To design cosmetics 100% adapted to your needs, to heal our planet or to find better value for money, there are plenty of reasons to go for home cosmetics. To get started, we offer you an overview of the essentials to have to make your cosmetics at home.

To make your cosmetics at home, a little material will be necessary. Nothing too complicated, most of them are basic kitchen equipment: a whisk, a spatula, a pyrex bowl, measuring spoons, saucepans, a funnel, and containers for your preparations. A precision electronic scale can also help.

The material needed for homemade cosmetics, of course, depends on the type of cosmetics you want to prepare as well as their complexity. If you want to make homemade soaps, you will need molds, for example, to give them shape. If you need extremely precise dosages, graduated pipettes may be useful.

To get a good start in home cosmetics, choose simple recipes: just like in the kitchen, you evolve step by step towards more complex recipes, once you have better mastered the techniques, the utensils and the ingredients. 

Vegetable oils and butters are part of most cosmetics, so it is one of the first purchases to make for your homemade cosmetics. For oily textures, sweet almond oil or olive oil are ideal. For less rich oils, if you want to make cosmetics for hair or oily skin for example, you can opt for jojoba oil or macadamia oil, which are lighter.

Essential oils are good active ingredients for homemade cosmetics, but they must be used with care because they are very concentrated products.

Among the essential oils for home cosmetics, the basics are:

• palmarosa oil,
• true lavender oil,
• cistus oil,
• myrrh oil, tea tree
• rosewood oil

Of course you have to choose your assortment of essential oils according to your needs: tea-tree is indicated for problematic skin, rosewood for very sensitive skin, palmarosa to make a homemade deodorant, or even geranium to prevent wrinkles.

Some softer active ingredients can be used in homemade cosmetics, they will be easier to use for beginners. Hydrosols are floral waters, sweeter than essential oils, but which still retain interesting virtues. Likewise, clays are a safe bet for creating safe homemade cosmetics. 

To make your own cosmetics safely, a few hygiene rules must be observed. Your kitchen is not a sterile environment, contamination of your cosmetics by bacteria, yeasts or fungus can quickly occur, which would alter the virtues of your products and their shelf life.

Before starting your recipe, clean your worktop well and disinfect it with 90 ° alcohol. Then clean your equipment before sterilizing it, either with boiling water or with 90 ° alcohol. Likewise, wash your hands before disinfecting them with hydro-alcoholic gel.

When handling powerful active ingredients such as essential oils, be careful with dosages and, if possible, wear gloves to avoid direct contact with the skin. In general, and especially if you are a beginner, stick precisely to the dosages indicated in the recipes. In the development of cosmetics, you have to be meticulous by really dosing drip. 

To keep your cosmetics, be careful with metal or wooden containers which can react badly with certain components of the products. Prefer glass products, compatible with all types of product, or to avoid the risk of breakage, use PET plastic containers.

In general, cosmetics must be kept cool and protected from light so as not to lose active ingredients. Do not hesitate to apply a label on each bottle with the content, the production date and the active ingredients used to clearly differentiate the products.