Makeup Recipes

Ditch the cosmetics counter and make your own!

What do we want in makeup?

Adhesion? Slip? Opacity? A quick overview on the traits we want in our makeup and why.

DIY Cosmetic Ingredients You'll Need

The ingredients list for homemade cosmetics is a bit different than for most other homemade body products—here’s my overview and shopping list.

Help, I made a mess!

My best tips for cleaning up your DIY messes 🙂

DIY Moisturizing Lip Oil: 3 Ways

DIY Moisturizing Lip Oil: 3 Ways

I've been having a ton of fun making lip oil formulations this year, and today I'm finally sharing three of my favourite formulations starring a new-to-me ingredient that I'm low-key obsessed with. These are super easy to stir up (no heating required!) and are a...

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DIY Blurring Face Primer: 3 Ways

DIY Blurring Face Primer: 3 Ways

These formulations were inspired by the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Blur Face Primer; a $52USD/oz. blurring facial primer that makes your skin look airbrushed. I'll teach you how to make this primer for less than 1/5 the price, plus how to customize it into extra...

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Transfer-Resistant Cream Foundation

Transfer-Resistant Cream Foundation

The inspiration for this Transfer-Resistant Cream Foundation came from two places. Place #1 was my 2020 Second Skin Cream Foundation, which was inspired by RCMA's cream foundations. I love this formulation and have been using it ever since. My love (and use) was...

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Frosted Cranberry Matte Lip & Cheek Colour

Frosted Cranberry Matte Lip & Cheek Colour

This Frosted Cranberry Matte Lip & Cheek Colour is really neat; it's a hybrid between a matte liquid lipstick and a lip stain. It has a creamy consistency that dries down to a powdery, transfer-resistant finish. Richly coloured, it both wears and re-applies well,...

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Frosted Cranberry Lip Oil

Frosted Cranberry Lip Oil

I've had a ton of requests for a lip oil recently, and I thought this year's Frosted Cranberry theme was a great backdrop for a shiny new lip oil formulation 😄 This cheery red oil imparts moisture and shine to our lips and it smells softly of fresh, juicy...

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Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner

Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner

Today I'm sharing a formulation I have been working on for months—a Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner. It goes on like a dream, wears beautifully, and easily holds its own when compared to products like Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner and KVD's Tattoo Waterproof Liquid...

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DIY Pressed Shimmer Eyeshadow

DIY Pressed Shimmer Eyeshadow

It's been almost five years since my first book, Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care, was released (!). I'm still really proud of it, but today I want to share an update to the eyeshadow formulation that I think is a pretty big upgrade. It's...

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Long-Wearing Shimmer Cream Eyeshadow

Long-Wearing Shimmer Cream Eyeshadow

I am so excited to share this formulation with you guys! Today we are making Sephora-quality long-wearing shimmer cream eyeshadow. You will need three specialty ingredients, but if you love cream eyeshadows, it is absolutely worth it. Just as I did in my book, Make it...

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Clear Lip Gloss Base (without Versagel!)

Clear Lip Gloss Base (without Versagel!)

If you've been wanting a transparent lip gloss base from scratch, this is the formulation for you. You'll need just three ingredients to make a clear and versatile gloss base that you can customize in oh-so-many ways, with different carrier oils, colours, micas, and...

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Blackberry Lip Gloss

Blackberry Lip Gloss

Lip gloss is one of the first things I ever made (this post from late 2011 is nearly a decade old, wowza), with my first batches pre-dating Humblebee & Me! I've experimented with many different ways to get that characteristic soft creamy, glossy consistency, and...

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Gold Dust Lip Cream

Gold Dust Lip Cream

Today we're fully embracing summer with a rich, sparkly Gold Dust Lip Cream ✨ A creamy base carries a generous helping of shimmery gold things to bring some beautiful 24 karat loveliness to your days. Enjoy! Want to watch this project instead of reading it?...

