As if I don’t have enough hobbies, I’ve decided to make my own mineral make-up. It started with me looking to buy mineral make-up (foundation) and not wanting to pay the premium. So instead, like a 60 dollar home-grown tomato, I decided to make my own.

I’ll be trying my first experiments in blending this weekend, but here’s the basic starter information I’ve learned so far.

You need three or four basic ingredients:

Pigments – all colors are made from black, red and yellow. You can buy browns that are already formulated as a starting point–much easier than trying to achieve browns or tans on your own and there’s not any difference in cost at most places.

Titanium Dioxide – This is a bright white and is used to help get the makeup to a usable, spreadable state. You can’t just spread the pigments on your face. Tapioca starch is also used either in combination or in place of the TD. (Talc is used also, but not considered to be a great ingredient because of its chalkiness.) I’m probably going to try the tapioca starch to begin because I can get it readily. The place I ordered pigments from didn’t happen to have TD. They had an extender product which is a mica coated with Titanium Dioxide–it looks like it will work, but I don’t really know if I want to use only the extender or if I’ll want something less reflective.

Mica – Mica provides a satin sheen, helps spreadability and can help hide wrinkles (due to its reflective nature.) I’m not sure how much I’ll like this one because the one thing I hate about foundations is sparkle or shine. There are no sparkles in the mica I ordered, but it does have a sheen. Since the pigments are dark and flat, I think some will be necessary, but for me, not a lot.

Zinc Oxide – this is a basic sunscreen and is also used to sooth skin (it’s in a lot of skin protectorant products). I’m not using this one for now. I don’t generally wear a lot of make-up and not out in the sun because then I sweat it off anyway. I may decide to add it later!

Here’s a website that reviewed a lot of products already on the market. I used it to get an idea of what ingredients I might want in my make-up.

Mineral Make-up Reviews

Of those, I really liked the sound of:

Affordable Mineral Makeup They use the least ingredients out there and had very reasonable prices. They have a forum and were great about answering my emailed questions.

Everyday Minerals Sample sizes available for order with reasonable pricing. I couldn’t find a list of ingredients.

Aromaleigh Recommended by a friend. Reasonable pricing. They have a very basic formula that uses minimal ingredients that sounds very nice.

Eyes Lips Face The prices seem very reasonable and a friend uses and recommends the products. There were more ingredients, including bismuth (which I believe would impart more of a shine/glitter than I want), but again, the price seemed very fair at first glance.

Sterling Minerals This one was a little higher in price (around 24 before shipping) but it lets you choose your skin sensitivity. Bascially, they have worked very hard with customers to find formulas that work for even the most sensitive skin.

I, brave fool that I am, gave my first mineral make-up recipes a try. I ordered some basic ingredients from DIY Cosmetics. I found their website a bit hard to use. They could benefit from a few more product descriptions and links. There’s mention of an articles section, but no link, and I couldn’t find it. For beginners, there really isn’t enough information about what is needed to get started. I spent a lot of time cross-referencing before I was finally able to put in an order.

DIY also doesn’t sell titanium dioxide powder, a main ingredient in “whitening” the basic colors to achieve an exact color match. Instead they have tapoica starch (which I bought at the grocery store because it was a lot cheaper.) I have no idea at this point which ingredient is better. The tapioca starch worked fine for me to get the color where I wanted it. I’d still like to try the titanium dioxide. I have heard that it is harder to get it to “disperse” throughout a powder, but I think it is less irritating to the skin for those with sensitive skin.

DIY does have very reasonable shipping charges. They also were one of the only sites where I found a recipe to get me started. There was other information on the site that I found useful, although again, navigating and finding it took quite some time.

Here’s what I started with:

Oxides:

Brown (their premixed version)
Tan (their premixed version)
Yellow (because I know my undertone is yellow rather than pink)

Fillers and Whiteners:

Mica Extender (a matte mica coated with titanium dioxide; easily dispersible)
Ultra Fine Mica (a satin matte mica)

Tapoica starch from the grocery

There’s several other ingredients available such as zinc oxide (sunscreen protection) and magnisuim stearate–but I didn’t need them to get started.

