Member Reviews

The book's comprehensive approach covers everything from understanding the ingredients to watch out for, to DIY recipes that harness the power of natural ingredients. What truly sets this book apart is its focus on sustainability; it goes beyond just skin deep and delves into the broader impact our beauty choices have on the planet

This book is a treasure trove of information for anyone looking to make a positive change in their skincare regimen.

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"Sustainable Beauty" isn't just a beauty guide; it's a heartfelt call to embrace a more mindful and sustainable approach to skincare. As someone increasingly conscious of environmental impact, this book resonated with its practical yet inspiring ways to transform everyday ingredients into clean and green beauty products.

The simplicity of the recipes, utilizing ingredients like fruit and vegetable peels and seeds, appealed to my desire for a more natural skincare routine. What sets this book apart is its holistic approach, addressing beauty from the inside out. Beyond the practicality of creating your own soaps, moisturizers, and lip scrubs, it encourages ethical practices such as reducing food and water waste and battling single-use plastics.

The inclusion of seventy-five plant-based recipes covering a range of products for skin, hair, and nails ensures a well-rounded beauty routine. From nourishing cleansers to invigorating bath salts, the book offers a diverse array of options for a sustainable beauty regimen.

What I appreciate most is the way "Sustainable Beauty" seamlessly integrates conscious consumerism into daily life. It's not just about skincare; it's a lifestyle guide that aligns with the growing movement towards cleaner and greener choices. Whether you're a beauty enthusiast or someone seeking to reduce their environmental footprint, this book is a valuable companion on the journey toward a more sustainable and mindful beauty routine.

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Sustainable Beauty is a captivating book full of tips and well sustained information of each of the recipes she gives, I can’t wait to try everything on me honestly.
The book is Ruchita Acharya’s love testament of her life growing up and her experience with beauty through her mother which she completed later with her education and professional background.
I simply loved the book and it motivated me to pursue sustainable beauty for me and my family. It was a strike of luck to be able to find this valuable jewel among so much beauty guides available everywhere. Thanks for sharing it!.

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I absolutely love this book and will be added to my library for self-care days. I love the fact that you can use every day kitchen items to make healthy beauty products such as rice water. I felt that the author gave a very thorough description of how carrier oils work and also different essential oils. I never thought about making tinctures and glycerites using fruit peels and seeds. Thank you for letting me read this book

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I loved this book - it's packed with so much valuable information! Over the past ten years, I've been working on improving my lifestyle to benefit my health, my family, and the environment. This book will help tremendously in the next step in that journey and it's so motivating! Although I'm reading the digital version now, I'm thinking I'll need to have a physical copy of this book because it contains a lot of information on a wide range of topics, especially if you're new to this lifestyle. My plan is to start by picking a product I want to make and then focus on learning about the individual ingredients in depth. After that, I'll choose another product to explore. I'm sure this book will become an important reference in my collection.

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Very cool book for those that love making and using natural products. There is a DIY beauty in the kitchen using food scraps, some DIY recipes for beauty and well being, recipes for face, bath and body and hair. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

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I was looking forward to this book since I make my own herbal preparations already and have a well stocked pantry and apothecary, but I found it more complicated than I expected and a bit of a slog to get through. The digital ARC was deleted before I could finish it or review it fully on my homesteading website, so I am unable to publicly review it.

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Unfortunately, not much about this book is really sustainable IRL. All the equipment you need for these processes, many expensive and not really in anyone's wheelhouse (a dedicated dehydrator? Who, ever, uses that?), the dedicated space (and possibly kitchen, too), the jars & pots you'll need to acquire, the fridge space to hold all these concoctions, and so on... If you're a minimalist, or even trying to move away from too much stuff/clutter, this is NOT the book for you. I do think, like for the author, anyone who wants to start making these beauty products to then build a business and sell their concoctions, it would make sense to get into this. But the regular person? Not really.
My other peeve is that one of the most DYI of beauty products does not have a recipe in here - I'm speaking of lip balm.
All in all, this book is just too much - too much investment required, time AND money, too much tinkering or trial & error, thus leading to too much waste of ingredients and ultimately money - plus there's not much about safety in this, so how do you know your products will be and remain safe for use?
Much of it is also debatable - vodka as a base for a whole load of preparations, which you can ingest and also use on your skin... What about someone who doesn't drink alcohol, or is allergic to it?
Reads too much as a 'this was my hobby & tada, I turned it into a business' to really be taken seriously, unfortunately

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Informative guide and some great ideas using natural products. I plan to try some of the DIY recipes for skincare.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

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Thanks to NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for my honest review below.

While this book contains many useful information, it is not really enjoyable for me. Not a really inclusive book, since the author mentioned about vodka that is not applicable for muslim readers.

She also needs to explain about "disposable gloves" she wrote, that eco friendly gloves are also available. Because ordinary gloves are not quite match with sustainability spirit.

The author gets repetitive mentioning her background at some points. Maybe she could also add some references to make the book more reliable?

Other than those, this book is beautiful thanks to the photos.

