Photo by Drew Graham, Unsplash
With just a few essential oils and basic ingredients, it’s easy to treat yourself at home – here we’ve compiled five beauty and self care recipes for you to try.
Essential oils offer many therapeutic benefits and can easily be included in your beauty and self care routine. From restorative bath products to hydrating oils, scrubs and fragrances, we love creating products where we know exactly what ingredients have been used. When we introduce essential oils into our self care routines, we are also benefiting from their additional healing properties.
Below we have compiled a list of some of our favorite recipes (although it is by no means exhaustive!).
1. Beautiful Bathing
A bath is high on our list of self-care and relaxation activities. Relaxing in a warm bath has a soothing and nourishing effect on our body and soul. There are a multitude of ways we can add to this experience by using aromatherapy oil blends and mixtures.
We love a good muscle soak with a simple mix of mineral salts and lavender to help ease those end-of-day aches and pains. Rose bath bombs can also add a luxurious feeling to our baths as the calming properties of rose help to reset a tired body and mind.
🛀 Nourishing Bath Melts
One of our favorite recipes to get your skin glowing is with moisture-packed bath melts. This is a deeply moisturizing skin treatment featuring geranium for balance and frankincense which is said to help rejuvenate skin. An excellent beauty and self care recipe which works well as a gift too.
Ingredients (makes 10)
- 50g shea butter
- 50g cocoa butter
- 2 tbsp solid coconut oil
- 10 drops of Egyptian geranium oil
- 10 drops of frankincense oil
- Mini cupcake molds or cases
Method
Place the shea and cocoa butter into a glass bowl. Using the double boiler method, place the bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt the mixture. Once melted, add the coconut oil and your chosen essential oils and mix well. Then pour into 10 mini cupcake cases and leave to cool. To use, simply add the melt to a warm bath, or use it in the shower by rubbing it all over your body, allowing the warm water to soften it. Delicious!
Tip: After using the melt in the bath or shower, run some extra hot water afterwards to dissolve the ingredients well.
2. Soothing Skincare
A good skincare routine is something that becomes more and more important as we age. We all want to protect, nourish, and keep our skin youthful, but the endless amount of products available can be confusing and, not to mention, expensive.
We all have different skin types and those can vary in different areas of our face or body. Making blends with aromatherapy oils allows us to customize our moisturizers, cleansers, toners, and scrubs to find the perfect formula that works for our skin.
🥑 Avocado Facial Scrub
Try our Avocado Facial Scrub to keep skin well exfoliated with added oils to help regenerate tired skin.
Ingredients (makes 30ml)
- 1 tsp rice powder or rice flour
- 1 tsp kaolin clay
- 1 tbsp argan oil
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 drop Eygptian geranium oil
- 1 drop frankincense oil
Method
Mix the following ingredients together until you form a paste: rice powder, kaolin clay, argan, and avocado oils. Add the essential oils last and use the mixture immediately. To use, massage gently into the skin, being careful to avoid the eyes, then rinse off with warm water and pat your skin dry. You’re ready to glow!
3. Fresh Fragrances
A body mist spray is a great way to use your favorite essential oil as a perfume as it’s a lighter alternative to more concentrated perfumes – not to mention, friendlier on the wallet.
This base of aloe vera juice, rose floral water, and glycerine provides hydration too. Hydrated skin retains the scent of the oils so you can enjoy the effect for longer. We love the scent of jasmine oil and it reminds us of springtime in the Meditteranean.
🌸 Jasmine Body Mist
Try our delicious floral and delicately citric body mist with jasmine and neroli to take the scent of summer with you wherever you go. Neroli oil is a luxury oil, and a little pricey. You can leave this out without compromising the recipe or replace it with simple sweet orange oil.
Ingredients (makes 120ml)
- 75ml distilled water
- 2 tbsp aloe vera gel or juice (make sure this is diluted well)
- 1 tbsp glycerine
- 15 drops jasmine oil
- 5 drops neroli oil
- Glass spray bottle
Method
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then transfer to a clean spray bottle. Shake well before use then spray onto the body. We recommend that you avoid getting this on clothes and fabrics as it could stain.
If you like this, try our Homemade Perfumes with Essential Oils recipe!
4. Happy Hands
We can also add essential oils to our hand creams or balms to help tone and revitalize them. For creams and balms, we use some really nourishing natural oils and butters. If you’re a fan of keeping your hands well hydrated, then try our nail balm recipe to brighten skin and strengthen dull nails.
🌳 Myrrh Nail Balm
In this recipe we have included myrrh as with its intense moisturizing properties it is said to be the best for nail health.
Ingredients (makes 25ml)
- 1 tsp jojoba oil
- 1 tsp shea butter
- 1 tsp cocoa butter
- 1 tsp solid coconut oil
- ½ tsp beeswax
- 8 drops myrrh oil
- Small glass container with lid
Method
Place everything except the myrrh oil into a glass bowl. Use the double boiler method and place the bowl over a pan of boiling water to gently melt the mixture. Once it has melted add the myrrh or your chosen essential oils and mix well. Then pour into a small sealable container (we recommend glass) and leave to cool. Once sealed with a lid this will keep for up to 3 months.
5. Fantastic Feet
Show your feet a little love with a soothing foot bath. After a long day, plunging your tired feet into a warm specially prepared mixture feels like heaven!
👣 Cooling Foot Bath
In this recipe, we have included lavender for its relaxation properties, lemon for its natural deodorizing effect, and peppermint for its cooling and soothing properties. Honey helps to soften the skin and apple cider vinegar can also combat foot bacteria.
Ingredients (makes 530ml)
- 500ml water
- 1 tbsp peppermint dried herb (optional)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp Epsom salts
- 2 drops peppermint oil
- 2 drops lavender oil
- 2 drops lemon oil
Method
If using, make the peppermint infusion first using the fresh dried herb and let it brew for 10 minutes in boiling water. Separately, add the essential oils to the Epsom salts and stir well then set aside. Next, add the honey and apple cider vinegar to your hot water infusion. Finally, add the Epsom salt mixture to the infusion (approximately 2 cups) and stir well. Add the mixture to your foot bath, adjust the temperature if required and plunge those feet in immediately!
❗️Important Safety Notes:
These recipes should not be used on broken or irritated skin. Always dilute essential oils before applying them to the skin.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this compilation of beauty and self care recipes that you can easily make at home. Let us know how you went in the comments below.