I used the basic recipe on the DIY site as a guide, although again, I didn’t buy all the ingredients (including the spoons). Using the brown as a base pigment, I got a nice brown/pink undertone blush. I could have continued making it “lighter” but there was a slight pink to it (a very pleasant pink, mind, but I have yellow undertones in my skin).

Here’s the recipe. In my case a single unit is 1/4 tsp, but you can use any measurement, including the special spoons–just keep the ratios the same.

Blush/medium foundation:

2 Mica extender
1.5 Mica
1/2 brown
3 tapioca
1/2 yellow

I added each ingredient one at a time and mixed and mixed on wax paper. It takes quite a bit of mixing to make sure there are no tiny lumps that will streak yellow/red/brown across your skin. There are special blenders you can buy or you can actually put it in your home blender. Were I making a larger batch, I would probably use the blender, but I just patiently mixed and smashed until there were no streaks.

The foundation that I think matches my skin closer:

2 Mica Extender
2 Mica
3 Tapioca
1/2 Tan oxide

What I found is that my skin could probably go with a little more tan or even a little less. Once the undertone was right, my skin wasn’t that particular. I could probably have added just a pinch more red (which is in the brown–I didn’t buy red oxide itself). Either way, the powder was invisible in room lighting and in the shade outside. In direct sunlight, right after application, I could see “powder” but it was light, not caked. That disappeared after the makeup settled.

Both these foundations are “matte” which is what I was after. No extra glittery look. What I like about it most so far is that it evens everything out. It’s light and it isn’t at all obvious that I have any makeup on.

What I didn’t like is that the tapioca starch was just a tiny, itsy-bit itchy and drying–I have very dry, ridiculously sensitive skin. The tapoica might work well for more oily skins. I’m going to try either titanium dioxide or rice flour in a different batch. Stay tuned!

I’ll also do a post on some of the sites that sell oxides, titanium dioxide, micas, etc. I still need to choose one and order titanium dioxide. Right now I’m leaning towards ordering from Coastal Scents because they seem to have a wide variety of micas, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide–and I think I may go ahead and get a red oxide so that I can really tweak the color exactly.

I posted my first two recipes here. I wasn’t in love with the tapioca starch so I decided to try a couple of variants.

This first one, for whiteners/blending, I used only the mica extender (mica coated with titanium dioxide) and the mica (mica has a very slight natural grey tone to it when next to tapioca starch or titanium dioxide). This changed the consistency of the mineral make-up to an amazing degree. It was much harder to mix–it was basically “sticker.” I found that the color mattered more also because there was more light reflection than when tapioca starch was used. Again, I used 1/4 tsp as the unit; any unit can be used as long as the ratios stay the same.

Here’s the recipe:

7 extender
1 mica
1 tan
pinch of brown (to bring back a little more red)

Notice that I used more ingredients–that’s mainly because I had more trouble getting the color where I wanted it. Having a red would have come in handy. I would have put a pinch of red in instead of the brown that I had on hand. This makeup was “heavier” but it also concealed better. It was smooth and soft feeling. It reminded me of Revlon’s colorstay makeup. I could feel it more on my face, it concealed very well, but it was a bit more “visible” because light reflected off of it. There was no powdery residue in sunlight, but there was a matte/reflective look. This is a makeup that I think would work very well for going out at night. It adhered very well to my skin and wasn’t as likely as the tapioca based stuff to just rub off in an hour. It was not irritating at all. No itch, no drying; it felt almost like a cream. This one could easily be added to a cream, in fact, to make a liquid foundation.

Next recipe I tried, I took the above result and added rice flour. Basically I didn’t find that the extender and the micas let me lighten to color as much as I wanted. I can’t give a recipe because I really added this and that as I went along, trying to get the color and consistency right.

