4 Easy DIY Skincare Recipes (Beginners Guide)

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4 Easy DIY Skincare Recipes (Beginners Guide)

Interested in homemade skin care but don’t know where to start?

There are a lot of skin care products you can make from the comfort of your own home. And no, you don’t need fancy ingredients and equipment to make it!

Continue reading to explore the best recipes to start your DIY skincare journey!

Contents

Why Make Your Own Skincare Products?

It’s affordable, more natural and healthier for your skin.

I’ve lost count of the amount of times the cost of skincare products has shocked me. They seem to be getting more expensive and for less product!

Take a moment to look at your favourite cleanser or moisturiser. How many ingredients are there in that one product? Does it shock you? Do you even know what half of those ingredients are?

If you can’t answer these questions, then what are you really putting on your skin? 

When making your own skin care products, you have the ability to customise the recipe. So you get to choose the best ingredients that will benefit your skin! It is especially good for sensitive skin types, so you can avoid the ingredients that cause irritation.

Commercial Skincare vs DIY Skincare

What Skincare Products Can You Make at Home?

There are so many simple products you can make at home. From moisturisers, lip balm and face masks, to scrubs, body lotions and serums. I could go on and on, but let’s just focus on the simplest recipes to start with!

The simplest recipes we would recommend trying first are:

  • Moisturiser
  • Face oil
  • Face mask
  • Cleanser

Now you may be thinking these sound hard to make at home, but they’re not!

What Shouldn’t You Make at Home?

You may have seen some ‘DIY skincare recipes’ online that look a little bit like this:

“Mix cocoa powder, bananas and honey together and you have a homemade face mask!”

Don’t fall for this! It’s a load of rubbish. 

I’ve seen countless recipes using food items to make face masks or scrubs and claiming it’s skincare. It’s not. It’s literally just blended food they want you to put on your face.

So let’s talk about what you actually need to make your own skincare…

What Ingredients Do You Need?

First of all, you need actual professional cosmetic ingredients. 

But we don’t mean fancy ingredients that you can’t pronounce or complicated equipment!

You can make these skin care products with normal equipment you’ll find in your kitchen!

When it comes to ingredients, we like to keep it as natural as possible. There are a few key natural ingredients that are in almost every skincare recipe.

There is a lot of choice, but don’t let that overwhelm you! We’re here to help you narrow it down.

Carrier Oil

Carrier Oils - 

Carrier oils are going to be your best friend in natural skincare! They are the oil extracted from plants like almonds or apricots. They have their own benefits for the skin and there is an oil for every skin type!

TIP: If you’re using this on your face, look at the comedogenic rating to see how likely it is to clog your pores. It's ranked between 0 and 5 (0 means there is no chance it will clog your pores and 5 means it definitely will). So do you have oily skin? Stay away from high comedogenic ratings!

Most Popular: Argan oil for oily skin (it has the lowest comedogenic rating of 0), Avocado oil is popular for dry skin as it is extremely moisturising.

Cocoa Butter

Solid Oils - 

Solid oils (also known as butters) are incredibly moisturising and used in almost every skincare product. You may have heard of some solid oils like coconut oil, cocoa butter, and shea butter in skin care products. They are gems in the cosmetics industry and have incredible benefits.

TIP: Like carrier oils, solid oils can clog pores if used on the face. It is important to find the best one for your skin type.

Most Popular: Coconut oil is most popular for dry skin due to its intense hydrating properties. Shea butter and kokum butter are most popular for oily skin.

 

Essential Oil

Essential Oils - 

Essential oils are natural fragrances that have natural health benefits. They are used in skin care to add a beautiful aroma to the product, without using synthetic fragrances.

TIP: Essential oils cannot be used directly on the skin as they are very concentrated. Either dilute it in your favourite carrier oil, or use it in a skincare recipe.

Most Popular: Lavender oil, orange oil and cedarwood oil are very popular scents!



French Green Clay

Cosmetic Clays - 

Clays are powders made from minerals and rocks. They are great for cleansing and exfoliating skin. Natural clays are very popular in skincare and you will find them in many recipes.

TIP: Each clay will have different benefits for the skin. For example, french green clay is a great natural exfoliator, bentonite clay removes impurities and kaolin clay is very gentle and best used for irritated skin.

Most Popular: Kaolin clay and bentonite clay are very popular clays and are found in most clay face masks.

