This simple formula stars a few beautiful plant-sourced oils to create a vitamin rich, antioxidant packed, anti-inflammatory skin serum. With its velvety skin feel, soft nutty scent, and rich slip it’s become a quick favourite in my nightly skincare routine. Like all oil serums it’s pretty simple to make, too—we’re merely mixing together a few beautiful oils. After that it’s all about letting the ingredients shine as part of a medley of fantastic plant-derived goodness.
If you’ve been hanging out in DIY/natural skin care circles for long, you’ve almost certainly read about sea buckthorn oil and how amazing it is. How it’s rich in vitamins, loaded with beta-carotene, and is very likely the thing standing between you and the glowing skin you’ve always dreamed of. So you order some! And whoa—they weren’t kidding about that beta-carotene. Did you accidentally order a bottle of highlighter ink? Wowza. You try a drop on your arm. Despite your best efforts to blend it in, you now glow with the light of a thousand tanning beds. Hmm. This isn’t quite the glow you had in mind.
I’ve owned several bottles of sea buckthorn oil over the years, both fruit and seed. The fruit oil seems to be the most common, and is definitely the most orange. I’ve got a bottle of the stuff right now that can’t be used much higher than 1% without compromising the skin tone of the end user! The seed oil is typically more useful, with significantly less of an orange punch, but it’s usually still pretty potent.
As you can probably guess from the names, the fruit oil is pressed from the pulp of the sea buckthorn berries themselves, while the seed oil is pressed from the seeds, which contain up to 12.5% oil (source). The fruit oil, being vibrantly orange-red, is very rich in carotenoids and contains more omega 7 fatty acid (palmitooleic acid) than any other vegetable oil at 30–35% (source). The seed oil is rich in tocopherols (vitamin E) and plant sterols, as well as omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids (source). While both oils can be used on the skin, the vibrant orange factor of the fruit oil makes the seed oil much easier to use.
The sea buckthorn oil I’m using today is SIBU brand, and was a gift. SIBU sea buckthorn oil is harvested in the Himalayan highlands, and the company takes care to harvest sustainably—both environmentally and socially. Their products are fair trade—they employ local women to harvest the berries using traditional methods and pay them well, and after the harvest the berries are carefully processed to maintain as many nutrients as possible. If you want to learn more about their brand and products you can do so here. The oils were gifted, but SIBU has not paid me to share this post or create this recipe—all thoughts & impressions are my own.
Code expires September 24, 2019. Cannot be combined with other promos/codes. Canadians are asked to call SIBU directly at 1-800-710-7428 to redeem.
Fun fact: The botanical name for sea buckthorn is Hippophae rhamnoides. “Hippophae” is from the Greek “hippos” (horse) + “phaos” (shiny) as the ancient Greeks used to feed sea buckthorn to their horses to make their coats shiny! (source)
The rest of the oils in this blend compliment the sea buckthorn seed oil nicely. There’s some nutty, antioxidant rich argan oil, some anti-inflammatory red raspberry seed oil, and silky jojoba oil, which is high in vitamin E. The finished serum is a light, golden yellow that doesn’t colour the skin at all. It has a slightly nutty scent, and a soft, satiny skin feel. Try it at the end of your skin care routine, after all your watery serums. I think you’ll love it!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
Sea Buckthorn Glow Serum
7.425g | 49.5% argan oil (USA / Canada)
3g | 20% sea buckthorn seed oil
3g | 20% red raspberry seed oil
1.5g | 10%Â jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
0.075g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Weigh all the ingredients into a 15mL/half ounce glass bottle with a dropper top. Cap, and shake to combine. That’s it!
To use, smooth a few drops over your skin after your watery serums and actives.
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. 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 15g.
- Abyssinian oil can be a good alternative for argan oil
- You can definitely use a different brand of sea buckthorn seed oil. I do recommend sticking with the seed oil rather than the fruit oil as the fruit oil is much more orange. I’d also recommend swatching your oil to make sure 20% is a usable amount of oil—if you’ve got an accurate scale you could mix 0.2g sea buckthorn seed oil and 0.8g of a non-pigmented oil (sweet almond, safflower, argan, etc.) and see how that goes. If it doesn’t dye you orange, you’re good to go! If it does, dial it back until it doesn’t. You can increase any of the other oils in the recipe to make up for the loss of sea buckthorn—it’s up to you!
- If you want to replace the red raspberry seed oil I’d recommend something quite light, like olive squalane (USA / Canada), rosehip oil, or camellia seed oil.
