Beauty Recipes: Crafting Your Natural Skin Care Regimen

There are three important things to understand when you are learning  natural skin care. 

The first is to recognize that the very best thing you can do for your skin is to drink more water. No matter how much magic you slather on, hydrating the new skin cells is going to do it the most good. 

Next, recognize that when your body encounters stress, it draws energy away from any bodily system that does not help it to escape or fight. Skin plays no part in the Fight and Fight response, and so it is the first thing that the adrenals steal energy from. If you have a stressful life, your skin will suffer. 

Finally, essential oils are magic, carrier oils are magicker! If there’s no such word there should be! 

If you imagine the skin as if it were made up of bricks. The bricks are the skin cells and the mortar that fixes them together nicely is lipids. Lipids are fats, and carrier oils are lipids. By choosing the right bases you can hydrate and improve the lipid structure of the skin enhancing the texture and youthful appearance of the complexion.

Choosing Bases

There are some basic mistakes people always make when they manufacture their own skin care. 

The first is they rely on too much lavender. 

One of lavender’s best skills is how the constituents communicate with the sebaceous glands. These secrete the sebum that protects our skin from infections and keep our skin lovely and supple and flexible. Lavender tells the glands, “There is plenty of sebum now. Stop producing,” which is why it is such a great choice for teenage skin.  If you use too much lavender, however, you will inadvertently dry your skin out. (At this applies to putting it in the bath to help you sleep, of course, not just in skin care. Think of how extensively essential oils work.)

In the same way, the glands have sensors that detect oiliness. What do you think will happen if you lather oil onto your skin every day? The sensors say “Oh, wait. We have enough oil”. They switch production down or off. If you put oil on your skin every day, it will dry it out. 

If your skin is dry, it needs to be hydrated, not nourished. Thus, the best choice is going to be a hydrating base rather than an oil based one, so an aqueous cream is the answer here. You can buy it over the counter at the pharmacy for just a couple of dollars. If you’ve never tried aqueous cream before, you’re in for a treat. Your skin glugs it up like a refreshing drink.

Nourishing  creams are a bit like what our grandmothers called “night creams”. They are a once a day treat for the skin. They have a very small amount of carrier oil to nourish the skin, but more importantly, they really improve the complexion’s surface texture and structure.

The ideal skin care regime then, looks like this:

Daily: Cleanse, tone and moisturize, both morning and at bedtime. Then, in the evening, end the regime with an additional nourishing cream as well as the moisturizer. 

Remember they do different things. 

Once weekly, do a steam to draw out deep seated impurities, a facial massage treatment with a serum and a natural masque

These are a whole book in their own right, but the most beneficial face masque, for any skin is a little mashed up banana in some warmed honey (Mind you don’t scald yourself...)

It makes a dreadful mess, but feels and smells delicious and it leaves your skin looking radiant. If you struggle with it slipping off your face, simply add a little powdered wheat germ or ground almonds to solidify it a bit. 

Making Bases

Cleanser

Cheat. Buy a cheap unscented one from your supermarket and add oils to it. 

Toner

Don’t overcomplicate things. Use the original and best - hydrolats and floral waters. Rosewater is, in my opinion, a bit of luxury every woman should enjoy each day.

Moisturizer

Aqueous cream.

Nourishing Cream

Nourishing creams are a fiddle to make in small batches, so it makes far more sense to do one large one,  then just scoop out a pot each time you need it. It’s your choice if you make one big set of several pots with oils in, or a blank batch and add different oils every time you need one. This is a good plan if you want to give pots away as gifts, because you can tailor each pot to match someone else's skin. 

For that reason, I’ll give you the essential oils in two ways. Any we have chosen here will be a safe dilution at that level. If you choose a different oil, please check the safe dilutions for that specific essential oil.

Strictly speaking for large batches you should weigh your oils, but just in case people do not have the equipment, we have left these in fluid volume. If you do want to do it right though, 1ml = 1g in weight. If you don’t have a small enough measurement on your jug you can safely guess 1ml as being 20 drops, so 5ml is 100 drops.

