My Favourite DIY Natural Home Products To Make At Home
My Favourite DIY Natural Home Products To Make At Home
From cleaning to hair care, here are my favourite super simple DIY Natural products to make instead of buy!
When I asked whether you wanted to see more lifestyle content from me, I received an overwhelming YES, so today’s blog is a great little DIY product post where I’ll share all my favourite natural beauty and home cleaning recipes. Here are my top five home products to make at home.
I started making some of my own products because I found it hard to find products abroad that are natural and contain minimal ingredients. I also absolutely love creating my own scents and have full control over what ingredients are in our daily use products. And if you’re a parent, you’re probably cleaning the kitchen counter about 560 times a day, so it’s important to use healthy products!
My biggest mistake: It was hard for me to pivot; to shift when something had failed, to learn from my mistakes and to make the necessary changes. It had become too personal.
Why Make Your Own Products?
There are lots of reasons why making your own products at home make sense, maybe health or access to healthy products, including:
- Cost of “Natural Products” keeps increasing!
- You control all the ingredients
- I find it brings a little more fun to household chores.
- Less Waste
In most parts of the world, natural or healthy is often a confusing term and definitions vary for what this actually means. Not to mention the price tag that comes with “natural” on the front label. Store-bought cleaners, personal care products and everything in between usually come in disposable packaging meaning when it’s done being used it goes straight to the trash, and what’s great about making these at home is that you can make them as you use them, store them in really nice glass bottles that don’t go to the waste AND create new scents each time.
Here are my TOP FIVE, starting with my favourite and most frequently used.
1. All-purpose cleaner
Read a typical store-bought cleaner label and you’ll be overwhelmed with the ingredients and all their chemicals. This all-surface cleaner recipe is a favourite of mine and works on all surfaces, even windows!
- ½ Filtered Water, ½ White Vinegar
- Large Spray Bottle
- 10 Drops of Bergamot and Orange Essential Oil and 2-3 drops of peppermint.
- Optional: 10 Drops each of Saje’s Mountain High and Liquid Sunshine.
Fill the spray bottle with half parts water and vinegar and add between 5-10 drops of bergamot, orange, peppermint or optional mountain high and liquid sunshine. I find this gives the cleaner a really fresh, almost natural coca-cola type scent! Call me loco, but I kind of love the smell of the vinegar with just the bergamot and the mountain high blend.
2. Hair Detangler
One of my daughters has very coarse hair and without some kind of detangler, it’s an extremely painful process combing out her hair (for both of us!). But I hate the idea of using a chemically store bought detangler on her daily, so a friend recommended making my own and now we all use it! It really works!
- 1 Small Glass Spray Bottle
- Filtered water
- 1-2 tsp of fractionated coconut oil – adjust less or more depending on your hair. It takes a test few bottles to get your exact oil amount so that it’s not too oily for your hair.
- 10-20 drops of essential oil of your choice – lavender, ylang ylang, lemon, peppermint, tea tree and rosemary all work great – we use lavender, peppermint and lemon most refills!
Shake before each use, and apply to damp hair, let it sit for a few minutes before brushing through!
3. Produce Wash
Living in Mexico, the produce is absolutely delicious year round, but it’s really important to wash your produce before eating it because there are various farming standards of produce throughout the country and it’s not uncommon to get tummy aches. You might be thinking that produce wash isn’t something you usually buy if you’re in Canada, Europe or the US, but it’s definitely something everyone buys here. I also won’t get into all the chemicals and pesticides used on our products worldwide, so even one wash is very helpful. As for what’s available here, some brands are better than others in terms of the ingredients, so I spent some time doing a lot of research and replicated a natural version at home. It’s great for berries (especially raspberries, because who wants to eat soggy, damp raspberries?)
Here’s my go-to produce wash spray!
- 1 large spray or pump bottle
- ½ cup white or apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup filtered water
- 1 tbsp baking soda (The soda tends to keep produce crispy for longer!)
Mix everything together and keep your spray in the fridge. When you use it on produce, spray and wait 3-5 minutes. Rinse off with filtered water, pat dry and enjoy immediately or store in the fridge for later.
