Recipe book Grandma's Cosmetics

Grandma's Cosmetics
Mihaela Pichler Radanov

cover: Andreja Globočnik

photographs: Mihaela Pichler Radanov, Tomaž Lunder

format: 200 × 260

pages: 176

binding: softcover, flaps

published: 2013

ISBN: 978-961-241-773-4

regular price: 25,90 €

blue price: 24,60 €

your saving: 1,30 €

in stock

In the book Grandma's Cosmetics, the author reveals small and large secrets of making natural cosmetics at home. She describes in detail the process of making soap, introduces us to the method of making massage oils, salt and spice scrubs, and bath salts. She shares many recipes and tells us where we can buy all the ingredients for making homemade cosmetics. She also reassures us that everything can be prepared in a home kitchen with perfectly ordinary kitchen utensils. Because without a good knowledge of the properties of oils and their effects on the body we will find it hard to prepare the right soap or cream for ourselves, she briefly describes the properties of individual oils used in the recipes. At the very end she offers a few ideas for gifts.

A word from the author

When the conversation turns to »grandma's cosmetics« and soaps, we think of how our great-grandmothers and grandmothers used to cook animal fats, add ash, and – make soap. Yes, I too had such a grandmother, Miša, who introduced me from an early age to the secrets of regular skin care. Which oils shall we put in the soap? Which herb is most suitable for caring for dry and cracked skin? Shall we add a spice? Instead of water, we can use sage tea to prepare this soap … and so on. Just as my grandmother taught me, so too was she taught, and knowledge was passed down from generation to generation. But I was lucky, because my grandmother wrote down her craft and left me the recipes for her »ointments«, with which she maintained youthful beauty, elasticity, softness of her body, face, and shiny hair even in old age. I still have her recipe notebook today. I gradually tried all her recipes, learned, and when I plucked up the courage, I began creating my own blends of body oils, face creams, bath salts, salt and spice scrubs, and of course soaps. Over the years I made more and more of my own cosmetics. Now I use only my own. I only go into a cosmetics shop to see which oils they blend for certain purposes, and that way I get an idea for making my own.
Today I cannot imagine not blending oils and spices, creating and testing new recipes. Every soap, every bath salt, scrub, or body oil I make gives me multiple satisfactions. When I make them, when I use them, and when I give them as gifts on various occasions. Like my grandmother, I too love to treat my friends with homemade gifts. I have already »infected« a few friends with my cosmetics. Some of them have taken courage and started making their own, while others still »take advantage« of our friendship and look forward to the scrubs, bath salts, and soaps I give them on various occasions.

Mihaela Pichler Radanov