Anti acne anti aging DIY moisturizer
My magic in a bottle?

As I’ve been mentioning, I’ve been been super jazzed about making my own DIY skin care stuff lately.

My favourite has been making my own super amazing anti-acne and anti-aging moisturizer concoction.

This is because I love being able to pack in a ton of awesome, healing ingredients into one easy product without all the chemicals and junk that usually come along with formulated products (even natural ones).

I strongly suggest making your own moisturizer!

Because it’s the best you’re going to get for your skin, and the base recipe is SO friggin’ easy to make.

Wait… Stop Here!

Now I must say though, before you go any further, you should definitely go back to the following blog post and read it:

The Basics of Making a DIY Acne Fighting Moisturizer

It gives you very important background information on DIY moisturizing that you need to know before continuing on here.

How to Make The Base Recipe

The base recipe for the moisturizer is just two ingredients. It is the canvas from which you can paint yourself a lovely little mixture.

Here it is:

  • 50% carrier oil of choice (either just one, or a combination of carrier oils). Click here to learn about choosing the right oil for your skin type.
  • And 50% aloe vera gel. I have been using and really like Green Leaf Naturals.

These are the base ingredients because the aloe soothes the skin and brings in moisture, and the oil then locks it in.

Mix them together in a dark glass dropper bottle, and shake. And you’re done.

Aloe & oil moisturizer
Just like ‘dis

Shake it a little before each use… use a small squirt of it twice a day, massaged into damp or wet skin.

The oil should fully absorb within a half hour or so but may leave you looking a little dewy for a while, which is ok. Adjust the amount you use up or down based on your experience with this.

Adding More Healing Ingredients

You can stop there with your DIY moisturizer.

I wanted to give you the most basic recipe so that you don’t feel like DIY is super intimidating or that you have to dump a boatload of money right off the bat.

And in fact, I do suggest you start with just this and let your skin get used to it, but then…

Well, I didn’t stop there and you don’t have to either… you can concoct to your heart’s content!

After all, this two ingredient moisturizer is the perfect vessel to bring other healing ingredients deep into the skin.

I suggest making small batches, and maybe adding one ingredient each time to see if your skin likes it. It is important to go slow, especially if you have sensitive skin. We don’t want to go too fast and make things worse.

Besides, the slow method is also easier on the wallet! (as I’ve mentioned before… DIY, especially for good quality ingredients, costs a lot more up front but will save you money in the long run if you keep up with it)

The ingredients I have personally been playing around with and adding to my moisturizer are the following:

  • Essential oils – this is a huge rabbit hole.. I honestly can’t believe I never got into essential oils before! They’re so cool! There are so many to choose from for the skin; since I have to narrow it down, I would recommend starting with frankincense and lavender.
  • Niacinamide aka Vitamin B3 powder – a strong antioxidant with strong scientific evidence that it reduces acne and slows aging
  • MSM powder – Builds collagen fibers in the skin and fills in acne scars.
  • Green Tea – Another ingredient that has good evidence in its power against acne, and is also a strong antioxidant
  • Antioxidants – Just a touch of Vitamin E oil and/or rosemary extract to extend the shelf life of your oils. This is most important if you are using hemp oil, or some other “dry” oil, in your mixture and don’t want to always have to keep it in the fridge.

My Super Special Moisturizer Recipe

I’ve been playing around for a while now, and I’ve hit on the recipe that I am personally very happy with and am going to stick with for a while.

I think my skin looks and feels friggin’ great!

My skin feels hydrated and even toned, fine lines are not as noticeable, any scabs or red marks heal in record time, and my usually clogged up forehead is smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Here it is. Keep in mind that I have skin that’s more on the dry side. You might change the carrier oils and essential oils if your skin is more oily.

You also may reduce the amount of aloe compared to the oil if you find that your skin is so dry that this isn’t moisturizing enough.

You are free to play around with ingredients and see what makes your skin feel great!

(Again, please go back to the DIY Basics blog post if you haven’t read it already for explanations on ingredient solubility and calculating recipes. Otherwise the next bit might be confusing!)

Mixture = 100%

So, to translate that into actual measurements… if you are making a one ounce concoction, then it would be the following:

  • Oil = 2.5 teaspoons  (in my case, the break down of that would be 1.5 tsp argan, about 1/2 tsp tamanu, and about 1/4 tsp hemp seed)
  • Aloe vera = 2.5 teaspoons
  • MSM powder = about 1/2 teaspoon
  • Niacinamide B3 powder = about 1/4 teaspoon
  • Essential oils = 12 drops (in my case, 3 frankincense, 3 lavender, 2 myrrh, 2 helichrysum, 2 sandalwood)
  • Vitamin E oil = 3 drops
  • Rosemary extract = 3 drops

If you want to make more than one ounce, then just multiply the above accordingly.

Sort ‘Em Out: Oil vs Water, Then Mix

So basically all you do to make the moisturizer is sort the ingredients into oil soluble ingredients, and water soluble ingredients.

In this case, niacinamide B3 powder and MSM are both water soluble. So you would first put your aloe vera in a clean cup, and then mix these powders into it until they dissolve. You might need to mash the MSM with a spoon to get rid of all the chunks.

In another container (perhaps the dropper glass you want to store it in), mix together your carrier oils (in this case, the argan, tamanu, and hemp seed oil), and then add your oil soluble ingredients to that (in this case, the essential oils and the Vitamin E and rosemary extract).

DIY acne Moisturizer

Then mix them both together, preferably in the bottle you’ll be storing it in.

If I’m making more than 1 oz, I still like to store it in a 1 ounce dropper glass for every day use, but just store the excess in the fridge in a larger glass container (as shown in the picture above)

Anyway, combine them, give it a shake, and voila.

Seriously, it’s very easy.

DIY anti-acne moisturizer
It will probably look something like this in the end

Adding the Optional Green Tea

The only thing that makes this slightly more complicated is if you want to add green tea. What I did was before I mixed anything else, I put the argan oil in a cup and then put my teaspoon of loose leaf green tea into it.

Then I placed the cup in a strainer over top of some boiling water (this is called a double boiler) for about an hour.

Double boiler
This kind of a get up

See, you have to heat up the green tea to diffuse it, otherwise you won’t get any of the nutrients in it that are good for treating acne.

But you also don’t want to heat up the oil so much that it damages it.

So this doubler boiler thing is the best way to go.

Anyway, then I strained the argan through a fine mesh strainer. Then I added the other oils and ingredients.

Instead of doing this the painful way as described above, you can instead just use green tea extract to add to your moisturizer (maybe at 10%?).

Only problem is that it’s hard to find organic green tea extract that isn’t suspended in alcohol.

This is the only organic one I could find that wasn’t. It’s mixed with glycerin instead, which is okay I think.

Happy Mixing!

Have fun DIYing it! 🙂

In future posts, I’ll be going over all these ingredients in more detail and why I’ve included each of them in my own superwoman moisturizer!