Rice flour was cheap – 3 dollars for a pound in the grocery store. It’s not as white as tapioca starch and when you’re mixing it, it “feels” grittier. This actually was a good thing. It helps smear the mica and color pigments very nicely. I needed more rice flour than tapioca to whiten. This flour is a great place to start testing recipes–it’s cheap, and it left NO powdery residue. None. This was one where I could stand in sunlight and not see makeup or powder. It doesn’t adhere to skin as well as the micas–they are necessary to “finish” the recipe. I’m not sure I have the ratios where I want. Once I got the color where I wanted it, I think it could have used more mica–more sticking power. Of course, I can only put so many batches on my arms and face, so for today, I left it. I’ll likely revisit it tomorrow.

Also, once I added rice flour–there was no making this one into a liquid foundation (if you want to make a liquid foundation try using Suave Oatmeal Lotion as your whitening agent in place of titanium dioxide or the rice flour–most lotions contain titanium dioxide so once you get the basic color where you want it, you can use a hand-type lotion to whiten it to your exact skin tone and create a liquid foundation.).

The rice flour I had was not fine enough and didn’t dissolve. There may be special grinds of rice powder that make it possible, but with the graininess, it wouldn’t work with this type.

In just the few tries I’ve completed, I have enough make-up to last me a year. I’m not sure how much further I’ll go until I’ve tried out the ones I’ve created. I’d like to “wear” them a few days and see how they hold up. I’d still like to try titanium dioxide as a white and having a red oxide on hand would really help me get the colors where I want them. If I put in another order, I’d probably order zinc oxide (sunscreen) as well.

Got in some new supplies (ordered from TKB Trading — lowest prices I found, good basic info about each product and plenty of selections). The main portion of the order was to obtain titanium dioxide and some different mica. Both were coated with methicone, which supposedly makes them completely non-irritating. I also ordered boron nitride, something that is used in high end make-up and supposedly gives a nice finish. I tried all three of these white powders on my skin without any color added and none of them bothered my skin. I couldn’t tell much difference between the sheen of the mica and the boron other than the boron is a whiter powder (the mica has a slight greyish tinge.) Both are quite reflective, which is supposed to hide fine lines.

New oxide colors:

red oxide
red/blue oxide

The red oxide is…rather orange looking to my eye. I mixed the red, the red/blue, the yellow, the tan and the brown with some Suave Oatmeal cream. This turns it into a concealer, while whitening it at the same time. Obviously as is, they are too dark and also too red, yellow or whatever. What I wanted to do was see how the colors looked on my skin, even too dark. The closest matches appeared to be the red/blue or the brown.

I started mixing in yellow with that in mind, but eventually, because the red/blue was a bit purple and the brown a bit pink, I started over with the yellow–and added the red/blue. Either way, I got to the same place, the difference is that I needed more yellow–so starting with red/blue created a rather huge pile of pigment by the time I added enough yellow. The larger the pile, the harder it is to get the lumps out and get even distribution of color. Start very small. Mix between each ingredient. Don’t use more than 1/8 of a tsp of your main color (in my case yellow). Then add a pinch of secondary colors (in my case the red/blue).

The titanium dioxide is rather lumpy, and I experienced no real difference with the titanium coated mica versus the methicone coated titanium dioxide. Both are very creamy, somewhat difficult to mix and impart a sheen.

The mica coated with methicone was nice, a bit less gray than plain mica. Relatively easy to mix, adds creaminess and sheen.

The boron nitride is a nice sheen, a very nice white. Again, other than whiteness, I really couldn’t tell much difference between it and the mica. It may have adhered slightly more to my skin. It was almost twice as expensive.

In the following recipe, the sheen factor was too high for me. The makeup brushes on fairly well, but is sticky. The end result is that it looks like I used a liquid foundation. I was utterly amazed at this, because everything is a powder, but when you sweep it on with a brush–it looks liquid. I used a 1/4 tsp as the measurement tool.

1/2 yellow
pinch of red/blue (not even 1/16 tsp)

2 titanium dioxide (methicone coated)
1/2 mica (methicone coated)

I tried half with some boron nitride and half without. It adds sheen, but the formula doesn’t need it.

