As I’ve said about a million times, I am pretty low maintenance and I like it that way. When I first made mineral make-up I had no idea what to do with it. I don’t even know why I made it. Now that I have it I sometimes put it on, but I’m not really sure if I’m doing it right. Meh.
Out of all the things I’ve learned off of YouTube/more put together and experienced friends is the importance of eyebrows. To start with, you should have a pair. Or keep the the ones you started with. Most of them, at least. Once I actually started paying attention I was amazed by the change. Properly groomed eyebrows make you look put together without even trying.
I also like filling them in. Making them all defined and stuff. That, plus mascara, and that’s good enough for going to work. Eyeliner works really well, but I thought I’d try my hand at making a palette brow filler/fixative. And I like it. But I’m not going to tell you how to use it. Nosiree. I’m going to let this brilliant lady do that.
Start with the cosmetic powder base. It’s pretty useful.
And if you’re not sure how to de-sasquatch your eyebrows, I will direct you to The Beauty Department. Accepting advice from me in either of those departments would probably be detrimental to your health and might result in unemployment due to your inability to leave the house without looking like an electrocuted chimpanzee.
Melt together 3 parts wax to 8 parts oils to mix the powder with and make a paste.
The best filler/fixative I’ve come across so far is Benefit’s Brow Zings. I bought it at the Glasgow International Airport Duty Free after checking in for a 9AM flight at 5AM (I had some time to kill). So, after the pretty make-up expert lady dolled me up, I liked what I saw and got myself some eyebrow glammin’ powder and wax.
So, when it comes to eyebrow DIY, I knew I was looking for a 2-part solution; one darker, waxy/creamy item that could be applied sparingly and would dry/stay on my brows, to darken things and hold things in place. Part 2 was a lighter powder, for setting/filling in.
I made two different shades of the brow wax, just for giggles.
The original part 1 is mostly petroleum based waxes and oils, with a few plant based ones, and then iron oxides for colourants, plus a bit of of titanium dioxide for opacity. Part 2 is pretty much just eyeshadow.
DIY Eyebrow Filler/Fixative
Wax part
3g beeswax (USA / Canada)
8g jojoba oil (USA / Canada)¼ tsp cosmetic powder base
5/16 tsp brown iron oxide (less if your eyebrows are lighter than mine; see photo above)
Red & yellow iron oxides, optionalPowder part
¼ tsp cosmetic powder base
3/16 tsp brown iron oxide (less if your eyebrows are lighter than mine; see photo above)
Pinch red iron oxide
3 drops jojoba or argan oil (USA / Canada)For the wax part: Melt the beeswax and jojoba oil (USA / Canada) together in a small saucepan over low heat. While they’re melting, blitz the cosmetic powder base together with the brown iron oxides.
Add 1/16th of a teaspoon of the oxides at a time, until you’ve got something that’s slightly lighter than your eyebrow hair. Test it out on your brows to see if it’s dark enough. If it’s too dark, add a wee bit more cosmetic base powder until you’ve got what you need. If you think the colour should be warmer, or blonder, feel free to add yellow or red iron oxides as needed. You know your hair colour, and this is all for you, so blend away until you’ve got the colour you need. Keep in mind that the addition of the oils will darken the colour a little.
Once the oils are melted and your powder is the right colour, combine 1 tsp of the melted oils with ½ tsp of the powders. Mash everything together with your finger, reheating in the microwave as needed to keep the oils melted.
For the powder part: I just used the darkest of the eyeshadows from my trio. Anyhow, the idea here is the same as with the powder for the wax, except the powder should be significantly lighter (see the photo of the Benefit original above to see what I mean). Blitz oxides into the cosmetic base until you have something that’s the right colour for you.
Notes as of November 2018:
- 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 brow fixative.
You continue to amaze me! I use Benefit’s Brow Zings and it gets the job done, but the effect of yours looks great! Well done!
Thanks, Genevieve!
Marie, where did you get your sifter jars/pots? thanks!!
They’re actually one of the few things I buy locally, at a little shop called Soap and More. I’ve yet to find anywhere online to buy them in Canada—let me know if you find somewhere!
ok thanks! 🙂 btw, just saw your mineral veil makeup, looks amazing! will have to try!
Awesome! I love the mineral veil, I’ve stopped using the mineral make-up since I invented it as the veil is just so much lighter. Perfect for that summer weather that is theoretically on its way…
Hi,
What do you mean when you say “blitz together”?
Love your natural products. My mum had beautiful skin, with minimal wrinkles. She used olive only and wore very light make-up for special occasions.
