If you are interested in making your own cosmetics you probably don’t need me to tell you about Lisa Anderson’s Lisa Lise blog where she shares her knowledge and experiences making cosmetics on a small scale.
She has now branched out into writing books, and what I think will be the first of many she has tackled shea butter, one of the favourite ingredients of the natural product formulator.
This is very much a book for the hands on person. There is a bit of background on how shea butter is made and some information about the chemistry of shea butter. But we are pretty soon into making stuff. There is a quick guide to getting tooled up for the work ahead, and some tips on how to work effectively. We are then into formulations. Lots of them. You will be surprised at how many ways Lisa finds to use shea. I certainly was. They come with manufacturing instructions, and are beautifully illustrated. I don’t know if Lisa herself took the pictures, but they are rather good. In fact, it took me a while to realise that they were bespoke to the book and not professional stock photos.
The best bit of all is kept for last, with some ideas for overcoming the biggest drawback with shea, which is that although it is far from unpleasant it does have a smell that you notice. Lisa’s approach is to come up with some essential oil combinations that work with it to create some pleasing aroma combinations.
So if you are thinking of dipping your fingers into making your own cosmetics, or you already do and are looking for some ideas for new projects I think you’ll find this book both interesting and useful.
You can buy it from the link below.
Dear Colin, belated thank you for the recommendation. I have a small bucket of shea butter and a few dozens essential oils. Let the experiment begin.
Thank you kindly for this review, Colin. I did indeed take all the photos in the book, and had great fun putting the whole thing together.