My Secret Supply Stash

I've recently crossed into my 10th year of creating homemade products.  I've learned a lot throughout the last decade.  Having moved to the country and taking classes to learn more about herbs has opened up many new horizons for me.  I often get asked what I use, how I use them, and where can they get them.

I work hard to try to find good deals and make group wholesale buys worth the time and effort I put into them.  I realize not everyone has that luxury and simply want to know where to find what they're looking for. Behold!  My shortcut list to great products.

A fabulous website that I like to order things from is called New Directions Aromatics.  They have amazing products!  The downside, you have to place a rather large order to meet their $100 minimum, plus shipping costs.  I try to find good priced products that I can also get free shipping on, hence my possible *over* use of Amazon of late.  I've found lots of great priced products and can easily meet their $35 requirement for free shipping.

**Be aware that I am an affiliate for some of these items.  If you order through my links, it does NOT change your price, but I do get a small portion of the sale.**

Emulsifying Wax. - This is a big one if you intend to mix oil and water products such as lotions or creams.  It's the missing link in a lot of homemade products that prevents separation.  It binds the two ingredients together.



Beeswax - Beeswax is useful for making things that are just oils and butters.  For instance, balms and salves.  The link below, is a really good price!  Even cheaper than I've been paying for it through my local Frontier wholesale buyer's club.




Zinc Oxide - This one is often used for items like diaper cream, or homemade sunblock creams.  I also use it in some of my soaps.



I also use other Oxide's to color my soaps.  Many people use them to make their own makeup colorants like blush, eye shadows, and add them to lip balms for lip colors.  I don't typically wear makeup though so can't really attest personally to how well that works out.




Lip Balm Tubes - these are pretty important for lip balms, and at less than 20 cents a piece, they are worth the price!




Butters and Oils - I'm not going to put a link to each individual butter because there are SO many good ones.  If you REALLY want me to tell you a specific link I use to get one, comment below on what you're looking for and I'm happy to share that, but for the purpose of attempting to keep this less than a few miles long, I won't right now.  I use a lot of Shea Butter.  I use it in lotions, creams, soaps, balms, just about everything I make has Shea Butter in it.  Cocoa Butter, Olive Butter, Kokum Butter, Ucuuba Butter, Jojoba Oil, Karanja Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Safflower Oil, truly the combinations and types of butters and oils are so incredibly versatile and nearly endless.

  

Preservative - I've ordered Grapefruit Seed Extract through From Nature With Love.  It worked really well!  However, it's apparently controversial as to whether or not GSE can actually be considered a preservative or not.  I think for home use items, it's a fantastic option!  But since I've started occasionally selling my items to friends and family, I need to make sure that I have a true, tested, preservative.  And have therefore started using Germall.  It's only 0.1% -0.5% of your final creation, but can go a long to way to keeping your creams and lotions (anything with water or aloe!) from molding or growing bacteria.



That's all I can think of for now.  Have fun creating!