I just mean blend ’em together in a coffee grinder until they’re all ground up and blended together 🙂 I’m hoping my skin is just as beautiful as your mum’s when I get older!
I just found you and am so glad I did! You’re such an inspiration. You’ve convinced me that making mineral makeup can’t be too hard so I’m ordering all the ingredients now! I was thinking of dupes that I would like to tackle, but I don’t know enough about it yet. One is the tarte cheek stain because of its almost hard jelly like texture. The other is the NYX taupe blush that many people with fair skin use as a contour color. Have you used/ heard of these products? Have you made a cream blush or contour color? I would love to hear what you think of both. Also, maybe it’s here and I haven’t found it yet.. Have you made your own cream sunscreen? I was looking at my vanicream (recommended by derm.) and wondering what many of the ingrediets were. One more thing, your cotton pads!! I love them.. I think I’ll be making tons of them for presents this year. Makes me feel terribly bad for getting a pack of about a million at Costco just the other day!
It’s not! I promise 🙂 And it’s so much fun!
I’ve never made cheek stain, but I have made blush (it works really well!). I’m currently working on a lip stain, but it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be! I’ve thrown out a lot of pink/red goop lately 🙁
For a contour shade, I tend to use my bronzer (I didn’t add much mica so it isn’t really sparkly at all). Again, this works really well for me as I’m able to control how dark it is (and with how pale I am, it doesn’t need to be very dark at all!). For a highlight, I just use a bit of my translucent shimmer powder.
I’m hoping to branch out into tinted moisturizers sometime soon… I just need more time 🙂 Stay tuned! I’ll get there!
I see you found my sunscreen entry 🙂 Definitely something to be left up to the professionals, sadly. But the cotton pads are an awesome thing to DIY! Farewell, one more piece of daily waste!
Please share once you’ve mastered the stain and tinted moisturizer. Right now I’m using a beet stain I made with mixed Egyptian magic, honey, and olive oil. It won’t last long though due to the beet in it, I think.. But the color is perfectly natural. I can’t wait to get my ingredients to start playing! in your mineral makeup post, you mention to add alcohol to your makeup to make a pressed powder.. That’s a nice tip as pressed powders are easier to travel with. Do you have any tips for tamping the powder in the compact?
I will! If you don’t mind me asking, what’s Egyptian Magic? I’ve never heard of it before. I’m definitely looking into beet juice as a natural dye, along with cherries and raspberries (I’ve ruined enough clothes with their juices, so it seems like a good place to start!).
To press the powder down nicely, I recommend putting a bit of parchment over top of the make-up goo in the compact, and then pressing it down with something flat and round, like the end of a bit of dowling or a shot glass. I just used my finger, though, and that worked well enough 😛 Unfortunately this won’t give you the same texture you’re used to from pressed powders as the alcohol tends to dry the powder out a bit (and apparently whatever they use as a binding agent in store bought stuff is relatively icky).
Hope that helps! Thanks for reading 🙂
It’s this tub of “Olive oil, bees wax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, bee propolis, divine love” I used to use it as my moisturizer. Because I could pronounce the ingredients! But, honestly I’m not an expert when it comes to everything in it. It seems ok for skin, but it’s kind of thick. I don’t like that I stick my hands in there every time I want some. It’s very good at soothing my dry cuticles which just continue to get more dried as I age (I’m 28…and live in Florida. I don’t know why they are so dry!) Anyway, I used it because it was the only base-type thing I had that would become more solid again, once cooled. Because of you, I’m ordering a bunch of fun bases. I can’t wait to try your body butter, and eventually your lotion, and almost everything else you’ve made!
I just started using hemp oil and really like that. My skin is dry (more peeling that “dry”) from a tretinoin I just started taking so the hemp oil is nice for my blemish prone skin, but not as moisturizing as I would like. So I just got some Avocado oil yesterday and tried the OCM with it and castor…pretty much the same percentage as you did. It was amazing. The first time I’ve tried it! ..and I live in Florida, but I know what was coming out of my face was not sand!! What do you think about avocado and hemp? I like argan, but I found it to be lacking, for my skin.
Do you know much about using produce in cosmetic products? Once they are cooked will they last longer in a mix? I’m researching this, but it’s nice to discuss with someone …wish my gf’s were as into this as!
Thanks for the tips for the pressed powder, and also the archive! It’s a great feature that I’m sure many of your readers will enjoy!
Oooh, that sounds just divine! I love all of those things 🙂 How long does it last? Since it has some water in there I’m guessing it might spoil, but then everything is so wonderful and antibacterial that I couldn’t say for sure! (Is “divine love” water soluble 😛 Hahahaha.)
