DIY All Natural Body Spray

Many years ago, I used to love Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar body spray. This was back before I realized how harmful seemingly "safe" body products can be. As I became more conscious of what I was using on my skin and hair, I began to pay attention to ingredients, and I did NOT like what I saw there. All sorts of unpronounceable ingredients, and even artificial colors, being absorbed into my skin every day. Yikes!

But of course, like most people... I like to smell nice! So what's a health conscious girl to do? Make her OWN body spray, of course!

Making all natural, chemical-free personal fragrance is actually really easy.

You'll need:
Distilled water
Vodka
Essential Oils of your choice
Glycerin (optional)

In a small spray bottle, mix equal parts of distilled water and vodka. Add your choice of essential oils until you achieve the scent you want. I usually use a 4 oz. bottle, mixing 2 oz. each of the distilled water and vodka, to about 30 drops of essential oil. You may want to use more or less oil, depending on how strong you like the scent. You can add a few drops of glycerin, if you'd like, to make the scent last a little longer when you wear it. Give it a little shake before each use, to keep the oils blended.

Vanilla beans, soaking in vodka

I love how easy and effective this recipe is, and I've made some fun scent combos with this... like:

lavender and rosemary
orange, clove and cinnamon
sandalwood and patchouli

But my absolute favorite scent ever is vanilla, and my current favorite scent combination is Vanilla and Sandalwood. It's a warm, woodsy scent that just makes me smile. Making this scent requires one extra step: adding some vanilla beans to the vodka. I usually let this sit for a few days (the longer, the better, but I sometimes get impatient) Then... just proceed as above, adding the distilled water, and any other essential oils that you might like. Vanilla is a wonderful "base" for lots of different scents. Lavender, patchouli, citrus scents, spicy scents and even some herbal scents pair very nicely with vanilla.

And one more benefit of this spray, that I forgot to mention... this stuff costs very little to make. Like, less than $2 per bottle, depending on how much you spend on the essential oils. So, it fits TWO of our goals here at Journey Toward Simplicity: it's natural AND frugal!