because I already have a lot of lotion from Tropical Traditions and shea butter from Coastal Scents to use up.

*The author of that blog occasionally makes/references unproven claims about the harmful effects of the chemicals in commercial products. Those are not the reasons why I switched to the natural junk, so if you’re looking for an argument along those lines, please seek it elsewhere. I’m only in this to look and smell pretty without making my wallet feel all dark and empty inside.

** She has some great recipes, though, especially if you’re a fellow Paleo diet person.