How to Balance What you Love With What Sells
4. Lip balm
This is not only really effective but super fun to make. We make these all the time at home and the girls love exploring different scents! Haven’t gotten to adding tint but maybe in the future I’ll update this recipe to include some different pigments.
- Natural beeswax (we get ours from a local winery that produce lavender honey and sell their beeswax)
- 2 tbsp organic coconut oil
- 1 tsp jojoba oil
- 5-8 drops essential oil – our favourites include : lavender, spearmint, lime and a chai blend (cinnamon, star anise and cardamon!)
Combine and melt all ingredients in a double boiler and pour it into little containers to cool!
5. Dry Shampoo
This dry shampoo is literally 2-3 ingredients. It’s not as effective as store bought shampoo in that you need to reapply throughout the day, but I’m happy doing that if it means absolutely zero hair-loss or thinning chemicals!
Ratio – multiply quantities if you want to make a bigger batch.
- 4 tablespoons arrowroot, tapioca powder
- 3/4 tsp turmeric or cocoa powder if you have darker hair.
- Optional – Few drops of essential oil of choice.
I make mine in a bigger batch (as shown) and then spoon into an old spice jar with a shaker on top.
Shopping List and Usage:
I know it can be overwhelming to start, and might seem more expensive but once you have a few essential oils in your pantry, it’s quite simple! To make it easier for you to start, I’ve put together a little shopping list of just the essentials to start, here is what you need for the five products I mentioned above.
JARS/STORAGE:
- Large Mason Jar (for mixing)
- 2 x Large Spray Bottles (Surface Cleaner and One for Produce Wash)
- Small Spray Bottle (Hair Detangler)
- Old Empty Spice Jar (For Dry Shampoo)
- Small Glass Jar (for lip balm)
PANTRY/FRIDGE:
- Large Apple Cider Vinegar
- Large White Vinegar
- Lemons
- Baking Soda
- Arrowroot or Tapioca Powder
- Turmeric or Cocoa Powder
- Coconut Oil
- Natural Beeswax
STARTER ESSENTIAL OILS:
If you’re new to essential oils, here are the ones I would start with.
- Lavender
- Ylang Ylang
- Peppermint/Spearmint
- Bergamot or Other Citrus
- Saje’s Liquid Sunshine, Mountain High and Refresh Essential Oil Blends.
Other uses for Essential Oils
I use essential oils every single day. Once you have a small collection of your favourites, you can add them to everything. I add a few drops to my dishwasher after each cycle, to the laundry, and fresh linens and towels and topically with the fractionated coconut oil to reduce stress, or stay alert or boost the immune system. I also use a kid friendly blend that we use a roll-on for the girls before bed, which you can find here.
If you’re new here, I’m Donata Delano. I am the creative owner and artist behind Donata Delano Art. I started the good Canvas in an effort to build an art community focused on art, creativity and business. Aside from art related tutorials, tips and information occasionally, I also post recipes, crafts and out adventures living abroad in Mexico.
As for my business, as some of you know, I run my art studio out of our home. I have a dedicated room where I paint, package and ship all my artwork to you. If you’re curious about my daily life and how I run my business, I post often about my process, my studio and my work on my instagram here.
You can also follow along on Pinterest, where I pin all things design, decor, crafts style and holiday goodies
Also, if you’d like to follow along and subscribe to the mailing list to receive more post notifications like this, including special promotions for artwork, collections and freebies, head here and join the list here!
Your ability to evolve and adapt will open doors to a successful, balanced space where you can thrive doing what you love.
Many hugs,
Donata
BUSINESS RESOURCES AND GUIDES
- SEO For Artists – FREE Beginner Guide To Getting Discovered Organically
- Pin Creation and Pinterest SEO For Artists
- Custom Web Design – Apply Here!
- Our Complete Branding And Website Design (+Coaching) Package
RELATED READS
- Email Marketing For Artists And Our Free Email Welcome Sequence Templates
- Email Marketing For Creatives – How To Grow Your Newsletter
- What Is An Art Certificate And Why You Need One – Here’s Our Free Template.
- What Is Flodesk And How To Use It Correctly
My Favourite DIY Natural Home Products To Make At Home
How to Balance What you Love With What Sells