Natural beauty? Define natural!
Although this is a good recipe book for natural cosmetics, I would only recommend it to non-vegetarians, or vegetarians that have figured out what to use as alternative ingredients. Many of the things I wanted to make require the use of lanolin, mineral oil, petroleum jelly, borax, egg, milk, wheat germ oil, or spermaceti (from sperm whales).
Yes, these are all so-called "natural" ingredients, but some of them come from animals. Still, others are known to cause allegic reactions (such as wheat germ oil and lanolin). Now don't get me wrong. There are MANY recipes that do NOT contain the above mentioned culprits. However, ALL (and I mean ALL) of the chapsticks, lipsticks, hand creams, and body creams contain at least one (1), if not multiple animal, or allergy triggering ingredient(s).
If one keeps in mind the fact that the book was written back in 1977, then one knows that these WERE very natural ingredients for that era of time. There are many practical skin care suggestions in the book that supersede the recipes, but I bought the book for the actual recipes - and there ARE very many to choose from. Although there are no eye shadow, or foundation recipes, there are a few non-color lipstick recipes.
If you are not a vegetarian and/or don't care about using animal based products, then I would VERY HIGHLY recommend this book. Vegans and vegetarians BEWARE, unless you already possess knowledge of acceptable replacement alternatives for the culprit ingredients listed above. If you don't know of alternative ingredients, then you should keep shopping for an alternative book.
