Ecobeauty: Scrubs, Rubs, Masks, and Bath Bombs for You and Your Friends [Paperback]

I ordered this book from a book club, sight unseen, and I'm not sorry I did! There were so many recipes that I could make right away; some books have exotic ingredients that you have to go online to fine. I live in BFE, so I'm thankful that most of the ingredients I could find at the local grocery/health food store. I already made the chocolate massage bar, the cupcake bath bombs, and shea butter lotion. My sons loved the chocolate milk bath. Buy it, you won't be sorry!

I'm so thrilled with this book. I brought it home and my 12 1/2 year old daughter vanished with it. Soon pages were full of post-it notes marking the items she wanted to make. By bedtime she'd made a shower gel and an anti-acne honey potion. She is just coming of age with skin problems and is aware of how many chemicals there are in conventional products (she reacts to the SLS that is in most shampoos, even some of the ones at Whole Foods). This book totally pays for itself in what you save on beauty products.

Hm, where to begin? This is actually the first book that I have actually purchased on making your own all-natural, eco-friendly bath products. While I'm no expert on the subject, I'm also not brand new to it or to the world of food and the benefits it can provide. My mother is Asian, so I've grown up with similar recipes and knowledge of how all natural food items from your fridge and/or pantry is good for your body, inside and out. My mom would take weekly milk baths, use egg masks daily, fresh orange peels on her hands and other such things as her beauty regimen.

That being said, I still found this book to be very useful and have a nice variety of recipes. Like I said before, I already knew a little, so some of the stuff wasn't new to me but I still think this is a great book, especially for beginners. It's pretty much straight to the point, very easy to understand and not confusing in anyway. The variety of recipes to try is nice and easy enough that even my 7 year old has made a few! Some of the beauty 'tips' were a little bit obvious(i.e. more sleep, regular exercise, drink plenty of water)but there were other tips that were quite useful and interesting(my favourites were the tips on the bath salts and the ones in the gift giving section).

Even before reading up on the back flap on who the authors were(I've never heard of Lauren or Janice Cox before I purchased this book), I could tell that it was written by someone that was fairly young. There was nothing bad about the book or anything specific, but it gave me a feeling as if it was written for teens but that isn't neccessarily a bad thing. I think this would be an excellent book to give a young pre-adolescent girl and the tips in the book that seemed obvious to me, can be very useful to a young girl who is just starting her journey into the overwhelming world of womanhood and cosmetics.

I do like that the recipes are stuff that most people actually do have in their kitchen; I have almost all of the ingredients I need to try out practically every recipe in this book right this second! There are so many books out there that claim to have "all-natural, organic" recipes but than turn out to be just a bunch of essential oils mixed with something like olive oil. Not really my idea of being easily or readily available since I'd have to actually purchase EO as I do not really keep it around the house. I really like being able to use things that I already have, especially if I have an abundance of fruit in the house.

I really only found three specific things about the book that I did not like:

1)I don't like the idea of using Borax powder. So I will have to do some research and see if there is another alternative or if I can just skip the Borax all together. Don't let that turn you away from this book though! I think there were only two recipes in the entire book that called for it and I'm sure that it can subsituted in some way or left out.

2)The tip for 'Natural Breath Freshners' list Mint Leaves and Parsley Sprigs. I watch food and cooking shows and my favourite ones are the ones that give you the more scientific side. I watched one where they did testing on the items that most people use/do to freshen their breath after eating and come to find out that, contrary to popular belief, mint and parsley actually do not make your breath smell better. In fact, parsley actually makes it smell worse! The best thing is brushing your teeth. I tend to just sugar-free gum or mini travel size toothbrush and toothpaste.

3)There were a few recipes that called for liquid soap but there isn't a liquid soap recipe in the book. She does say in the beginning that you can take left over scraps of bar soap and mix it with water to make liquid soap or to just buy all-natural clear liquid soap. That's not really my idea of 'eco-friendly' but I have ordered a book on liquid soap making so I will just use one of those recipes instead. I did like the idea of keeping the hotel soaps and making liquid soap that way if you want, since they do just get thrown out after each guest leaves, so I liked that she put that little bit of info in there.

Really, the things that I didn't like aren't that big of a deal, which is why I'm not going to give this book a low rating. Overall, I think this book is an excellent book since it's full of really easy, basic recipes and I think this would be an especially big hit for young girls to try them out at a slumber party! I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to take a shot at making their own natural beauty and bath products at home. The recipes are simple, easy, fast and fun!