I’m excited to kick off a series on essential oils with this super simple and useful recipe today!
For over a year now, I have been obsessed with trying recipes for skincare and homemade cleaning solutions, as well as even clean alternatives to things like hand sanitizer and room freshener. It has been a lot of fun and my husband can attest to the many, many drafts of recipes I have gone through to achieve a high performing homemade solution.
Anyway, this first one is a lot of fun! If you like to use facial oils in your skincare, this recipe is for you!
Supplies needed:
Essential Oils. I chose Rose Geranium, Frankincense and Lavender because they are great for skin. To be specific:
Frankincense is well known as the best oil for preventing the signs of aging in skin. It reduces the production of free radicals and can be used to heal skin. It has a very strong scent, which can be an acquired taste. I have grown to love it and always have at least one drop of it mixed into my night treatment for added benefits every night.
Lavender oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It is also famous for easing stress and tension, which is why I added it to this mix (because I use this at night before bed).
Rose Geranium is a great skincare oil. It has the nicest scent (like fresh roses). It can unclog pores, brighten and tighten and minimize discoloration.
Carrier Oils. I chose a mix of three. Primarily Sweet Almond Oil because it’s very light and I also added Rosehip and Evening Primrose Oil because of their skin benefits. I chose Sweet Almond because it’s very lightweight and makes a great base. It can renew cells due to its vitamin E content. Rosehip oil is a miracle worker for pores. It has astringent properties, similar to a toner to help tighten and brighten skin. Evening Primrose oil can help reduce redness and combat premature aging.
You will also need a two-ounce dropper bottle (I usually use amber bottles because it’s good to block out light on any recipe with essential oils), a (tiny) metal funnel, and a measuring spoon.
Recipe:
10 drops lavender oil, 15 drops frankincense oil, 15 drops rose geranium oil, 1 tablespoon evening primrose oil, 1 tablespoon rosehip oil and top off the rest of the bottle with sweet almond oil.
A quick note about face oils: If you think you don’t like face oils, or you avoid them because you have oily skin, join the club! So many women are terrified of using oil on their faces. I get it—I used to avoid it too.
But more recently I learned that half the skincare products I use already contain oil—check the ingredients on your lotions and serums. You’ll probably be surprised.
While face oil isn’t for everyone, I think it’s worth trying. I have experienced so many benefits. Outside of cleaning up my diet and drinking more water (which I am imperfect with) adding oils to my skincare have delivered the best results for my skin.
Click here to learn how to use oils on your face.
I had so much fun creating this recipe for you!! I will be back soon to share my best essential oils recipes. If you have any requests for recipes you’d be interested in trying at home, I’d love to hear them! xx – Elsie
P.S. Keely helped me design two download sheets you can print on sticker paper to make your own recipes! Click here to download!
Credits//Author and Photography: Elsie Larson. Graphic design (labels): Keely Rust. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.
45 Comments
Please do more face oil recipes. I’d love to see more on different benefits for the skin!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
I love making my own facial oils! For some reason though I always use the worst containers for storing them, like a push down or spray top that gets clogged. It never dawned on me to use a dropped. Feels like giant DUH to me now 🙂
P.S. I’ve been getting really into geranium this year and just finished up my bottle of it. Will be trying out the Oui Fresh Rose Geranium next! Looking forward to it.
You will love the dropper bottles! So much better for face and body oils!
xx!!
Love doing DIY hair and beauty opts! such a great share cannot wait to get more Inspo!
http://www.lovekept.co.uk
I’ve been looking forward to a face oil recipe from ABM with your new oils – this one sounds sooo good!!
Hooray!!! We are working on a bunch more!
xx
I love this! I’ve never tried frankincense, but I love using lavender. I was scared to do oil cleansing, too. Mostly because I had pretty oily skin already and assumed it would make it worse. I had horrible acne and about 3 yrs ago (I’m 34 now), I tried oil cleansing on a friend’s recommendation. Wow. Such a change! It took about 6 months, but I have zero acne now (no more oily skin either!). I only use oils for cleansing and moisturizer now.
