FAQ About Making Cosmetics

Is it difficult to make cosmetics?
No. You don't need any knowledge of chemistry or cosmetology and you don't need laboratory experience. All you need are the proper recipes and ingredients.

What are the advantages of homemade cosmetics?
The biggest advantage of self-made products is that they are genuinely natural. There is no need to add chemicals for a certain color or fragrance, or to achieve a shelf-life of several years. You simply add what's good for your skin at concentrations which are effective for you, making each product explicitly yours. This includes many different botanic ingredients, such as concentrated herbal extracts, precious plant oils and plant distillates, sugars, vitamins, lipids, proteins and natural essential oils.

Do I need special equipment?
No. You don't need to buy special equipment, such as laboratory equipment or other expensive materials. All you need are simple kitchen utensils like measuring spoons and cups, a kitchen blender, and some glass containers for mixing. To store the final products, plastic containers or used commercial cosmetics containers are sufficient. In some cases, however, special equipment like pH-indicators or molds (e.g. for lipsticks) are helpful or necessary.

Are homemade cosmetics food-based products?
No. In older recipes for homemade products eggs, milk, yoghurts and other food products have usually been used as basic ingredients for making body care products. Nowadays, however, the ingredients for homemade cosmetics are only highly purified botanicals together with manufactured or chemically modified natural ingredients.

Do homemade cosmetics contain any chemicals?
Chemicals are often added for better quality or performance. However, it is important to differentiate between harmful and valuable chemicals. Many commercial products often contain chemicals that are known to cause allergic reactions and other skin problems. There are many chemicals derived from natural sources which are chemically modified only to enhance their natural properties and to make them useful for cosmetic purposes. It is possible to make cosmetics totally free of chemicals, but adding valuable chemicals improve product quality.

Are homemade cosmetics expensive?
Creating your own cosmetic products will save money. Once you have a stock of basic ingredients, you are able to create various products enough for several months. On average, homemade products cost two to three times less than a commercial product of similar quality. In particular, you can save a lot of money by making products that contain active ingredients like vitamins, proteins, ceramides etc.

How long is the shelf-life of homemade cosmetics?
You can preserve products for a couple of weeks or for three to four years depending on three factors: 1) how clean you work (disinfection is very important); 2) what kind of container you use (dispensers are preferable because contamination is minimized); 3) the concentration of anti-microbial agents (essential oils, vitamins, and preservatives).

Can I sell my products?
Yes, you can sell your products without having them tested by a governmental agency or other authority (e.g. FDA). There are, however, some regulations regarding labeling and product performance claims. Please refer to the corresponding authorities or check our link page.

Where can I obtain cosmetic recipes & formulas?
We provide free recipes on this website that will be regularly enhanced with new recipes each month. Further recipes can be found in the books listed on our products page. In addition, many large chemical companies provide free formulas on their websites, but they often require a long list of raw materials which come from their own inventory. However, once you know the properties of some ingredients and the basic principles of cosmetics, you can easily create your own recipes.

Can I add ingredients also to commercial products?
Many ingredients, especially active ingredients (e.g. vitamins, ceramides, coenzyme Q10 etc.) or fragrances, can be added to finished, commercial products. This is a common way to customize a commercial product exactly to your special needs or to effectively improve the quality of a product. The main reason to "upgrade" commercial products is that many commercial products contain only trace amounts of active ingredients (due to high costs) that are, however, essential to obtain efficacy.

If making errors, do products become harmful?
All our ingredients are non-toxic and non-irritant to skin and hair as long as they are used as directed on the label. However, even if you mistakenly add an ingredient at too high a concentration, your product would not be harmful to your skin. In most cases, you would not feel anything or at most, some minor irritation. Please check our safety rules page to learn more about safety in making cosmetics.