If you decide to swap and change carrier oils, for some reason, perhaps you have a nut allergy, for example, that is fine. The total requirement for carrier oil in this recipe is 330ml or 12fl oz.

You do need to be pretty organized to make things work well. Read the directions carefully before you begin, for success. 

To make a liter of face cream ( 20 x 50ml (2 fl oz) pots)

    • 550 ml (19 fl oz) water
    • 100 ml (3 ⅓  fl oz) Almond Carrier Oil (Prunus Dulcis)
    • 100 ml (3 ⅓ fl oz) Rosehip Carrier Oil (Rosa Canina)
    • 100 ml (3 ⅓  fl oz) Argan Carrier Oil (Argania Spinosa)
    • 30 ml (2 fl oz) Wheatgerm Carrier Oil (Triticum vulgare)
    • 20 ml (1 tbs) Glycerine
    • 70 g (2 ½ oz) Emulsifying wax (E/W)
    • 1ml Liquid preservative
    • 30 ml (1 fl oz) essential oils (Approx 600 drops total is probably easier)

Start by washing your jars and then putting them onto a baking tray in a very low oven to dry for around 15 mins. Boil your jar lids in water for five minutes. When you have clean, lids and jars laid out to pour your creams into, then you are ready to start. 

    1. Take your E/W and place it into a Bain Marie. Gently warm and melt it over a medium heat.
    2. Boil the kettle and measure  your boiling water.
    3. Pour the melted E/W and water into a food processor. 
    4. Add carrier oils and pulse. You want it well blended, but not full of air, or it will sink when it cools.
    5. Add essential oils now and give one more  blitz to blend them.
    6. Use a jug to pour into sterilized jars
    7. Leave to cool thoroughly before you put the tops on. If you rush, we can absolutely guarantee it will go moldy on the top!

Essential Oils For Skin Care Recipes - Dry Skin 

Cleanser

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Toner

Rosewater

Method of Use: Apply after cleansing to close pores and tighten the skin. 

Safety:  No issues

Moisturizer

    • 30ml Aqueous Cream 
    • 3 drops Rose Absolute (Rosa damascena)
    • 3 drops Melissa Essential Oil (Melissa officinalis)
    • 1 drop Sandalwood Essential Oil (Santalum album)

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Nourishing Cream

Large Batch

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Per pot

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Essential Oils For Skin Care Recipes - Combination Skin

Cleanser

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose and Ylang ylang.)

Toner

Rosewater

Method of Use: Apply after cleansing to close pores and tighten the skin. 

Safety:  No issues.

Moisturizer

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose and Ylang Ylang)

Nourishing Cream

Large Batch

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Per Pot

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Essential Oils For Skin Care Recipes - Oily Skin 

Cleanser

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening.

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Clary Sage.)

Toner

Orange Flower water.

Method of Use: Apply after cleansing to close pores and tighten the skin. 

Safety:  No issues.

Moisturizer

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Clary Sage.)

Nourishing Cream

Not recommended for oily skins

Essential Oils For Skin Care Recipes - Sensitive Skin

Cleanser

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Toner

Rosewater

Method of Use: Apply after cleansing to close pores and tighten the skin. 

Safety: No issues

Moisturizer

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Nourishing Cream

Large Batch 

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Per Pot

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Rose.)

Essential Oils For Skin Care Recipes - Rosacea

Cleanser

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Toner

Rosewater

Method of Use: Apply after cleansing to close pores and tighten the skin. 

Safety:  No issues

Moisturizer

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening.

Safety:  Not suitable for use in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Nourishing Cream

Large Batch 

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Per Pot 

Method of Use: Apply in the evening after you have applied your moisturizer. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Essential Oils For Skin Care Recipes - Acne

Cleanser

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety: Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Jasmine.)

Toner

Orange Flower Water

Method of Use: Apply after cleansing to close pores and tighten the skin. 

Safety: No issues.

Moisturizer

Method of Use: Apply morning and evening. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during pregnancy (Jasmine.)

Nourishing Cream

Not recommended for acne.

Anti Aging Essential Oil Blend Recipe - Serum 

Method of Use:  Massage into the skin thoroughly after cleansing and doing a steam. 

Safety:  Not suitable for use during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.

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