Making Natural Beauty Products: Over 250 Easy-to-Follow Makeup and Skincare Recipes (Idiot's Guides)

When I began venturing into crafting my own natural skincare products, I did years of research. At first, I read everything I could find on the web because I could not afford the necessary academic texts. Later, after much research, I began purchasing books that could benefit my creations and expand my knowledge base. One thing I want to point out, any formula/recipe can be adjusted and altered to create a truly natural product, if you first take the time to research ingredients and then understand the chemistry behind each product you wish to create. In fact, that's precisely how I learned - I used example formulas and figured out how to make them less synthetic through proper ingredient substitution.My point, I found this textbook to be a great addition to my notes and research. The reason being, there are tables and charts with quick referencing to many natural ingredients including their purpose and properties plus basic recipes that can be altered for a unique product. Again, I want to emphasize mastering a basic recipe/formula and then crafting something of your own is much easier than simply going blindly and hoping for the best. Plus, truly comprehending the purpose of each ingredient helps greatly when looking to substitute for something else.A brief tip, one thing I did early on, I never created anything in a batch size larger than 4 oz (total formula size) until it was a proven formula - meaning consistently successful.Continuing with why I purchased this book, the scent/fragrance essential oil combinations and cosmetic color creation guides are extremely helpful! In addition, the basic formulas within the book can be entered into a calculator thus transferred into proper percentages (requires a little mathematics). This information empowers anyone to create a product based off of these guidelines. Thus, I consider this book a fundamental text granting the user application of information any way they deem appropriate. Concisely, I don't believe the author intended this text to be all or nothing but to serve as a wonderful reference in learning the basics and then going on to more advanced techniques should a person choose to do so.In addition, there is added information on "where to buy" ingredients or products which seems to be FYI only, and I don't think the author is trying to sell anything but instead help beginners get started with making personal care products. And, I can say personally, as a more experienced skincare product creator that I do purchase from some of the companies mentioned within the Resources section of the text.Therefore, this book is a valuable reference allowing for customization of personal skincare products. There's even a brief guide on how to make infusions and extractions. As another tip, The Herbal Academy (online website) offers some helpful advice for free regarding infusions/extractions/tinctures/decoctions and so forth.Finally, I first perused this book via Google Books webpage. Anyone interested in previewing the text could do so prior to purchase. Certain pages are available for viewing however it's not the complete text. Obviously, I found the book worthy of purchase. If anyone has a question regarding my reading/using this book, then please ask. I would be happy to answer. Cheers!

This book is awesome for the inexperienced and new to the concepts of diy makeup. Very clear and concise instructions and it is a good reference guide. Once you've figured out the basics of formulation and the mechanics of using oils, butters and essential oils creating your own formulations gets to be quite easy. I will say that when you're looking at getting into making natural cosmetics to do your research. There are so many options you can literally make any color combination you want.It seems pricey when your just getting started but I would recommend TKB Trading's Mineral Makeup kit (the basic one starts at $49.00). It's lasted 6 months+ and I still have plenty enough to work with and I've been making enough product for two people!Love, love, love this book and I would recommend it to anyone that's interested in looking great and not breaking the bank. If you can have a look at the older edition of this book as well it's got more information and a few more recipes that were omitted in this revised edition I'm glad I have both copies their chalk full of information.**Update 5/5/2017**I still use both of these books and have recently purchased Recipes for color cosmetics vol. 1 by Karin Bombeli, I am looking forward to seeing what other new information is available in her books. I plan on purchasing the revised books (there are 5 of them) at a later date to expand my knowledge. It's been awhile (about 2 years) since I have made anything in terms of mineral makeup but it really is a good long term investment.

I purchased this book at the same time I purchased Recipes for Color Cosmetics. This book will tell you what that book doesn't about mixing colors. It also covers products other than color cosmetics. The equipment needed to make these recipes is minimal. But everything dry is shown in grams, no percentages are given. This makes it harder to learn to make your own formulations for products. This book is a nice book, but it isn't the one I used to decide what to order to make mineral makeup for myself. But when I get down to wanting to color a product, I will be all into reading this book. So don't pick between them, both are affordable and both have their own strengths. Buy both books if you really want to do this and make your own makeup. This is the color master guide to formulating your very own colors. Since I'm not at that stage of the process, I might just have rated too low. It won't tell you how to make liquid foundation, cream to powder foundation, or Gel Eyeliner, but it will help you learn to mix eye-shadows and blushes in the colors you want, color a nail polish, and make custom colors of lipstick. After trying the mineral makeup, I wanted to know how to make facial creams and products for the skin. This book was very helpful for deciding what to buy and how to make those.

I highly recommend this book for those of you who want to seriously get into making your own makeup and body care products. I have several other sources now, but I always go back to this one.

Brilliant for newbies!

Etwas mehr Informationen über Inhaltsstoffe wären wünschenswert, diese sind kaum vorhanden.Dennoch bietet das Buch viele Rezepte für unterschiedliche Produkte und hat ein gutes Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis.

As the title states. Good information easy to follow.

This is an excellent book - great for the beginner the one who knows something just needs guidance to get started. Lots of good information and good resources. I have read similar books but they are not as informative - more than the basic info - good explanation as to what, why and how to use ingredients to make cosmetics.