I’m super excited to share this recipe with you guys—I devised this because sometimes you just want something light for your skin. You’re going out for the evening and you want a bit of a finish, but nothing that’s going to add any weight to your night. This translucent powder is perfect for that. It adds a bit of real life airbrushing without adding anything else. Brilliant.
This mineral veil is based around sericite mica (USA / Canada). I use sericite mica (USA / Canada) in all my various make-up concoctions, so I thought I should read into it and find out exactly what it does. Sericite mica isn’t like the other micas. Standard micas are super shimmery—they take anything from matte to whoa strip club/Vegas in about a quarter of a teaspoon. Sericite mica has some shimmer, but it’s nothing close to shimmerville like the rest of the micas.
Before the colour adjustment.
It turns out that in addition to/as a side effect of adding a bit of lustre to products, sericite mica (USA / Canada) does a great job of diffusing light. This means it disguises fine lines and pores—awesomesauce! So… I got to thinking; what would a powder made almost entirely of sericite mica do? I hoped it would create the appearance of great skin , but because it’s translucent, you could get a bit of coverage, but your real skin would still shine through. And I was right!
The jojoba oil (USA / Canada) and silk pepetide help your skin stay fresh and moisturized all night long. Jojoba is actually a liquid wax, and it mimics our skin’s sebum very closely, making it a great addition to cosmetics. It’s also very shelf stable, so it won’t be spoiling your make-up anytime soon. Silk is a humectant, meaning it’s constantly pulling moisture from the air and holding it close to your face.
I chose zeolite clay because it has a pinkish, skin-light tinge to it. If you’re darker you might want to look at rhassoul or fuller’s earth clay as a substitute. Otherwise, kaolin or another white clay will give you a blank slate. The red, yellow, and brown iron oxides are there to fine tune the powder to your skin tone. The amounts you’ll need of these will very much depend on your individual skin tone.
I like to buff the powder into my skin with a Sigma Kabuki Brush and then set it with a spritz of water. The effect is subtle, but definitely noticeable; it reduces shine and improves the overall appearance of the skin without a “made up” look.
Translucent Mineral Veil (RealLife Airbrushing Powder)
2 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot or wheat starch)
2 tbsp sericite mica (USA / Canada)
1 tsp silk peptide
1 tsp zeolite clay (or kaolin)
¼ tsp magnesium stearate
20 drops jojoba oil (USA / Canada)Red, yellow, and brown iron oxides; as needed
Blend the first 6 ingredients together in a coffee grinder until smooth.
Now to fine-tune the colour; start by brushing some of the blended powder on your face (blend it in as you would apply mineral make-up). It will likely be too pale (if it isn’t, you’re done!). Start adding tiny bits of the various oxides, blending between additions, until you match your skin tone.
Once you’re done, decant into a sifter jar. Et voila!
Notes as of November 2018:
- Make sure you wear a dust mask so you don’t inhale the powders after whipping them up—that can be dangerous to your health over the long term.
- If you want to press this makeup, this is how.
- Check out my book, Make it Up, for a better formula that uses fewer ingredients and is much more flexible. My book also has lots of colour blending tips and a even more variations on this concept so you can create versions with varying levels of colour, and even transform it into a liquid airbrushing foundation!
The left side has powder, the right side does not. You can see that the left side looks much softer and smoother than the right side, thanks to the light diffusion, but it still looks like skin & you can still see my freckles!
where can I buy quality ingredients
I get everything from New Directions Aromatics.
Thanks for sharing this I want to keep it natural!
Enjoy, Emma! Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions 🙂
Thank you for sharing! You always have such great ideas and tips. I look forward to seeing your posts! Elle
http://www.aviewfromthecottage.blogspot.com
Thanks for reading, Elle!
Hello! I’m totally psyched to try this as I’m finding it really difficult to get the make-up I use to wear. I’ve found all the ingredients, but the magnesium stearate is a bit expensive. Do you know what effect leaving it out would have on the finished product? Thanks!
And the silk peptide! :-\
That one is definitely optional 😉 You can swap it out for cornstarch or just leave it out all together.
Magnesium stearate is surprisingly important considering how little there is in the recipe. It’s for the slip and the creaminess of the make-up, and you definitely don’t want to leave it out. It shouldn’t be expensive, though—I get mine for $2.57/100g from New Directions Aromatics.
