When it comes to make-up, my eyes are generally the only thing I can be bothered to pay attention to (and even that’s new). If I’m feeling lazy (but not so lazy as to forego make-up entirely, which certainly is not a rare occurrence), I’ll put on mascara, do my eyebrows, and put on a bit of Eye Bright to, well, brighten things up.
Eye Bright came in a Benefit concealing kit I ordered online, and quickly became my favourite part of the kit. Eye Bright is a pale pink paste (with what might be the tiniest hint of shimmer) that brightens your skin and catches the light. I put it under the brow, at the inner corner of my eye, and under the lower lash line.
The cosmetic base, ready for additives.
As I generally do, I got to thinking about what Eye Bright might be made of. The ingredients proved a bit iffy, as is to be expected with store bought cosmetics (though not altogether terrifying—props, Benefit!). From what I could recognize, it’s basically a paste of titanium dioxide, micas, some petroleum and plant based oils, and a variety of waxes. That sounds very DIY-able indeed.
I started with my cosmetic powder base. It’s super easy, and very versatile. It’s mostly titanium dioxide, with zinc oxide, magnesium stearate, and sericite mica (USA / Canada). The oxides are for opacity, while the magnesium stearate and sericite mica (USA / Canada) are for slip, adhesion, and light refraction.
The leftover base powder. I can combine 1/2 tsp of this with 1 tsp of the melted oils and wax to make more whenever I want!
Micas provide shimmer. The original uses carmine for the slight pink tint, but since I don’t have a stash of ground up beetle bits, I decided to go with a pinch of red iron oxide. The oils and waxes create the pastey base for the powders, and that’s it. This is going to be fun.
I decided to start by mixing together the powders, and then turning them into a oil-based paste, rather than mixing together the oils and then adding the colourants. I figured this would give me a better chance of ending up with a highly pigmented final product.
DIY Benefit Eye Bright
3 tsp cosmetic powder base
1/32 tsp red iron oxide (scant)
¼ tsp sericite mica (USA / Canada)
1/32 tsp silver mica2g beeswax (USA / Canada)
5g jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
<1g Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Blitz the cosmetic powder base, red iron oxide, sericite mica (USA / Canada), and silver mica together in a coffee grinder.
Melt the beeswax, jojoba oil (USA / Canada), and Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) together. Place 1 tsp of the melted oils in a small dish. Add ½ tsp of the powder mixture. Squash everything together with your finger, microwaving for 10–15 seconds as needed to soften things up. When everything is combined, pack the mixture into a shallow tin.
Notes as of November 2018:
- Make sure you wear a dust mask so you don’t inhale the powders after whipping them up—that can be dangerous to your health over the long term.
- Check out my book, Make it Up, for a better formula that uses fewer ingredients and is much more flexible. My book also has lots of colour blending tips and a few different starter colour blends so you can create a wide variety of different shades of cream highlighters.
The final result! Mine could easily be made more less with a bit less red iron oxide, or more sparkly with a bit of extra silver mica. Mine could also be “cooled down” with a teensy bit of blue ultramarine.
I used to use eye bright too. I may try to make this. It’s great in the summer when you have a tan and you just need a little sparkle!
Agreed! Ah, summer… sigh. It’s also great in the winter when you’ve got the winter blahs!
What are some recommendation for substituting the mica ingredients? I’m worried I might be allergic to it. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! There aren’t many viable substitutions for micas that will be less dodgy. Most micas are very sparkly, giving shimmer to products. The exception is sericite mica, which is mostly for lustre and light diffusion (it sort of blurs the appearance of light around your skin). You could probably try something like rosehip powder instead of the red oxide, and silica microspheres instead of sericite mica (you can buy those at Saffire Blue, but they are WAY more expensive than sericite mica). I know of no substitute for silver mica (or any other coloured mica) that would be less likely to be an allergen. Honestly—try them. They are all inorganic compounds, and it is impossible to be allergic to inorganic compounds… so the chances are pretty darn low 😛
Hello Marie,
Grate recipe ! Can I ask a question ? Why to put 3 tsp cosmetic base when I’m going to use only 1/2 tsp ?
Hi Georgia! This is because it’s too hard to accurately measure the other ingredients if you scale the recipe down that much. If you want to make less, I’d recommend this recipe instead 🙂 I like it better anyways, it’s what I’ve switched to.
Hi Marie, is it ok if I use arrow root instead of the cosmetic base powder? It seems like a lot of materials and magnesium stearate is supposedly toxic. Please let me know. Thanks in advance
Eh… no. Not really. I mean, you could, but you probably won’t be all that happy with the end product (you could use any white powder for that matter lol). The cosmetic base provides opacity, brightness, adhesion, and slip. Arrowroot… doesn’t. It’s just white. The ingredients in the base are quite safe as long as you aren’t inhaling them—you can read more at Skin Deep.
Marie,
Okay, so I submitted a recipe request for a clay eye primer stick (I did check if you’d done a primer yet), and then I thought, “I wonder if any of the shadow/brightener recipes would do the job of a primer?”
It looks like either this or the brightlighter sticks might be the closest? But I really don’t know ’cause I’ve never actually used an eye primer before – I’ve only just been looking and and am appalled that they either aren’t available or are stupid pricey (I hate spending more than $3 on any of my eyeshadows so $20 for .1oz of primer sucks!)
Any thoughts? Would any of your listed recipes work as a primer?
I’m looking for greater staying power for my eyeshadows and more kick in their color…
Thanks! ^_^
KM
Hi KM! I’m not a primer expert, but the stuff I have used has been more of a lotion than something oil based. The idea seems to be to create a dry canvas for eyeshadow to sit on, and concoctions that are 100% oils aren’t likely to provide that. You can definitely try it, though—I’d go with the brightlighter since it’s super awesome even if it doesn’t work as primer 😀
So I went and did some digging around on google to see what others were claiming worked as a primer… And I found one with a lip balm – ie Burt’s Bees – base several times. Something like 0.5tsp lip balm, 1tsp cornstarch, 1.5tsp liquid foundation (amounts, of course, vary). My thought is to sub in a clay and oil(jojoba? Castor I’ve heard is drying?) or aloe or witch hazel mix as a kind of liquid, opaque non-colorant – probably with a bit of zinc oxide as well. …So, yeah, basically your brightlighter but with zinc and clay instead of titanium and mica. 🙂 I don’t have any titanium dioxide, nor do I expect to find any local though I will look… But I’m not really worried about it being really opaque anyway. I’m more concerned with the oil control factor…
And, yes, all the other things I found were lotions, which I may also try when I mix up a new batch (don’t think I want my super lavender body lotion on my eyes… but maybe 🙂 ).
Thanks for the input and all the information you share with us here on humblebee! It’s once again an indispensable resource and font of helpful info and advice. 😀
KM
Don’t forget an emulsifier in there if you’re planning on combining oil and water 🙂
How do you know so much?? You rule!!
Thanks! It’s mostly just been years of obsessive experimenting, observing, and reading, with a bit of dumb luck 😉
Sorry I am bumping an old post, but it looks like you also made the yellow color corrector I believe it was called Lemon Pop.
Do you have a recipe posted for that on the site? That one was my favorite of that palette.
I’m afraid not! That yellow looking stuff was actually a colour correcting concealer, which is why it’s more brown-ish than bright yellow. You should grab a copy of my book, though 😉 It’s got lots of guidance and base recipes so you can make your own!