What to record on a homemade preparation
A cosmetic made at home, for yourself, is under no labelling obligation. But the recipe fades from memory fast, and a rancid oil is not always obvious by smell. The useful minimum:
- The name and nature: "Calendula oil macerate", "Shea lip balm".
- The date it was made — everything else depends on it.
- An estimated keeping time, or a use-by date.
- The main ingredients, especially essential oils and their dosage.
- The base if it matters: sunflower oil, olive oil, alcohol-based tincture.
How long a homemade preparation keeps
The usual orders of magnitude, for a preparation kept away from light and heat: an oil macerate keeps six months to a year, an anhydrous balm about as long, an alcoholic mother tincture several years. Anything containing water — cream, lotion, hydrosol — drops to a few weeks in the fridge, unless preserved.
Write the date down: it is the only piece of information that makes those rules usable.
The PAO symbol
The small open jar marked "6 M" or "12 M" indicates the period after opening. On a homemade preparation it is not required, but it reads at a glance and takes almost no room.
In Stick-it, a short text layer at the bottom of the label is enough: "6 M after opening". The shape layer, available in Pro, lets you box it.
The size that fits a bottle
Cosmetic bottles are narrow, and it is the circumference that constrains you, not the height. Go wide rather than tall:
- 10 ml bottle, roll-on, slim dropper: Small (47 × 25 mm).
- 30 to 50 ml bottle, balm tin: Medium (63 × 33 mm).
- Wide cream jar, 100 ml bottle, soap bar: Large (96 × 50 mm).
A label that survives the bathroom
Damp and oils are the two enemies. Sticker paper holds up better than glued paper, and a strip of wide clear tape over the finished label works as cheap lamination — useful on an oil bottle that gets handled a lot.
Avoid very thin, pale text: on a label that will pick up greasy marks, black on cream stays readable far longer.
The templates in the app
The Cosmetics category holds templates for oil macerate, mother tincture, skincare, essential oil, natural balm and artisan soap. The date and composition fields are already laid out in the right places.
Updated 2026-08-21
