101 Easy Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health & Home: A Nerdy Farm Wife's All-Natural DIY Projects Using Commonly Found Herbs, Flowers & Other Plants Kindle Edition

I am a long time follower of Jan's blog The Nerdy Farm Wife so I was quick to preorder this knowing how great her recipes are. She is a concise writer of recipes, with easy to follow instructions. I am cautious in trying new things and her straightforward approach got me making some salves and lotion bars. I'm excited to try some new things in this book.About the book itself:The photos are gorgeous. The spine of this book is unique, a combination of glue and string bound that allows for it to open wide and stay open from any spot in the book - which I think is such an attention to detail for a cookbook.What's inside:Skin care, salves & balm, body butters & lotion bars, creams & lotions, soaks & salts, bath melts & scrubs, lip care, hair care, handmade soaps, home remedies, household solutions, and pet care. There's a great intro to the supplies you'll be using as well as a thorough index. Any skill level will find something to enjoy in this book.

Wow what a beautiful, well put together book. I grow all of my own herbs organically, and make some of my bath and skincare products myself. I am 29 years old and have been doing so for the last 10 years. I mostly steam clean everything that can be, but I have also just started making my own cleaning products too, I have a one year old and avoid chemicals at all cost, but some things you need a cleaner, and all natural is a great option. I purchased this book so I could have some new recipes/inspiration. The pictures are absolutely amazing, and the recipes are great! As soon as I opened this book, I couldn't pull myself away, I read through every recipe , soaking up all of the great information. The author obviously must have bees, and uses a lot of bee produced products in her recipes.The only qualm that I have, and why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, is because I sure do wish she would have gone into details with her preservation methods and what natural preservatives are best with each recipe, although she dors go over natural preservatives in the beginning of the book. I've reviewed this book after looking through each and every recipe, but have only had a chance to produce a few of the recipes, which turned out great. I will return to update my review after I have made several more of the products from this book. At this point I recommend this book to anyone whom is looking for some inspiration/recipes for homemade products. The author has provided recipes for homemade soap, bath products, cleaning products, pet care, and the list goes on. You simply cannot go wrong with this book whether you are a newbie, or advanced at making homemade products. Update: I've made a few more products and all of them are great, I'm very happy with the recipes in this book. I decided to check out the authors blog (Jan Berry, thenerdyfarmwife) , and was very pleased to see she had lots of information on preservatives (some natural ones) , and had even done an experiment with microbial testing to see which preservatives are best for her homemade products. I'm guessing she read the one star review slamming her for not using preservatives, and decided to use critism constructively, I'm pretty impressed, as preserving her recipes was something I was concerned with as well.

I love this book! If your into DIY natural products at home this book is for you. Most recipes require only a few ingredients,ingredients easy to find at vendors who sell oils and herbs like Mountain Rose Herbs, and most you can pick right from your yard like dandelion and sunflowers. I know a lot of these recipes are effective because over the years I myself made very similar versions and had great results. I never wrote them down, so I am pleased to have Jan's book as a reference now. The pictures are stunning, the recipes easy to read and uncomplicated. I love that she gives a customizable recipe for the lotions, balms and salves so that you have a basic recipe to follow. There is even a section to making natural soaps and basic instructions- and unlike Anne-Marie Faiola who wrote Pure Soapmaking ( a joke about natural by the way)- Jan Berry"s recipes ARE Natural and effective. (This girl is all about Natural). By far Jan is the Soap Queen of natural soaps and I have had way better success using Jan's natural soap recipes. There is no hidden agenda in this book either- she's not selling her company like the other Queen- Jan is a very knowledgeable in her field and loves to share her passion. She is bright, respectful and very helpful in her field. Her FB page is one of the best groups- informational supportive and full of great insight. I love that she included a small pet section and I am eager to try the dry shampoo on my short haired terrier when the snow stops blowing. There is a section for homecare and some great natural recipes. You can always double up her recipes to make larger batches. The beginning of the book explains about oils, butters and other additives, and even recommends tools you may need. Most of it we have or can purchase at second hand stores. Containers may be your biggest need, but health food stores like Wholefoods carry various containers in their health and beauty section now. This is the perfect book for the purist or naturalist who is just getting into the field of herbalism, and I enjoyed the book from cover to cover. I highly recommend it as a reference book for your apothecary.

I have really enjoyed this book! I have made seven of the recipes in the book so far (and a few variations as well) and each one has turned out astoundingly well. Normally, I am a notorious recipe fail-er, but the information is presented so clearly, so neatly, that it is really hard to mess up. I am truly grateful to the author, because it is just so much fun to make something and have it turn out well! In fact, it's now become my mini-obsession... I've been buying ingredients and making like crazy. I suppose that is one hazard of the book!P.S. I do highly recommend having a digital scale handy, as I think it has been key to my success because I couldn't mess up the measurements. I bought one on Amazon for about $11.

What a brilliant book! I have decided to stop purchasing commercial products and natural products sold are so expensive. This book is great to make homemade products at home at an affordable price.I have made a face cream which was wonderful and made the hair rinse which has calmed my scalp. I cannot make to make a dry skin cream for my daughter who has sensitive skin.This is worth every penny and it's nice to have so many recipes all in one book. Fantastic. Thanks Jan!!

Jan’s book doesn’t disappoint. Full of creative and inspiring ideas. All ingredients are easily sourced from soap-making suppliers and on amazon. Perfect if you want to avoid mass-marketed rubbish laden with irritants & toxins.I might be a bit biased as I’va had a girl crush on the Nerdy Farmwife for ages....

Arrived on time but the book damaged badly. The recipes are quite complicated and require many ingredients to make. I don’t recommend this if you want easy recipes that will save you money, because you will have to buy lots of ingredients that will cost you a fortune.

The very best book on home made skin products. Clear easy to follow instructions and beautiful detail and layout all in colour with lots of pictures. Absolutely brilliant! Thank you

Wonderful book. Great value. Covers a large number of home made products for various uses. Easy to follow recipes that can be adapted.