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I found this book to be really creative, it’s not just about beauty it’s about tackling food waste and learning about all the things you can put to good use. I feel I need to buy alot more mason jars now….

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I enjoyed the authors love of natural beauty, and how she uses it ingredients often thrown away, such as citrus peels in her recipes.

However, this is just not the book for me. Too much of the book was dedicated to on background and ingredients for my taste. The recipes are often multi step, requiring an infusion be made first, then added to the recipe. I personally am looking for simpler recipes.

Thank you to Skyhorse Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

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This book was informative, and I'm excited to give some of these recipes for skincare and baths a try. I just reviewed Sustainable Beauty by Ruchita Acharya. #SustainableBeauty #NetGalley
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Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy of this publication.

I want to become that mom/grandmom that is all about the "crunchy" way of life. This is a great DIY to put on the shelf! and reach for it often.

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I would like to thank netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, the ingredients and formulas are really well explained. Most of the ingredients felt accessible, and I loved that the author included stories on the cultural background of the recipes and ingredients. There are lots of interesting recipes i can't wait to try.

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A nicely written, informative book about sustainable beauty, and using your food scraps into beauty products you can use, with lovely pictures to accompany recipes. Skin care, hair care, and body care!

Thank you Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing, Skyhorse for the ARC!

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This book was fantastic. I love that there are easy to follow recipes, and enough information about the different components that you can apply the lessons to create your own beauty products at home.

The recipes include skin care, hair care, body soaps, and even make up! If you’re interested in learning how to turn food scraps into high quality luxurious beauty products this book is for you!

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Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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Make your own sustainable beauty products that are as good for the earth as they are for your skin.

We are all beginning to think about sustainability in every aspect of our lives. The beauty industry is no different, with a growing movement of consumers looking for cleaner and greener products. Using simple ingredients and ancient practices, Sustainable Beauty shows you how to transform food scraps and everyday pantry ingredients into clean, green products for your skin, hair, and nails.

This book addresses beauty from the inside out by encouraging environmental and ethical practices such as reducing food and water waste and combatting single-use plastics. All seventy-five recipes include plant-based ingredients such as fruit and vegetable peels and seeds for making your own gentle, nourishing soaps, moisturizers, shampoos, lip scrubs, cleansers, bath salts, and more.

Embrace conscious consumerism in your day-to-day life with Sustainable Beauty .

An interesting read, my issue is that I would have to drive all over the place for the non-food ingredients and buy the food ingredients that I would have to force hubby to eat so I would have scraps. (I don’t eat fruit. Ever. Unless it is in a pie…that is why my blood sugar is almost too low for my doctor’s comfort – it is not worth the heartburn or IBD after-effects). I would also have to buy jars and pots and then make these things … great ideas but not in MY WHEELHOUSE … but maybe in yours. My niece, niece-in-law and SIL would love this book so I will recommend it to them and my patrons who gobble up books like these.

Questions... perhaps issues.
1. this quote … “But in the flurry of mashing organic bananas for batches of Sunday morning keto pancakes, we as consumers often overlook the connection between sustainability and beauty.”
NO BANANAS ARE ALLOWED ON KETO. Do your research.
2. “First, decide on the total weight of the product you want to make. For example, let’s say you want to make 50 ounces/50 millilitres of chocolate almond facial cream.”
(There is a vast difference between the two. As in 25x the ml.)

3. Let’s say we need 20 ounces of cream made from cocoa butter. The formula would be 20 (ounces) multiplied by 100, then divided by 50. Two thousand divided by 50 equals 40, which equals the percentage of cocoa butter we would use for facial cream. (x100: then /50.? So, double it? … KISS is the best acronym I can think of!)

I know the book is in galley form and can be edited (or has been edited? It is out in 4 days…..) I just want to make sure that people are not as thrown by the provided mathematics as I was. And this was just at the beginning of the book.

Overall, a good book for those who are really into sustainability. Me? If you knew my living situation (aka the building from hell…where just recycling is a 4-hour ordeal!) you might understand why it’s a chore for me to be even slightly green. SPEAKING OF GREEN ... Pistachio oil will colour your expensively bleached hair green. I know from personal experience.

Recommendable to those who really want to make a difference!

2.5 stars rounded down to two

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An informative read that deliberates the ways of achieving sustainable beauty techniques and practices from the things owned within the home or relatively accessible. Split into two parts, the first half describes the essence of sustainability and mechanisms for applying this into our ideas of beauty (and beauty routines), with a bit of an anatomy crash course. The second half goes into the recipes (for face, bath and body, and hair). There were a lot of great substitutes for products used on a daily basis and new additions that would greatly complement the work of the products we use regularly. I actually have used two of these recipes (before reading this book) so it was nice to see them here - almost as affirmation for the practices I am engaging in. There are some great recipes that I would like to try and I appreciate the brief explanations as to the mechanisms of how they bring about results. Overall, an interesting read with lots to take away from.

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Really well put together and it gives great insight on how to take care of your skin and hair with natural ingredients. However, I found that many of the ingredients suggested are not readily available in my kitchen, unless I specifically plan to make these particular products. But all in all, great valuable information on skin/hair care.

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