I thought the spreadability was too thick for what I wanted so I added:

2 rice powder

The rice powder helps the spreadability a lot and also takes away some of the sheen. For my next batch, I will probably put even less sheen by cutting back the titanium dioxide. The good news is that after wearing it an hour, the sheen backs off and the color stays on. There’s definitely some room to play there.

I have thus far spent about 45 dollars. I can still make several batches, but I must say that getting the color where I want it is hard. Off by just a pinch and suddenly I’m going back and forth with the yellow and the red/blue. I think the brown would have worked almost as well as the red/blue, by the way. The key is to use very, very little color.

The titanium dioxide was a wonderful whitening agent. I liked it, although it was hard to mix into the formula. Lots of patience required here. And do not tear a hole in the wax paper (wax paper was the best mixing surface I found.)

I liked the boron nitride and the mica, but I’d probably go with the mica because it was cheaper. The only real benefit to the boron nitrate was the whiter color, but you’re adding so little of it compared to the titanium dioxide and rice flour you’re not really adding much “white.” Add them last as they seem to have the least effect on the overall color.

It would be vastly easier to just buy samples from a vendor because getting to “beige” is very tough. Then getting the sheen versus powder/spread right is another challenge and I’m pretty sure I’m not where I want to be yet. Based on what I now know about ingredients, I’d probably start with one of these two:

Sterling Minerals This one was a little higher in price (around 24 before shipping) but it lets you choose your skin sensitivity. Bascially, they have worked very hard with customers to find formulas that work for even the most sensitive skin.

Affordable Mineral Makeup They use the least ingredients out there and had very reasonable prices. They have a forum and were great about answering my emailed questions. They run various contests for free merchandize: There’s one now that ends Sept 2: Here You’ll have to hurry to enter!

I’ve been doing melt and pour soap for a while.  For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s taking a basic soap such as glycerin and adding oils, color and/or scent.  You can start with any soap that isn’t a deodorant or detergent (Ivory for example.)  Unscented is best because then you can add your own scent or not.  I used Ivory in a few test batches and found the scent of that soap overwhelming–adding oils doesn’t take away the good old Ivory smell of it.  I do like using Olay’s Sensitive Skin soap now that it is available again (it is not quite as soft as glycerin soap so I do cut it into small pieces when using with the recipe below).

Most people take the soap and shave it (grate it) and then add a little water and melt everything over a double boiler.  I use a crockpot.

Here’s my latest recipe:

2 lbs unscented, no color pure glycerin soap

1/4 cup milk (you can use water.  I like to add milk as it is very good for your skin.  Many people like goat’s milk in their soap.)

Using a crockpot on the lowest setting, add the milk and the soap.  I don’t bother to shave the glycerin into small pieces.  If you’re in a hurry, grate it or cut the block into small chunks.   I leave the crockpot covered for the first half hour as it warms, and then I will often leave it uncovered so that the melted portion of soap doesn’t get too hot.   Stir every so often (15 minutes at first and then more frequently as it melts).    When the glycerin is melted, you can add your scents and oils.  Do NOT let it boil or continue to warm after it is melted.  If it gets too hot, it will develop air bubbles that will stay in the soap.  This doesn’t harm the soap at all, but the bars won’t be as pretty.  They’ll have air gaps.  Nothing serious, but easy to avoid.

At this stage I add:

1 – 2 tablespoons aloe oil (this will give the bars a light greenish/yellow color)

2 tsp mandarin red  essential oil (this will add an orange/red color)

1 to 2 tsp lime essential oil (this adds a bit more green/yellow)

Stir after each addition.   The lime and manderin red give soap a wonderful, light citris smell.  The aloe is for skin conditioning.  You don’t want to add too many oils because your soap will lose lather, but you could add another oil at this stage if you want.  Cocoa butter, honey, or olive oil are popular additions.  I have used honey in soap and like adding it (it has great anti-fungal, antibiotic properties.)  Sesame oil gives soap a nice feel and scent, although I think of it as a guy scent more than a girl scent.  A little goes a long way.

