When I share photos of products that I make on social media, some people are surprised that DIY products can look great and very similar to conventional skincare. This is something that I personally love about DIY: it is very easy to customize handmade, safe and natural products so they look, feel and smell like I want them to.
People often assume that making such products is very difficult and that it can’t be done if they don’t have a Master in chemistry and a PhD in aromatherapy. Well, while I do have a background in post-grad science, I don’t have these specific degrees and yet, I’ve been making my own skin and hair care products for almost 7 years. So in this blog post, I’ll share with you some of the basic principles of DIY skincare and you’ll see how easy it is! I’ll also quickly cover the equipment you need to make skincare products at home, and also the type of products you can make yourself.
Let’s first start with basic principles
1. Oil with oil, water with water
For the majority of DIY skincare products, recipes involve either mixing oils with oils, OR mixing together water-based ingredients, such as floral waters. This principle is very simple and yet, it’s the base to achieve easy and effective DIY recipes. For instance, a face serum is typically a mixture of vegetable oils with essential oils, and a face lotion is obtained by mixing a few different floral waters together.
For balms, we usually mix oils with vegetable butters because it creates a better texture and some vegetable butters have amazing properties.
Some recipes do break the “oil with oil” and “water with water” principle. These recipes involve mixing oils with water-based ingredients. Now, as you know, if you mix oil with water, they separate. To keep them together, to glue them together, is possible but we need to us a specific type of ingredient called emulsifier. Using emulsifiers is something I only cover in my workshops as it’s not necessary to make most skincare products. For instance, if you go through my online DIY Skincare Beginner course, you’ll learn how to make the majority of your skincare products using the “oil with oil” and “water with water” principle, and no emulsifier.
2. Hygiene is very important
If you have watched the videos in my free Introduction to DIY skincare course, you’ll remember that some homemade products are fragile if they incorporate water in them. There are a few, easy precautions I recommend when doing DIY. I cover all of them in the DIY Skincare Beginner course and in my workshops, but I would like to mention here the most important of all: make sure that you clean and disinfect all your equipment and containers before and after you have used them. It doesn’t take long to do and it’s really easy: wash clean all your utensils and containers, using water and soap, dry them, then spray them with alcohol to disinfect them. And that’s it! Really simple!
3. Follow the recipes
Unless you have a very good understanding of DIY Beauty and the ingredients you are using, follow the recipes and don’t improvise too much on quantities. Some ingredients, like essential oils, should be used in very small proportions or they can do more bad than good.
You may be thinking: what if I don’t find a recipe that works for my specific skin type?
Because I want you to follow proportions AND also make products tailored for you, I’ve done something quite unusual in the online courses of my DIY Skincare Program: I’ve put together recipes where I give you all the proportions, but there is a different list of ingredients for different skin types. For instance, I’ll tell you to use 10 grams of vegetable oil in a recipe – but you’ll be able to choose the vegetable oil you want to use based on my recommendations for your skin type. It’s actually really easy to do. If you want to get a better idea of how it works, watch a video of one of my free recipes.
I also teach how to choose the best ingredients for your skin type and customize recipes in my workshops.
I share many recipes on the blog but I don’t cover customization because it would be too long to explain for each particular recipe. If you wish to use a different ingredient in a recipe, just post a comment and I’ll let you know if you can.
Equipment to make your own skincare products at home
Do you need any specific equipment to make your skincare at home?
It depends on how advanced you are in your learning. For instance, for my online DIY Skincare Beginner Course, you only need a kitchen scale, heat-resistant containers, silicone molds such as the ones you use for baking, and spoons. All of this, I’m pretty sure you already have in your kitchen!
For more advanced DIY Skincare, you’ll need a little bit more equipment. For instance, because you’ll use more ingredients in very small quantities, you’ll need a 0.01 gram precision scale. I also recommend getting a thermometer to check the temperature of emulsions and a small whisk. But if you are just getting started, honestly, just use equipment available from your kitchen!
What type of DIY skincare products can you make at home?
All the photos below show products that can be made easily in around 3 minutes, following the recipes in my DIY skincare course for beginners. Yes, it’s that easy to make scrubs, serums, lotions, makeup removers, balms and masks…
In my workshops, I cover also emulsions, gels and advanced techniques to customize your products. Most of these recipes are also really quick to do, and they are all really easy. They simply involve more ingredients than the recipes in the beginner course.
What do you think? Do you find DIY skincare easy or scary?
Make your own skincare – Click the below image to learn online at your own pace
Disclaimer: Any recommendations are based on personal, not professional, opinion only. All information on the Mademoiselle Organic blog is meant for educational and informational purposes only. For information on how to use this site, please read my Blog Policy page.