Natural Bodycare: Creating Aromatherapy Cosmetics for Health & Beauty

She uses essential oils in many of the recipes, but she never mentions any safety data. For instance, she includes many citrus oils without mentioning that they are phototoxic.

She gives a brief description of each of the ingredients that she uses throughout the book. However, although she uses a number of different emulsifiers, she doesn't bother to explain why one may be better than another in a specific recipe, or how to substitute one emulsifier for another in a recipe. Since some of the ingredients are hard to find, this would be nice to know. In addition, one emulsifier she uses is an alpha hydroxy acid which she includes in most of her lotion and cream recipes. I choose not to use alpha hydroxy acids and would love to know how to make the recipes without that ingredient.

There are not as many recipes in this book as it first appears. Many recipes are, "take the basic recipe from chapter 3 and add the following essential oils..."

While I'm glad I bought this book, I do feel that it's going to take some additional research and experimentation before I'm able to use the recipes for my own personal use.


Best of its type.   March 17, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

A gorgeous book written by a dedicated professional. Although some of the luxury-class packaging shown is unaffordable for most people, the products themselves are impeccable. They're neither inexpensive nor quickie/craft-style projects. If you want to make high-end natural skincare items, this book is essential.


excellent book   April 5, 1999
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of this beautiful book. Having always been interested in aromatherapy, I was pleased to see so many wonderful recipes for using the oils that I have come to love. The layout of the book is beautiful with great photos and easy to follow directions and recipes. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in making natural cosmetics and just generally wanting to make their environments more healthful.