- Meadowfoam seed oil is a decent alternative to jojoba oil
Gifting Disclosure
The sea buckthorn seed oil was gifted by SIBU.
That sounds lovely Marie – I shall try it next time I run out of my current facial oil. I love, love, love my Sea Buckthorn oil and add it in small amounts to almost everything I make! It’s so wonderful for difficult dry, ageing skin like mine.
We have so much produced locally (Scotland) and since I noticed that however vibrantly orange it is, it doesn’t seem to permanently affect my skin colour – I’ve taken to just not caring and simply using it at night 🙂
I had no idea Scotland produces sea buckthorn oil—how cool! I know it also grows like a weed here (apparently you can see it in ditches along the highway if you know what you’re looking for). What a sturdy shrub!
I’m also giggling imagining you heading to bed with a orange tinged face!
Thanks for DIYing with me 🙂
Hey Marie! Remember me?
I got excited when I saw this post, so I decided to watch the video of it. I have been keeping an eye on your recipes but last winter I found a new addiction which has taken every extra moment of my time…weaving.
Anyway, after watching that video, I watched the one about DIY things you don’t do anymore. I loved this. I know you have many followers who are strictly natural, I wanted to be myself. Wondered how they were accepting your brave branching out in taboo areas. I haven’t been able to make anything new in about a year because frankly Marie, I have a ton of stuff I must use up before buying these new products you use. I’m excited to buy them and if I wasn’t spending all my time and money weaving and buying yarns, I’d be using up those other ingredients. Like SLSa and Decyl Glucoside…
So I haven’t left you due to your newer endeavors. Just juggling my hobbies. Been sick with Flu already (all freaking ready!) and today would be a good day to make this serum. After I warp my loom. 🙂 Meant to do that 6 days ago and then Flu struck.
I’m typing this on my phone and its hard to edit out mispells,so don’t think me an idiot. My forever misusage of commas on the other hand, think whatever you want,sadly.
Hey! Welcome back 🙂 The branching out has been met with occasional vocal resistance, and probably more less-visible resistance of people just dropping away. I’m sad to see them go, but from everything I’ve learned over the years it simply no longer feels genuine to continue on the baking soda-coconut oil-tea tree on everything path. I definitely get it—I started there, and it is so dang alluring. The call of the all natural, simpler, homemade everything is amazingly strong, and since it is feasible with food it seems only logical that it also be feasible with skin care. I read a really interesting quote from Perry Romanowski today: “Unlike food, there does not exist a shampoo shrub, a body wash bush, or a lipstick plant… For food, plants produce the finished product. Cosmetics are not like this. ALL cosmetics must be processed in some way.” Excellent food for thought!
And I definitely understand the hobby juggling! Right now travel and Humblebee & Me are winning in my life, but I wish I had more time to sew! I bet your woven creations are stunning!
The cool thing is, you got stuff for EVERYONE. This 7 year site is a treasure trove of a lifetime supply of beauty goods. If you were to stop today, never post another recipe, besides freaking out, I could use what’s here forever. Tweaking if needed.
Just before you started using preservatives, I read one of your reading recommendations from Susan. Poking around there I read an article about the dreaded parabans. She made sense. I did the alarmist thing on everything for years and I’m just tired of it. Then suddenly you were using them. Preservatives. And I saw you were using your learned common sense about products from that point on. And I liked it. Because frankly, I hate body butter. Its greasy, especially in humid climates. It never goes away. How much butter can one use to the grave?
I figure I’ll live to 80 or 90. Just like people who never put strange ingredients on their skin or hair. Just like people who don’t eat gluten or meat or fats. Maybe they’ll have more bounce in their step at 90 and maybe not. I’m having fun while alive. And this year, I’m getting a fly shot. Despite those little trackers people say the govt puts in them, or that the shot will give me a slow death. I hate the flu. The govt tracks me regardless with phones, license plates, debit cards..etc..and here I am. And the slow death thing, I began dieing the moment I was given life. I’m still living happy.
I love what you do. I love watching your life move in the ways it’s moving.
And yes, my weaving is getting better every towel I make. And so are your products.
This was long, I had things to say.
YES. SO MUCH YES. Thank you! The alarmist thing is exhausting, and the shame thing kills joy. Who’s got time for that?! Let’s save our energy for more fruitful, happy endeavours 🙂 Thank you as always!
Hi Marie,
I have a question about Sea Buckthorn that does not have to do with this specific recipe.
