Homemade Beauty Recipe Substitutions

Sometimes when you are making your own beauty or home-related recipes at home, you discover that you are missing an ingredient, or that one ingredient in particular will not be suitable for your use. This could be because of allergies, personal preferences or ease of procurement. I highly suggest experimenting and personalizing homemade shampoos, conditioners, creams, and other beauty products to best fit your specific needs and preferences.

Some swaps are easy to think up and try out at home, such as using a different oil or herb, but there are some substitutions that you might not think about when under pressure. Just remember to write down the changes that you make so that you can repeat your successes and avoid repeating blends that you do not like or cannot use. Here are some of the ingredients that you might want or need to swap out at some point in your mixing and experimenting. This is far from a comprehensive list, but it can get you started with some of the most common ingredients that might need to be substituted.

Glycerin is called for in many recipes for soaps and other beauty products. I very rarely have some in the house unless I have planned in advance to spend a day mixing new recipes. You can replace glycerin with honey or light corn syrup in most recipes.

Stearic acid is not something that most people have on hand unless they have planned to make certain recipes well in advance. You can substitute equal measures of beeswax, which is a little more likely for lib balm or candle making fans to have on hand.

Tincture of benzoic is another ingredient that does not general reside in the average home. If you run across a recipe that calls for this ingredient, you can substitute some vitamin E oil for the tincture.

Borax, a cleansing powder that can be found in the laundry section of your local store can be replaced with equal parts of baking soda. I will often make this swap for cleaning around my home because there have been some articles and research about borax causing illness or complications with pets and children.

If a recipe calls for a specific alcohol, you can substitute another similar proof of alcohol. Vodka, rum, and gin can all be used to replace each other in a pinch. If the recipe is for something that is only intended for topical use, no possible ingestion, you can also substitute witch hazel for alcohol in recipes.

If you run out of fresh herbs, you can substitute dried herbs. If you are using dried herbs rather than fresh, you will need to adjust the amounts or ratios of your mixture. Measurements of dried herbs should always be half of what you would need of fresh herbs.

Mineral oil is something that often seems like it is not a substitutable item, or should not be. However, in a pinch you can substitute any light vegetable oil for mineral oil in your beauty related recipes.

Petroleum jelly and lanolin are often used in gels and moisturizing treatments for skin. In either case if you do not have the called for substance on hand you can use coconut oil, vegetable shortening, or another semi-solid oil.

Orrisroot powder is one of my favorite absorbent powders because of the subtle violet scent that it leaves behind, but is not among the easiest to find. Rice flour is easier to find, but not something that you might consistently have on hand. Cornstarch can be substituted for either of the other powders, as well as other similar powders such as baking soda or semolina flour.