Making natural personal care products can be affordable and even simple! If you want to use harmless and potentially beneficial products, but don’t have the budget to buy high quality toiletry products, the solution may be to make some of them yourself. Check out these 5 favorite recipes that each require only a few ingredients and a couple minutes to make!
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A thorny problem that crops up when we start trying to take a more natural, less toxic approach to our lives is the quality of personal care products. From toothpaste to soap to skin care, most people use several items each day, and the drugstore versions are kind of horrifying once you start looking into what is in them. Don’t even get me started on deodorant!
If you haven’t thought about it before, you might be wondering what the big deal is. Don’t millions of Americans use these items every day? Aren’t they mostly doing fine?
Well, yes, millions of people do use these products. Many of those people are doing all right, or even thriving. Also, many people are not at all fine.
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What’s the Big Deal?
Chronic disease is exploding. Nearly half of adults have been diagnosed with one or more chronic illnesses, and even children are sicker than ever. That doesn’t count the people who haven’t been diagnosed with anything in particular, but who are nonetheless contending with fatigue, low mood, trouble focusing, hormone imbalances, digestive problems, allergies, skin ailments, and so much more.
Personal care products are far from the only cause of our epidemic of illness and malaise! They are one contributor, though, and one that is not so very hard to fix. Ideally, we fix this one before acquiring any actual illness. A lot of us address it after we are already struggling.
The good news is that we can clean up some of these products easily and inexpensively! The other good news is that our bodies were designed to repair and heal. However well or unwell you may be, using products that help (or at least don’t harm) you is a good step to take in caring of your (and your family’s) health!
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What is so bad about conventional personal care products?
Isn’t this just scare mongering? I wish it were…
Some personal care products are worse than others, to be sure. The deep dive would make for a book or two! Here are a few common problems to start with:
- aluminum and other metals–found in deodorant, toothpaste, makeup, and more– many effects including hormonal, reproductive, neurological, cancer, and more
- parabens— preservatives in many cosmetics, lotions, hair care products, toothpastes, deodorants– detrimental hormonal effects
- phthalates— in assorted personal care products and many more everyday and medical use items– associated with higher all-cause mortality, kidney disease, heart disease, cancer, and more
- fragrances— not all are toxic, but many are– even “natural” ones– quite a few are banned in many countries– the industry is supposed to regulate itself and is not required to disclose ingredients in fragrances in perfumes, soaps, etc– many fragrances are hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, carcinogens, and affect allergies, asthma, migraines, and so on
There is so much more to say (a slightly more comprehensive article on skincare safety is here), but you can see that normal products have some risks we don’t especially want. Most of us use more than one product daily, the the effect accumulates. Women use far more than men and children, too.
What about “healthy” natural care products?
It is true that more and more personal care products are being made with better ingredients. While some are “greenwashed” to appear more natural but actually are no better, others are only a little less harmful. (You can check your favorite products here for more info.) Still others are pretty harmless but don’t work very well, there are more and more natural personal care products on the market that work well. These are ever more widely available, too!
While the availability of good quality, natural personal care products has grown, and is continuing to expand as the market for them takes off, the price is often still a sticking point. If you have the budget for them, that may not be a concern. Taking care of yourself is a pretty good investment, and there is a certain satisfaction in purchasing from reputable and often family-run businesses.
What if you can’t spend much?
If you don’t have the budget, though, the situation can look bleak. Taking good care of your health can be expensive. Also, sometimes it doesn’t have to be. Simple ingredients, even at a pretty good quality point, don’t always cost more. The initial cost might look scary, but when you calculate how much you spend to make it versus buying either the high quality or the drugstore versions, the cost is very reasonable.
Well, but DIY takes a lot of time and aggravation, so maybe it isn’t worth it!
Maybe it isn’t. Some DIY natural personal care products are really time consuming and a lot of work. Some of those may still be worth it,; maybe you could make enough at one time that you don’t need to repeat the process for quite awhile.
Simple, Effective Natural Personal Care Products
The 5 natural personal care products I am sharing here take very little time, effort, or hassle. A couple of minutes, tops, if you have the ingredients on hand. Of course, you could still make a bunch at once so you don’t need to make them often, and save even more time.
But do DIY products actually work?
Some do, and some don’t. I can’t tell you how many shampoo recipes I have tried that failed! It may be my “difficult” hair. For now, I buy hair stuff. And use as little as possible…
On the other side, some DIY natural personal care products work really well! I have used each of these personally (except the acne serum, which two of my young adult children use) over time with good results. In the case of the face serum and the tooth powder, they seem to work better than my old products from the store, both conventional and more natural ones.
So, my idea is to make the simple ones that are easy, save me money, and work at least as well as store bought. I buy the others, like shampoo, at least until I come up with a better way.
