Make your own skincare

Five things: a facial moisturizer, a face and body butter, a body lotion, an exfoliating body scrub and a 15 ml signature body spray. Everything is labelled, bagged and ready to travel.

A skincare bar sends you home with a complete regimen rather than one souvenir product. That's why people tend to still be using it weeks later.

No. Guests choose from three cards — dry, oily and acne-prone, or age-defying — and a host will help anyone who isn't sure.

Each card lists the boosters we'd recommend and how many drops of each, so you're not making decisions in a vacuum. If you'd like to know more, there's a printed reference sheet on the table explaining what every ingredient does and who it suits. The bar is also staffed by skincare specialists or estheticians

The bar is deliberately built so nothing on it needs a patch test before use. There's no retinol, no exfoliating acids and no undiluted essential oils, and nothing on the table will make your skin sun-sensitive.

If your skin is reactive, tell your host — we halve the drop counts and steer you toward the gentlest boosters on the bar. We also recommend everyone tries their set on the inner arm first, since nothing you make has been worn before that day.

Tell us when you book and we'll send the full ingredient list in advance. Our allergens and safety page covers every product line we run.

Some of our bases contain sweet almond oil and kukui nut oil, both tree nuts, and one contains wheat germ oil, which contains gluten. Our tools and table are shared between guests, so we can't promise anything made at the bar is entirely free from traces. If someone in your group has a nut, wheat or other allergy, let us know at booking and we'll plan around it properly.

The moisturizer and the butter, yes. Your scrub and lotion are for the body only.

Sugar is too coarse for facial skin, so your scrub stays below the neck. Body lotion is an everyday cream for arms and legs. Only the facial moisturizer carries the active serums, and your butter works either way.

The butter and scrub keep about three months; the moisturizer and lotion about eight weeks. The body spray is alcohol-based and effectively keeps indefinitely.

Everything is made fresh on the day, so the dates are shorter than a shop-bought product that's been sitting on a shelf. Keep water and wet fingers out of the jars — there's a spatula in every bag — and store them out of direct sun. Care instructions go home with every guest.

The perfume bar makes one thing properly; the skincare bar makes a regimen. At a perfume bar, guests blend a custom eau de parfum from raw materials — it's the deeper fragrance experience. At a skincare bar, guests build five products matched to their skin and scent them.

Skincare bars suit wellness events, groups with mixed interest in fragrance, and anyone who wants more to take home. Perfume bars suit people who want to go deep on scent itself. We also run both at one event for larger groups.

Skincare bars start at $450.00, depending on your guest count.

We quote every event rather than publishing a fixed grid. Tell us the occasion, the date and roughly how many people, and we'll send an itemized proposal. There are no travel fees, no service fees and no automatic gratuity, and setup and cleanup are always included.

About 90 minutes to two hours for a group of ten to fifteen. That's the size most people book.

We run smaller and larger groups too, and the timing moves with them. A group of six is closer to an hour. For a big event the bar can run as a rotating station across the evening instead, with guests coming and going, so there's no fixed finish time at all.

Guests work at their own pace either way. Nobody is hurried along to keep a schedule.

It's not. Guests stir boosters into jars that are already filled — there's no melting, pouring or measuring of bases at the table.

We bring our own linens and coverings, set up completely and pack out with your surface as we found it. Cleanup is included in the price, never an add-on.

The skincare bar on this page is built for adults — the actives on the booster bar are chosen for grown-up skin, and the fragrance library is an adult one.

We run a separate version for children and teens, packaged and priced differently, with a gentler ingredient list and a scent library chosen for younger noses. See our kids and teens party pages.

All of Chicagoland, greater Milwaukee and the Indianapolis metro, with no travel fee anywhere in those markets. Our studio is in Mokena, Illinois and our lab is in New Lenox.

That includes the city of Chicago, the North Shore, the western and northwest suburbs, the Fox Valley, Northwest Indiana and the southwest suburbs.

Six to eight weeks for most Saturdays. May and December book further out and often go two to three months ahead.

Weekday and Sunday dates are usually available with much shorter notice. If your date is close, ask anyway — we have a large team of hosts and one may be available.

A table and somewhere to park. We bring everything else, including linens, decor, signage and every tool.

Guests work standing or seated, whichever suits your space. We arrive ahead of your start time to set up and we clear the table completely afterwards.

Yes. They're a common gift for birthdays, Mother's Day and Christmas.

Email perfume@glittersandgrace.com and we'll arrange one, including a version you can print if it's a last-minute gift.