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 been a while since I made one. A skincare sampler set I purchased in New York included an adorable wee bottle of some Biossance Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil (seriously, the bottle is beyond cute!), and playing with that reminded me of how much I love a good oil serum. It also helped remind me that I’ve got quite a bit of squalane and other fancy carrier oils that need to be put to good use, and I definitely think this serum qualifies!
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Our base oil is olive squalane—something I’ve been meaning to play with more for ages. It’s one of those oils that’s been hanging out in my cupboard for ages, patiently waiting for me to either a) pay attention to it or b) let it go rancid and throw it away (I know, I know… bad Marie!). My renewed love for it was kick-started by the wonderful F.C. over at Simple Skincare Science (an absolutely brilliant blog!) and his post Squalane for President: A Thorough Review of This Fine ASS Oil! (side note: I wish F.C. could teach me about everything, like taxes and managing paper bills, as he is hilarious and makes everything fun). Some highlights from his lovely article that you should definitely read: squalane has a very long shelf life and is a beautiful lightweight emollient. It is a bit naked in the fancy-actives-and-vitamins department, though, which is why we are blending it with some other lovely oils.
Raspberry seed oil is a relatively new oil to me, and so far I love it! Light and silky, it is comprised almost entirely of linoleic, alpha-linolenic, and oleic acids. It is slow to oxidize (it has a long shelf life), and its anti-inflammatory properties are “superior compared to those of other well-known oils such as virgin avocado oil, grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil, and wheat germ oil” (Oomah, et al 2000). Rich in tocopherols and omega-3 fatty acids, red raspberry seed oil offers good protection against oxidative stress. I’m really enjoying having it in my pantry, and it is a brilliant addition to this lightweight serum.
You’ll often read that raspberry seed oil has an SPF and can be used as a “natural sunscreen”. This comes from a study titled Characteristics of raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) seed oil. Lotion Crafter addresses this well in their product description: “This was merely a study indicating some sunscreen potential, but it should, by no means, be relied upon without further independent testing. Red Raspberry Oil is a natural crop and, as such, its constituents can vary from batch to batch or harvest to harvest. As with any cosmetic raw material, any sunscreen benefits would have to be proven or disproven through sunscreen testing of any sunscreen formulation.” The way I see it, relying on any natural plant oil for SPF is like relying on a lottery ticket for my retirement fund. It would definitely be nice if that lottery ticket padded my retirement fund, but I’d be a fool to count on it and fail to save for my retirement because I bought a lottery ticket. Formula Botanica has written a great post on this topic as well.
Marula oil is pressed from the nuts of the fruit of the African Marula tree, and is mostly comprised of oleic, palmitic, and stearic fatty acids. That saturated fatty acid content (<20%) means marula oil can be a bit prone to going cloudy if it gets a bit chilly, though that’ll go away as soon as it warms up again. This beautiful oil is gaining popularity as a luxury hair and face serum as it’s rich in antioxidants, has a light consistency, and is high vitamins C and E.
Combining these three beautiful carrier oils creates a beautiful, silky serum that leaves my skin very happy and hydrated. We’ll also add a touch of vitamin E to extend the shelf life of the serum by delaying oxidization. If you’d like to add a few drops of a gentle essential oil you can, but I opted to leave this unscented as several other parts of my skin care routine are scented, and I didn’t want to over-do it. I hope you love this Raspberry Marula Facial Serum as much as I do!
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Raspberry Marula Facial Serum
14.89g | 59.5% olive squalane (USA / Canada)
5g | 20% red raspberry seed oil
5g | 20% marula oil
0.13g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Weigh all the ingredients into a small beaker! Stir to combine, and transfer to a 30mL/1oz bottle. I used this 30mL bottle with a treatment pump lid, but a 30mL/1oz glass bottle that has a dropper top will also work beautifully.
To use, glide about three drops of the oil over your skin after applying any water-based serums. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this serum 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—and with a recipe as simple as this one, any changes will significantly impact the recipe. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe 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.
- You could use Neossance® Hemisqualane (USA / Canada) in place of the olive squalane
- You can replace either of both of the raspberry or marula oil with other oils your face loves, but if you do this you are no longer making this recipe; this is sort of like replacing the ground beef in burgers with ground chicken. You’re still making burgers, but the end product will be fundamentally different.
