Facial Serum & Facial Balm Recipes

Stunning carrier oils, essential oils, and herb infusions star in these decadent facial recipes.

Rose Ceramide Facial Gel

Today we're making a simple, fragrant facial gel starring ceramides. This gel not only moisturizes and hydrates the skin immediately, but it also helps strengthen your moisture barrier. This leads to stronger, more resilient skin and less transepidermal water loss...

Cacti Q10 Ageless Facial Serum

This Cacti Q10 Anti-Aging Facial Serum features a base of beautiful plant oils spiked with some potent Coenzyme Q10. It's rich in antioxidants, has rejuvenating properties, and leaves your skin positively glowing. It's also a rather pretty orange colour, and comes...

Soothing Hyaluronic Acid Facial Serum

Today's recipe is kicking off a new soothing skin care series that is perfectly timed for the driest, darkest, and often coldest part of the winter here in Calgary. The formulas in this series star a beautiful selection of wonderful, effective ingredients that have...

Indigo Lagoon Balm

This rich blue balm is a DIY version of a very popular and very expensive shop-bought balm. This particular balm is known for its striking dark blue hue that comes from a hefty dose of expensive blue tansy essential oil. I've created a more budget friendly version you...

Raspberry Marula Facial Serum

I have so been enjoying using this silky Raspberry Marula Facial Serum. Not only is it a joy to use thanks to its lightweight consistency and luxurious slip, it also leaves my skin dewy and glowing. Oil serums were one of my first DIY/natural beauty loves, but it's...

Solid Olive Primrose Facial Serum

This silky smooth, light-as-a-feather solid facial serum is really neat. It has all the satiny, lightweight loveliness of a liquid serum, but it's easier to transport (no leaks!), and application is even easier thanks to the elimination of the dropper bottle....

Angela’s Calendula Eye Balm

Last autumn Angela wrote in asking for a DIY version of an expensive calendula-infused eye balm she was using in Portugal. The ingredient list was beautiful, and as usual, the price tag was a touch shocking. So, with her enthusiasm for the product I took that...

Sea Buckthorn Mattifying Moisturizer

If you're looking for touchable, smooth, soft skin, this Sea Buckthorn Mattifying Moisturizer is right up your alley. It's a creamy, orange-hued moisturizer features a few scoops of silky smooth arrowroot starch to give your hydrated skin a beautiful dry touch. It was...

Moringa Rose Serum

I've had quite a few requests for this popular rose serum over the years. I think Karen's was the first, back in 2014, but it certainly hasn't been the last. The original looks utterly lovely; a blend of fantastic carrier oils like pomegranate and baobab, with rose,...

Orange Abyssinian Overnight Balm

This juicy, honey-hued Orange Abyssinian Overnight Balm is utterly lovely. It has an almost unbelievable dry finish, leaving skin hydrated, but not greasy. It smells of pure, juicy oranges with the slightest hint of sweet, floral Tahitian gardenias. It's smooth and...

Rose Gold Facial Serum

Last week I was watching a makeup tutorial with Adele's makeup artist, Michael Ashton, and as he was prepping his beautiful model's skin, he used two products that really intrigued me. One was a fancy-sounding French facial serum; Decleor's Aromessence Rose D'Orient...

Luxury Facial Serum

The amount of money some shop-bought natural skincare products sell for never ceases to amaze me. You'd think I'd be used to seeing price tags north of $150 for a few tablespoons of something, but I'm not. I'm perpetually astonished to find a blend of oils or a simple...

Pomegranate Primrose Summer Facial Serum

My new Pomegranate Primrose Summer Facial Serum is a fantastic way to lighten up your skin care routine for warmer days (I'm calling it my PrimPom Serum for short, ha!). It is silky and light, absorbing into your skin quickly and leaving it beautifully hydrated, and...

Magical Primrose Argan Serum

This recipe is ridiculously simple. So simple, in fact, that you might think I just threw it together one day as a bit of a random idea. And you would be right. This project wasn't supposed to be a blog entry—just an experiment. I figured I'd try it out and see, and...

Winterlight Argan Serum

This milky facial oil is pretty much the opposite of my Argan bronzer. While the bronzer is designed to impart a summery glow, this serum lightens and brightens the complexion, smoothing out imperfections and giving you that Downton Abbey complexion I'm so in love...

Gentle Argan Silk Milk

A few months ago Meredith sent me a link to this product, accompanied by a hearty digital laugh. And a well deserved laugh it was. I've talked before about the astonishing markup that Josie Maran sells their argan oil at—closer to $1/mL than the $0.12/mL New...

Rosehip & Tamanu Healing Facial Serum

I think rosehip oil is about to become the next big thing in commercialized natural skincare, making the leap to Sephora shelves a la argan oil & Josie Maran. It's starting to pop up on my non-natural/DIY beauty Pinterest feeds, accompanied by photographs of...

Tallow Balm for Mature Skin

Sometime last year I stumbled across this really neat blog entry about the benefits of using tallow on the skin—especially for aging skin. Over the months I've mentioned it to readers who have tried it, and reported back with positive results, so I thought it was...

Brighten & Renew Facial Serum

I'm pretty happy with this recipe. It's easy, inexpensive, fast, and the sort of thing you'd pay $50 for at the beauty counter. There's just six ingredients, and the results are quickly noticeable. In the short term you'll notice smoother skin, and over time you'll...

My Favourite Argan Oil Serum

Meredith and I exchange a lot of things—recipes, ingredients, articles, and ideas. Out of all the things she's introduced me to over the years, Argan oil is far and beyond my favourite (the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook series is a close second). I cannot...

Intense Facial Moisturizer

Winter is always dry, but Calgary is a special case. It's the sort of place where it is regularly thirsty out, in addition to being cold and/or windy. My skin has always been acutely aware of this, sparking a lotion-toting habit bordering on the ridiculous. A few...

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