I went to the NDA website but could not find the magnesium stearate. What am I doing wrong?
It just sounds like you’re looking somewhere that doesn’t carry magnesium stearate anymore—I believe NDA discontinued it about a year ago 🙂 Check my jumbo list of places to shop for alternatives in your home country.
How about Silk pepetide? Can i change to other or if i not use it is ok or not?
You could use more starch or sericite instead.
Hey, I was wondering if you’ve worked at all with Tapioca starch? It is not mentioned in substitutions or any posts I could find. I know arrowroot and tapioca are interchangeable in cooking, though I find arrowroot has a minty-ish taste and so have used tapioca as my preference. This means I don’t have any arrowroot, but lots of tapioca! So if you have worked with it at all, is it interchangeable in cosmetics as well?
I didn’t realized I had clicked a reply button, I was wondering why the comment box was in the middle. So sorry >.<
Good morning Jessi!
Good news! Whilst makeup is not my area of expertise, Marie did make an awesome post about cosmetic ingredients you might find useful! Happy DIY’ing!
You are awesomesauce! Thanks for sharing!
Enjoy! Thanks for reading!
I have extremely pale skin. How do I know which color oxides to use?
PS: I hope this comment enters me in the contest. 🙂
As I’m sure you noticed, I’ve very pale as well. You’ll still be using red, brown, and yellow, just less of them. It’s generally mostly yellow, with a bit of red and just a hint of brown.
I cant wait to try this! I love your posts, want to try the red clay lipstick too, as soon as I can get all the ingredients together. As much as I collect, I never have quite all the right ones!
I loooooove this mineral veil—it’s like a pore eraser. My girlfriend guinea pigs agree as well 😉 I haven’t worn straight-up mineral make-up since developing this stuff—it’s just so much lighter, while really improving appearances without any added weight. LOOVE. So, yes. You should make this 😛 You’ll love it! And the lipstick. But definitely this, too 😉
Hey. 🙂 Thank you SO much for sharing these great DIY makeup recipes with us all! Thanks for showing how it looks on you…that REALLY helps! You are so NATURALLY beautiful…it’s nice to see that you keep it that way by not masking it with many layers of that store-bought JUNK. Where do you purchase your powder sifting containers, lip balm containers and such? Blessings….
Awwww, shucks, thanks Jessica 🙂 I’m blushing here! I just developed three new awesome natural make-up things last weekend, so stay tuned for those—I am super excited to share them with you. I order my sifters and what not from Saffire Blue—they’ve got a great selection of sizes and what not 🙂
I don’t have any of the oxides, can I just leave them out for a sheer powder? I do have olive leaf powder extract and green tea and licorish root…I was thinking of adding a bit of those for a boost. Not sure why it wouldn’t work but worth a try maybe?
As for the silk peptide, what else can we use it in? I just got this and it’s so new and kind of scary to me haha. Maybe future recipes with this in it? ?:).
Hmmm… I believe the success in eliminating the oxides will depend on the colour of clay you’re working with. If it’s a bit darker than your skin tone, then all the other ingredients will likely lighten it up and it should be a good match. Otherwise, there’s a good chance the powder will make you look a bit pale (when I was developing the recipe I didn’t intend to include oxides, but in the end I had to otherwise I looked even more pale than I already am!).
As for the silk powder—it’s awesome! I use it in my silk lotion as it really boosts the moisturizing power of the lotion as it is a humectant. I also use it in most of my make-up recipes, including today’s summer stick powder. Annnd I’ve got more recipes using it coming out soon 🙂 I love it!
wow, I tried something similar, after being inspired by your recipe some weeks ago: I didn’t have all your ingredients, so I improvised: instead of silk peptides I used powdered bamboo extract (not the coarse bamboo powder; it is very fine and silky, supposedly keeps the skin hydrated and glowing) and instead of zeolite I used white clay, which I then mixed with a bit of iron oxide and spirulina to get my shade, I have a more Oriental skin tone; the cherry on top is that I also added a few drops of rose EO and… others I can’t remember, so I got this very nice “English garden meets Dominatrix” subtle scent caressing me for a few hours, alongside the fact that I have the skin looking like a baby seal’s bottom.