That’s so great to hear!!! I’ve heard stories like this from so many women! 🙂
This looks awesome! I’ve been thinking about trading out my usual perfumes for an essential oil blend instead. I’d love any tried and true ideas in that department! Also, any tried and true calming blends. Not sure with Nova on the way if you’ve thought through any calming EO blends for cranky toddlers?
Love this! I am definitely excited for more oil recipes (especially for cleaning products). I have never tried a face oil before as a moisturizer, but I now use cleansing oil as part of my double-cleansing routine and it has been really good and not made me break out (I have oily/acne prone skin). Oils for the win!
Love this recipe and look forward to making it! I’m scary allergic to tree nuts and coconuts though. Any replacement suggestions for the almond oil?
You can replace it with any carrier oil. Just choose your favorite. xx!
Jenny,
Two carrier oils that I love to use on my face are raspberry seed and carrot seed. Just look for the carrier oil and not the essential oil, although, I often add a few drops of carrot seed essential oil to my face potions as well. I hope you find something that works well for you!
Try hemp oil. It’s lightweight and no nuts 🙂
Just made this! Left out the primrose since I couldn’t find any and halved it for a smaller bottle. Looking forward to more. I used geranium and I have to agree that it is a bit overly potent.
This is such a great use for essential oils! I used to be afraid of oils on my face as well, but now I’m all, “gimme all dat coconut and argan oil plz.” 😉
Really excited to see your homemade cleaning solution recipes!
Are you using this as a oil cleanser or as an moisturizer after cleansing? How many drops do you recommend and in the am or pm or anytime? Thanks! Can’t wait to try out the recipe.
Hi Holly! This post should help! http://abeautifulmess.com/2016/09/5-incredible-ways-to-use-beauty-oils.html
I use several drops in the palm of my hand (equivalent to what you’d use of a serum or a face wash). I use a headband and let the oil soak into my face before putting or makeup or before bed (because my bangs get oily pretty fast). It only takes a few minutes to soak in. I don’t remove it.
How many drops do you use on your face? And do you just rub it in like a moisturizer? Do you wipe it off? I’ve never used anything like this before 🙂
Hi! I just linked this to the post– it should be helpful for you! http://abeautifulmess.com/2016/09/5-incredible-ways-to-use-beauty-oils.html
I am not sure what my skin and hair would do without oils. They are real life savers!
Rose geranium is NOT a mix of rose and geranium, it’s a plant this oil is derived from. Even the link you supplied states this very clearly.
also, Sweet Almond oil has vitamin E, not A, Rosehip however has vitamin A.
Thank you so much for the helpful notes! I have updated my post. 🙂
That’s so interesting! I do have oily skin, but if you say this is worth trying, maybe I’ll try this recipe!
https://www.makeandmess.com/
I’m very excited by this new series: I love essential oils and I’m using them each time I can in my beauty routine and everywhere else I can! And I’m always looking for more recipes and more ways to integrate them in my life.
However, I’m very confused when you say: ” I love this blend of rose and geranium” when you talk about the rose geranium essential oil. Is this oil really a blend? Is it rather not the essential oil extracted from Pelargonium roseum, which is a type of geranium (Geranium Bourbon) and not a mixture of rose and geranium? At least it is what the OuiFresh website says and that’s very different from what you are writing here.
Thank you SO much for the clarification. I’ve updated my post.
xx
I’m new to oils, as in I have lavender essential oil that I have added to bubble baths, but that’s it so far! I’d like to try this face oil recipe, but it looks like it’ll last a long time! Do all the oils last a long time? Or do you need to use them up quickly?
Essential Oils last a long time. DIY recipes made with oils sometimes do (this one will since it’s all oil) but ones made with water don’t last as long. xx!
Did you experience an initial breakout when you started using oils on your face? I tried using an oil I purchased from a spa about a year ago, and gave it a pretty good go but my skin broke out SO badly that I had to stop. I feel more confident about using this recipe because it’s so simple and natural but there’s still a part of me that’s terrified I’ll break out again.
