Friday, February 21, 2014

My Attempt At DIY Makeup

As many of you know by now, I make some of our household products myself. I do this somewhat to save money and because I believe it's healthier. It's also nice to know exactly what's in the products I'm using, and honestly it can be kinda fun for me since I'm not really a creative person, this is one way I can experiment and create things. So when a friend posted a link to a blog on DIY foundation (makeup) last weekend, I eagerly checked it out. I was thrilled to discover that the basic process looked familiar to me, it was quite similar to my own lotion recipe. I also had most ingredients on hand, so I decided to go for it. I made a batch, and having a "bad face day" that day, I gave it a try right away. My results were less than stellar. (I will add the disclaimer here that I WAS missing zinc oxide from my batch, an ingredient said to be listed for it's SPF factor. There is a possibility that including that would have changed my results)


The above image is the powder and foundation I made. Initially I only made the foundation, but after applying it I felt it necessary to follow the link in the initial blog to another blog for powder, hoping that would save this little DIY project and give me the good results I was so certain I was going to get when I'd begun.

So here's me on my "bad face day" having a breakout.This is the makeup free me last Sunday morning. I really wish I'd fixed my hair before I documented this experiment!

Certain that I was going to smooth on this foundation and feel a million times better (keep in mind that other than occasional mascara use, I quit wearing makeup about a year ago in my quest to both eliminate yucky products from my life and try to have more naturally nice skin, so I wasn't going into this used to the performance of a commercial product), I wasn't very worried about my unflattering "before" photo. I actually thought it was good I'd have a more dramatic comparison when my blemishes were minimized in the "after".
Unfortunately THIS is what the application of the foundation did for my looks:
No coverage of the acne and now my face is shiny too. This is when I decided I'd have to make the powder too and THAT would fix everything. I made and applied the powder and not feeling much better threw on mascara too. So this next picture actually does look a little better, but I promise it's only because of the mascara. I wish I'd remembered to snap a pic before I did that.
The powder DID fix the shininess issue, this much is true. However I look like I have dirt all over my face now. The flash of the camera washes out a bit of the "I've got dirt smeared on my face" look I've got going on here, so you can't fully tell how silly my face looks. But you can see that my acne is still quite visible, only now looks like it has dirt on it. Thank goodness for the mascara.
Of course I could've just skipped the makeup and gone straight to the mascara like a did here the week before:
And then I wouldn't have had the wasted effort and this mess all over myself and my sink!!