Super Simple Recipes
If you're looking for recipes that use simpler ingredients, you've come to the right place. These recipes don't use emulsifiers or require preservatives, and are made mostly from plant based ingredients like shea butter and almond oil. There are obviously some limitations that come with these ingredient restrictions (no lotions, for example), but there's still plenty of things to make—as of early 2021 there are nearly 300 projects to choose from. Enjoy!Making Substitutions
What's with the waxes?
Help, I made a mess!
Homemade Burt’s Bees x Hidden Valley
Last year I was doing some archaeology-level digging into Burt's Bees and I stumbled upon a corner of their website that left me feeling all sorts of unexpected emotions. Intrigue. Confusion. Disgust. Fascination. Curiosity. It was like the season finale of Grey's...
Creamy Tallow Body Butter
This soft, creamy, 4-ingredient body butter stars trendy beef tallow. If you've been looking for a rich, spreadable DIY that uses a lot of tallow, look no further! Check out the partner video! Watch Now The ingredients Beef tallow The bulk of this formulation is beef...
Tallow Body Butter Bars
These all-natural silky body butter bars feature beef tallow alongside a blend of some other skincare favourites. You can pour this formulation into a push-up tube or use a mould to create free-standing bars. Check out the partner video! Watch Now The ingredients Beef...
Creamy Overnight Lip Mask
This formulation is the creamiest, simplest, most flexible lip mask I’ve ever formulated. You’ll need just five ingredients (three of which can be substituted), it works in a tin or a tube, it’s easy to customize, can be fully vegan, and makes brilliant gifts. Let’s...
DIY Whipped Shea Butter: 3 Ways
Whipped shea butter is a gorgeous beginner-friendly DIY, so in this post I’m going to teach you how to make three different whipped shea butters. The first formulation uses just 4 ingredients, the second uses 5, and the third uses 9. Each formulation builds on the one...
Lighter Whipped Shea Butter
In this post I'm sharing two lighter whipped shea butter formulations—Lavender Calendula and Coffee—and I'm sharing the easiest formulation strategy for creating lighter, less greasy body butters. Let's go! Want to watch this project instead of read it? Watch Now The...
Perfectly Pillowy Whipped Shea Butter
I'm pretty excited about this simple yet perfectly pillowy whipped shea butter! This two-ingredient formulation came about as part of my work on last spring's Why is my body butter not whipping? video. I needed lots of b-roll of different body butters being...
Super Simple Cold Processed Whipped Shea Butter
Two incredibly simple whipped shea butter formulations. Just two ingredients, no heating required!
Easy DIY Vitamin C Suspension (Just 3 ingredients!)
This formulation is a super simple, beginner-friendly vitamin C suspension. You don't have to worry about oxidization or pH, you'll only need three ingredients, and the finished product will help fade hyperpigmentation, increase collagen production, boost healing, and...
Green & Gold Body Butter Bars
These charming Green & Gold Body Butter Bars star two anti-inflammatory plant oils and one of my favourite soft butters for a beautiful skin-nourishing treat with a silky, non-greasy skin feel. You can make these bars as stand-alone things or package them in...
Rosehip Oat Solid Oil Serum
This Rosehip Oat Solid Oil Serum formulation is a non-greasy, packaging-optional facial moisturizer starring some beautiful oils and antioxidants. The original inspiration for this formulation was Robbie Burns Day, which is tomorrow. I was thinking about Burns' "A...
Kombo Shea Butter Balm
Today's creation is an ultra-crunchy, five-ingredient Kombo Shea Butter Balm. I decided to call it a "butter balm" because it's got the skin feel of a body butter, but an in-the-tin feel that's much closer to that of a balm. It's a rich brown colour thanks to...
Almond Oat Soap
This creamy Almond Oat Soap came with a rather baffling (and completely unexpected!) mystery! When I sliced it after leaving it to saponify for a day I was delighted to find it was a completely different colour than I expected. Not just a bit darker or lighter (or...
Simple Creamy Almond Body Butter
This formulation is incredibly simple, with just three (or four) ingredients and an almond-y theme. 99.5% of this formulation is almond-derived ingredients; you don't have to keep to the almond theme if it doesn't appeal to you, but you might want to re-name your...
Creamy Almond Lip Balm
This rich Creamy Almond Lip Balm has a gorgeous ointment-gel consistency, and it's an evolution of the Almond & Olive Creamy Lip Balm I shared last autumn. A combination of a pseudo wax and a true wax gives us an end product that's a bit reminiscent of petrolatum...
Cocoa Coconut Sticky Lip Balm
There was really no way I could do a Cocoa Coconut theme and not do a lip balm. Cocoa Coconut practically begs to be lip-balm-ized! Since we're in the midst of ultra-dry wintery weather right now, I opted to make this a Cocoa Coconut Sticky Lip Balm because when it is...
Ice Palace Bath Bombs
One of the things I absolutely have to make every year as part of my holiday DIYing is bath bombs—my mom loves them, so I need to make sure she's set for the following year 😊 This year's holiday bath bombs are Ice Palace themed, with a fizzy surprise in the...
Cocoa Coconut Vegan Body Butter Bars
Today's DIY is part of our ongoing Cocoa Coconut theme—we're melting up some stunning Cocoa Coconut Vegan Body Butter Bars that put silky cocoa butter and mouthwatering coconut oil on a pedestal so they can shine. You'll only need six or seven ingredients to make...
Autumn Spice Whipped Body Butter
This decadent Autumn Spice Whipped Body Butter is a Bee Better of a Whipped Pumpkin Spice Body Butter I shared back in 2016. This updated version features fully percentage-ified measurements, a safer scent blend, and a new whipping method. Starring lightweight mango...
Almond & Olive Creamy Lip Balm
It has been absolutely ages since I shared a lip balm formulation, but with cold & dry winter conditions here for the somewhat foreseeable future, it's definitely time for a new way to keep our lips happy! This Almond & Olive Creamy Lip Balm has a rich,...
Ice Palace Soap
Welcome to holiday soap (and holiday theme) #2 for 2020; Ice Palace Soap! This year's Ice Palace theme is all about embracing the cool, sparkling beauty of ice and ice sculptures. This cold processed soap channels dazzling wintery wonder with wispy cool-toned swirls...
Vegan Cocoa Coconut Nanaimo Bar Soap
Welcome to our first project of the holiday 2020 making season—Vegan Cocoa Coconut Nanaimo Bar Soap! These decadent bars of soap are part of our cocoa/coconut theme (I announced both themes on YouTube last weekend—check out the video here!), and channel my favourite...
Açaí & Jojoba Facial Oil Serum
Today we're blending up an all-natural, lightweight oil serum that is rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory goodness. Starring exotic açaí berry oil and featherweight Neossance® Hemisqualane, you can easily mix up this serum in just a few minutes—just weigh, cap,...
Super Simple Whipped Shea Butter
Today's project is another back-to-basics post—we're making an all-natural Super Simple Whipped Shea Butter! You'll need just four basic ingredients to create this decadent body butter. It's not greasy, you don't need to heat anything up, and half of the ingredients...