I never did. Probably because I’m in my 30s, but I never break out anymore unless I’ve been eating too much junk food.
Make sure any oil you choose doesn’t have any artificial fragrance.
xx
I’m in my 30s too…always figured I’d be done with this whole “breakout” stuff by this point but…surprise! Nope! Haha. Oh well.
Thank you Elsie …. I think it is great to mix your own oils then you can make them to suit your skin.
I mix mine into a base of Vitamin E cream …. easy to apply and less of the ‘oily’ sensation.
I also include grapeseed and olive oils.
Are all the oils noncomedonic? I don’t want to break out. Thanks.
Really nice to discover that. I ‘ll try it right now…
Hi! I made this the other day- I love the way it smells and how smooth it is. I also really enjoyed using the little funnel! I am a little confused about when to apply the oil in relation to sunscreen. I’ve read that face oils can interfere with spf and not to mix oils with an spf moisturizer. If that’s the case, I’m not sure how long I should wait in between applying sunscreen, moisturizer, and then oil. Confusing! Any thoughts?
Do you have any recommended recipes for DIY face mists? especially with the rose geranium oil…I’m obsessed!
We do! Here’s one that Elsie made– http://abeautifulmess.com/2015/08/make-your-own-rose-water-face-mist.html
I just purchased some oui fresh oils and I absolutely love them! I am excited to make this facial oil because I always spend so much money on facial oils. I have a question though, I saved a couple of the glass dropper bottles that some of mine came in. Would that be okay to use if stored in a dark bathroom closet where light wouldn’t get to them? Also, I’m really hoping that your skin care mini oil set gets restocked soon so that I can order it that way 🙂
Yep! The bottles would be perfect 🙂
Ohhhh I LOVE THIS! I have a blog full of recipes and just get giddy thinking of new formulations! I love your essential oil combo!! Please keep these coming and I’d love you to check my recipes out for inspo!! http://jenniraincloud.com/skin-care-recipes/
I found this blend of face oils online and I’d like to see if I can replicate this formula. It has grapeseed oil, rosehip seed oil, vitamin E oil, and vegetable glycerin (which isn’t an oil).
https://www.bennebotanicals.com/shop/face-serum/
It has done wonders for my skin so I know they are onto something amazing. My acne is gone, my skin is so soft, and I enjoy taking selfies in the sunlight now!
That’s a lovely DIY recipe. I would love to try this out. But I have been using Gorgias London’s Honey and Rosehip oil for quite some time now. I tried different facial oils in the past, but most of them always resulted in me having a breakout. Finding one which suited my skin was difficult. You can also check them out and see if it suits you. After using it, my skin feels so much better than before. They have a wide range of Facial Oils available, which are 100% natural and completely free of preservatives and any chemical additives.
https://www.gorgiaslondon.com/honey-rosehip-oil-moisturiser-skin-rejuvenating.html
It’s great to see so many women so enthusiastically embracing the idea of making their own face oils. It’s something I did for decades myself, and I ended up making face oils for friends and then friends of friends… you know how it is…! But eceryone wanted different things from their face oil… some wanted to clear acne… some wanted to improve skin tone… some just wanted to look younger, and who can blame them?
But, in order to achieve all of these objectives a good number of expensive essential oils are required… a couple of which are TREMENDOUSLY expensive!! And, this is where experimenting with oils to formulate your own all-singing, all-dancing face oil really falls down. No-one can afford to buy Organic Rose Otto Essential Oil only to waste it in an unsatisfactory blend.
Eventually the demand for my incredibly healing face oils became so big that I decided to set up my own cottage business so that I could share my master blends with more women… because they work. And, they work because I use all of the expensive essential oils others would not dare to use.
I still hand blend my facial oils, and everything I do is done in the most environmentally sound way possible. I’ve called my creations FACIAL OIL No. 2 and FACIAL OIL No. 8, and my business is called Wild As The Wind. There’s another two face oils being developed at the moment as well.
You can find out more about them here: https://www.wilddigital.co.uk/facial-oils/