Using a dipping spoon (like a soup ladle) pour the soap into individual soap molds.  Let dry overnight and then slip the soap out of the molds.  The more water or milk you used to help dissolve the soap, the longer the drying time.  After you take the soap out of the molds, place on waxed paper for a few days to let them cure (meaning, make sure all the excess moisture has dried off.)

Supplies – Molds,  Essential oils and Glycerin Soap

My favorite molds are silicon baking molds (buy online or at craft shops).  They are extremely easy to work with because they peel right off the soap when it is time to remove them.  They are easy to wash, store and they last a long time.  Plastic molds can crack and become deformed after a several uses, although there are more of them available in soap-shapes.

You can use smaller molds (1/4 cup) for gift soap or travel.  I recommend at least 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup molds for regular bar soap.

Soap and pour glycerin is available in many craft stores (locally, Michael’s has some.  Michael’s is also a good place to check for silicon shapes, especially during the holidays.  You can also use a silicon loaf pan.  When the soap has hardened, slice it into bars).

You can order large blocks of glycerin soap online.  My favorite place to get the glycerin soap, oils and scents is Camden-Grey.   They have very nice glycerin soap, excellent customer service, useful information about the various oils and fragrances (fragrances are different than essential oils–I always use the oils myself).

Yes, this started out as an experiment, but it’s grown into a cream that I now make all the time and use. It’s richer than most creams you buy over the counter — and a lot less expensive. I make two: one for my eyes and one for the rest of my face. I’ve tried numerous ingredients and essential oils to get to this recipe. For each person, there are probably other oils they might like better, but here are my favorites:

I start with an unscented base (I don’t make the lotion from scratch.) I tried a few different bases and learned that you can’t use one that is too rich or contains wax or too much petrolatum or mineral oil. Some ingredients–or too many of them–mean the oils you add won’t incorporate into the lotion. I settled on Suave Oatmeal as a base lotion that I like. This lotion is a good base for making liquid makeup or enhanced lotions. Camden and Grey also sells a base lotion that you can work with. Lotions such as Curel didn’t work well at all for mixing (although I like the lotion by itself).

Here’s the basic oils that I add and why:

Walnut oil - very soothing, rich in vitamins and not greasy. This is one of my favorites for my eyes when my allergies are acting up. It is a good moisturizing, anti-aging, regenerative, emollient and toning oil.

Wheat germ – another very nice oil that goes on smoothly and really helps keep the skin soft. I recommend this all by itself in a base lotion that you use as an all-over body lotion. This oil is thick, sticky and antioxidant. It’s also very rich in vitamin E, a natural antioxidant. This is perhaps my favorite additive in my “night” cream or when my skin is feeling particularly dry or irritated.

Macadamia Nut – antioxidant properties that prevents deterioration of cell membranes. For mature skin it is hydrating and gentle. It is a skin lubricant and is easily absorbed by the skin or Kukui Nut oil – high in linoleic and linolenic essential fatty acids. Excellent for skin conditioning after sun exposure, as well as for acne, eczema, dry/wrinkled skin and offers good protection for outdoor sports.

Aloe Vera Oil – This oil is known for its healing properties, which is why I include it. It’s very soothing for irritated, dry flaky skin.

Rosehip oil – I can’t use any of the over-the-counter lotions for skin regeneration or Retin-A without skin irritation. But the rosehip oil is a very nice addition to my face cream that helps cell turnover and keeps the skin from darkening (those annoying age-spots.) It is a wonderful, quick-absorbing addition to my face cream. Since the skin around my eyes is supposedly more delicate, I don’t use this oil or any of the essential oils in my eye cream (I’ve put all of this stuff on my eyes though and had no problems). Rosehip is high in essential fatty acids, GLA, and vitamin C.

I use the following essential oils in my face cream:

German Chamomile – this is a beautiful blue color with the classic chamomile scent. I don’t use it for the smell, however. It’s an anti-inflammatory and a vasoconstrictor, which can help reduce the redness of the cheeks due to enlarged capillaries. In my case, it helps with rosacea and acne.

