OK, so you’ve found yourself heading for the deep end of the DIY pool. You’ve got a great pantry of carefully selected ingredients—ones with many uses and reasonable price tags. But now you’re itching to try some new things. Some fun, slightly more pricey things. There’s certainly no shortage of ingredients to try, but not all of them are worth the investment. Here are some I’ve really enjoyed playing with.
Silk
Silk is probably my favourite luxury ingredient—I add it to a lot of recipes, and I’m always amazed at its versatility. It improves the performance of lotions, serums, and masks. It helps manage moisture (both too much and too little!), encourage healing, and adds a slight sheen to hair and skin. To be honest, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that you couldn’t add silk to.
A few different types of lavender essential oil
If you like lavender, it’s worth spending a bit of extra money to try a few different kinds. I’d recommend 40/42 for soaping, but after that give French, Belgian, Population, and others a try. Read the reviews, try a few, and see what you think—I’ve found it to be wonderfully educational to do little scent tests and pick out the differences between the different varieties.
P.S. This holds true for all essential oils you really like, lavender is just one of the easiest essential oils buy multiple varieties of. Others include the mints, chamomile, and eucalyptus.
Carmine
The only reason to buy carmine (made from the cochineal beetle) is if you want to make lip stain, but if you do, it is irreplaceable. Its colour and potency simply cannot be matched with any other natural ingredients.
Aloe vera 200x concentrate powder
It’s a bit of an upfront investment, but in the end it’s actually quite a bit cheaper than buying the bottled plain juice, which is often just re-hydrated from this powder anyways. You’ll also enjoy the ability to make both dry and wet aloe products. I got mine from Saffire Blue.
Bamboo bioferment
If you miss the feeling of silicone, bamboo bioferment is a fun new toy to play with. It’s great for hair products, but can also be added to cosmetics, creams, and more. It’s made from the silica that naturally occurs in bamboo, and adds great slip to products.
Phytokeratin
Keratin is the protein that makes up our hair and skin, and it’s used in the famous (or infamous) Brazilian Blow Outs. It’s great for hair, and the “phyto” version is made from plant sources instead of animal sources. I definitely recommend picking some up if you love making hair products like mists and leave-in conditioners. Unfortunately the supplier I got mine from (New Directions) has since discontinued it, and I’m not sure where it’s available at this point.
Allantoin
This common nitrogenous compound is commonly found in diaper cremes and other products for dry, irritated skin. It aids in natural keratin production and is fantastic in anything you make that’s for healing or soothing skin. And, because it’s an odorless white powder it incorporates easily into pretty much anything that has a water part.
All these products, unless otherwise mentioned, are available from New Directions Aromatics and/or Saffire Blue.
So! Those are my top picks? What are yours? Have any questions about something you’re thinking about trying?
I think we agree on most everything in your list, except the lavender oil. I’m not a fan of the scent of lavender, so I have no desire to buy multiple bottles to try. lol
I would add to that list with the following though:
Dried Arnica flowers (think I got these at Saffire Blue)
Dried Calendula flowers
(both of these dried flowers haven been invaluable to me in making infused oils, salves, and even a ‘healing gel’ recipe I developed with the arnica flower)
and finally Australian Red clay (from ND). I make my own lipstick and it doubles as a cream blush. LOVE the colour the Australian Red clay brings to cosmetics. (I have darker hair and eyes, and I’m really drawn to earth tones).
We’re definitely in agreement—I love my dried herbs 🙂 I just didn’t list them in this article because you can get into them for fairly little money (~$3/50g at Saffire Blue), which is great when you want to use them in everything 😉
I have to look again, I thought the Arnica was one of the more pricey things that I ordered…but then again, I did get a HUGE bag that will last me a lifetime, so I suppose that makes it significantly more cost effective. lol
Ha! I have been known to do that 😛
Even though this woeful amateur may never try your recipes, I love reading your posts so much, thank you for writing them!
Thanks so much, Emily!
Hello Marie. I’ve been using in my line of hair products Phyto Keratin, of New Directions, with excellent results!! Unfortunately as you say it discontinued. Luckily I found a supplier in Washington, called Making Cosmetics, with a wide variety of fabulous ingredients. In the category of hair repair agents, they have Keratin Hydrolyzed Protein, among others very good. I’ve used with excellent results. Is a great alternative! I love all the other ingredients that you mention and its benefits.
Fantastic, thanks so much for sharing, this will be great for other American readers 🙂 Now I just need a Canadian supplier 😉
I have found sapphire blue to be carrying phyto keratin, thankfully, for all us Canadian shoppers! 🙂 Loving the recipes, Marie!
Huzzah! That’s great news 🙂
Good news … phytokeratin is carried by Voyageur Soap & Candle.
Awesome! When I run out it looks like I’ll be placing my first order with them 🙂
I am curious how much silk powder to add per pound of cold process soap? Also, do I add it to the lye water when it is hotter or when it has cooled down a bit. I find if I add it to the hot lye water it turns brown and kind of stinky, but it is harder to dissolve in the cooler water.
This is not listed here, but I am also curious how much Kaolin clay to add per pound of soap when using it for a milder bar?
Thanks!!
I generally do about half a teaspoon of powdered silk per pound of oils, though I can’t say I’m hugely particular about it. I go for a “pinch” of the tussah. You can add the powder whenever you like as it’s easily soluble, but the strands should be pulled apart and added to hot water (or try soaking them overnight before adding the lye).
