DIY facial cleansers are all the rage, and it’s no wonder why!
More and more people are turning to homemade skincare for the thrill of crafting their products and the peace of mind that comes with knowing exactly what goes into them. By making your cleansers, you gain complete control over the ingredients, removing potentially harmful chemicals and focusing on what works best for your skin. Plus, it’s a creative and rewarding way to personalize your skincare routine!
But here’s the catch—while crafting your products can be fun and effective, it’s easy to make mistakes that could irritate your skin or leave you disappointing results. That’s where we come in! We’re here to walk you through the most common slip-ups and how to avoid them. By the end, you’ll know how to create safe and effective cleansers, helping your skin glow like never before. Let’s get started!
Mistake #1: Using the Wrong Dilution Rate
What Happens? Overusing essential oils can irritate the delicate skin on your face, leading to redness, dryness, or even breakouts. Essential oils are highly concentrated, and applying them undiluted or excessive amounts can overwhelm your skin’s sensitivity.
Why This Matters: The skin on your face is thinner and more sensitive than the rest of your body, making it more prone to irritation. Unlike other areas, facial skin requires much lower dilution rates to stay healthy and balanced.
The Solution:
- Stick to a 1% or lower dilution rate when using essential oils on your face. This ensures you’re getting the benefits of the oils without the risk of irritation.
- To measure correctly, aim for about 6 drops of essential oil per ounce of your chosen product (like a carrier oil or moisturizer).
- Use proper dilution to avoid redness, burning, or long-term skin sensitivity. Diluting essential oils correctly enhances their safety and allows you to enjoy their benefits, such as hydration, soothing properties, or aromatherapy, without harming your skin.
Mistake #2: Not Using a Preservative
What Happens? Without a preservative, water-based or water-exposed products create the perfect environment for growing bacteria, yeast, and mold. This can compromise the product’s quality, making it unsafe for use and potentially harmful to your skin.
Why This Matters: Preserving safety and product integrity is essential, particularly for water-based items like cleansers, toners, and creams that frequently come into contact with water. A well-preserved product ensures a longer shelf life and safer application.
The Solution:
- Incorporate a safe, skin-friendly preservative formulated explicitly for water-based cosmetics to prevent contamination. These preservatives help maintain the freshness and safety of your product without compromising skin health.
- For those who prefer preservative-free options, consider powdered face washes that stay dry until mixed with water at the time of use. This alternative reduces the risk of microbial growth while offering a natural, safe option for preservative-conscious users.
Mistake #3: Using Harsh Surfactants
What Happens? Many commercial surfactants, such as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), are designed to create a rich lather and remove dirt and oils. However, they can be overly harsh on the skin, stripping away its natural oils. This can disrupt the skin’s barrier, leaving it vulnerable to dryness and irritation.
Why This Matters: When the skin is over-cleansed and loses its natural oils, it often responds by either becoming overly dry and sensitive or producing excess oil to compensate for the imbalance. This can lead to problems like flakiness, redness, and even breakouts, challenging maintaining healthy, balanced skin.
The Solution:
- To avoid these issues, choose products with gentle, naturally derived surfactants that cleanse without disrupting the skin’s moisture barrier. Ingredients such as Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) Powder, or Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) Powder are effective yet mild alternatives.
- For an even gentler experience, consider using Simply Earth’s Face Wash Powder or glycerin-based melt-and-pour soap, which offer cleansing without compromising your skin’s natural balance. These options are kinder to the skin while still effectively removing impurities.
Mistake #4: Using Only One Surfactant
What Happens? While using a single surfactant in your facial cleanser can work, creating a product that balances performance and gentleness often falls short. A single surfactant might provide cleansing but may lack the rich foam, mildness, or overall effectiveness that a well-designed formula can achieve.
Why This Matters: By combining surfactants, you can significantly improve the characteristics of your facial cleanser. A blend of surfactants enhances the foam, increases cleansing power, and ensures the product is gentle on the skin. This approach allows for a more versatile and effective cleanser that meets various skin needs and preferences.
The Solution:
- For example, mixing SLSa Powder with Cocamidopropyl Betaine creates a cleanser with better lather, improved cleansing ability, and a softer feel on the skin.
- Experimenting with different surfactant combinations lets you tailor a formula that works best for your skin type, whether you need extra moisture, gentleness, or deeper cleansing. You can achieve a formula that strikes the perfect balance for your skincare routine by testing various ratios.
Mistake #5: Wrong Consistency
What Happens? A poorly formulated cleanser may have an undesirable texture—feeling too runny, sticky, or mushy—making it unpleasant or frustrating to use. This can lead to dissatisfaction with the product, even if it performs well otherwise.
Why This Matters: Texture and consistency are crucial for user experience and product performance. A cleanser that feels too thin may not provide the luxurious experience customers expect. At the same time, one that’s too sticky or mushy might not spread or rinse off effectively, impacting overall usability and satisfaction.
The Solution:
- Fine-tune your recipe to achieve the ideal texture. For liquid cleansers, stabilizers like cetyl alcohol can be added to thicken the formula without compromising performance. For solid bar cleansers, consider swapping cocoa butter for mango butter, which gives a firmer, more stable consistency.
- Encourage experimenting with small batches. Testing different ingredient ratios allows you to refine the formula until it meets the desired feel and performance, ensuring the final product is functional and enjoyable.
Additional Insights from DIY Experts
Avoid Problematic Ingredients
Be cautious of ingredients like baking soda and lemon juice, which are often touted as natural remedies but can disrupt your skin’s pH balance or cause irritation. Baking soda is too alkaline for the skin, while lemon juice can be overly acidic and lead to sensitivity or even burns in sunlight.
Instead, opt for proven safety and efficacy ingredients for skincare, such as niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, or aloe vera. It’s essential to prioritize what is gentle and beneficial for the skin over what is merely popular or trending online.
Start Simple
It can be tempting to pile on multiple products or ingredients, but this approach—often called the “kitchen sink” method—can overwhelm your skin and make it hard to pinpoint what’s effective.
Start with a minimal routine, incorporating only a few active ingredients, such as a gentle cleanser, moisturizer, and a targeted treatment (like a serum). This will help you gradually understand what works best for your skin type and avoid unnecessary reactions or irritation.
Always Patch Test
Before fully committing to a new product, it’s crucial to patch test. Apply a small amount of the product to an inconspicuous area, such as behind your ear or on your inner wrist, and monitor it for at least 24-48 hours.
This step helps you identify potential allergic reactions, irritation, or sensitivities before applying the product to your face, ensuring your skincare routine remains safe and effective.
Achieve Radiant Skin with Confidence!
Creating your skincare products can be a gratifying and empowering experience, but avoiding common pitfalls along the way is essential. Rushing into complicated recipes, neglecting to patch test, or using poor-quality ingredients can lead to unnecessary frustration and even harm your skin. Instead, remember that thoughtful formulation and safe practices are your best friends in DIY skincare.
By keeping recipes simple, using only high-quality ingredients, and learning proper techniques, you’ll set yourself up for success. Start small, be patient, and explore the process with curiosity and caution. With each completed recipe, you’ll improve your skincare routine and better understand what truly works for your skin.
Take the first step toward your DIY skincare adventure by downloading our free guide, The Ultimate Guide to Natural DIY Skincare, filled with simple recipes and tips for every skin type. With the right approach, you’ll soon say, “I made this!” while enjoying a safe, effective, custom facial cleanser designed perfectly for you.