This sounds divine! Just ordered all the ingredients, so will report back when I have attempted to make it
Excellent! Happy making 🙂
This has so much great information! I have to chuckle, I also recently sampled the wee bottle of squalane and vitamin c rose oil (I agree the bottle is adorable with its mini dropper). I immediately bought some squalane and rose absolute which I added to my argan and evening primrose serum to lighten it up! I hope you’re having an awesome Australian adventure! Thanks for Smith great post!
Thanks, Katherine! I had a lot of fun doing the research for this one 🙂 Thanks so much for reading!
I LOVE squalane ❤️ Beautiful post about some beautiful oils! Xoxo have fun down under
Thanks! I love how it makes such a beautiful base for a serum but also shines on its own 😀
Glad you made it back safely. Just made this (but, I had to use Rose cuz I don’t have raspberry right now) and tried a drop on the back of my hand and fell in love. It immediately absorbed and my skin is so soft and smooth. Can’t wait till I wash my face tonight to try it. Thanks
OOoh lovely! Do you mean “rosehip” instead of rose? If you used rose this facial oil would’ve cost you a couple hundred dollars!
Ooops, yes Rosehip, LOL. Thanks for catching this. yikes, I wish I could afford rose.
Don’t we all! Interestingly enough—I’ve learned that rose absolute has a 0.02% maximum dermal limit for leave-on products as it contains high percentage of methyl eugenol, a suspected carcinogen. Wow!
This sounds marvelous, but I wondered where purchase your red raspberry seed oil, the link takes me to the olive squalane website; and I’d rather not search and get something sub-par.
Thank you.
Disregard, I did a little searching and found it on the same site. 🙂
Mine is from Dr. Adorable on Amazon 🙂
Hola!! quiero agregar aceite esencial cual me recomiendas y cuantas gotas? gracias! soy de Mexico
Hello!! I want to add essential oil, what do you recommend and how many drops? Thank you! I am from mexico
Hi! I would recommend keeping it to ~0.5% essential oil, though be sure you are researching each individual essential oil to ensure proper usage rates 🙂
I love marula oil and have been using it on my face for the last year or so (in fact, my bottle is just about finished and I was wondering if I should re-order or maybe go back to my previous love, argan). Now it sounds like I really ought to look into squalane and learn a few new tricks, doesn’t it? 🙂
So many oils, so little face 😛 You could also try blending marula and argan—like chocolate peanut butter ice cream for your face, ha!
Hi Marie 🙂
This is the first of your formulations I tried making and I LOVE it! It’s been working wonders on my 13 year old son’s skin as well as my own (it’s winter here in Australia at the moment and his eczema and psoriasis prone skin was giving him issues under his nose and around his mouth). I also made up a 1% Hyaluronic Acid Stock from your instructions and very nervously using all the great information you provide and following some links I managed to turn the HA stock into a hydrating serum for he and I as well (I used Niacinamide and Green Tea Extract as they were what I had on hand….and a broad spectrum preservative). We’re loving both on our dry skin at the moment! He definitely prefers it because unlike the other oils I was using on his skin these actually soak in completely so he’s not going to school looking oily 😉
Thank you for providing all these resources, I really appreciate it. I have made oil based lotions for years now (with oils, bees wax, shea butter and EOs) but I don’t find that they keep the moisture in my skin once they wear off (so I have to keep applying to maintain protection from the elements and not get that ‘too dry’ tight feeling in my skin). So I’ve been putting off giving making a water based lotion (with added goodies) a go because I knew I needed to do a lot of research and in particular I was fearful of learning about emulsifiers and preservatives! Once I found your website (via your Youtube channel) all the pieces have been slowly falling into place and now that I’ve given these serums a go and succeeded I think I’m ready to give one of your more difficult formulations a go.
Thanks again!
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Jen! Your son is very lucky to have you 😀 It sounds like you are having tons of fun making all kinds of awesome things, and like it’s not going to stop anytime soon 🙂 Thank you so much for DIYing with me and happy making!
Hi Maria:
I made the red raspberry and marula serum for my daughter and it has been exceptional! We live in Canada (Manitoba) and have had a harsh winter. She has oily/dry skin and had red patches around her mouth and chin area that were scaly and sore. After a week of using the serum, the problem is pretty much cleared up. No more soreness, or rough patches and the redness is 98% gone. Her face looks so smooth and is literally glowing!..
I want to now make her the Green Tea face cream, do you think it would be a good compliment to go with the serum?
I am also going to make the hemp seed oil salve for my granddaughters ezcema. I will let let you know how it goes with that.
Thank you so much for your knowledge and recipes!