How to Make Easy Homemade Fragrance and Essential Products

2010-12-20

HONEY ROSE BEAUTY BALM RECIPE

This luxurious balm can be used as a hot cloth cleanser, a massage treatment or as an intense, rich moisturising treatment for dry or ageing skin.

INGREDIENTS

10g Jojoba Oil
10g Almond Oil
10g Rosehip Seed Oil
10g Hemp Seed Oil
10g Borage Oil
Note – You could use different oils to the above as long as the total adds up to 50g
20g Beeswax
30g Shea Butter
10g Manuka Honey
6 drops Rose Otto
4 drops Patchouli

METHOD

Melt the Beeswax and Shea Butter in a bain-marie or bowl over a pan of hot water on the hob. Add the remaining ingredients except for the essential oils and stir gently until everything is liquid. Remove from the heat and add the essential oils. Keep stirring the mixture gently as it cools to mix in the Manuka Honey as this may not totally dissolve with heating. As you mix you will notice the mixture getting thicker and the honey will start to blend in. Once it is a thick but pourable consistency, pour into a clean 100ml jar to set. If you want to make less then just halve all ingredients. Please note that measurements are weighed on a scale in grammes as this is more accurate than measuring out in millilitres.

[Source: thefragrantalchemist.com]

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The Artifice of Beauty: A History and Practical Guide to Perfume and Cosmetics

Why did Egyptians wear so much make up? Were the Vikings really unwashed barbarians? How did the fashionable Elizabethan deal with bathing, lice and excessive facial hair? What happened underneath all that hairpowder and scented pomade in the eighteenth century? How did young women find out about the latest beauty products in the past? This fascinating and unique book traces the way in which we have adorned, perfumed and presented ourselves from the earliest prehistoric evidence right through to the dawn of the multi-million dollar cosmetics industry. We discover what the perfumes found in Tutankhamen's tomb would have smelt like, what made the medieval woman so synonymous with "the lily and the rose," and where the most fashionable place was for a woman to buy perfume in the eighteenth century. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century the devil reputedly carried a looking glass, and the most expensive cosmetics could kill. A century later, Beau Brummel recommended the scent of freshly aired linen as an appropriate perfume for a gentleman, and Napoleon himself doused himself in quantities of cologne. This richly illustrated book also includes a wide selection of modernised recipes for those wishing to experience some of the cosmetics or perfumes used by our ancestors.