My friend Jamie is one of the most ambitious people I know. Combine that unending drive and energy with her passion for environmentalism and organics, and it seems there’s very little the woman won’t do in the name of saving the planet or guarding her health.

Jamie’s efforts are admirable but often experimental, which means they sometimes meet with confused looks and mixed results. Those of us who remember when she wanted to replace the full-sized fridge in her condo with a tiny dorm-sized one weren’t particularly surprised when she broke her toilet by placing a jug in the tank to save water (Note: That tip is a valid one, I think, but only if your toilet isn’t already the low-flow variety) or when she decided to make her own yogurt at home. But we were perhaps understandably skeptical when she started talking about mixing up her own natural, organic shampoo and cleaning products. I mean, yes, yes, we should all be a bit more conscious about the mystery chemicals we use, but can’t we just buy natural products? Is it really worth the time, effort (and, in some cases, the expense) to make them ourselves? Jamie was determined to find out, and since I’ve got a green cleaning beat to follow, I was more than happy to help her.

We both saw two main barriers to making shampoo, lotion, and cleaning products at home. First is the up-front investment for supplies. You can make an all-purpose cleaner on the cheap and easy (mixing water, vinegar, and bottom-shelf vodka) or create some furniture polish out of olive oil and lemon juice without so much as a trip to SuperTarget. But most of the personal care product recipes require ingredients I don’t keep on hand for salads and sidecars—things like cocoa butter and cherry bark and beeswax pellets, not to mention a whole host of oils that don’t come cheap.

The second barrier is bulk. It seems downright foolish to buy a hefty jar of coconut oil just to melt down a tablespoon of it for a pot of lip balm. And I don’t want to dirty a saucepan and waste the time to melt a single tablespoon of anything anyway. Making en masse seems to be the only logical way to go. But what would I do with a pound of lip balm? (If you know about my lip product addition, don’t answer that. Even I have limits; I swear.)

Enter the Make-Our-Own-Products Party. With ten girls chipping in for supplies and sharing the work, we could knock out several pots of lip balm, along with several bottles of shampoo and conditioner, moisturizer, shower gel, and household cleaner and disinfectant in a few hours’ time, all while enjoying some of our favorite things: wine and lively conversation.

Ever the overachieving organizer, Jamie scoured the Internet for recipes and supplies, meaning all I had to do was show up and follow the instructions she’d set up in each little station around her kitchen. As such, I didn’t do much research on my own, but I’m happy to share Jamie’s suggestions on the best sites for a product-making party of your own.

Most of the recipes we used came from RecipeZaar or From Nature with Love. For the best prices on organic castile soap and other ingredients, Jamie recommends Mountain Rose Herbs. For a wide variety of herbs and essential oils, try Quantum Alchemy. And for sampler kits that let you try several fragrances in small quantities, try From Nature with Love again. To hold all our home-made products, we bought containers from these folks, though for a more earth-friendly option, you could certainly reuse bottles and jars from products you’ve already bought. As for those pretty labels you see in the picture above, you’re on your own. Perhaps, like us, you’re lucky enough to have a graphic designer within your crew and you can put her talents to work for you.

So what was the verdict on our efforts? As with most experiments, I’d say our results were mixed. The lip balm we made is now in regular rotation as one of my current favorites, the minty-lime scented shower gel I came home with is lovely, and the rich, cocoa buttery moisturizer smells so delicious, I want to lick my hands when I apply it. (I’m only partly kidding. Seriously, that stuff smells dang good.) The all-purpose cleaner, on the other hand, is only slightly more effective than cleaning with water alone. (In the future, I’ll save the vodka for my Cosmopolitans and stick with my Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day for my sink and countertops.) And the shampoo? Oooh, the shampoo. I have to stamp that one with a great big FAIL, unfortunately. I decided to try it upon my return from camping in the Black Hills recently, and my hair was actually cleaner before that shower than it was afterwards. That may have been at least partly my fault, for adding twice the recommended amount of essential oil in order to make it smell prettier, but I am convinced I would have looked like a greasy hippie with a head full of herb bits and twigs even without those few extra drops. Can’t win ‘em all, obviously.

Even with a few misses, I think our products party was, overall, a success. You could try the same thing on your own, of course, making recipes in bulk to bestow as gifts to your friends rather than gathering your friends to make them with you.

So has anyone else had a Make-Your-Own-Products Party? Have you found any recipes you loved, or any recipes you will never, ever make the mistake of trying again? Do tell.