Homemade Mineral Makeup
My very favorite makeup product back in the day was this Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm. In fact, it was one of these things that I had a hard time letting go of when I switched to mostly natural skin care products.
Hormonal Sidebar: I talk about why switching to a natural skin care regiment makes a whole lot of sense here. If you’re looking here because hormonal disturbances or infertility have prompted you to remove chemicals from your environment, please check out the Healthy Hormones Group Program that Megan from GingerNewtrition and I are starting in September.
It took me a while to figure out a recipe that mimicked the consistency and silky-ness that I loved so much about the Naked Skin Beauty Balm. So when I found my newest oil love, burdock root, (that I love so much for cleaning out pores) I instantly wanted to start trying it out for this purpose. When I finally combined it with the imperfection-filling properties of castor oil, light-reflecting sericite mica, and colored minerals, it all finally came together!
I like using it together with some Positively Rosy Cheek and Lip Stain and I’ll finish it off with a swipe of Midnight Clay Eyeliner and mascara. Three minutes in the morning and bam! I’m done.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoon castor oil
- 1 tablespoon burdock root oil
- 1 tablespoon jojoba oil
- 2 teaspoon oil soluble titanium dioxide (see coverage note below)
- 1/2 teaspoon sericite mica
- red oxide
- yellow oxide
- blue oxide or cobalt blue mica
- brown oxide
- optional: add a few drops of essential oils (whichever you prefer!) for scent
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!
Coverage Note: if you want more coverage, you can easily do so by increasing the amount of the oil soluble titanium dioxide. I recommend increasing the amount by half a teaspoon (and adjusting the mineral content of the recipe accordingly) until you’re happy with it. This is, however, intended to be a beauty balm so if you’re looking for something with true coverage, I’d suggest checking out my Homemade Mineral Concealer.
Steps:
1. Combine all 3 oils into a small pyrex bowl and stir them together. (You can add in your essential oils of choice here or at the very end.)
2. Add in the oil soluble titanium dioxide and stir.
3. Add in the sericite mica and stir again.
4. Now comes the tricky part: you’ll need to start matching the beauty balm to your skin tone. I recommend starting with a generous pinch of yellow oxide and a smaller pinch of red and mixing. Then, I start adding different tones from there. I often need to add a tiny amount of blue oxide to get my undertones and occasionally add a dab of brown when I’m more tan. This part can get a bit frustrating but the key is to GO SLOW so that you don’t overshoot. I test the color mixture on my jaw line every so often until I’m completely happy with it.
5. Transfer your new DIY skin perfecting beauty balm into a small glass container and top with a lid. I recommend shaking the glass container before applying.
This is great, and I also want to switch over, but I heard doing DIYS is expensive. Do you know any natural makeup companies or brands I can look in to? Could you also look at my blog, and follow it if you like it?I love your blog by the way! 🙂
Thanks very much for saying that! I’m a little biased but I think DIY-Ing ends up being the most economic option. It costs more up front but all the ingredients last a really long time. But in general, I like Bare Minerals for mineral makeup and then Primal Organics is a fantastic brand!
I will def. look into those brands. Thank you! 🙂
No problem! Would love to hear back what you think! 🙂
This is wonderful! I made something like this several months ago and found that the Titanium clumped in the bottom of the dish a bit. I made very small batches in case it didn’t work out and glad I did. The next batch I made, I used a little coffee wisk blender thing I found at at thrift store to mix (used only for makeup DIY) and it helped. Then I tried blending the titanium, mica and oxides in my coffee grinder (for DIY’s only as well) first then adding to the oil and that worked much better for me!
Did this end up being sticky or tacky with castor oil? I didn’t use Castor in mine. How does it apply and wear? I love seeing the new things you come up with!
I had that happen to me as well but this was before I got oil soluble titanium dioxide! But I still try to shake it very well beforehand anyways and that works pretty well.
I haven’t found the castor oil to be sticky at all! At least not in these proportions. I feel like it fills in imperfections really well and just makes my skin look super smooth. I think you could sub in any heavier oil that you like though and it’d be no problem 🙂
Thanks so much for saying that! You’re too sweet! I’m really glad you’re enjoying it.
I will try castor oil! I was going to try this out last night but didn’t get the time so hopefully tonight =)
Where do you get your ingredients? I do have oil soluble titanium dioxide and I get it from TKB trading. When I mix my mineral powder with oil, it does very well but I do have a more difficult time when mixing it alone into hot oil on a double broiler.
Thank you so much!
I actually don’t hear up the oil at all! I just shake it/whisk it like mad. I got mine from saffireblue.ca…I get everything from it!
Okay… this is pretty neat! I made this Friday night and really like it! I was so concerned that the castor oil would leave a heavy feel on my skin and not absorb well, but in fact it did after about 5-10 minutes. It is somewhat of a “drying” oil so that makes sense! I cut this recipe in half and even that makes a lot of product so I stashed some in the fridge. I used grape seed oil instead of Burdock since I don’t have it, I am not sure how different it would feel. I have found that this could almost be a moisturizer too, I tired it on top of my facial oil (sea buckthorn, argan, rosehip, essential oils) after it absorbed and it didn’t set well so I tried it without moisturizing and it worked much better for me. I have very normal skin, not oily and hardly ever dry. Amazingly, it hasn’t clogged my pores yet which is what liquids tend to do fairly quick. This has turned out to be a great little makeup product that has won it’s place in my tiny, minimalist makeup box lol! Thanks so much =)
That’s so awesome! That makes me really happy to hear 🙂 Thanks for stopping by to share!
You are welcome! I would also say it applies best with fingers 😉 I did use my Eco Tool flat top kabuki to press it in after I blended it in with my fingers, but just fingers are fine. A little goes a very long way! Definitely only need a few drops.
This sounds so good! Are there any other oils you would suggest to substitute for the burdock root oil? Could I use almond oil? Also do you have any photos you could share before/after with the balm? Thank you!
Aw thank you! I have noticed slightly better texture with the burdock root oil but I did play around with jojoba oil and it was really very good! I don’t have any pictures but I’ll try to get some 🙂
Ooh this looks like fun! I just started making my own mineral makeup powders and one attempt at a liquid foundation. However, my dry skin needs more oils than the recipe I used for my liquid foundation. Questions: Could I use argan oil and jojoba instead of the ones you listed? Castor oil and I aren’t good friends lol. Also, have you tried throwing in some zinc oxide to incorporate some SPF? Thanks! I love your website by the way 🙂
Thank you so much! I’m glad you’re experimenting with the recipes 🙂 Yes, you can absolutely swap out whatever oils you want. It might change the consistency but you can play with the ratio of oils until you like how it feels on your skin. (Sorry to hear about castor oil! Mine loves it. But hates coconut oil, go figure.) I have tried zinc oxide before and liked it!
I really like the sound of this recipe & look forward to trying it; I’m in a hot & dry part of Australia, so I was also going to ask about possible sunscreen additives. I’ve been making a lot of my own products in recent years, as my skin can be extremely sensitised & over-the-counter products are just too expensive to keep on trying & throwing away.
I love that your personal care product ideas don’t just revolve around the current obsession with coconut oil – don’t get me wrong, I like coconut oil, but enough already with smelling like a lamington! lol … I must also say that I feel much more at ease about the content of your health information & your DIY personal care product recipes (than other blogs), as I feel your background makes you far more likely to verify the validity of info before posting it … It can be frightening to see how much “information” is out there, being passed on by bloggers who take “facts” on face value because they don’t understand what a reputable source of information is … Thanks for all your hard work 🙂