My Homemade Foundation

My Homemade Foundation

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It took me the longest time to realize that I had super sensitive skin. It reacts to nearly everything it comes into contact with, not to mention any high states of emotion I may find myself going through.

After many years of battling with my skin, ridding my cabinet of almost all my makeup, prioritizing sleep and water and proper eating, I realized that I would have the most adverse reactions after getting my makeup done for photo shoots (in my mid-20s, I was a freelance model). My skin would be fine and happy as a clam (minus my once a month flare up) until I had to put on makeup.

Then, all hell would break loose on my face.

Once I made this realization (it took me a while to put two and two together, honestly), I set a goal for myself to clear out all my old makeup products and swap over to homemade alternatives. I wanted to know the ingredients in the products i was putting on my skin. That way, if I had a bad reaction, I could easily pinpoint the cause and eliminate it. Plus, I was tired of spending loads on makeup that I hardly ever wore. I typically go without unless I am feeling particularly bad or I need to dress up for something special.

So far, I have switched my deodorant, shampoo, and moisturizer over to DIY alternatives and each has proven to be incredible for me! Why couldn't makeup be the same? Plus, I love the added benefit of being able to source products in the most zero waste way possible.

After searching online a bit, I found a recipe by a brand that I had already had positive experiences with from another DIY recipe: my deodorant. The brand is called Pronounce Skincare and they are all about supplying products whose ingredients you can literally... pronounce. Brilliant, right?

You can find their original DIY Foundation recipe here. Full disclosure - My DIY did not come out exactly the same as Jen's. My foundation turned out a bit more purple than the original post's, but I believe that is because I used Cocoa powder instead of Cacao powder, which are two totally different things, and I knew this, but I was using what I had on hand. My cocoa powder is just a lot darker than cacao powder and has a purple hue to it.

Regardless, I think it still works quite well! I'll stop blabbering on so we can jump in to the DIY!

Let's Get Started!

I gathered up all the ingredients Jen lists in her original blog post. I already had some of them like the shea butter, almond oil, beeswax, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. The others I wound up purchasing from Pronounce just because I felt like I could trust the products. Below is the full list of what you need for this DIY:

  • Double-boiler (I just used a larger glass container in a pot of water)
  • Kitchen scale (I find digital to be the most accurate)
  • Whisk
  • Container to put makeup in (I saved and re-used an old glass makeup jar + a plastic jar from an old Lush face mask for my containers as it makes a lot!)
  • 1.5oz Almond Oil (or unrefined, raw, organic carrier oil of your choice)
  • 1oz Shea Butter (I don't know if mine is organic, raw, and unrefined because I purchased it locally a while back)
  • 0.5oz Cocoa Butter (organic, raw, unrefined)
  • 0.5oz Beeswax
  • 1/8 t Vitamin E (Jen suggests to make sure it’s not from GMO sources)
  • .5oz Zinc Oxide (Jen suggests that it is uncoated, non-nano, and not micronized)
  • Cacao Powder (or cocoa powder like I used)
  • Cinnamon (I get organic cinnamon from the Bulk spice section at Sprouts)

Putting this makeup together was also SUPER easy. You just combine the first 5 ingredients and melt them together in your double boiler until they are well blended and smooth.

Then, you take your melted ingredients off the heat and let them cool a bit before adding in your zinc oxide (this gives you SPF coverage of about 10%).

Once that is all blended, you start adding in cinnamon and cocoa powder until you achieve your skin shade. This is where things went a bit sideways for me because I immediately added 1/2 Tsp of Cocoa powder and got.... purple ( I was supposed to add 1 TBSP of Cocoa + 1/8 tsp of cinnamon for a light foundation shade). 

I was a bit thrown and decided I wouldn't add any more until I tried the dried version of the makeup on my face to test for color and also an adverse reaction. So I poured my new makeup into it's final home through a strainer to remove the flecks of excess that hadn't mixed in all the way to the foundation and waited for it to dry enough to apply. 

What wound up being super odd is that the purple foundation actually worked on my skin!

Not only did it blend well with my skin tone, I also had no bad reactions after wearing it for a full day AND I had the added bonus of smelling like brownies All. Day. Long.

I'm not sure why it worked even though the shade was incorrect, but I assume it has to do more with the fact that this is considered a light coverage makeup. It's not supposed to be heavy or coat your skin to the point where it can't breath and you have zero pores.

Sorry, my hair was acting AMAZING on this day, so I couldn't help but snag some photos of it + the makeup + the powder! I didn't do any skin editing and you can see a slight breakout on my cheeks (it was period time!), but other than that, I felt this makeup did a great job of evening out my skin ton and making me feel awesome!

 

The only thing I did notice after putting on the makeup is that my skin looked very shiny. My skin LOVES moisture, so I knew it wasn't a bad thing, but I also didn't want to look like I was sweating constantly (or mildly moist), so I opted to create Jen's Facial Powder since it calls for many of the same dry ingredients and acts as a setting powder as well.

I mixed together her recommendation for a light powder with a few of my own additions/ twists based on what I had on hand:

  1. 2 T Arrowroot   Cornstarch (I didn't have arrowroot at the time)
  2. 1 t Zinc Oxide
  3. ¼ t Cacao
  4. 1/4 t Cinnamon (added 3/16 t more than requested - originally asked for 1/16 t)
  5. Dash of Tumeric (my addition!)

As soon as I put this powder on, all the shininess disappeared and my skin felt like the softest velvet ever. I literally sent videos to some of my friends all giddy and excited and exclaiming how happy I was to have found these recipes and have incorporated them into my life!

Do you have any favorite recipes you love to use? I am all about that DIY life and would love to hear your favs below!

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