The rule of thumb with clay is 1tbsp/lb of oils.
Nice post – I’ve been thinking about ordering some aloe powder, now I just might have motivation to do so. I recommend formulatorsampleshop.com for keratin products and other fabulous wonders. I have tried (and repurchased) many items from them recently. The service is top notch too! I found them quite by accident when I was google searching an ingredient. It also seems they have sales from time to time.
Thanks, Melissa!
Hi Marie,
Aroma-Zone have Phytokeratine at powder version.They ship all around world.
http://www.aroma-zone.com/info/fiche-technique/actif-cosmetique-phytokeratine-aroma-zone
Awesome, thank you for sharing 🙂
Hi Marie!
Like some of your other readers, I’ve also found a company selling phytokeratin, based in the UK (for your UK followers, like me!) :
Gracefruit @ http://www.gracefruit.com.
I’ve purchased a lot of ingredients from them and they are very good (although they skimp on quality packaging, compared to New Directions).
Anna 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing! I love my global community 🙂
Hi! You know where carmine comes from, right? I think it’s only fair that you disclose the source to your readers in case some of them (myself included) are vegetarian or vegan. Thanks for considering!
Hi Kate! I do know where carmine comes from, and I’m vegetarian. I feel like if I’ll kill a mosquito, I’m ok with carmine. I also feel like people with special dietary considerations are responsible for doing their own research. I’ve added a note in any event, but I don’t label my bread recipes to be “not suitable for celiacs” so… eh.
I kill mosquitos as well, but I don’t smear them on my lips :). I just think it’s kinda disgusting to put crushed beetle shells on your face. I also don’t use silk because, well, you have to kill the silkworms and I’m not prepared to kill anything without a darn good reason (and skincare isn’t it). So I guess it comes down to how seriously one takes the “do no harm” philosophy. I would feel like a hypocrite. Anyway, I’m not judging, and I do really enjoy your blog! Thanks for listening, and keep up the good work. I’ve tried several of your recipes with good results, especially the cocoa butter body dust.
🙂
Hi,
I was looking at this post again and I didn’t see my comment, I just had a frightening thought- I hope when I said “woeful amateur” that you realized I was referring to myself? I love your posts even though I am an amateur, and may never get into trying them out, though I would love to. I hope that was clear, and that I didn’t offend you accidentally, I’m not one of THOSE internet people. If you didn’t want to show my comment for some other reason, no worries, just wanted to be sure you didn’t think you got a nasty one :/
Best,
Emily
No need to worry at all, I just have to manually approve new commenters and it can take me a few days to get around to it, especially during these busy summer days!
I agree with all of the recommendations that you made about luxury products, I would also add fresh vanilla beans. The scent is scrumptious and warm. They can be a bit pricey, but they are worth it.
Thanks for all of your wonderful recipes.
Clea
OOh, brilliant! Vanilla beans are something I’ve been putting off trying because of the price… probably because I know I’d love them and would never go back 😉
No chance of finding phytokeratin or bamboo bioferment in Australia (unless someone knows a source). Phytokeratin appears to be a mix of hydrolyzed wheat, soy and corn proteins. Do you think using just hydrolyzed wheat protein might even come close to doing what phytokeratin does?
I found this, though it’s made from human hair, not plants. I’m afraid I have no idea if the hydrolyzed wheat protein would do the same thing :/ I am inclined to say not as keratin is a pretty cool compound that does loads of neat things like hair and fingernails.
CAN YOU TELL ME A RECIPE TO USE PHYTO KERATIN PLEASE?
I have quite a few—use the search function to find them 🙂
Hi sweety! very nice post (as always)…e…we can use the silk powder and aloe loose blush powder?/, or other dry products for makeup?/…greetings from Greece!…
You can, but I’d probably advice against the aloe powder as it’s quite expensive, and in its dry form it likely won’t be as effective as you’d like.
My go-to luxury product for healing balms is Matcha powder. It adds a beautiful emerald green to the balm, and it makes for an excellent anti-inflammatory due to high tannin content. Furthermore, it adds a subtle green tea fragrance to the final product.
I personally buy mine from Teavana, as I enjoy their quality of Matcha.
Ooh, how cool! I’ll have to keep an eye out for an “introductory” amount of matcha powder to play with 🙂 I’ve tried the tea and don’t particularly fancy it as a drink, but I’ve used green tea extract in product before, and it’s great!
Is the bamboo powder they sell at aroma zone a good replacement for the bamboo bioferment ?
It should be a good alternative in hair products as its very rich in silica, but from what I can see it won’t have the same slip as the bioferment, which is liquid and not quite the same thing. The bamboo powder looks like it would be lovely in powdered cosmetics, though, which the bioferment can’t do 🙂
Here in China, pearl powder has always been all the rage. So I did a little research and added some to soap, toothpaste (bentonite clay, charcoal, baking soda, turmeric, salt, neem, coconut oil, pearl powder) and to my face lotion. Once my brown oxide comes in, I plan on adding some pearl powder to my face powders. So face my skin has approved.
It’s quite a neat product!
I’ve actually bought some, I just haven’t played with it yet! I have it sitting in an opaque envelope in the basement 😛 Perhaps this is the shove I need to give it a go!