Teacher and proponent of self care:
body products to make at home
Elizabeth Barnes-Streett
Do you know what your lip balm is made of? Did you know that some face creams actually cause dryness? What can a person do to take care of themselves, once they learn of the chemicals in name brand skin cream products? It’s easier than you’d think to make quality lotions, salves and balms at home, where you know what’s going into it... and into your body when you use it later.
Elizabeth Barnes-Streett teaches her students how to make self-care body products on their own, at home, with simple ingredients that are no threat to one's health when ingested through the skin. Elizabeth’s students learn the practical matters of creating their own product; they learn where to buy ingredients and what costly mistakes to avoid.
Self-nurturing and fun
Elizabeth opens her Bosque Farms studio to her students. While teaching them to make body products, she encourages them to take care of themselves, to nurture their softer side and to have fun, by providing a fun and nurturing environment for her classes.
Elizabeth has taught countless people to make soap, lotion, face cream, salves and lip balm. Along with the cautions about chemicals, she also teaches her students to be realistic about the claims they’ve heard in advertising for name brand body products for most of their lives: “smoother skin,” “no more wrinkles,” “look younger.”
A journey in self-care
One Christmas years ago, Elizabeth realized she had a creative, soft side she had been neglecting. She had been living in a male-focused world, and she needed to nurture her feminine side. She was given a beautiful hand-made gift that year, and it inspired her to decide she was going to make something herself. She remembered her great grandmother making soap when she was a child, and decided to try it herself. That was fifteen years ago, and she’s a new woman.
Since then, she’s taught herbal soap making to over 900 people. She has become known for her knowledge of the subject, so much in fact, that people from all over the country contact her for advice. Occasionally, these requests are for her to partner in business ventures. However, she doesn’t want that kind of life. She likes to teach people to help themselves. “I like my business to be on my terms and to work at my own speed,” says Elizabeth, who enjoys all the self-care, self-nurturing and fun that her journey in self-made body care products has provided.
Elizabeth’s current classes may include:
| Body Products Made at Home I | Herbal Soapmaking--Cold Process |
| Body Products Made at Home II | Liquid Soapmaking and Shampoo |
| Flower Pounding | The Pampered Lady |
| Herbal Hair Coloring |
Note: Titles above link to our online registration site, which does not post courses after they are held. Course lists are updated at the beginning of the semester. Depending on when you click a title on the list above, some items may have already passed. You may always refer to the course index or to the printed course catalog for course information.
Teach a class with us
Have you spent a lifetime of learning on a favorite subject? Is there something you can do that nobody else can do? You can teach a class with UNM Continuing Education!
Turn in a course proposal. (PDF file to download, instructions on the file.)
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Contact
For information call 277-6320 or email ddel@unm.edu
