Advantages and disadvantages of homemade cosmetics

Of course you’ve heard about homemade cosmetics. Being able to create cosmetics at home by yourself is a worthy achievement. But those who decide to create their own cosmetics should be aware of the fact that homemade cosmetics are not the same as the cosmetics containing chemical components that are sold in the store. Also, you should know that homemade cosmetic products cannot be stored as long as the products from the store, so you should be really careful not to apply spoiled cosmetics on your face. And of course, you should know the effects of natural products on your skin.

One of the major advantages of homemade cosmetics: you know all the ingredients in the recipes of your cosmetics and you can control the amount of this or that ingredient.  This fact makes homemade cosmetics pretty safe to use. Through making your own cosmetics, you’ll be sure that they don’t contain any synthetic or chemical components that can cause irritation or allergy. In addition, homemade cosmetics are much cheaper than storebought ones, because the ingredients are not expensive.

You can buy all the necessary ingredients for your homemade beauty products at basically any store. All the fruits, vegetables, essential oils and salts you need could already be in your household, so it could be a nice way to save money. It also helps to support an environmentally friendly way of life, because using natural components isn’t as harmful to the environment. It’s nice to know that your cosmetic products don’t contain any harmful chemical components.

The creation of homemade cosmetics opens up a lot of new possibilities. It’s pleasing to create something new and unique, and not dependent on the choice of cosmetic products that are sold in the store, because you can mix the ingredients you want and make the resulting product you need. Any time you need a scrub or a moisturizing cream, you can make it yourself easily, just having fun and feeling like a pro. Numerous illustrated recipes can be found at wikipedia, wikihow, wikitalks.com and other sites.

Disadvantages

The only thing that can be difficult is finding certain ingredients. Normal ingredients like essential oils, avocado, and honey can be found at home or at the nearest shop, but sometimes there are ingredients which can only be found at naturopath/health stores. But in most cases, all the ingredients are available, so you can control the process of creating your cosmetics.

One more disadvantage of homemade cosmetics is that the number of types of products you can make yourself is rather limited. For example, scrubs, creams, lotions, soaps and shampoos can be easily made at home without any difficulties. But when it comes to makeup products, such as lipsticks or eye shadows, the process becomes more difficult. Of course, nothing’s impossible, but the process takes a lot of time, so it can be inconvenient.

Even though cosmetic products that are sold in the store contain chemical and synthetic ingredients which can irritate our skin, they also contain preservatives which help to prolong the shelf life of these cosmetics and keep bacteria at bay.

Although homemade cosmetics don’t contain any sulfates or parabens, they spoil really fast. That is why homemade cosmetics are usually made in small amounts and should be stored properly in order to avoid the formation of bacteria. If you don’t do so, your homemade cosmetics will spoil quickly. Ew.

Now you know all the strong and weak points of making and using homemade cosmetics, so you can decide whether you want to continue to buy cosmetics or whether you’d like to try to make them yourself. What will you do?

If you decide to make your own homemade cosmetics, here are a few articles that might help:

• Homemade exfoliants and my daily routine
• More homemade exfoliants
• Homemade DIY lip scrub
• Audrina Patridge’s DIY pumpkin facial recipe
• DIY cosmetics with aloe vera