Mandarin Red – this is a beautiful orange/red. I use it to cut the smell of the chamomile a bit. It’s an antiseptic though and too much can have a drying effect. It has a nice citrus scent. I use it in soaps as well. Used in a lotion, it does not have a lasting scent so you don’t have to worry about smelling like an orange! You might consider Clary Sage to meld with the chamomile also/instead.

Oils to Try
I’d still like to try grapeseed oil (high in vitamin E and is 76% essential fatty acid, linoleic acid, also known as Omega 6) and Calendula oil (used on slow-healing wounds and is an anti-inflammatory; supposed to be very helpful for rosacea).

I’ve tried a rather large number of other essential oils and basic oils. The ones listed above are my favorites. I buy all of them from Camden Grey–wonderful customer service and information on their site. There are many other places that carry the essential oils and both grapeseed and walnut oil can be found in many grocery stories.

My creams often need re-mixing. Over about two weeks, some of the oils float to the top. I just stir them back in. I’m sure if I used less oil, I wouldn’t have this problem, but for the most part, I really like the recipe I’m using (I put in about 1/8th tsp of the base oils per 3.5 ounce base lotion.)

I finally bought some grapeseed oil from my local grocery store (the brand was Napa Valley Naturals — I highly recommend it). It’s in the section with the olive oil along with some other high-end oils such as walnut and sesame. I used the oil in cooking and in some lotion-potions. I loved it in both! For the cooking, it made a very nice replacement for olive oil–it handles the heat better, no scorching. I liked the taste as well.

For the cream, I first tried it just on my skin–wow. It really absorbed well! With a few oils, especially ones that are good for your skin, they can sit on top–either for a long time or soak in so slowly that they can leave too much of a greasy feeling. Olive oil is like that–it’s supposed to be good for your skin, but I never found that it absorbed quickly or cleanly enough. I do like olive oil in soap, but not in lotion. Sesame oil, also good for your skin, has too much fragrance for me. I found the grapeseed oil quick to absorb–perhaps one of the fastest of the oils I’ve tried. It doesn’t seem to have a smell, although after I added it to my favorite base (Suave’s Oatmeal) it did seem to add a subtle clean smell, almost like a fresh soap smell. It made the lotion creamier and I’m really enjoying the way it keeps my skin hydrated!

All in all I think I have three favorite additives: Grapeseed topping the list, wheat germ and rose hip. I also like aloe, but I don’t find that it has quite the miraculous healing properties that I would like. Every person has different skin–and will therefore like different oils. I’m currently using a mix of grapeseed, wheat germ and rose hip for my face. For the eye area, I replace the rose hip and use walnut oil or another nut oil such as macadamia nut oil.

As for food, I’m really looking forward to trying the grapeseed oil in a salad dressing recipe. While it has a mostly neutral taste, it has a lot of subtleties (not to mention it’s good for me!) This one is going to be a keeper.

Here’s a description of the oil from Camden-Grey’s website:

Grapeseed Oil ( Vitis vinifera ) is an ecologically sound product that is made from the seeds of grapes after the wine is pressed. Grapeseed oil is high in vitamin E and is 76% essential fatty acid, linoleic acid (also known as Omega 6). It is low in saturated fat, contains natural chlorophyll and valuable antioxidants (known as proanthocyninidins), and has a good shelf life. Very rich in vitamins, minerals and linoleic acid. It’s a light and penetrating oil for massage. It’s also used in lotions, balms, creams, and soap. The skin absorbs it easily; it has no perceptible odor. Since it is slightly astringent, it tightens and tones the skin. Will not aggravate acne. This is one oil that is nearly impossible to extract through cold pressure due to its very low oil yield.

Yes, it is that time again! Another batch of mineral make-up. This time, I decided to really back off to the very basic ingredients. Color and titanium dioxide–the oil dispersible version of titanium. I had some titanium that is supposedly water dispersible, but it was shinier–just glints here and there that would be great for eye makeup, but was a sparkle I wanted to avoid. I prefer a matte makeup. I’m not sure if the sparkle was something added to the titanium or a result of water dispersible titanium being a smaller, finer micron. I may try another water dispersible in the future to compare because supposedly the water dispersible is a “lighter” feel and lighter coating than the oil dispersible one.

