REVIEW: A Green Guide to Natural Beauty by Karen Gilbert

Submitted by Anna Stassen on Sat, 24/09/2011 - 06:00

Ten years ago I trained as an aromatherapist at the Tisserand Institute and, although I no longer practice professionally, I have always made as many of my beauty products as possible. I was excited to receive my review copy of A Green Guide to Natural Beauty by Karen Gilbert and as someone who has been disappointed by natural beauty books in the past, I have to say that I love everything about it! 

A Green Guide to Natural Beauty by Karen Gilbert 

The photography and layout of the projects are clear, easy to follow and beautiful. There are thirty-five projects for homemade beauty products for the face, body and bath and shower. Karen also includes a comprehensive chapter with all the information you need about understanding your skin, the basics of natural beauty, ingredients, storage and shelf life of homemade products, and a list of resources.

I already had many of the necessary ingredients from other products I have made so I immediately set about trying some of the projects. As Karen says, making your own products is as easy as cooking - indeed, often it is easier. For example, one of the projects simply involves melting some cocoa butter and almond oil together, adding the right amount of peppermint essential oil and mixing. Pour into an ice-cube tray and leave to cool and you have the most delicious mint-choc bath melts. These not only smell amazing (and look deceptively like real chocolates) but they are a fantastic way to moisturize your body!
 
Another way in which this book gets it right is in the yield of the projects. I've had the unfortunate experience of following tutorials and ending up with twenty pots of lip balm to find homes for! However, the projects in this book make a suitable amount for personal use or gift giving e.g. four 15ml pots of lip balm, six bath bombs, or one 100ml jar of hand cream. Karen also includes excellent advice on using preservatives and antioxidants, should you so desire, which will increase the storage life of the products for to up to a year.
 
This book shows you how to make your own base lotions, creams and gel which is something that I have not come across before and elevates the book above other similar titles. The recipe for Vetiver and vanilla body cream, for example, describes the process for making the base cream from coconut, almond and macadamia oils, shea butter and emulsifying wax and then adding the necessary essential and fragrance oil together with preservative and vitamin E. The photographs which illustrate each step are clear and the instructions are concise. Many natural product books focus on adding oils and other ingredients to manufactured base products, however, if you are interested in natural beauty then this book will enable you to be in control of every ingredient which you put onto your skin.
 
As an aromatherapist I also appreciate the warning about avoiding using clary sage essential oil during pregnancy in the recipe for Lavender & clary sage bath fizzes. I have seen other natural product recipes which neglect to mention safety advice around the use of essential oils. Karen also offers sensible advice about tea tree oil, which is often used neat on the skin, in her recipe for Tea tree spot gel. Although neat application of a single drop of tea tree oil can be alright for certain skin types, the gel base which Karen shows how to make is simple and enhances the effectiveness of the tea tree. This therefore avoids any potential sensitivity or dryness issues which might occur with neat application of the oil.
 
I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in natural skin care and making their own products. Once you have mastered the basic skills you could experiment and make your own versions of the recipes.
 
I will be running some workshops in aromatherapy and natural skin care products over the coming months so if you are interested in attending then keep an eye on my blog or sign up to my mailing list at www.lisamargreet.com.
 
ISBN-10: 1907563628
ISBN-13: 978-1907563621
                           
Review by Lisa Margreet Payne        
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Comments

Submitted by Karen Gilbert on Sat, 24/09/2011 - 10:48.

Thanks

Thanks for the great review, I'm so pleased you like the book :)

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