Here are 5 of my family’s tried and true DIY natural personal care products:
Tooth Powder
Our family did a gradual move away from fluoride-containing items. I heard about why fluoride is not good for us, that there are more proven ways to keep our teeth strong, and that the evidence for fluoride for dental health is not as strong as I had believed. I wasn’t at all confident going against what I had heard all my life up to then about the necessity of fluoride for dental health. Brainwashing is real, and it is hard to get past at first!
So I quit fluoride, but my husband and kids didn’t. Then we dropped to one fluoride treatment per year for the kids rather than two. As my dental health actually improved, I switched the kids to fluoride free toothpaste. I kept learning more about fluoride, then when we moved and started with a new dentist, we quit the fluoride treatment altogether.
There are some fluoride free toothpastes available anywhere. We used those for a long time. Eventually I decided I wanted to avoid glycerin in my toothpaste (read about why here). Commercial remineralizing toothpastes are expensive. I started using tooth powder I made myself; later, one of my sons started making his as well.
It has been a few years. My son went though braces; his hygienist and dentist aren’t sure what to do with him. There is nothing to clean and nothing to see. If you have experience with teenage boys, you will know that this is not a given.
I have also done very well. Not only no cavities, but my gums are healthier and a “spot” the dentist was watching disappeared. Whether that was the tooth powder, diet, or other factors, I do not know.
I do know this tooth powder is easy to make. Use a non-metal spoon, because the bentonite clay has a charge. (If bentonite clay is new to you, read more here!) I use plastic for this, even though I don’t love plastic. Then I store it in a little glass jar and dip my toothbrush in it when I brush.
(I know everyone on the internet says not to do this because the powder will mold, but that has never happened to me. So far. If you prefer, you can take a tiny pinch and drop it onto your moistened tooth brush.)
What to do:
Mix together, using a non-metal spoon:
- 2 T bentonite clay
- 1 tsp activated charcoal
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp mineral rich salt (like Redmond’s, Himalayan, Celtic, Baja Gold)
- optional: a couple drops peppermint essential oil (or try clove for pain relief)
This amount lasts a few months when I brush a couple of times per day. It doesn’t turn your teeth black, but your tongue might look blackish at first. Activated charcoal is very good for detoxing, as is the clay, but it is black! No need for alarm, though; it is harmless and fades fast.
Deodorant
Deodorant was one of the very first things I upgraded many years ago. There is no reason to stick with the aluminum-containing version if you can buy something else that works!
We tried a few that didn’t work, a few that worked but were expensive, then I made it for a number of years with beeswax and shea butter and baking soda and such (that worked as well as the conventional ones but was a slight pain to make), then bought a really good one for a few years that worked well but cost too much. This is my favorite so far.
It hardly deserves to be called a recipe. In fact, you would do quite well to just buy the magnesium oil spray and spray it on. Maybe add a few drops of an essential oil or two. I like the roller bottle, though.
What to do:
To a glass roller bottle, add:
- enough magnesium oil to nearly fill the bottle
- optional: a few drops of essential oil if you like (I like eucalyptus and lavender, but others are good, too. For the guys, I leave out the lavender! Lemon is good, and cedarwood is more masculine-seeming.)
One nice feature of using magnesium oil is that you are going one better than using a harmless substance– magnesium oil absorbs through your skin and helps with keeping a good magnesium level in your system. Most people are deficient in magnesium, and magnesium does a lot of good things for us! Deodorant with health benefits!
If buying magnesium oil is too expensive, here are a couple ways to cut that cost:
- make your own magnesium oil from magnesium flakes– this is simple, lower cost, and retains the health benefit from using magnesium oil
- use the plain version (no flavor) of milk of magnesia– you can get it at most stores for a few dollars (I paid $4 for a huge off-brand bottle at Walmart) so it will last for a long time and be very cheap, but I don’t think it will be beneficial the way the magnesium oil is. However, it works quite well!
Acne Serum
Back in the 1990s, we believed that oil was the enemy when it came to acne. We would have fainted if anyone had suggested oil cleansing! We were misinformed. Too bad we dried our skin our so badly… it didn’t work all that well… but now we know that oil is not really the problem. In fact, sometimes oil can help. Quite a lot, if we use the right oil.
Of course, the real treatment for acne isn’t going to be topical. Moves like reducing toxins, balancing hormones, repairing gut damage, and improving nutritional status are ultimately going to help more than treating the skin. I wish I had known that when I was 20 and had acne for the first time!
Little did I know that a root cause treatment for acne would also have been likely to help my overall health! Maybe I already had celiac disease, or maybe I didn’t and could have prevented it. Certainly addressing gut health and so on could potentially have helped me avoid the cascade of other health problems that ensued and that I am still digging out of slowly.