oh, and I also like to use with it a bronzer (a failed lipstick turned bronzer due to rusty colour) which is really nice and creamy, but too oily looking, so after I apply this powder I get the perfect balance of shine and airbrushing : )
*yes, I do get bored in my office life so this natural living and experiments have become my inner Universe where I never grow up and can be crazy; my latest try is tallow for skin – I don’t know if you’ve written about it already; it is indeed great, but I still feel I smell like a shepherd : )
Fantastic! Awesome 🙂 I love hearing that people are actually making things! I’ve got some bamboo bioferment I intend to play with, maybe I’ll try it in this recipe when I run out (which will likely take another 3 years at this rate lol). I am interested to hear that you used spirulina (which has been green in all my experiences with it…) to match your skin tone, though 😛
Thanks for creating with me & reading! I have tried tallow for skin, though not on myself since it’s supposed to be best for mature skin. So, I made a balm for my mom & grandma and I’m waiting for them to report back 😛
Where did you find the silky bamboo powder? All I can find is the coarse/exfoliant kind. Thanks.
Are there any other clay powders that can give color? I am sure you know that there are no natural oxides or pigments approved for skin use since the 70’s due to impurity issues. All are lab produced. I want to stay completely natural. In addition, is there a sub for the silk? As a vegan, animal products are out. Thanks.
Hey Misty! There are plenty of other clays, but very few of them are highly pigmented—your only options there are Australian reef red and Australian black, both of which are super potent. The other ones are pretty pale, especially once you start mixing them with other ingredients.
You should know that oxides aren’t synthesized in a lab, they are mined and then purified in a lab. Kind of like what we do with water… we clean it before we use it. So I’m not too fussed about it, personally. You will find you have a very hard time replicating your skin tone in cosmetics without them unless you are albino, haha.
As for the silk, I’d just leave it out, it’s more of a “nice to have”.
From several websites (including EWG)… Oxides contains inorganic manufactured pigments. They are not found in the earth as natural soils, but are created using natural components such as iron or clay that are manipulated, usually by heating. The resulting shades are bright, UV resistant and have powerful tinting strength.
I guess it just depends how “natural” you want your natural to be. It is all in preference. Not completely natural, but still better than most cosmetics.
The amount of processing/purifying required seems to depend quite heavily on the colour you’re going for. For something like red (Iron III oxide), they’re able to start with something that’s already a russet red tone. For something like ultramarine blue oxide… I imagine there’s a pretty solid amount of lab wizardry involved there. All the same, with a rating of 2 on Skin Deep, and no cancer scares as with so many FD&C colourants, they’re the lesser of the evils, as it were. Plus, they form such a small amount of most recipes that your exposure is fairly limited.
I also love carmine for a bright red, but it isn’t vegan, and it is quite expensive. I have experimented with other natural colourants like rosehip, beet, hibiscus, alkanet, etc., and they are just nowhere near as potent, or as stable (they also don’t stand up to saponification very well).
All that said, yes, personal preference is huge—as long as you’re making educated decisions, good on ya.
I’ve read that green is good to balance out red/pinkish skin… would adding green oxide or a green clay have that effect in this powder??
It definitely should—I’ve actually had a powder like this on my to-do list for quite some time 🙂 I already have a couple green-laced red-cancelling recipes online, including my colour correcting concealer and my healing concealer, and they work like a charm!
Marie,
I have been following your blog and making a few products so far, but this is the first time I have ever commented. You are an incredibly smart, beautiful woman and I greatly appreciate your blog, and all the knowledge I have gained from it.
I just made this powder and it is FANTASTIC!! I added a bit of zinc oxide to it but only because melanoma runs in the family. Thanks to your blog I am on my way to never having a store bought product loaded with nasty ingredients touch my skin again!
Aww, thank you so much, Megan 🙂 Your comment made my day! And I am super thrilled you love my airbrushing powder—it is my favourite make-up invention to date 😀
I made this today, and it turned out lovely! I’m publishing a post about it later this week on my own blog =)
I’m thrilled to hear it 🙂 This is one of my all-time favourite inventions.
I recently discovered your blog and have spent hours reading all your posts! I can’t wait to try all of your recipes. Thanks so much for all the information you provide, and you make it all seem so simple! You are truly talented! One question I have regarding the veil – can this also be pressed like the mineral makeup? I travel a lot and loose makeup just gets so messy!