Is there really such a thing as Colloidal Sea Buckthorn? If so, where do I purchase this?
I ask because I took down a recipe (from a blog) for a Customized Clay Mask to deal with the problem of hyper-pigmentation on my face. I realize that the blog is no longer active and all the posts are in the archive stage, so there is no one to ask for this information.
If you can tell me anything about Colloidal Sea Buckthorn, I’d greatly appreciated it because doing a simple online search has only caused more confusion and I don’t want to buy the wrong item.
Thanks in advance.
Hmm. I don’t want to say “definitely not”, but the top google hit for the term “Colloidal Sea Buckthorn” is your comment on this blog post, so if it does exist… it is an extremely poorly marketed product. I’ve never heard of it, and it seems like google is also at a loss. Modern Cosmetics also makes no mention of anything “colloidal” in the sea buckthorn oil entry. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful!
Looks like a lovely serum. I will definitely be trying this when my current serum is used up.
Just FYI, I’ve made your Bill’s Lavender salve and I added a couple drops of the sea buckthorn oil-got the loveliest yellow colored salve! You should try the next time you make some.
OOoh, that would be stunning! I remember the original recipe requester saying the original inspiration for that salve was very yellow, so that’s an extra super awesome addition 🙂 I will keep it in mind, thank you!
Hi Marie — I’ve been following along for a few years now and I know your formulations have evolved, which is all good! I like that you share the science and the why behind your choices. I do have to comment, however, that many times lately when I get excited about trying one of your recipes, I’m discouraged to find that the ingredients are pricey. Sea Buckthorn seed oil at $50 per ounce is way too pricey for this DIYer. I know that you often develop “budget” friendly versions of much pricier commercial products — so price is all relative. But I just wanted to share my disappointment that there are fewer and fewer recipes I’m actually able to try on my own. That being said, your site is still an excellent resource with its encyclopedia of ingredients and it gets me thinking about skincare in a new way. Thank you for all you do!
Lucie; I’m sorry to hear you feel that way. I do have a few points, though. For starters, that sea buckthorn oil price is for FOUR oz, not one, so it’s actually $12.50/ounce. Not cheap, but a far cry from $50/oz. You are also free to shop around! It’s less expensive at New Directions Aromatics. This is also probably one of the most expensive ingredients I’ve ever used (cost per reasonable usage amount, at least), so I don’t feel like this post is hugely representative of the average type of recipe I publish. The mist I shared yesterday, for instance, costs pennies a batch to make!
In the last year I’ve started providing long substitution lists for every recipe as well, so readers can easily swap out ingredients they don’t have. I try not to use too many exotic things all at once, but I do also have them and want to play with them. So, I publish the occasional recipe like this one, using a pricey carrier oil, and then publish others for things like clay masks, balms, and toners. You might be surprised to hear that those more accessible recipes are typically my least popular posts!
Also, I’ve said it before, but DIY is cost effective, not cheap. Just like with cooking at home, there is an up-front investment for ingredients, but most of the things we use are pretty inexpensive per batch or per usage, especially when compared to high-end store bought products.
I’m trying to keep things accessible and affordable, but I also want to keep things interesting. There’s only so much I can do with inexpensive, readily available ingredients—especially ones that are readily available globally. I’m trying, and I’m certainly conscious of it, but I publish 2x a week, and have been doing so for over 7 years now. I need to branch out to new ingredients to keep things interesting and to keep producing new content, and not everything is going to be cheap and available in town.
I hope that provides some insight! Happy making 🙂
Hi Marie — Oops! I mis-read the pricing on the sea buckthorn oil. So sorry. I understand the huge effort on your part to keep things going on your site — it really is amazing and much appreciated. Sure hope you will keep experimenting with new and interesting ingredients and sharing with all of us. In thinking more about this (balancing your need to keep things interesting and my desire to keep things affordable), I realize there is room for both. Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.
No worries! Thank you for being so understanding and for all your support ❤️
I love this serum. It leaves my skin so soft and smooth. Thank you
I am so glad! Thanks so much for DIYing with me 🙂
Hi! I just got your book, but am newer to your blog/youtube. I was wondering if I can add essential oils to this recipe? I was thinking about adding Sea Fennel, Frankincense, Australian Sandalwood, Helichrysum. Do you have suggestions/guidance for that? Thank you so much:)
Hi Laura! Thanks for buying my book ❤️ Please read this FAQ on adding essential oils 🙂