diy ingredients??

[xraisonxdetre]

Would it be possible to sell some diy stuff? I loveee Karen's serums and moisturizers, but for things like masks, I really love trying to make my own! Its just really fun Would it be possible to sell stuff like pumpkin powder, or vit-c powder, by itself? When I look on other websites, they sell these items in huge quantities and I just don't need that much! Plus, I would trust SN quality a lot more over other companies

Sorry if this has already been asked before!

[mlle.gnome]

You can buy lots of facial ingredients from http://www.gardenofwisdom.com, but Karen formulates everything on her site (except the mascara I think). It doesn't seem like SN is going in that direction because its more finished products to the consumer, as opposed to being a supplier of ingredients to make your own. I think I've read that she loves formulating <3 so if she also sold ingredients, it would take the fun out a little! And there already are websites where you can get ingredients, and GoW does have small quantities too.

Making masks are lots of fun, and Karen's are really well priced. I haven't purchased her masks lately only because I pretty much just stick to a yogurt/honey/rose clay mask that I make myself, but I read through an organic diy face care book, and you don't have to look far to make your own from scratch. You can also do a quick search of DIY facial masks, and lots will come up. I think even @ GoW there is a section about home made masks

Some quick things:
Yogurt and honey mask. (I use greek yogurt and raw honey)
You can also purchase honey powder (I get mine from an asian market), my mom uses it for cooking, but you could totally use it in a mask!
You can grind up oatmeal and put that in a mask.
You can order the different clays from GoW and add that too, they are just a powder. (I have used Bentonite, Rose, etc)

I do recommend getting a fan brush to apply your mask instead of your fingers if you haven't already.... its so much easier to apply! ^_^

[karen]

Actually masks are really easy to make at home with just stuff from the grocery store. Strawberries are wonderfully full of vitamin C, yogurt has all sorts of yummy things, honey brings moisture, oat flour rather than oatmeal saves you the step of grinding oatmeal, bananas are great for moisture, papaya, pumpkin or fresh pineapple all have good enzymes that will exfoliate. Avocados are lovely if you have dry skin- because they have all of that healthy fat. I know our local healthfood store sells powdered french green clay- wayyy cheaper than getting it shipped because clays heavy for their volume (a pound is a little over a cup). If you're doing fresh fruit masks you can even freeze them in ice cube trays and then just thaw them out when you want to use them.

We just don't have enough room on the shelves to stock the DIY things that you'd need to make things...and formulating is just tons and tons of research, and even more trial and error. Each product on the site represents about 100 hours of research and development...really- it took me 3 years to come up with the products on the site. It's fun when you get it right, but I think for most people it's ultimately a lot more time consuming and expensive than just buying finished products. It's sort of like knitting...I can buy a pair of socks for $2, or knit a pair for $20. I like to knit, but it frustrates a lot of people.

The one thing I did think of was small pre-measured amounts of certain actives that you could add to a serum. I haven't had time to really flesh-out the idea, but that's something we'll probably add in the very distant future.