 

 

 

Beginner Friendly Recipes:

Cleanser

Cleanser - 

A cleanser is used to remove dirt and impurities from the skin. 

This recipe uses grapeseed oil and jojoba oil, which both have a fairly low comedogenic rating of 2. The vitamin E oil may clog pores, but we have added this in a very small amount. 

We use kaolin clay to absorb excess oils and remove impurities. The emulsifying wax is not a natural product, but this is needed to help emulsify and bind the ingredients together.

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Heat the emulsifying wax, grapeseed oil and jojoba oil in a bowl, until the wax has fully melted.
  2. Add the kaolin clay and vitamin E oil to the mixture.
  3. Mix everything together and your cleanser is ready to use!

To view the full recipe, click here.

Clay Face Mask

Face Mask -

Clay face masks are used to cleanse, smoothen and brighten the skin. But there are many different types of face masks, some hydrate the skin, some remove impurities etc.

Kaolin clay provides cleansing, toning and detoxifying properties in the face mask. It is extremely gentle on the skin and can be used on all skin types.

We have used honey as it is good for soothing skin and breakouts. Rosehip oil has a low comedogenic rating of 1 and is an amazing moisturiser.

Ingredients:

  • Water 10ml
  • Honey 2g
  • Kaolin clay 15g 
  • Rosehip oil 2ml
  • Essential oils (This is optional if you want it to smell amazing! The amount you can add will depend on the essential oil you choose)

Method:

  1. Mix the water, honey and kaolin clay in a bowl.
  2. Once fully combined, add the rosehip oil and mix together.
  3. Now your face mask is ready to apply!

To view the full recipe, click here.

Moisturiser

Moisturiser - 

Moisturisers are used to hydrate and restore moisture to the skin.

This recipe uses shea butter and sweet almond oil, which are both incredible moisturisers and have fairly low comedogenic ratings. The type of shea we have chosen is organic unrefined, however this does have a strong nutty aroma so you can try out the refined shea butter if you don’t like the scent!

Coconut oil works wonders for the skin, but it does have a high comedogenic rating of 4. If you have acne prone skin, you might want to try something else. Babassu oil is very similar and only has a comedogenic rating of 1 - 2!

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Heat the shea butter and coconut oil in a bowl until fully melted.
  2. Add the almond oil to the melted butters and mix well.
  3. Leave to cool in the fridge.
  4. Once the mixture has cooled, whip it until it reaches a fluffy consistency.
  5. Now it is ready to use!

This is a 100% oil recipe, so it can be quite heavy for some peoples skin. You can take a look at our more advanced, but less heavy, moisturiser recipes below!

To view the full recipe, click here.

Face Oil

Face Oil -

Face oils are used to provide intense hydration to the skin.

All of the oils we have used, have very low comedogenic ratings and will not clog your pores. They all have incredible moisturising and hydrating properties! If these oils aren’t right for your skin, you can experiment with our other carrier oils.

Ingredients: 

Method:

  1. Mix the rosehip oil, jojoba oil and pomegranate oil in a bowl.
  2. Once fully combined, your face oil is ready to use!

To view the full recipe, click here.

What About a Serum Recipe?

We have an amazing hyaluronic acid serum recipe for you to try. However, this is a more advanced recipe!

Safety Information

Use boiling water or Isopropyl alcohol to sterilise the equipment before and after use.

We recommend doing a patch test on a small area of your skin before using. This is to check for any irritation or sensitivity to the ingredients. To do the patch test, simply apply a small amount of the product to an area of your skin. Leave it to sit for a few hours. If you feel any irritation or if any reaction occurs, then rinse it off straight away. 

You know your skin the best, so if your skin doesn’t love the ingredients in the product, change it. Whether you need to use a carrier oil that doesn’t clog pores, or a clay powder for sensitive skin, always listen to your skin!

Homemade Skincare

Final Thoughts

It’s simple, DIY skincare is way better than overpriced commercial products. These 4 simple recipes are the perfect way to start out your DIY skincare journey.

Now you know the basics when it comes to creating your own skincare, you can break out into the world of skincare. Make your own lip balm, body scrub, natural soap and so much more!

Continue Reading

Now you’ve tried our skincare recipes, why not continue reading?

Let us know how you got on with our beginner skincare recipes in the comments!

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