If you decide to undertake making your own shaving goodies, be it soap, cream, aftershave, etc, RESEARCH your ingredients. Please! Buying a shaving cream or aftershave that you haven't researched is highly unlikely to kill you. Just ruin the day's shave possibly. Buying raw ingredients to concoct your own stuff, can kill you or your child. I know. When my daughter was about 1 1/2 years old, I took her for a massage. No biggie. However, the massage therapist used some oil applied under my daughter's nose. It helped the congestion she had. Great! Unknown to me at that time, the therapist had diluted the essential oil in a carrier oil. Well, I didn't do any research, but when I saw the essential oil at a store, I bought a bottle. And then proceeded to apply it to my child's nose, same as the therapist had. Miles from home at the time, my 1 1/2 year old started having trouble breathing. Freaking out, we pulled off the side of the road as best we could on a little backwoods country road with no shoulder, and got her out of the car. Poured water on her face, and wiping the essential oil away, all the while thinking I had just killed my child. Got home, looked up the essential oil online, and plain as day, "may cause respiratory failure in children". Yes, she was a child, and yes, children have much lower tolerances than adults. However, there are ingredients if not used properly will harm you, an adult. Just use common sense (aka Google), please. Keep in mind essential oils and fragrance oils can be attractive to children. Either because they smell pretty or they smell like candy.
This is a fantastic note to put up as alot of people gain interest in making things for themselves. Some of the chemicals used in the production can be a little on the dangerous side as well and should be shown the proper respect. As with anything if done properly and safely making your own products can be highly rewarding. Also very glad to hear your daughter made it through okay! Brad
wow JoAnna, thank you for the heads up, and I am sorry you had to find out that way. I am very glad to hear she is doing OK now.
Thanks, guys. Luckily, I didn't cause her any permanent damage. But, sympathy wasn't my purpose for sharing that with y'all.
As usual, the timing on this topic is spot on. I recently purchased a cologne oil with my new favorite fragrance "Ocean", which I chose due mostly to the fact that I LOVE the beach. Anyway, the oil that carries the fragrance is coconut oil. I knew it was coconut oil when I ordered it, in fact, the fact of it being an oil is one of the main reasons I ordered from this vendor. I figured the oil carrier would last much longer than the typical cologne. I used the tip of my finger to apply to put a dab on either side of my neck, on the jugular vein (pulse points) and wanted to relish the new smell, so, I dabbed a fingertip on my mustache. Within a few minutes, I had a headache that was oddly intense (nothing like a migrane) . I wiped my stache clean and the headache dissipated. Since, I use only on the parts away from directly inhaling it and no problem. Not sure if this was a fluke or a real problem.
I've toyed with buying some Peppermint oil as a menthol alternative (I like the feeling better than menthol). Just did some quick research and see it's not something to overdo, though a little less risky if not being ingested.
If you are into DIY, research soap ingredients too. Some have sulfates, which increase lather, but are allergens for some people. All-natural soap bases do not have any sulfates.
JoAnna, very well said, it is important to know what you are using and the possible side effects. Thankful that your daughter is okay.
I had a bad reaction to the AOS sandlewood cologne. For some reason, it burns my lungs. Thats too bad as I really liked the smell of the sandlewood products.
Awesome topic!!! I have played around making preshaves and facial moisturizers since I was having sensitive skin issues. I can't cout how many times I found something that was an additive I wanted to use and had been lookinf for. However that particularl bran either because of carriers, process to make or impurities had warning labels in small print of course to avoid any and all skin contact etc etc. So not all products are created equal. I have always wondered how many companies or people are using products like that instead of made to what ever standard requires it to be for skin. I have seen everything from peppermint to test tree oils labeled like this. Being a curious one and not having major alergeries i have tested this out on my arm and I did feel a burning sensations. Dont remember what company or what it was but damn it burnt normally that type of oil or skin use would not have that reaction.
Thanks for sharing. I'm not into making my own, but I may tinker with it one day. You wouldn't want to see anyone suffer ill effects or worse, especially if the information is out there.
Very good.I didn't know that,I hope some are better and safer than others.Like you said Queen,research is key.quality ingredients in my body are nicer than other substances I've used over the years.I guess I would still rather use all natural ingredients above some of the chemicals I read in the products
Mercury is natural. Natural doesn't mean safe. Also, chemicals have to be made from natural products. That is all we have. No magic to pull new fangled chemicals out of the air. The whole point of this thread is research, and don't make assumptions.
And I'm not arguing with you. The whole reason I created this thread was to help people. My reply was to address some things I see people say all the time, but doesn't negate the need for research.
How scary! Essential oils are powerful and not always better than fragrance oil. Citrus is an essential oil that should not remain on the skin as it is phototoxic. There are other essential oil that are phototoxic too. You are right: Research is important! One of the things I've learned about essential oils is that THEY MUST be diluted with a carrier oil. If applied to the skin undiluted they can cause a reaction, perhaps what happened to your daughter. There are specific % of dilution for each essential oil, and I assume those vary from vendor to vendor. The massage therapist should have informed you about what she/he was doing and why. I think it is a practitioner's job to educate their clients, and in educating you, the massage therapist would have given you an opportunity to decide whether or not you wanted your child exposed to that particular essential oil.
