I remember several years ago, my daughter asked me if there was a way to make our own facial scrub because we were out. I told her to check it out online, but she was unsuccessful and finally gave up the search.

When I received this book a few months ago from Onespirit, I was intrigued and immediately flashed back to the previous conversation. Flipping through the book, I was delighted to find all sorts of wonderful herbal recipes for creating our own healthy beauty products. My daughter was equally intrigued and vanished with the book, which I finally got back from her just a few weeks ago.

The older I get, the more into organic I get. It seems like almost every day I read the news and hear about products being recalled. We grow a large garden, and we preserve the produce. This past weekend we canned 22 quarts of tomatoes from our garden. As I get more and more into organics, it only makes sense that I would focus on organic body care products as well as food. This where Organic Body Care Recipes comes in.


About the Book

This book contains nine chapters, as follows:


Chapter 1: A Natural Approach to Beautiful Skin, Hair, and Nails

Chapter One gives an overview of information about the skin, hair, and nails. It is a very informative chapter, and I learned many things I did not previously know. For example, I have always know that drinking enough water is important for good skin health, but I did not know that insufficient water can lead to skin blemishes and rashes when the body is not able to deal with toxins rapidly enough. When I thought about it, I realized that when I get dehydrated I have a lot more trouble with my skin than when I am drinking enough water and eating the right foods. After all, the skin is the largest organ in the body. Makes sense to take care of it!


Chapter 2: The Natural Apothecary

This chapter covers the ingredients that are needed to create the organic recipes in later parts of the book. There is a great deal of information in this chapter; explanations of various oils such as base and essential oils, and ways to harvest and dry your own herbs, for example. The most important part of this chapter is the "Ingredient Dictionary" located within it. This is a comprehensive alphabetical list of ingredients, including the part of the item that is used, the cosmetic properties and uses, any possible substitutes, and contraindications.


Chapter 3: Tools of the Trade for the Kitchen Cosmetologist

Surprisingly enough, you don't have to spend a fortune on exotic equipment and tools for making your own organic products. Most of the things you need you probably already have in the kitchen; things like a blender, bowls, coffee grinder, and a cutting board among other items. Looking through the list of items, it seems the only thing I will have to buy that I don't already have is a glass eyedropper. This chapter also discusses storage containers for the products you create, and product application tools.


Chapter 4: All-Natural Face and Body Care Recipes

This chapter is broken down into subsections as follows:

Face Care
Astringents and Toners: Refreshing Agents
Masks
Herbal Facial Steams
Exfoliant Facial Scrubs
Face Moisturizers
Herbal Facial Elixirs
Treatments for the Eyes
Lip Service: Luscious Lips
Your Body Beautiful
Bath Therapy: The Aromatic and "Scentual" Bath
Bath and Massage Oils
Sun Sense: Tanning Potions and After-Sun Relief
Body Exfoliants: Be Smooth and Glow
Aromatic and Deodorizing Body Powders
Foot Care: Feelin' Foot Loose and Fancy Free
Beautifying Hand and Nail Treatments
Herbal Oral Hygiene

Each subsection contains various recipes for home-made organic products, as well as tips for gift ideas. What is a better gift from the heart than a home-made product that is good for you? I have tried a couple of these recipes at this point; including the "Lemon Refresher" from the Astringent section and the "Brewer's Yeast Mask" from the mask section. I have been totally happy thus far, and I am looking forward to preparing organic gift packages for my daughter's for the upcoming holidays. I do intend to try the recipes before I give them as gifts so I can include personal experience in my gift-giving.There are so many recipes I want to try! The next ones on my list are the "Almond Meal Cleanser" and the "Healing Thyme Elixir". This chapter contains well over a hundred recipes, varying from simple to more difficult. There is definitely something for everyone inside these pages.


Chapter 5: Natural Care for Glorious Hair

My stress level has been through the roof for years now, and my hair has suffered the consequences. It is brittle, it breaks easily, and I have a terrible time with it overall. While I have found a couple of shampoos and conditioners that do very well with it, I am always looking for something better. This chapter starts out talking about hair in general and describes the characteristics of various types of hair (e.g. curly, straight, etc.)