Anyway, I left out all the micas and extenders and coated titanium and rice. They were just confusing the formulas and after finishing my experiment today, I’d say they added nothing to the formula.

You may remember from before that I learned to start my color base with yellow rather than red or red/blue and so on. I think of my skin as beige-like with red undertones. Well, it turns out that I’m mostly yellow with a pinch of red/blue. The red/blue is made up of red and black from what I understand. And I really do only need a pinch. For a 1/16th tsp of yellow, it’s not even half that of red/blue. Just a dusting really. Then it’s about 3 to 4 additions of 1/8th tsp of titanium dioxide (so about 1/2 tsp total) to get it light enough/beige enough for my skin.

I made two batches, one lighter than the other. As I’ve noticed before, if you get the color/tone right, you can actually wear a pretty wide range of dark to lighter batches. The key is to make sure you have the underlying color correct. Otherwise you end up looking like a purple blob or an escaped garden tomato.

The mix of colors and titanium dioxide is a sticky powder–which is really what is needed. The old recipes where I added rice were much easier to mix, but as I used them, I noticed an awful lot of powder was getting all over the sink. The rice and starches don’t stick. They make application “lighter” and easier. They make mixing easier. But they really add nothing useful other than a dust that doesn’t stick to the skin and wears off quickly.

The end result from today is a nice color that sticks to my skin a lot better than other formulas. It goes on smooth and has the look and feel of a liquid makeup. This powder could easily be a “pressed” foundation, it’s that moist. I added a touch of boron nitride and it didn’t change the formula or feel much. It does create a bit of a “finish” without changing the color or feel.

The only thing I don’t like about this new formula is that it might prove to be a bit heavy. See, there’s a fine line with makeup. I don’t want to wear any. I don’t want to feel it, but I want my skin tones evened out. That’s why I’d like to find a “lighter feeling” titanium dioxide, one that doesn’t sit so heavy–but still doesn’t have any glitter. I know that glitter and reflectors are supposed to hide wrinkles, but I think all they do is call attention to the fact that you have makeup on.

This is a very wearable batch, but if I come across water dispersible titanium dioxide with no glittery look, I’ll give it a try. Meanwhile if anyone really knows the difference between oil and water dispersible (Are either of them coated with anything? Or is it just the micron size that is different?) drop me an email or share this knowledge in the comments!!!

I don’t think I’ll be needing the micas. I honestly don’t know what they add. Mica has a high sheen, which is something I try to avoid. It does not make the makeup lighter in feel and it can change the color (raw mica has an almost grey color). It’s in a lot of mineral makeup, but I think I’ll be skipping it.

I’m sure there will be more experiments!!!

Just in case you wondered what a 24 pound block of soap looks like. Pretty tough to shower with this bar…

Am I the only person in the world who wants to create my own green tea cream??? Probably not. Sure, lots of places sell green tea. Lots of places sell green tea cream. BUT, how many of those places tell you the percentage of green tea extract in the cream? I haven’t found any yet.

Green tea cream is supposed to be very good for the skin. It helps with dryness, redness and inflammation. I already have several creams that help with these symptoms and have had moderate success with most of them. But for a few years I’ve wanted to try a green tea lotion–one that didn’t cost 40 dollars an ounce with no label to tell me just how much green tea I’d be getting.

I’ve finally decided to do a white tea/green tea infusion. This is a method of soaking tea leaves in an oil to impart the properties of the leaves into the oil. I thought about using the crockpot (heat on low for a couple of hours, stirring often, strain with cheesecloth) but decided on the “sun tea” method. It takes longer, but I don’t have a lot of time to monitor the crockpot temperature today. I’m, well, supposed to be editing my manuscript, not concocting tea leaves!!!

So tea leaves and oil are sitting in the sunny window. I used wheat germ oil, even though olive oil is the standard oil of choice. We’ll see how it goes. At the rate I try different creams, I should look 2, not 60.