August Beauty, part two

home-made body butter, French mini skincare set perfect for travel, Italian haircare for dry and colour-treated hair and the timeless joy of lavender

I know there are many Substack writers who focus on beauty, yet we still don’t seem to have won the right to be in a separate category, something that makes me chuckle every time I scroll through Fashion & Beauty on Substack and see mostly Fashion. Yet reflecting on this I am reminding myself that I have always written about beauty because I am interested and passionate about it and continue to feel the need to share knowledge and experience here and on my Instagram, knowing that there are plenty of people like myself that want to learn and find advice or recommendations that can be trusted because it is based on personal experience, rather than because you are lucky to be paid to churn content about products that you can’t possibly be using regularly as you recommend something new almost every day or every week. It takes time to get to know any beauty product and understand whether it works for you or addresses a specific need effectively.

Can you make your own whipped body butter at home?

Yes is the answer, you will need a Kitchen Aid, audacity, good quality shea butter, essential oils and a little bit of daring, the rest is a joyous experiment! My best friend has never been particularly interested in the inner workings of the beauty industry and I have taken upon myself to choose the products for her over the years - even though she in turn has introduced me to a few Finnish brands like Lumene and Djusie, well before either of them became better known internationally. Over the years I had suggestions to start my own brand or launch a beauty products but I have always resisted for a multitude of reasons, nor have made my own home-made versions of products. So imagine my surprise and delight when I arrived in Helsinki this summer and was told that my best friend now makes body butters as a hobby ( she is a woman of MANY talents, including cooking, styling and now making bags as well ) and will be making one for me with my input when it comes to scent, meaning the choice of essential oils. She showed me her own versions and one afternoon got down to making a personalised body butter version, after we bought some shea butter at Helsinki’s equivalent of Whole Foods in the UK. While she was whipping the product in her Kitchen Aid, I was tasked with sniffing through her essential oils ‘library’ to choose the oils I wanted added to my whipped body butter. I smelled the oils, but some of them really ‘jumped’ out at me and so we added them - lavender, neroli and I think rosemary.

I always admire creative people and my friend taught me yet another important lesson that day - whether you work in beauty industry or not, have experience of formulating products or not, you CAN experiment and explore at home and be young own bodycare creator. My friend’s personalised body butter is special in more ways than one - she made it for me, it nourishes my skin beautifully - to the point of being a beauty ritual now, with me applying the product and smelling it, delighted by the texture and smell. It feels indulgent and special in equal measure and demonstrates that while not every kitchen experiment will end up the foundation of launching your own beauty brand, it is something most of us can do at home and feel happy about the result. I am smitten with Katja’s whipped body butter and am lucky to have a class jar of it on my bathroom shelf still!

Is Mimetique Skin 360 Starter Kit Worth Buying?

Simple answer to the question is yes, if you are new to the brand, as this travel-friendly skincare set lets you trial the range is generous sample sizes before you decided whether to commit to a full sized product or products from Mimetique.