It might seem a little last minute to make your friends and family homemade, healthy personal care products for Christmas, but it’s simpler than you might imagine. Master herbalist Sina McCullough’s ongoing series shows you how to make everything from toothpaste to shampoo with more to come.
And in this age of overconsumption and toxic overload, giving someone luxurious lotions and hand-crafted cleansers shows real heart and ingenuity.
Commercial personal care products are very much like ultra-processed foods. They are made from cheap ingredients and full of preservatives, stabilizers, and hormone-disrupting chemicals to extend their shelf life and provide the smells of nature without anything natural actually in them.
Even in those that do contain the natural ingredient highlighted on the label, be it jojoba oil or aloe vera, rarely do they have more than a few drops at the tail end of a long list of ingredients you can hardly pronounce.
With DIY personal care products, you buy the key ingredients in bulk and put them in your cleaned cosmetic containers or purchase some nice glass jars online that you can reuse. Many products use similar ingredients, so with a bit of planning you can formulate a good mix of products without breaking the bank. And if you use the products yourself, you’ll learn how to refine the recipes to your liking or according to the feedback of loved ones.
One of the key differences between DIY personal care products made with non-toxic nourishing ingredients and commercial products is shelf-life. That is also why making them last-minute is generally a good idea. Natural products generally need to be used up within a couple of months, so if you’re looking for something unique and heartfelt to give friends and family, you’re just in time.
