About Homemade Skin Care

If the long list of chemical additives on the back of your body lotion mystifies and frightens you, you may be interested in creating your own skin care products. Many of the products you create at home will be less expensive than those at drugstores or department stores. You'll also be able to control what goes on your face and body, perhaps by opting to use only organically grown and produced ingredients.

What to Make

Dermatologists generally recommend a two-step or three-step skin care regimen for daily face care. To follow this basic premise, you'll need to create products for cleansing and moisturizing, and perhaps for toning to tighten and clean pores. Skin care author Dina Falconi favors the three-step approach for all skin types in her book "Earthly Bodies and Heavenly Hair," with an additional weekly regimen that consists of an exfoliating product, a facial steam and a healing masque. Purchase, rather than make, a sunscreen product for daily use. In many cases, you can make a larger amount of your face care products to use as body care products.

Finding Formulas

Skin care recipes abound in books and online, some of them hundreds of years old. Use online resources from trusted universities and medical institutions which suggest brand-name products as well as homemade alternatives. Columbia University's Health Services column, for example, shares a simple mayonnaise, egg and aloe vera moisturizing mask recipe along with tips for choosing commercial products. Look for books by credentialed authors who specialize in the kind of skin care you're interested in, whether it's elaborate organic herbal mixtures or simple recipes using common kitchen ingredients.

Planning

The homemade skin care you create depends largely on your skin type. Seek out formulas based on your skin's needs to create your shopping list. Note the amounts as well. You may need a large bottle of olive oil but only a small bag of beeswax, for example. Plan ahead for fresh-food ingredients like fruit masques or yogurt-seed scrubs.

Ingredients

Your exact list of ingredients depends on the books or websites your favor, but you will likely need one or more vegetable oils or vegetable butters for moisturizing and perhaps for cleansing creams; vinegar, witch hazel or distilled waters for toning and grains and seeds for scrubs and masques. Essential oils, dried botanicals, honey, beeswax, glycerin, fruits and vegetables, clay, eggs, baking soda and borax are among the other ingredients which frequently turn up in home skin care formulas.

Simples

In some cases, you may choose to use a one-ingredient formula, also known as a "simple." Simples make good projects for beginners, and also enable you to learn how each ingredient affects your skin. Examples include using only olive or jojoba oil to moisturize your face, preparing a honey-only face mask and toning with cider vinegar or witch hazel. For some people, a thorough rinse of cold water may be the only cleansing "product" needed, Falconi notes.

Considerations

One of the drawbacks of homemade skin care is that you can't include sophisticated ingredients which may address your skin's needs better than homemade versions. These include alpha hydroxy acids or retinol for cell regeneration, or topical steroids for skin rashes. While botanical equivalents may address some of your needs, less research exists on many herbal remedies and more trial and error will be required on your part. Always include a trustworthy sunscreen product in your daily skin care routine.