Enjoy all your new ingredients! I’m going to place an order today 🙂 I can’t wait for new goodies, it’s so exciting when they arrive and you can try all kinds of new things!
I’ve never tried hemp oil, but I LOVE avocado oil for soaps! I don’t tend to need that much moisturizing power, so I stick to argan oil for my face and various lotions for my skin. I’d definitely recommend trying out a clay facial mask or two for cleaning out your pores—I ended up ditching the OCM for the masks as I just found the masks to be so much more effective.
By produce I’m guessing you mean things like apples and tomatoes? I’m kind of confused, lol, because I just can’t fathom a use for applesauce in a facial powder lol. Can you elaborate? I can tell this will be a great discussion!
It actually is quite nice. I got it at whole foods and you can find it online.. But I reckon it’s more economical to make your own version, huh?
By produce I mean beets, or cherries. For instance when I made my beet “balm” I just melted down the e.magic and then added a raw beet, honey, and olive oil mixture that i food processed and then strained. I keep it in the fridge because I don’t know.. Will it go bad soon because I used a beet? Beets will go bad eventually in my fridge if they aren’t eaten! I read somewhere that people use oxides in soaps, for another example, because some raw materias like natural food dyes won’t last as long in the soap. It’s all so confusing to me as a newbie. If lye is no longer caustic once mixed with lard.. Do fresh fruit/veg products last longer once mixed with other ingredients? Not that one has anything to do with the other. The chemistry is confusing I guess. The beet gives a great payoff that doesn’t stain everything since mixed with the balm. It is actually quite close to the tarte cheek stains that I mentioned. I use it on my cheeks too… Very pretty and since its oily it almost highlights/dewifies too.
Also, since you make so much soap where do you keep all of it to cure? Is a hall closet a bad idea since there isn’t much air flow? Have you ever used raw avocado in your soap?
Sorry to bombard you with confusing thoughts and questions. You’ve really inspired me but, you know, once you start reading… So many questions! I just recently heard about the omega 6:3 ratio and that kind of enlightenment is enough to make someone crazy. Sometimes more knowledge makes one feel so lost!
Ah! Of course I feel rather silly now. Introducing water into an all-oil mixture does introduce the possibility of spoilage, no matter where that water comes from. That’s why I have some body butter from 2011 and lotions that mould after 4 or 5 months. Oh well. So, yes, it probably will spoil faster than not because of the addition of the water that’s in the beet. I’ve used natural colourants, like beet juice and spirulina, in soaps, and they definitely fade far faster than oxides, so there’s that as well (the natural colourants never made the soap spoil, though).
Hmmm… you asked if fruit and veg last longer when mixed with other oil-based ingredients. I don’t think this is quite the same as the lye/oil combination science as that’s a full-on chemical reaction where you start with lye and fat, and end up with soap. I have heard from readers living in warmer climates (Texas, mainly) that their soaps have spoiled, but this has never happened to me. In my experience, whenever you mix oil and water (well, whenever you mix anything with water, really), it can spoil. It’s just a matter of when. I’ve mixed up face masks and had them mould on the counter in a matter of days, while lotions can take months to weeks to mould. So, perhaps it’s not that the produce lasts longer, but that the oils spoil faster? Ha, that’s pretty much the same thing 😛 Whatever. In any event, the fridge storage is a good idea. I just ordered some beet powder, so I’m definitely giving that a try soon!
We have an extra bathroom in the basement of our 101 year old house that nobody actually uses, so I’ve propped a sheet of plywood across the ancient tub, and all my soap cures on that. It works really well for me!
I can’t say I’ve ever used raw avocado in soap, but I have simmered up cranberries, quasi-puréed them, and used them in soap. It worked well-ish enough, but the cranberry streaks were pretty chunky and dried out a lot more than the rest of the soap, making the soap sort of “buckle” in towards the cranberry bits.
Keep the questions coming! I love ’em 🙂 And isn’t the Omega thing awesome/crazy? It’s hilarious how the media has made us so aware of 3’s but totally neglected to tell us that we are totally overdosing on 6’s!
P.S. A friend of mine, completely independent of you, recommend I take a shot at re-creating Egyptian Magic! How funny that I should hear about it from two different people within the same week. I probably will try and make it myself 😉
oops. Just found your post on sunscreen. I read a few articles about that too… this is one of those things best left to professionals. (darn.)
Hurrah – another recipe that will come in handy for me. I have sparse, pale eyebrows and hate to use anything with chemicals or that costs me a mint.
I am so happy to have found your website. Are you on Youtube or are you like me, just kinda shy about “putting your face out there”?
