Simply Sustainable Beauty is a tutorial and recipe guide for DIY beauty and self-care products by Emilie Woodger-Smith. Due out 7th Sept 2021 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 176 pages and will be available in paperback format.
This is an exuberant and well written guide to spa and beauty products done just a little bit more sustainably and with less waste. The author is adept at explaining the selection of different ingredients and what functions they perform in each recipe. Recipes are arranged roughly thematically: face, body, & hair and have their ingredients listed bullet style in sidebars. Ingredient measures are given for the most part in US standard measures (teaspoon, tablespoon, etc) with some larger measurements given by weight in grams. Most of the ingredients will be readily available at larger health-food stores or online. The tutorials are clearly written in easy-to-follow language and the photography is plentiful and in color. Extra tips and alternative preparations are provided in text boxes with each recipe. For the more difficult to source ingredients, the author has included a resource/retailer guide and short directory to suppliers. The sources are slanted to readers in the UK, but readers elsewhere shouldn't have much trouble finding ingredients for most of the recipes.
There are a number of recipes here which I've never seen in any other DIY beauty products book. There are recipes for tinted eyebrow wax, self browning tanning cream (she promises no "oompa loompa" results), and several skin peels. The recipes use natural ingredients are non-toxic and family friendly.
In fact many of these tutorials would be appropriate activities with younger family members, maker's groups, scouting groups, and similar. It would also make a good selection for library acquisition or home use for DIY/self-sufficiency folks who aren't ready to give up their skincare products but want more earth-friendly and sustainable alternatives.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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