DIY Beauty Book that Needs to be on Your Wishlist Now!

Holiday Pumpkin Pie Body Scrub from the Compassionate Chick’s Guide to DIY Beauty!

I KNOW you guys love DIY beauty recipes. Even if you’re not the crafty/cooking type (as I am definitely not!), it’s still fun to whip up vegan beauty recipes with things you already have in your kitchen. I recently got a copy of The Compassionate Chick’s Guide to DIY Beauty by Sunny of Vegan Beauty Review fame and Chrystle Fiedler.

Sunny was the first vegan beauty blogger, and has been a mentor and friend to me since I started My Beauty Bunny 7 years ago! I’ve only met her in person once (a long time ago), but we’ve been online buddies forever. She’s got bright pink hair, which honestly is nowhere near as bright as her personality. That might sound cheesy, but just go check out her blog and videos and you’ll see what I mean. Her personality shines through in this book that is FULL of colorful photos and easy (even for me) do it yourself beauty recipes.

The Compassionate Chick’s Guide to Beauty showcases non-toxic, rejuvenating and restorative skin care and beauty products that you can whip up in your kitchen with simple ingredients for pennies per treatment. The recipes are easy and inexpensive, and provide real beauty results. And, it’s not just hair, skin and body recipes – there are even makeup recipes in here!

Why spend $40 on a facial mask or $8 on a package of organic facial wipes when you can make these products yourself for just a dollar or two?

There were so many recipes I wanted to try in this book. And if you know me, you know I hate cooking – it is just not interesting to me at all! But these beauty recipes totally sparked my interest. I went to a Japanese dollar store here in LA and picked up some cute containers, a funnel and mixing tools to play with.

I put together Sunny’s quick and easy, 3 ingredient recipe because it looked amazing, it’s perfect for the beginning of PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) season, and I already had the ingredients in my kitchen. I blended the canned (no sugar added) pumpkin puree (which I actually keep on hand because it’s great for my dog’s digestion!), sugar (I probably should have used brown sugar as the recipe stated, but the regular sugar worked) and cinnamon. I added more sugar than the recipe called for because I like a very aggressive scrub.

My creation didn’t come out as pretty as Sunny’s but I was pretty excited about it! It actually tasted really good. I had to explain to my fiance why we weren’t going to be eating it. I used it in the shower, and it gave me a wonderful scrub without clogging up my drain or anything crazy. The enzymes and alpha hydroxy acids in the pumpkin are great for exfoliation, so after scrubbing, I left it on for a few minutes before rinsing. I could NOT believe how soft my skin was afterwards! I kept touching my skin because it was so soft and smooth.

The scrub lasts for about two weeks in the fridge. Any time you make a DIY recipe, check to see how long it will last and if you need to refrigerate it. If you’re using fresh ingredients without preservatives, mold can grow pretty fast, so definitely refrigerate it if you’re not sure. Sunny’s book tells you everything you need to know – including an estimate of how long you should hold on to each concoction before it’s time to make a new one.

I’m loving this book and I plan to make more fun vegan beauty recipes soon. I was so inspired by the photos, I was even thinking I may give copies of this book along with the scrub for holiday gifts this year. You can get it at bookstores or Amazon.com. If you pick up a copy, I would love to hear how your recipes turn out. Please let me know in the comments!