Our anecdotal evidence for acne being a gut problem:
In fact, nothing I gave my daughter to help her acne topically did a whole lot, or helped for very long, until we did the GAPS diet. She isn’t totally free of acne now, but her skin cleared tremendously on the GAPS diet. Slowly. She still has a bit, and it might be a very good idea to do a strict GAPS revision. (Right now we are pretty close to GAPS, but not quite 100%. I think there is still benefit to imperfect GAPS.)
While working on root causes of acne, it can be nice to have something to help the skin along. My daughter and older son use this serum, and it seems to help. I like that it is also nourishing the skin, and certainly isn’t drying it out, introducing toxins, or throwing their skin microbiome into crazy places, like I probably did with over-the-counter and dermatologist-prescribed potions and creams.
Even though I don’t use this serum (see below for the middle-aged-lady serum!), I love castor oil! Castor oil packs, castor oil massaged into a rash or burn, castor oil on dry spots… The best might be castor oil over my eyelids before bed– my eyes are no longer dry during the day, the fine lines around my eyes are less, and the skin generally looks better! Castor oil can also be helpful for acne; read more here.
What to do:
I suggest using a glass bottle with a dropper, especially if you plan to use essential oils, as the oils eventually break down plastic. I use repurposed bottles.
Mix together:
- 2 tablespoons castor oil
- 1 tablespoon aloe vera gel (or aloe juice)
- 3 drops lavender oil
- 3 drops lemon oil
- 3 drops tea tree oil
Pour carefully into a glass dropper bottle and use 2-3 drops on clean face at night.
*I do not recommend using this serum in the daytime. Lemon oil makes skin more sensitive to sun, so it is better to avoid using it when you may be in the sun. If you really want to use the serum in the daytime, leave out the lemon oil!
Face Serum
For those of us who aren’t in the acne years anymore, I recommend a little different mix of oils. You can hardly go wrong with castor oil and, as I said before, I use it around my eyes most nights. So the acne serum isn’t going to hurt older skin, and the castor oil is great for older folk as well.
However, I have another favorite for my own middle-aged skin: rosehip oil. It is supposed to be good for wrinkles. I don’t know if it is, but I do know it feels good on my skin!
You could mix castor oil with rosehip oil; I might try that! I just open the bottle of rosehip oil and add a few drops of essential oils that are supposed to be good for aging skin.
I have a less-is-more approach to essential oils, but you could add more than I do, or try any number of other ones you like. (Frankincense is not in the picture because I ran out and forgot to buy more.)
What to do:
To your open bottle of rosehip oil, add:
- 2 drops frankincense oil
- 2 drops geranium oil
- 3 drops helichrysum oil
To use, pump a couple of drops onto your hands and rub into clean face and neck in the morning. Or at night. I usually use rose and lemon in my nighttime oil, so now you have two recipes. This is too easy to call a recipe, though!
You could use a bit more in winter or if your skin is dry or stressed. If my skin is very dry, I use a tallow balm I made based on this recipe. (I like the whipped version!) It is too heavy most of the year here in Georgia, but I would have loved it in winter when I lived in northern Illinois! It is very soothing.
Facial Cleanser
Sometimes I use a bit of castile soap to wash my face, but this facial cleanser is so much nicer! We used to buy micellar water, and that works quite nicely and seems fairly gentle. I’m not sure what some of the ingredients actually are, but it doesn’t seem like a toxic bomb, either.
It was a thing I thought about making but hadn’t gotten around to, until I was at the grocery store one day and the small bottle was going for $8!
Well, now you can make it for a fraction of that price. This isn’t exactly micellar water. It works similarly, though, and leaves the skin so soft you may not even need moisturizer.
You can use different oils at different price points. Olive is lovely for the skin. Jojoba is also great, but more expensive. Avocado is good, and fractionated coconut is fine as well. Use the ones you have…
You don’t strictly need any essential oil. I like to use a few drops of lemon oil because it smells wonderful and brightens my skin a bit. Use it only at night, though; lemon can make your skin more sensitive to the sun.
What to do:
Combine in a bottle:
- 1 cup filtered or distilled water
- 2 tablespoons oil of choice (olive, jojoba, avocado, fractionated coconut, etc)
- 1 tablespoon witch hazel
- 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin
- 10 drops lemon oil (can use more, less, none, or another oil)
To use, give the bottle a quick shake to mix everything up, then squirt a little out onto a cotton round or something similar. Wipe gently over face. It will clean your skin as well as remove makeup, including waterproof eye makeup.
There you are! Five simple, frugal ways to reduce your toxic load, support your health, and still have personal care products to look and feel your best!
