Inspiration Gallery: I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty
By Twistie
Years ago, I knew a woman who had an intriguing method of making up her face. She couldn’t stand buying tubes of this and jars of that… but she had two small children who loved painting with watercolors. One day, she looked over the ingredients in a pan of children’s non-toxic watercolor paints, found there was nothing in there she wouldn’t put on her face, and decided that would be her make up from then on. I actually tried out her method. I liked it for eyeshadow. The colors were pretty and lasted quite well.
I wasn’t as wild about it for blusher. I found I couldn’t control it as well as a powder. As for my lips… yeah, watercolors that come off with water didn’t really work out well for me.
Still, it was my first introduction to alternative cosmetics, and it was pretty cool. I got curious about what other alternatives out there might work. After all, I reasoned, if Elizabeth I could make her own make up (an egg white based product her last stepmother, Catharine Parr, is reputed to have taught her to make), why couldn’t I?
As it turns out, there are a lot of women out there making their own make up and other beauty products. I’ve waded through a few of their websites to recommend some you may find useful.
Make Your Own Cosmetics.com has a great recipe for a mineral powder that can be used for blush, eyeshadow, to color clear nail polish, or to color bath and body products. Pink Sunset Multi-Purpose Powder goes together in minutes with nothing more than a coffee or spice grinder. Heck, pick up a cheap mortar and pestle, and you won’t even have to use electricity!
How about something more basic that most of us use every day? I’m talking deodorant, folks. As it turns out, it’s not that hard to make at home. That way if you’re concerned about some of the ingredients in commercial products, have hyper-sensitive pits, or just feel like it would be fun to tell people at parties ‘I make my own deodorant, you know’ you can create your own anti-stink stuff in the microwave, using these great instructions from A Sonoma Garden.
Cheeky Kitchen has simple instructions for making lip gloss. It’s even flavored! Come for the lip gloss, but stay for the vegan recipes. A lot of them look tremendously tasty.
May 3rd, 2012 at 7:57 am
Interesting, but there are already so many places to purchase free-range, organic, “pure”, touched-by-the-gods-alone cosmetics that are relatively inexpensive. I’d rather spend my time elsewhere.
May 3rd, 2012 at 5:06 pm
And that’s cool. But there are others who want to play with making their own cosmetics, too. We all have different priorities and affinities to different DIY projects.
May 8th, 2012 at 7:52 am
I meant no disrespect. There are people that question why I cut up fabric just to sew it back together and those who question why I try a new recipe every week. To each his own. If you want to come over and share the stove to whip up face cream at the same time I’m making Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies, come on over! We’ll test them all out together!
May 8th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
It’s a date, Carol! Though in reality, I’m far more likely to be baking a cake or a pie than making face cream. Then again, unless you have double ovens, it might be hard to have two baking projects going at once. Hmmm… we’ll come up with something, I’m sure.