You’ll need just six ingredients to make this cheery all-natural Mango Rosehip Solid Facial Oil. It stars two stunning lightweight emollients and it is packaging-optional, so it’s a great way to reduce your packaging needs a wee bit. Making this formulation is a simple melt-pour-chill and the finished product is a fun (and solid!) way to wrap up your skincare routine.
The inspiration for this Mango Rosehip Solid Facial Oil came from two Lush products; one I’ve riffed on in the past and one I’ve had quite a lot of requests for. The one I’ve riffed on in the past is the Magical Moringa Beauty Balm (the riffs are my Sea Buckthorn Mattifying Moisturizer + Passionfruit Coconut Matte Velvet Moisturizer). This product is a soft solid facial balm that features a hefty dose of starch. All that starch serves to mattify and perfect the complexion. Cristie but it beautifully in her comment on my Sea Buckthorn Mattifying Moisturizer: “I’ve put an APB out for my pores. For the last three days, I’ve been using this moisturizer on my face. Coincidentally, I seemed to have lost my pores. I’m especially searching..in vain sadly..for my largest, most beautiful pores. If found, you can just keep ’em. My compliments.”
The much-requested product(s) have all been from Lush’s line of “naked facial oils“. These lovely-looking nuggets are basically body butter bars that feature more luxurious oils than you’d usually include in a body butter bar—oils like argan oil and prickly pear seed oil—and that is very close to what I’ve done here in a broad-strokes kind of way, but I’ve also included some cornstarch to further lighten the formulation and reduce shine.
Since this product is solid, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that it contains lots of solid things—primarily ultra-light mango butter and creamy-light cetearyl alcohol for extra hardening. I’ve also included some cornstarch, which is solid so it’ll help a bit with solidity, but is mostly included to help lighten up the skin feel even more and counter any oiliness you might get from using a 100% oil-based product on the skin.
The lovely mango-y colour actually comes from the rosehip oil, which is the most beautiful apricot-orange colour. It has been eons since I’ve had a bottle of rosehip oil in my studio to formulate with; this bottle is from Plant’s Power (gifted) and it’s blowing the previous bottle I had out of the water. This one is unrefined instead of refined, meaning it keeps its natural colour and scent. This beautiful oil has a smell that reminds me of lemony iced tea and the cheery colour is what transforms the white-white-white of refined mango butter, cornstarch, and cetearyl alcohol into a sunshiney nugget.
I’ve made this formulation a free-standing bar in the blog photos, but in the video, you’ll see me pour it into a push-up tube. Both approaches work well! If you are planning on the stand-alone approach I recommend having something to store the bar in to keep it clean. I find buttery bars that sit out are absolute magnets for lint and hair and they tend to get rather icky looking over time. Save your solid facial oil from a furry fate by storing it in some sort of small re-usable tin or jar 😂
Want to watch this project instead of reading it?
Relevant links & further reading
- Mango Butter in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Corn Starch in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Cetearyl Alcohol in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Rosehip Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Other facial oils:
- Why is my body butter melting?
Mango Rosehip Solid Facial Oil
Heated phase
7.5g | 30% mango butter
2.5g | 10% corn starch
6.25g | 25% cetearyl alcohol (USA / Canada)Post-heat phase
8.625g | 34.5% rosehip oilCool down phase
0.125g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt the mango butter and cetearyl alcohol (the cornstarch won’t melt).
While the mixture is melting, make sure you’ve got a spot in your freezer to set the mould/package on so it can freeze without spilling.
After about 20–30 minutes everything that will melt should be completely melted through. Remove the water bath from the heat, remove the measuring cup from the water bath, and dry it off with a dishtowel. Set the measuring cup on a towel or hot pad to insulate it from the counter and stir the mixture with a flexible silicone spatula to combine everything. Slowly add the rosehip oil, stirring to combine and to keep everything liquid.
Quickly add the cool down phase, stir again to incorporate, and pour the product into its mould or container. I used my silicone honeycomb mold (USA / Canada) for one batch and a 1oz paperboard tube from YellowBee (gifted) for another batch. Transfer it to the freezer to set up.
That’s it! Use as you’d use any facial oil; I like to glide it over my skin after washing and using any watery serums. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this solid facial oil is 100% oil-based, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 25g, which will fill a 1oz tin/tube well.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- I don’t recommend substituting the mango butter or cetearyl alcohol. If you do you’ll need to re-test the formulation to ensure it has the correct melting point.
- You could use a different lightweight liquid oil that your skin loves instead of rosehip oil.
- You could use a different starch (arrowroot, wheat, rice, etc.) instead of cornstarch.
- If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.
