Militza Maury - Natural Homemade Skin Care: 60 Cleansers, Toners, Moisturizers and More Made from Whole Food Ingredients

Cleansers, Toners, Moisturizers and More Made from Whole Food Ingredients

Creator of Little Green Dot

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to Maria and Meabh. I will forever be grateful for the lessons that becoming your mom and learning how to care for you taught me about myself and how they helped me to grow. This book, and the ten-year journey that it took me to write it, began one day when I looked at a bottle of baby wash and for the first time asked myself a question that was simple but would turn out to be life-changing: Whats in this?

I still remember the first skin-care recipe I ever made. It was that transformative!

I was a new mom when I discovered that the brand of baby care products Id been using on my daughter contained potentially toxic ingredients. I ran to the nearest health-food store looking for an organic alternative but, checking the price tag, realized this was never going to be an affordable option for me. I remember how frustrated I felt. I was being forced to compromise between the health of my family and breaking the bank.

But, as I looked at the packaging of the baby bath wash in my hand, it hit me. Made with real oats, lavender, chamomile and cocoa butter. This was basically a recipe! I could make this! I put the bath wash down and left the health-food store with an armful of ingredients instead.

Later, in my kitchen, I had no idea what I was doing. I just did what came naturally and made my daughters skin care the same way I prepared her food: from scratch. But that night, the moment my homemade slipped into my babys bathwater, I could smell the aroma of chamomile and cocoa butter on my babys skinso delicate and pureand I was hooked!

My first experiences formed my philosophy on skin care. Making skin-care products should be simple and practical, so it can become a part of your lifestyle. The ingredients should be readily available, found in the grocery store or health-food store. And it should be affordable, so that everyone can access safe and natural skin care.

This book is your complete guide to creating exquisite natural skin care that rivals anything youll find in a store. To help make natural skin care an everyday habit for you, Ill show you how to create a simple routine youll love (see ). Over time, youll make recipes to replace nearly all of your store-bought skin-care products: cleansers, toners, moisturizers and more.

Every recipe in this book is designed to be practical and effective. Most of the recipes are self-preserving, so you wont need to store (and forget!) your products in the refrigerator. Instead, your will be right on your bathroom counter, so that you can apply it every day and see the results.

The ingredients in this bookwhole foods, plant oils, herbs and buttersare carefully chosen so they can be found in your local supermarket or health-food store. Youll be amazed at the variety of skin-care products you can make from the same simple ingredients. And you wont break the bank on exotic specialty items that end up forgotten in the back of a cupboard. If the ingredients arent easily found in your local shops, Ive provided online resources at the back of the book (see ), and Ive sprinkled alternatives throughout the recipes so you can adjust as you like. One of my favorite techniques to teach is how to make your own ingredients at home, so in the Information about Ingredients section, youll find details on how to make your own herbal powders, fruit powders and orange-peel powder. These ingredients are what create fragrant, nutrient-dense and effective skin-care products.

My natural skin-care journey has taken me all over the world, from Singapore to Bali, and now back home to the United States. But my journey started with making that first recipe in my kitchen, which gave me such a sense of empowerment and joy! I hope this book inspires you to make your first recipe or to continue your own skin-care journey. I know the positive changes that come from using something you made yourself will lead you somewhere special.

We know that to have a healthy body, we need a healthy lifestyle. But when it comes to our skin, were taught that to have healthy skin, we need a product. Theres a big disconnect here.

In fact, many of the skin concerns that people seebreakouts, oil imbalance, inflammation and sensitivitycome from using too many skin-care products, with too many harsh ingredients.

Fillers, fragrances and strong preservatives disrupt the skin barrier, break down the acid mantle and impede the skins natural functions. I call this junk food skin care. It might smell and feel good in the moment, but it provides no real nourishment.

Despite what many brands claim, skin care does not heal or fix the skin. The body does that. The point of skin care is to provide the body with the care and nutrients that it needs, so that it can perform optimally. I call this whole food skin care.

At the end of the day, we use skin care because we want to see specific results. We want to look in the mirror and see a vibrant, healthy reflection. We want to feel good in our skin. But what excites me about whole food skin care is that it does all that and more.

Skin care is actually an incredible wellness tool! Your skin is a bridge between the outside world and whats going on inside your body. If making skin-care products is a way to nourish your skin, then using skin-care products is a way to communicate directly with this incredible organand all the ways it impacts your whole self.

The skin is an organ: I have to start here because we often forget that the skin is not separate from our body. Like all the other organs, tissues and cells in your body, your skin requires nutrients for optimal health. It cant thrive on a diet of junk food skin care. The recipes in this book are packed with nourishment, providing the phytonutrients and fatty acids that the skin needs.

The skin is an organ of communication: The skin informs you about your inner world, the parts of yourself that you cant see. It tells you about your digestion, your liver, your circulation. Your skin tells you when you need more sleep or more water. Each and every day, your skin-care routine is an opportunity to check in with yourself, connect with your skin and learn what its communicating.