With so many skin care products on the market today, choosing the right ones can be very difficult. It’s hard to know which ones are synthetic and which ones are natural. Even the “natural” and “chemical-free” products can contain harmful ingredients. Most products have the potential to benefit your skin, but natural, homemade skin care products are often the better choice.
It is very difficult to trust products that have a long list of ingredients, especially if you can’t pronounce them. A product may claim to be “natural” or “organic,” but a lot of greenwashing occurs in the beauty industry. That means a company uses misleading labels and language, environmental imagery, or hidden tradeoffs that makes it seem sustainable and natural. In fact, a product can claim to be natural even if it only has a few natural ingredients. A drop of essential oil can make a product natural. These products may also contain ingredients that are not certified natural or organic.
For those reasons and and more, we encourage people to make their own beauty products when possible. Consider the following reasons to make DIY skin care products. Let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments below. Have you made your own products before? We’d love to hear from you, especially if it was a recipe that we posted!
Better For The Environment
Natural skin care products are simply better for the environment than synthetic alternatives. Synthetic chemicals can harm animals and plants that they come in contact with. If those synthetic chemicals seep into the ground, they can wreak havoc on surrounding ecosystems. The manufacturing of traditional skin care products can also lead to environmental pollution. Companies need to extract certain ingredients, such as aluminum or lead, in order to make products. DIY skin care products don’t need mining or manufacturing because they use simple, natural ingredients.
You Decide What Goes Into The Products
When you make your own skin care products, you know exactly what goes into them. If a body butter recipe contains shea butter, almond oil, coconut oil, and some essential oils, you know that there are no other fragrances, stabilizers, or chemical additives. Using natural ingredients on the skin helps reduce the risk of common skin reactions that can result from chemicals in skin care products.
Learn What Works For Your Skin
As previously mentioned, store bought skin care products contain a long list of harmful ingredients. That can make it difficult to determine which ingredients are the best for your skin. The great thing about DIY skin care products is that you can customize them with ingredients that your skin needs. Cater to your skin type or skin condition/ailment to boost the overall health of your skin. You can also research which ingredients have the best compounds, vitamins, and other nutrients that benefit your skin type.
Streamline Your Routine
Homemade skin care products contain simple ingredients, but they don’t just serve one purpose. What we mean by this is that a facial lotion can double as a deodorant. Homemade shaving cream may also serve as a post-shower moisturizer. Sometimes, you can even use raw ingredients, like shea butter, on their own to help improve skin barrier function and promote hydration and moisture.
Manufacturing Doesn’t Harm Animals
A lot of big skin care manufacturers continue to test their products on animals. This is a detriment to the wellbeing of animals that receive testing. Fortunately, not all skin care product manufacturers use animal testing, so no harm is done to living beings. These are the more ethical companies that don’t contain a lot of synthetic materials. If you are against inhumane treatment of animals and testing, natural DIY skin care products are the way to go.
They’re Easier On The Skin
Synthetic skin care products are very harmful to certain skin types. Ingredients in those products can cause swelling, redness, rash, itchiness, or a serious allergic reaction. Look out for paragons, sulfates, synthetic dyes, propylene, petrochemicals, triclosan, and more. You don’t have to worry about that when you use DIY skin care products. Natural ingredients don’t contain chemical irritants and instead of being detrimental to the skin, they actually nourish it.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
