This is a really good book! In the introduction it gives you a list of reasons why you may wish to make your own products and then goes on to explain how high street brands con us into using their chemical nastiness giving a glossary of misleading terms such as 'hypo-allergenic' and 'derived from...', which may sound innocent, but they are not what they seem! The author gives a short explanation of various chemicals and the effects they have on our skin and our health.
There's a chapter on essential oils, explaining why it's important to make sure you use 100% pure. Instructions on how to infuse your own oils with flowers and herbs. There's a sciencey section all about how your skin works, which I found quite interesting and there's even recipes for things to eat in order to feed your skin from the inside.
But you can skip all if that and go straight to the 'potion-making'. There's a basic list of common ingredients such as butters, plant oils, essential oils, and a list of kitchen equipment that will be very useful to you.
The recipes are easily set into catergories: The face (cleansers, toners, moisturisers, lip treats, the mouth, masks), the body (cleansers & scrubs, lotions & butters, deodorants, masks), the hair (cleansers, rinses, conditioners) the hands & feet, bathroom bliss, baby & bump, chocolate potions, love potions. There's really something for everyone in here. Some things only have 2 ingredients that just need to be melted together....easy!
There's a very useful section at the back with a list of suppliers to buy your ingredients, and even includes a site for very pretty glass bottles and packaging.
One of the best parts of the book is that all recipes include the shelf life! I find when looking at recipes on the internet, very few of them include this, which is pretty useless really. Some of these recipes you have to use straight away, but the majority are between 2-12 months :)
My only problem with this book is that quite a lot of the recipes use rose/rose otto essential oils (50 drops at a time in some cases), for those of you not familiar with these oils, it costs around £28 for a mere 2ml! so unless you are rather rich, you may find yourself skipping a fair few recipes. But with a little research into essential oils, you will find something to replace the rose oils that has similar properties, so all is not lost and I therefore give this book a well deserved 5 stars.
