Hi Everyone

A few posts ago, I was researching ingredients that are supposed to reduce the appearance of cellulite and found a few homemade recipes. Some of the ingredients are not readily available in ‘your corner store’ and I’ve been wanting to figure out where to source them all and also cost out how much it would be to make my own lotion compared with buying something pre-made. So, here is the result of my research…

First here’s the original post and below it, one of the recipes that I found:

http://mycellulitewar.com/2009/04/26/cellulite_reduction_lotion/cellulite-cream-and-cellulite-wrap-ingredients-with-homemade-cellulite-cream-recipe/

My Cellulite Treatment Cream Recipe

• 8 oz. Unscented lotion
• 3 TBSP Witch Hazel Lotion
• 10 drops Juniper Oil
• 10 drops Rosemary
• 30 drops Cypress oil
• 30 drops Grapefruit oil.

Directions:Add all of the essential oils together with the witch hazel lotion and mix together.  When completed, add unscented lotion and shake well.

Application: Apply daily to the area you want to treat.  Use a circular motion and massage gently into the skin.  The best time to apply the cellulite treatment cream is in the morning after a shower, and at night before bedtime.

In addition to the above ingredients, I’ve also learned from the professional spa wrap world that ivy extract and seaweed (bladderwrack and kelp) are almost always components of the cellulite wrap.

First, the juniper, rosemary, cypress and grapefruit oils.

For these, my first search was at the Atlantic Spice Company, which is a great site for making your own teas and potpourri. Here’s the link:

http://www.atlanticspice.com/

On their site, I found grapefruit oil at $4.30 and rosemary oil at $2.95. Also, they have a minimum order of $30, so unless you have some other things to get from there, it’s probably not worth stocking up on $30 of rosemary and grapefruit oils. They didn’t have the juniper or cypress oils. So, add in shipping charges, which they didn’t itemize, so I’m estimating they would be about $5, I’m already up to $35 and I don’t have all of the ingredients.

Next, I found another cool site Herb Pharm which looks promising:

http://herb-pharm.com/

They have:

• Juniper extract: $11.70/oz
• Rosemary extract: $11.70/oz

but no grapefruit or cypress extracts. But, as an added bonus, they do have bladderwrack extract @ $11.30/oz.  Add shipping (they use UPS, so charges would vary based on where you live) and I still don’t have all of the ingredients and I’m up to about $40.

Since I’m getting a little frustrated with my search, my last stop is going to be Amazon.com. It probably should have been my first stop. Let’s see what I find there…

On Amazon.com, I found a company WFMED, that seems to have all of the oils. So, I went to their site, maybe I can buy it more cheaply from them rather than from Amazon…No, good, they have a kluge website and I can’t tell what price I’m going to get, so back to Amazon.com…

I found Cypress Oil and Juniper Oil both at $4.50 at Amazon from a company called Pretty Like Me and I’m adding  them to my cart.

I found Grapefruit Oil on Amazon from a company named Veria for $3.95 and added it to my cart. Rosemary oil from Eko @ $1.18  – in the cart.

So, I found all four oils at Amazon.com with little effort and my product costs are up to $14.13. Clicking through the ordering process, I find out my shipping charges for Standard shipping are $16.03 so I’m up to $30.16, unless I trial Amazon Prime and get free shipping. Whew!! Lot’s of research and I’m ready to do something else.

Ok, so not as costly as a Revitol, Murad or Cellulean,  but a whole lot more effort.

So, is it worth it?

Thanks for reading!