I’m so thrilled you found my wee corned of the internet 🙂 I find my powders can be tamped down quite well, though they’ll never be quite as packed as one from the store (perhaps that would change if you used something very heavy to weigh it down overnight). I’ve done it successfully several times and it’s a nice alternative to the loose powders. You can also get sifter jars with twist-tops that will block off the sifter holes on the sifter insert, and those are quite useful. I got mine from Saffire Blue 🙂
Hi Marie!
I just made your mineral foundation and have recommended your site to all my ladies who are interested in making their own too. I would now like to try this powder. How do you press it into a compact?
Thank you!
I honestly wouldn’t bother pressing it into a compact, but if you want to, you can make a paste with rubbing alcohol, and spread that paste into a compact. Once it dries, there you go! I have found this does tend to change the powder a bit, though, and it’s not overly stable.
Hi Marie,
I just made this powder yesterday and it’s really wonderful!!..but… I got a little too oxide-happy (yellow/red/brown/green) and it turned out too dark :(…is there any way to lighten it up?? I tried adding more green oxide, as well as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, but nothing helped. It’s way too peachy and I am very pale/yellow-toned. Any suggestions?? Thanks!
Hi Rachel! You’re probably not going to like this, but I’d recommend just starting over. It sort of sounds like you’re at the point where trying to fix this will result in you ending up with half a gallon of face powder that may or may not be the right colour in the end. I’ve made the “I am bound and determined to fix this!” mistake before, and it usually ends up in having a huge amount of something really mediocre on my hands that I either end up throwing out in the end (and wasting more ingredients than I would have if I’d just started over initially) or I muscle my way through it and hate every minute of it. Just be a bit more cautious with your oxides next time, and see if you can find someone with a peachy skin tone who you can gift it to 🙂 Remember, this powder should really have an opacity, and should be just colourful enough not to make you look paler than you really are 🙂
I had that same problem too! On my next batch I actually just put in a smidgen of yellow…nothing else and it was perfect! Every time I tried it with the other oxides it always ended up pink. It’s perfect with just yellow. Hope that helps!
So I ended up making a batch of the mineral makeup instead (I only have enough ingredients to make a few products) and I added just the yellow this time with a smidgen of green to cancel out redness…and it’s pretty much perfect! yay!..Thank you for the suggestion Monika!! :)… just love DIY, can’t wait to try all your other recipes Marie! 🙂
Oooh, fantastic! I’m glad it all turned out in the end 🙂
It can be so hard to give generic instructions for creating something that needs to be tailored to match just one person’s skin tone—I’m glad you figured out what works for you!
Hi Marie,
Just wondering if I could add some powdered extracts (like chamomile or rosehip) to this recipe, not so much for the colour, but to kind of make it a “blemish soothing mineral veil”?
I love this blog by the way! It is fantastic!! Thank you so much for dedicating your time to teaching us 🙂
Hi Morgan! You definitely can, I’d just recommend sticking to ones that have a fairly skin-ish tone to them, so maybe more chamomile, less rosehip 🙂
Can I Please get a link to where you get your foundation jars with the sifter lid option.
Thank you
I bought this specific jar locally at a place called Soap & More, but Saffire Blue sells similar sifter jars online 🙂
Hi there! I just made this last night and I absolutely love it! It is so soft and smoothing! I added half a teaspoon of allontoin to it for the skin healing benefits. I actually prefer to use this over cream concealer on my blemishes. I still use a drugstore concealer so perhaps I will try your healing concealer next 😉
I’m so thrilled you love it! This recipe is one of my favourite inventions 🙂
Hi Marie!
I just recently discovered something that I would like to share, for those of us who might have sensitivities to mineral powders. I found that I was getting some clogged pores and slight inflammation and just couldn’t figure out why. I did some digging and asking around, and discovered that Magnesium Stearte, though a perfectly safe filler, can clog pores for those extremely sensitive skin types! I eliminated it and the problem went away, I now use Boron Nitride or (more preferably) a silk powder. If anyone ever happens to have this problem, in which skin care products or oils have already been ruled out, then magnesium stearate would be the first to replace! It’s too bad because I love the feel of it and the adhesion! But, boron or silk seems to work just fine. =) Just thought I would share! =)
This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing your discovery, Ashlynn 🙂 (sorry about your inflammation, though!)
Hello there Marie..
A wee note to say..ive been saving up and stashing ingredients in a box planning and plotting…and today tadaa! I made my first make up..
