I tend to be pretty minimalistic when it comes to powders and foundations so I’ve always had a hard time finding a product that I felt comfortable wearing regularly. This is one of the reasons I absolutely love making DIY stuff: the possibilities to customize are endless!
The real key to this recipe is sericite mica which is a Rock Star at subtly reflecting light and therefore minimizing small imperfections and discolorations on your skin. Â The other ingredients are light enough to avoid that “caked-on” makeup look but adhere well enough that there’s not need to touch up during the day. Â As an added bonus, the clay in this recipe helps keep your skin from getting to shiny as the day goes on which is especially nice during hot summer days when you still want to look put together.
Most days, I throw a bit of this on along with some Midnight Clay Eyeliner and Positively Rosy Lipstick and Cheek Stain and call it a day! Â But I also like pairing it with a DIY Airbrushing Mineral Liquid Foundation when I want an extra polished look.
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Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon white bentonite or fullers earth clay
- 1 tablespoon sericite mica
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1/4 teaspoon magnesium stearate (optional)
- red oxide
- yellow oxide
- cobalt mica (blue)
- brown oxide
Where to buy oxides: you can find the oxides at saffireblue.ca. The shipping is not super cheap but the supplies are very inexpensive and have lasted me for nearly 2 years now…and that’s with all the experimentation I do!
Steps:
1. Place the first 4 ingredients into a coffee grinder. (I use one like this.)
2. Blend for several minutes.
3. Wait 1-3 minutes to open the lid so that you’re not inhaling a bunch of the powder.
4. Start adding in your colored oxides to customize your color. You’ll generally want to start with yellow and then add in a bit of red. Blend again for a minute or so and see what color you’re at (again, wait a little bit before opening the lid each time after you blend because it’ll all poof up in your face if you don’t!). I needed to add in a pinch of blue to get my undertones but that’s going to be very individual so the whole process mostly becomes a matter of trial and error.
Very important: go very very very slowly! It’s harder to go back once you’ve overshot the color but it’s somewhat possible by lightening it again by adding more white clay, arrowroot powder, and serecite mica.
The process of getting the right color can be a bit of a challenge…but stick with it! It’s completely worth it since you’ll end up with a big batch of perfectly customized makeup to show for all your hard work!
Hey Alex! Which blue mica do you buy from http://www.saffireblue.ca? I can’t find cobalt or just plain blue and the link in your ingredient list isn’t working. Thank you!!! Can’t wait to make this.
It was Aquamarine! So sorry that the link isn’t working, I’ll get that fixed!
Thank you so much!No biggie 😉
Hello! I’m gathering the ingredients to make your liquid and powder make ups and I was wondering how much coverage I’ll get? I have a few acne scars I like to hide. Any pictures of you wearing the makeup would be nice too! Thanks!
Awesome! So glad to hear you’re trying them out 🙂 These give sheer to medium coverage. The concealer is probably the most powerful one and that can be layered in quite heavily for coverage.
Hello! I’m looking into making my own makeup for the first time and I’m wondering how we could go about this without a coffee grinder? I have a food processor and a magic bullet, and I’ve considered getting a teensy spice grinder. Would any of those work?
Hm, it would probably be ok with the grinder and maybe the magic bullet? I’m not sure since I haven’t tried either one personally! You could also omit the grinding entirely but you do have to expect it to be more grainy and possible not give as much even coverage…though these differences might be slight! Hope that helps 🙂