How to Make Your Own Face Serum for Yourself, Friends and Family
(at better quality and value than most products you can buy)
There are cosmetic companies that have made a great deal of fuss over the dropper bottles full of magic. Fifteen millilitres of hope for a very expensive price. Recently, I ran into one being advertised in my Instagram feed, and I clicked through, interested in the products made from beautiful oils. And for a mere $60AUD, I too could have this miracle oil. Wow, I thought, that's expensive, I wonder what's in it. And painfully, the first ingredient, also known as the filler, was an industry commodity base oil, not harmful to the skin, but not particularly exciting or beneficial either. So, learn to make your own.
To be honest, unless you are willing to invest in essential oils for the long run, you need a much simpler recipe than Grateful Face as a starting point.
Luckily, you can get absolutely beautiful base oils. You can use them on their own or keep your essential oils simple and make a brilliant serum. Most of my formulations for my face do not use any essential oil at all.
For face serum, I recommend a very light use of the essential oils, they are incredibly powerful. I suggest blending at a 1/2 % essential oil. This means 1/2ml in 100ml of fixed (also known as base or carrier oil).
In larger quantities, formulations are weighed, but that's not necessary or practical at home. Measuring in small amounts is very tricky for the home product maker, and while drops are not recommended as a sure-fire way of measuring, they are convenient. If the dripulator feels a bit unpredictable, as in no drops and then ten to twenty all at once, you can use the dropper of one of your soon to be serums to get a more reliable drop size and count.
So if you have 100mls of a fixed plant oil, you could use 15 drops total of essential oil.
Here's a simple serum that would be easy to put together.
Simple, Gorgeous Face Serum
100ml of your choice of oil: meadowfoam, jojoba, tamanu, pomegranate, rosehip, raspberry seed, blackcurrant. . .
15 drops of lavender
This would make up about a dozen 15ml dropper bottles.
Fresh, full of the best quality oils, pure nutrition, and protection for your face. Gifts for your loved ones. All for the cost of that bottle of magic that I saw on my Instagram feed. PLUS, you have lavender essential oil left over to use in a hundred other ways around the house.
Suppliers in New Zealand
These are the suppliers that we use who also do small orders direct to consumer sales in New Zealand. You can learn a lot from their listings and recipes. If you haven't perused an oils list before, prepare to have your mind expanded!
essentialoil.co.nz gonative.co.nz
These suppliers will also have the packaging you need. I recommend the 15 ml dropper bottles because it protects the oil in a small bottle, and is easy to apply just a few drops at a time.
arthurholmes.co.nz is a Wellington based packaging company and they have a wide range of glass. They are also a good place to go if you decide to start doing other foodie type projects.
Some words about oils-
Aside from some rare exceptions, essential oils are not to be used directly on to skin- they are too powerful. Keep the essential oil part as the small amount of spice of any formula and you'll enjoy them more.
I do try to only use oils that are pressed, instead of solvent extracted. One way to make sure you have really clean oil in terms of how it was grown and processed is to use certified organic oils.
You really can't go wrong with any oil from the above suppliers, but if you have a specific need in mind, I recommend taking some time to explore and learn. It is not possible to blog a 'how-to' on oils, I'm inviting you to learn and play.
