Do You Do DIY Makeup?
If you’ve read the book (and if you haven’t: tsk! tsk!) you know that we did our share of experimenting with DIY makeup.
It takes a committed kind of girl to make her face from scratch—a girl both of us admire, but that neither of us naturally is. (And click the link at the bottom for some recipes we wrote for ReadyMade magazine!)
So instead of pretending, we boiled our DIY makeup section down to simple ingredients that translate into great makeup. I’d venture to say that the two most successful were beet juice as a lip and cheek stain (truly amazing) and activated charcoal as an eyeliner.
What’s activated charcoal, you ask? It’s the stuff they used to give people for food poisoning that you can buy OTC for tummy aches—it’s also the stuff in your Brita filter. Given my sensitive stomach, I always keep these capsules (pictured above) around the house, and one fine day decided to open one up. What I found inside was the purest, darkest, most perfect black powder. Hello smokey eye.
Now, is this substance the most perfect clean eyeliner? Arguable. The texture is a little rough and I’ve heard that it can dry-slash-irritate the skin—which would make sense because its tremendously porous. I never had any problems with it myself but I’d be very careful not to get it in my eyes either—a rule that applies to most things. Eyes don’t tend to like foreign substances so much, clean or not. The results are lovely though, and it sure beats some of the toxic potions out there, not to mention the eye charcoal out of India that I so adore (but that used to be contaminated with lead and still makes me nervous). Just look at Kathryn (left), one of our readers who tried it on her eyes. Rarr!
Have you ever attempted making your own makeup? Did you try our suggestions in the book, or are you the girl who cooks up magic potions in her kitchen? (Total badass moves.) Either way, we’d love to add some recipes to our repertoire or hear about your experience in the comments. We’re smelling a challenge coming on…
Image via a ReadyMade article, where we shared some DIY tricks
I’m into DIY skin care creams/oils, but never tried makeup. Unless you count my DIY chocolates that I end up wearing around my mouth for hours after testing my batches in progress (gotta remember to look in the mirror after eating chocolate). And I eat lots of beets so I know it does make a good lip stain : )
I am experimenting with deodorant cream. But no definite success yet. But I did just find a good recipe, something that looks a lot like soapwalla to me,
Like Rebecca, I’ve been making my own skincare stuff, but not makeup. I don’t really wear makeup too much, maybe once every other month? So I haven’t really felt the motivation to make my own. Kathryn’s eyes do look awesome, maybe I will have to give it a try!
Actually my best lip “stain” is my own teeth. Licking my lips, rubbing them together and roughing them with my teeth while they’re pressed together makes them darken nicely. I learned that trick from my mom, who nearly never wears lipstick because of this. We both have women asking us constantly “What lipstick are you wearing?” Almost all women can do this, and the best part is, the shade will always match your skin tone perfectly!
Other DIY make up? Not yet. DIY hair dye? Yes. I <3 henna. I love controlling exactly what goes into my mixture and how long it stays on my head and I love watching the red deepening to this nearly purplish hue over the next couple of days. I love how it's been healing the damage from conventional dyes and I love how I'm actually losing less hair when I brush it. Henna is what got me started on natural beauty in the first place – my gateway drug.
Unfortunately a lot of the DIY cosmetics sound very strongly pigmented and as a fair haired, somewhat fair skinned person I need to use much more subtle colours than beet and charcoal – I’d look like a kiddie playing with Hallowe’en make up! I continue to work on having the best skin possible and therefore using as little make up as possible. Then a lick of mascara and lip gloss will be all I need – dare to dream!
I practically snorted my tea through my nose when I read this post because: a) I had just clicked over from online shopping for natural pigments to make my own eye and lip colours; and b) I spent all weekend doing mad science cookery trying to MAKE my own pigments from fruit and vegetable dyes (I managed a pretty rose tone and a completely unexpected olive green – I was going for red). I am, and always have been, “the jam girl” you refer to in the book (except I’ve never actually made jam – but I make clothes, shoes, sourdough bread, wine, beer, paper…)!
I’ve made my own beeswax lip balm in the past, and since reading the book I’ve been using the charcoal liner and beets for a day look, though I’m still trying to find a way to make the charcoal stay put a little better; olive oil makes it slip into the crease, and water’s alright but makes it a bit clumpy to apply smoothly.
I’ve switched all my body and hair care over to mostly homemade clean products, but the makeup bag is proving tricky because I’m broke, and I NEED lasting, vibrant colours for my job (I’m a circus/stage performer). If I can get my mitts on a few good pigments, though, I can make my own completely clean kit for less than the cost of one mineral powder foundation. Well, completely clean except for my giant collection of glitter, that is.
Would it be possible to combine the charcoal with beeswax and olive oil to create the consistence of really thick lip gloss? Wouldn’t this stay on better?
I have used the charcoal as eyeliner and found it works great! I have also experimented with a homemade deo and so far, so good, but we haven’t had any really hot weather yet where I live. And I have just started using Grapeseed Oil mixed with a bit of lavender oil as my moisturizer.
I make my own mineral foundation, veil and eyeshadow and won’t wear shop bought stuff anymore because mine is so much better! The foundation is a perfect match for my skin and feels great and best of all I can add what ever soothing raw ingredients I like to the base. My Mum was skeptical but tried some and she is also very happy with the result. I’ve made my own lip balm base which is beautiful, so all I need to do now is add some pigment and voila! a lipstick. To do all this you do need to fork out for some basic equipment, raw materials, take necessary precautions with sterility, and protect yourself with a mask whilst blending, and have a bit of spare time on your hand! Initially a little trial and error may be involved, but if you really want to know what is in your make-up then this is a great way to do it.
I adore cooking beets in vegetable glycerin over a double broiler to make cheek stain a la Benefit. I got this off a website but I can’t from the life of me remember what the site is.
I make all my own skincare, body and haircare too! Well at least I “no poo” and oil cleanse my face as well as using a home made ACV toner.
i made almond kohl powder and it was gritty. evethough I grindeded it with a pastel and coffee grinder. Do you have any advice as to what should be used to make a home made kohl eyeliner.
I put the alomonds on fire until they burnt out. then I grinded and pesteled them. The powder looked great. However, when I mixe it with seseame oil and appliecd it to my eyeline it felt like rock in my eyes. very painful. is your activated charcol recipe the same ?