Gifting Disclosure
The paperboard tube was gifted by YellowBee.
The rosehip oil and mango butter were gifted by Plant’s Power.
thanks for the info. nice recipe, what is the purpose of the CA? can you make this without the cetyl alcohol? if it comes from palm or coconut i wouldn’t want it on my face. If its binding in nature, why would I need it for RHP, MB, AP and VE when there’s no water?
Shoot, I didn’t realize that cetyl alcohol can come from palm trees, and the deforestation and abuse of workers as well as the animals’ loss of habitat has long been a concern. Thank you for posting this concern, Linda.
Ruth; I recommend reading this post from Realize Beauty on palm oil. It turns out it is quite a complex issue and simply avoiding palm in all things is unlikely to be a feasible solution—the jobs palm does will still need doing, and palm is a very efficient way of doing those jobs. Most other viable options would likely be harder on the environment. There’s no great answer, unfortunately—just a lot of shades of grey.
It’s cetearyl alcohol that’s in the recipe not cetyl alcohol. At the end where Marie goes over the substitutions she says this ingredient was used because of its melting point. If you use something different from cetearyl you would have to reformulate.
Hi Linda! Please look up cetearyl alcohol in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) to learn more 🙂 It is linked right in the post!
I just love everything that you send to my inbox. I have made an indexed “table of contents” to find various recipes and articles. I’m so old school. I have a small suggestion. Could you please add a “How to use” section to the recipes. I know all of you are thinking “why it should be quite apparent”. Like with this recipe. Best when applied ?? Day? Night? Before, after or in place of regular moisturizer? Just an idea from this old school formulator. Thank you for all you do
Marie usually does put it at the end of the instructions. Here she writes: “Use as you’d use any facial oil; I like to glide it over my skin after washing and using any watery serums.”
Since facial oils are usually used at night, I would use this at night as well.
I make a similar solid face oil recipe where I blend Jojoba, Camellia seed, Macadamia, Argan and Avocado oils with Mango butter and beeswax.
I let it set in small tins and I carry those around with me in a handbag or when travelling when I don’t want to deal with a cumbersome jar of moisturizer.
Works a treat!!
I wonder if switching some of the solids in here with a waxy emulsifier would make it even more cleansing? What do you think and what ratios do you suggest?
I just ordered cetearyl alcohol just to make this! I love the idea of minimal packaging so this is great!!! I’m wondering if it could be modified with an emulsifier so you could use it as a cleanser? I’ll have to play around with it. I can’t wait to make this solid facial oil! What a great idea Marie! Thank you
I’m sure you could! It would be fairly simple to swap 3% of the rosehip oil for some PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil 🙂
I’ve used conditioner bar to remove makeup. I think it works well! This looks beautiful and sounds exactly what I need. Sophisticated!
I see huge potential in this formulation!
I made a riff on this with antiflammatory twist (mine is slightly thicker too but I need other, softer one for winter). I like it a lot! Scent can be improved though. I love how relatively non oily / light weight it feels on my skin despite shea butter and evening primrose oil. Hemp oil lightens it a bit and gives lovely color. I know it sounds crunchy. 😀 I’m waiting for mango butter and cetearyl alcohol so that I can try this as written / close to as written too. It’d be so fun to try this with other liquid oils too.
Thanks so much for sharing and developing this one. You are the best.
I absolutely love ❤️ these!!! Another great formulation Marie! I’m going to get some of those cardboard tubes because it’s easier to apply that way.
I tried this out and absolutely loved how light it felt on my skin! Thanks for the excellent & simple formula!
Love this! Made it with argan & evening primrose oil after the serum in your book, as that’s a favourite for both my daughter and me. I used 30ml cardboard tubes and they are so perfect!
Hii, amazing product is rosehip oil photosensitive? can it be used during the day? Thank u
Hi firstly thank you for all of your useful information.
I note that you add CA with USA/CANADA in brackets afterwards. May I ask why? Does that mean it shouldn’t be used outside of those countries? Thanks
That is just links to places to buy that ingredient the USA and Canada respectively—there’s no other meaning. Click the links and you’ll see 🙂
For hotter climates, does the starch and CA help keep it in a solid state? Can a wax be added to help with that and what would be the ideal amount?
Question: Help please! I made this and loved it. I kept one tube for myself and gave some to two friends. After using it several times we all found that it began to feel rough and slightly gritty as we apply it, it no longer feels as smooth going on. Do you have any idea why this would be? For reference, there were both in paper tubes and mine was naked stored in a small tin.
That sounds like graininess, which can kick in if the product wasn’t cooled properly or if it is exposed to temperature fluctuations throughout its life. You can learn more with this blog post 🙂