GETTING STARTED
What You Need, What it is, and Where to Get it
Ingredients
†† Beeswax
†† Virgin Coconut Oil
†† Cocoa Butter
†† Sweet almond oil or
Safflower oil
Equipment
†† A digital scale that measures
in increments of 1g/0.03oz or
smaller
†† 1-cup/250mL heat-resistant
glass measuring cup (I like
Pyrex brand)
†† Flexible silicone spatulas
†† A 1 litre/1 quart saucepan
Packaging
†† 125mL/half-cup mason jars
†† Lip balm tubes
Tip: Already have something on this
list? Just use it, don’t buy more!
buy about this much expect to pay
Beeswax, golden 140g | 5oz $7USD
This lovely wax is made by bees, and we’ll use it to thicken and harden our con-
coctions. It melts around 63°C/145°F, which is one of the higher melting points we
work with in DIY skincare. In low concentrations it thickens, in higher concentration
it hardens and solidifies, and at very high concentrations in makes projects really
skiddy and sticky, so we generally don’t want to make beeswax more than 1/3 of a
formula (though there are exceptions).
Two popular vegan alternatives to beeswax are candelilla wax and carnauba wax,
both of which are much harder and glossier than beeswax, and don’t work well
for 1:1 swaps. You can try using them at about 80%, but I haven’t tested all these
recipes with that substitution.
Coconut oil, virgin 340g | 12oz $7USD
This beautiful oil is super popular right now, and for good reason. It smells like piña
coladas, melts into the skin beautifully, and offers fantastic “slip” to our products. It
melts around 24°C/75°F, meaning it’s usually a white solid in chillier climates, and
a clear liquid in the tropics. You can also purchase fractionated coconut oil, which
has been modified so it’s liquid all the time, but that’s not what we want.
Cocoa Butter 225g | 8oz $8USD
This hard, brittle, cream-coloured butter is made from the cocoa bean. It melts
just below body temperature, at about 34°C/93°F, meaning it’ll slowly melt into
your skin upon contact. It melts to a fairly thin oil that absorbs quickly, leaving you
smelling lick-ably delicious. If smelling like chocolate isn’t your thing you can pur-
chase deodorized cocoa butter, which works just as well.
DIY Skin Care for Beginners Course: Part 1
Where to Shop
USA
• Amazon
• Bulk Apothecary
• New Directions Aromatics
• Brambleberry
• Mountain Rose Herbs
Canada
• New Directions Aromatics
• Saffire Blue
• Windy Point
• Voyaguer Soap & Candle
• Canwax
Europe & The UK
• New Directions Aromatics (UK)
• Gracefruit (UK)
• Mystic Moments (UK)
• Naissance (UK)
• Aroma-Zone (France)
• Waldehoe (Austria)
• Kosmetikmacherei (Austria)
• Cremas Caseras (Spain)
Australia/New Zealand
• New Directions Aromatics (AU)
• Go Native (New Zealand)
Psst... those are all links!
Sweet Almond Oil 473mL | 16fl oz $10USD
Pressed from almonds, sweet almond oil is a pale golden oil with little to no no-
ticeable scent. It absorbs into the skin at average speed, and is a wonderful all-pur-
pose oil for everything from lip balms to lotions. For obvious reasons it should be
avoided by anybody with a nut allergy!
Safflower Oil 473mL | 16fl oz $10USD
Safflower oil is a bit lighter than sweet almond oil (it absorbs into the skin a bit fast-
er), but other than that it’s very similar. Pressed from the seeds of the safflower, it’s
a pale yellow colour, has little to no scent, and is a great all-purpose oil.
Remember: you only need one of these liquid oils, though you could get both if you
wanted to!
Digital Scale $15USD
When you’re buying a scale, look for one that is digital and measures in incre-
ments of 1g/0.03oz or less (scales that measure down to 0.1g [0.003oz] and 0.01g
[0.0003oz] are super useful for smaller batches!). Beware of scales that measure
in 3g/0.1oz increments—those are useless for our purposes. Look for scales with a
maximum weight of at least 1kg/2.2lbs as well.
1-cup Glass Measuring Cup $5USD
Heat resistant glass measuring cups are incredibly useful; I have several in both
1-cup and 2-cup sizes. Look for a heat resistant one (I love Pyrex measuring cups)
as we’ll be placing it in a saucepan with some simmering water to melt our ingredi-
ents together. The handle and the pour spout make these extra useful for mixing,
blending, moving, and pouring your concoctions. If you already have one in your
kitchen, just use that—don’t buy another!
DIY Skin Care for Beginners Course: Part 1
Shelf Life & Storage Flexible Silicone Spatula $5USD
Ingredient Storage
I’ve got enough spatulas to make a bouquet of them—they’re seriously useful. If
Store your ingredients in the
you’ve already got one in your kitchen line up that’ll work, but if you’re a kitchen
original packaging, somewhere
gear nerd like I am, I’d really recommend looking at getting a Norpro silicone jar/
cool, dry, and dark. Use a perma-
icing spatula. Their long, thin, flexible blades make them amazing for scraping ev-
nent marker to note the date of
ery last smidgen out of your measuring cups and bowls and into your containers,
purchase on each bottle. Oils will
meaning more lip balm and less dishes!
last longer if you keep them in the
fridge, but a cool cupboard will
work well for most oils if you don’t
1 litre/1 quart Saucepan $15USD
have room to refrigerate them. You probably already have one of these in your kitchen, and that’ll work perfectly—
all we really need is a smallish saucepan that you can set your heat-resistant glass
Ingredient Shelf Life measuring cup into, along with about 3cm/1” of water, to create a water bath that
If kept cool and dry, oils and but- we’ll use to melt our ingredients together.
ters should last at least a year, and
beeswax will last indefinitely.
125mL/half-cup Mason Jars 12 $7USD
Ingredient Spoilage You can buy an astonishing array of jars, tins, and bottles to put your creations
Since mold can’t grow without into once you’ve finished making them, but for now, mason jars are a great place
water, the sort of spoilage we’re to start. You can also check thrift stores, antique shops, and rummage sales for
watching for in oils and butters is vintage tins and bottles.
rancidity—when the oils oxidize.
Rancid oils have a very distinct Lip Balm Tubes 50 $7USD
smell that’s reminiscent of crayons
While you definitely can put yourl lip balm in a mason jar, you’ll use it a lot more if
or old nuts. When sniffing an oil to
it’s in a handy little tube! They’re so inexpensive that there’s no reason not to pick
check if it’s gone rancid, be sure to
up a couple dozen; you’ll fill them faster than you think, and homemade lip balm
get a wee bit of oil out of the bot-
makes a fantastic gift.
tle and check that as the oil that
clumps up around the neck of the
bottle tends to oxidize much faster
than the stuff inside the bottle.

DIY Skin Care for Beginners Course: Part 1

Once everything arrives...
Take the time to get familiar with your ingredients! Spoon out about half a teaspoon of each and handle it. Squish it, spread it,
and see how it feels on your skin. Ask yourself the following questions about each ingredient:

Beeswax Coconut Oil Cocoa Butter Sweet Almond or

Safflower Oil
What does it look like?

What does it smell like?

What does it feel like

when you first touch it?

How does it feel when

you’ve been holding it
for a minute? Does it
soften? Liquify?

DIY Skin Care for Beginners Course: Part 1

How does it feel when
you rub it into your
skin? Does it skid?
Glide?

How quickly does it ab-

sorb into your skin?

How does it melt when

you handle it? Does it
melt at all?

Anything else?

DIY Skin Care for Beginners Course: Part 1