Posts tagged diy beauty
DIY: Shaving Cream
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I don’t know about you, but quarantine gave me time. Time to watch documentaries I’ve wanted to watch, start projects I’ve thought about for years, finish programs I started writing years ago, and make a lot of my own products.

A few months after going whole food plant based (not vegetarian when I was 10 - but when I gave up all the packaged foods!) I started to pay attention to what I was putting on my body. I soon realized that most of the products I was using were toxic, so I shifted into buying alternatives.

This took years, and I’m still learning.

Fast forward to today, I’ve started to also look out for products that produced a lot of waste (and plastic).

Here’s some facts about plastic that I’ve recently learned:

  • Plastic was first invented in 1906, and became used more wide spread in the 1960’s.

  • The Plastic Breakdown

    • Plastic bags take 10-20 years to breakdown

    • Plastic bottles take 450 years to breakdown

    • Other types of plastic take 1000 years to breakdown

  • Plastic does not decompose or biodegrade instead it breaks down into microplastics

  • Microplastic is one of the biggest threats to our ocean. Fish are consuming these plastics which are toxic to them. Please check out A Plastic Ocean on Netflix to see the dangers and how it is effecting oceans ecosystem

  • Since fish are consuming these microplastics - they are ending up in our food system. So in reality we are eating plastic

I sat for a while with these facts, and it occurred to me that most (if not all) the plastic ever produced still exists today in some form. So I decided that I didn’t want to continue to add to that mess. Any way that I could possibly avoid plastic I would.

This led me to replacing single use items with reusable ones, starting my own garden, and DIY’ing beauty products.

Today I am going to share with you the shaving cream recipe that I have been loving (especially great with my safety blade!)

What you need:

2 1/2 oz. Shea Butter

2 1/2 oz. Coconut Oil

3 tbsp. Pure Castile Soap

2 tbsp. Jojoba or Almond Oil

Essential Oils of Your Choice

What You Do:

Set a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and set a bowl over the water. In the bowl place the Shea and Coconut Oil and melt. Once it is melted add in the pure castile and jojoba oil. Allow to cool a bit before adding your essential oils - you’ll need about 20 drops total.

Once the mixture has reached room temperature transfer to the fridge and let it harden. Once it is harden using a hand or a stand mixer whip the cream for about 2-3 minutes until it is fluffy and looks like whipped cream. Once it is whipped put it in a clean glass jar with a lid and store in your shower.

For reference I used 10 drops each of Tea Tree and Cedarwood oil.

Why those oils?

Tea Tree is great for treating blemishes, moisturizing, and cleansing the skin. It is also anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and said to work against ingrown hairs.

Cedarwood also helps to moisturize, is anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial. I chose this because since switching to a safety blade I would get razor burn when I shaved and wanted something moisturizing but great for sensitive skin! Cedarwood and Tea Tree are both used to treat acne so I thought it would be gentle and healing for my legs and the razor burn.

You could pick oils for their healing properties or to make your shaving cream smell nice - the only thing to remember is to wait for the mixture to cool - you never want to heat essential oils!

Happy Shaving!