This chapter covers shampoos, conditioners, and hair rinses. It starts out with a "Basic Oil Conditioner" that includes two ingredients; a base oil (extra-virgin olive oil, jojoba, avocado, or coconut) and 20 drops of lavender, Roman chamomile, rosemary, or basil essential oil.

This is an excellent conditioner, and is very simple to make. I found it conditioned my hair very nicely and took away a lot of frizzies without adding an oily appearance and feel to my hair.

There are recipes in this chapter for a wonderful herbal shampoo that works for all hair types, an herbal hair wash, a specific herbal shampoo for oily hair, and various rinses. My favorite hair rinse thus far is the "Rosemary Softening Rinse" which contains but three ingredients; distilled water, rosemary, and borax. The chapter also contains gift ideas for other people.


Chapter 6: In the Mood: Arouse the Senses with Herbal Love Potions

Ooh, the sex chapter! How about a "Ruby-Red Romantic Aphrodisiac Herb Tea" or a "Smooth and Sensual Cinnamon Love Balm"? Need a sensual lubricant? Try the "Body Honey" recipe. It has been well-documented that herbs can be powerful aphrodisiacs. Plus, the recipes in this section make the skin feel so good that the person using them cannot help but feel sexy. A fun chapter to try out!


Chapter 7: For Women Only: Delicate Subjects

This chapter covers douches, massage oil for the breasts, and aids for preventing stretch marks in pregnancy. There are just a few recipes in this chapter and I haven't tried any of them yet so I can't give first hand information. When I do try them, though, I will come back and update the review. The recipes contain simple organic ingredients such as tea tree oil and other essential oils so I believe the recipes will turn out as well as the other recipes in the book.


Chapter 8: Herbal Comfort Zone: Physical Stress, Cold, Headache, and Sleep Care

Have a headache? Try some "Bear-of-a-Headache Refrigerator Balm". The "Herbal Decongesting Steam" works very nicely for reducing cold, flu, and sinusitis symptoms. Having trouble sleeping? Try the "To Sleep Perchance to Dream Balm" (my favorite in this chapter thus far). I suffer from horrible insomnia, focusing mainly on difficulty falling asleep. This is one of the more complicated recipes in the book with quite a few ingredients, but I have found it quite worth the trouble of preparing it. This chapter also details making an herbal sleep pillow, which is a small bag of an herbal mixture that you put in your pillowcase when you are ready to go to sleep. What a great gift idea!


Chapter 9: Bugs Be Gone: Natural Insect Repellents

I consider this to be a very important chapter. I hate bugs, but I also hate using chemicals to get rid of bugs. I hate the smell of chemicals on my skin, and I don't like putting chemicals on my children.

This chapter contains but three recipes for organic bug repellents. None of them are very complicated to make, and using an organic product is much safer than using a chemical. We have not had a bad mosquito season this year (perhaps because we have bats) but so far the recipe I have tried from this chapter, the "Lemony Bugs-Away Spray" has been very effective for the few we have had. An added bonus is that this product lasts a long time. I plan to make up a fresh batch come springtime, and it should last the season.


Final Thoughts

I have long been looking for a true organic recipe book, and Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles fits the bill quite admirably. The book is very well-written in a personable style and is a fun read besides. The recipes are written in a clear and comprehensive manner, and the inclusion of the simple as well as the more complicated makes this book a perfect choice for anyone.

I think this book would make an excellent gift idea in and of itself. If you don't want to give the book, you can give numerous gifts that will be deeply appreciated by making the products yourself.

Organic Body Care Recipes has fast become a favorite in our household and I highly recommend it. (I still have to hide it from my daughter, though, because she keeps trying to swipe it from me again. I think I will get her a copy for Christmas.)

As I noted above, I received my copy from the Onespirit Book Club. It can also be purchased from online and brick-and-mortar vendors. The ISBN Number is 978-1-58017-676-7.

I don't recall exactly how much I paid for this book; I believe it was under $20. An excellent investment! And I am excited because with autumn here and winter coming, I will have even more time to create the recipes from this book.





Recommended: Yes