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Soothing Makeup Finishing Spray

Soothing Makeup Finishing Spray

Today I'm sharing something I've been loving lately—a Soothing Makeup Finishing Spray. You certainly don't have to use it over makeup (it's also a great soothing & hydrating mist for bare skin!), but I've been using this as the last step in my makeup routine (and...

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Liquid Blurring Skin Tint

Liquid Blurring Skin Tint

If you're questing for a sorta-foundation that offers some skin-perfecting goodness without a whole lot of coverage, this Liquid Blurring Skin Tint is for you! It lightly blurs imperfections and gently evens out skin tone, pairing beautifully with a bit of concealer...

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Second Skin Cream Foundation

Second Skin Cream Foundation

This Second Skin Cream Foundation was borne of some very early morning I-can't-sleep-any-more YouTube makeup tutorial watching. Being the sucker I am for all things Kate Winslet I clicked on a thumbnail for a tutorial titled "Trying to do my makeup like the movies......

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Glossy Lip Stain

Glossy Lip Stain

Today's DIY was inspired by a lip gloss advert I saw some time last year. It was for the Glossier lip gloss, and for some reason, the ad caught my eye. I clicked through and took a look at the ingredients, and the first ingredient was "Hydrogenated Polyisobutene"—and...

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Rosé Cream Blush

Rosé Cream Blush

Today we're continuing our Rosé DIY series with a lovely Rosé Cream Blush. Instead of working with a rosé wine inspired scent blend, this creamy pot of colour takes its inspiration from the cheery pink colour of rosé. It'll lend a similar pinky, summery flush to your...

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Cream Luminizer

Cream Luminizer

Today's DIY is inspired by a product sold by a well-known natural cosmetic brand. A simple base of beeswax, castor oil, and coconut oil is heavily laced with a blend of shimmery micas to create a creamy highlighter that's brilliant for illuminating cheekbones, brow...

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Even Better Makeup Brush Cleanser

Even Better Makeup Brush Cleanser

Over the last year or so I've been working on all kinds of different waterproof makeup formulas—a gel eyeliner, in particular, is a big goal of mine, as is a long-wearing liquid lipstick. While the formulas still need work before they will stay on my face for ages, I...

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Silky Cream Foundation

Silky Cream Foundation

I'm really excited to share this recipe with you guys—it's a formula that's been heavily requested, and I've been working on it and testing it for months now. This is a beautiful solid cream foundation that you can put in a compact or a stick for easy application. It...

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Sheer Satin Cheek & Lip Tint

Sheer Satin Cheek & Lip Tint

This punchy red liquid cheek and lip tint has become a fast favourite of mine. On first glance it’s a thin, vibrant red liquid. It’s less red than you expect on application, and the slip is divine; lightweight and satiny, with a finish that is unexpectedly rich...

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Creamy Stick Lip Tints

Creamy Stick Lip Tints

When it comes to makeup I actually wear on a regular basis I find I tend towards subtle, easy-to-apply stuff (read: stuff that goes on easily and lightly enough that it disguises my amateurish makeup application skills). These lip tints were born of my initial...

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Basic Moldable Lipstick Base

Basic Moldable Lipstick Base

When I got my awesome little TKB Trading Lipstick Mold one of the first things I wanted to investigate was the compatibility of the lipstick recipes in my book with the mold. The compatibility was resoundingly… not. Efforts to use the lipstick bases from my book...

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Center Stage Glow Serum

Center Stage Glow Serum

This project was inspired by one of the first bits of makeup I ever fell in love with. When I was growing up my mom made a point of taking advantage of those "spend $X and get this miraculous goody bag of sample-sized treats for free" at the Estée Lauder makeup...

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Making Lipstick in a Lipstick Mold!

Making Lipstick in a Lipstick Mold!

I'm often asked about making stick lipsticks, and turning the lipsticks from Make it Up into stick lipsticks, so I was super excited when TKB Trading got in touch and asked if I wanted to try their new (inexpensive!) lipstick mould. I've definitely looked at lipstick...

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