Love all the entries that I have read so far and am going to read them all (eventually)
I was so thrilled to get this one figured out, no more $30 brown goo/powder for me, lol! I’m not on YouTube as I don’t have anywhere close to enough time to make videos and keep up a written blog 😛 Plus I have a tendency to stick my foot in my mouth, so writing is easier, haha.
I’ve been browsing your recipes as this is my first time on your blog. I love reading the comments too to see people’s questions and your helpful answers.
You mentioned you bought some beet root powder and planning to experiment with it. Any successes? Because I have beet root powder on my cabinet and I would love to know some successful recipes to try. 🙂
Hi Jennifer—thanks for reading! I really hope you’ll come back and stalk all my recipes 😉 So far, I haven’t found anything useful to do with beetroot powder. It turns brown in soaps, and it isn’t dark enough to use as a dye in any cosmetic applications I’ve tried so far. I have a suspicion it could work in blush, though… we’ll see! Those coloured plant extracts (I also have rosehip, hibiscus, peppermint, and a few others) are surprisingly difficult to find uses for :/ They do have tons of beneficial minerals and vitamins, though, so I’m not giving up!
Also, I have sensitive skin. What do you mean by cosmetic powder base? Any substitute if I’m afraid it might irritate my skin?
Also, are oxides safe for sensitive skin?
Whoops, look like I forgot to include the link to my cosmetic powder base in the recipe. It’s there now. It is all inorganic, so you cannot be allergic to it. If it does irritate your skin, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there 🙂
Oxides are also inorganic, so you can’t be allergic to them! They are about as natural as it comes as far as colourants go. Most natural/organic make ups use them, hiding them in the “may contain” section (though they have to contain them otherwise the make-up wouldn’t have any colour!).
So I finally got around to making this for my friend because I insisted she be here when I made it for colour purposes.
And I had to throw the first attempt out. They sent me yellow brown and red brown oxides! I tried everything I could think of to get that red out and just have a chocolately colour. Nothing worked.
In the end, I found the ridiculous and outrageously priced light brown and dark brown oxides (for 5g? It was more expensive than carmine so need to find a way to get my hands on just brown and not a yellow or red brown!!) and tried again. It was so easy! And it made so much! We used all the powder in the wax so didn’t get a chance to make the powder part, but we’ve ordered some small containers so the powder will be made soon.
Thanks for the recipes! It’s a pity we cannot post photos of our successesfor you! I’ve a fridge full of bottles of HumbleBee and Me inspired goodies! I’m bulking up for Christmas presents!
Hmm. I’m wondering if “red brown” and “yellow brown” are actually just red and yellow oxides? They all have a brown tone to them (rather than a bright yellow or red). I’ve never seen a yellow-toned brown, just a brown-toned yellow (same with red). You do have access to loads of things I’ve never heard of or seen, though! I’m glad you did finally manage to find some proper brown oxide, but I’m blown away by the price—YIKES. At least it all worked out in the end, it sounds like you’re going to be swimming in brow fixative for years LOL!
They are yellowish and reddish toned red. Do you remember that big box of Crayola crayons growing up with all the bad PC names on the crayon? The red brown looks exactly like the Indian red. My regular yellow looks like yours in your pictures but my yellow down… I lack words to describe it.
The cost is because the ladies who own that cosmetic shop get their stuff from the States so it’s the mark up cost.
Ideally, I’d like to get about 100g of it so I never have to worry again!
Ah, how… murky. And rather disappointing sounding. Best of luck finding everything at a reasonable cost! I think you may be the most resourceful person I know so I’m sure you’ll manage 😉
Hello Marie!
This is one of the best blogs I’ve seen, exactly what I’m looking for.
I’m trying to find the best formula for my clear brow fixer/wax with extra hold. I tried beeswax and oil, but I did not get the hold I expected. The more beeswax, the more difficult to use the product… You know that vicious circle. So I found out, on the internet, DIY hair spray recipes with sugar and water. So I added sugar in the beeswax formula but it just coagulated and did not melt and mix 😀 I had to take the coagulated sugar pieces out of the can. Briefly, I need an adhesive material for extra hold, just like commercial hair sprays. Of course I am not a chemist so even if I read the ingredients on a regular hair spray I don’t get which one to use in my formula.
Anyway, I thought maybe melting regular soap bar and adding it inside the b.wax formula would help to get a stickier and immediately-stiffer-after-drying and easily washable formula. What would you recommend?
Hugs from Turkey!
Hey! My top recommendation would be to buy my book—it’s all about DIY makeup 🙂 It discusses things like adhesion and includes a great recipe for a brow wax!