This veil is astonishing..feels like nothing is there..and i look a good ten years younger and a whole lifetime healthier!
Thank you so much for your precious research and sharing it so that newbies like me can jump in feet first
Wehey three cheers to you..keep having fun
Rey
Hi Rey! I’m so thrilled you’re loving my airbrushing powder 🙂 It’s one of my favourites as well. Thanks so much for DIYing with me and for letting me know how it turned out!
I made this earlier today, though I don’t have silk so I subbed it out for a mix of bamboo and cucumber extract. Let me tell you, Marie, this is the absolute bee’s knees. It’s so light and silky! It feels like I’m not wearing anything, and you can’t see it on the skin, even up close, but it gives my face this lovely glow, almost like a soft-focus lens from an old movie. Thank you so much for this recipe! I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
P.S. It’s great to see a fellow Canuck into DIY cosmetics!
Yay! I’m so glad you love it 🙂 It’s definitely one of my favourites as well.
Which province are you from?
I’m from southern Ontario!
Cool! Enjoy your beautiful autumn 🙂 I lived in Toronto for 4 years and was always amazed at how lovely autumn is in southern Ontario.
Would I be able to use bentonite clay in place of the zeolite? I work at a local organic health store that carries bentonite so it would be much easier to get.
Hey Erica! Bentonite clay is a really weird, heavy clay, that behaves totally differently from other, lighter clays like zeolite. Read this and this for a general overview (zeolite is fairly similar to the French clays). Also… bentonite is grey and I’m guessing your face isn’t 😛 Zeolite is skin tone coloured.
Hi Marie,
I have Silk Amino Acid powder – do you think it wold work okay for this recipe?
I love your blog and find myself returning to it more and more. Thank you for all that you share!
Yup! Read this 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie – I love your recipes! I’ve been intrigued by MB’s “Special Healing Powder” for covering and treating acne. It has sulfur, zinc oxide and other antiseptic ingredients. Do you think some of those could be added to your airbrushing powder to have a similar anti-acne effect? Or perhaps attempt your own version of it? Thanks so much!
Hey Lisa! Maybe? Why not? It’s worth a try! 😛 I would hope the sulfur wouldn’t have you smelling like old egg salad all day, though 😛
Hi! I’ve just subscribed to your site ))) Thank you so much for a wonderful job you are doing! Quick question, can I skip mica? I try to make my own cosmetics as natural as I can. I have an autoimmune disease and ingredients like mica might affect it. Thank you )))
Hey! So, if you scroll up and read the blog bit before the recipe, it talks about how sericite mica is the linchpin of this entire recipe. It’s the translucent part and the airbrushing part. If you leave it out, this recipe flat out does not work. It’s just a bad face powder without the sericite mica. Also, mica is mined; just like salt… so it’s pretty darn natural! You could try using some silica microspheres in place of it, but you would have to re-work the entire recipe as silica microspheres are very drying in large quantities (so a 1:1 swap would make your skin very unhappy), and they cannot go through a coffee grinder, so colour blending gets a bit tricky as well. Hope that helps!
Marie, I realize this is an older blog, but I hope you still get notifications for new comments. Thank you for sharing recipes! I have been using mineral makeup for years. I recently (attempting to save some money and try something different-lol) ordered some from Ebay with some decent results and others not so decent. I have wanted to formulate something for myself since I’ve started making all natural soap and other things using the products our bees make. I was so happy to come across your site and saw that you offered this recipe for your mineral veil! I just wanted to personally say, thank you. This recipe produces a nice product for my face, that I can make. You are so generous and awesome for sharing.
Deborah—thank you so much! I get notifications for every comment left on the blog, regardless of the age of the post 🙂
I’m so thrilled you are enjoying this formula! If you want to make your own mineral makeup I’ve got a great recipe for it in my book, complete with a newer and easier-to-make version of this recipe as well (with strength variations, too!). There’s also tons of recipes in my book for all kinds of other makeup, like eyeshadow, eyeliner, blush, bronzer, highlighter, lipstick, and more!
Happy making!
Hi. I have some storebought transclucent finishing powder I want to make more of. I want to make the Airbrushing Powder from the book, but in a transclucent form with no oxides. Will the added serecite mica for light coverage create a transclucent powder? Or will it still be a white base that needs the oxide color added? Thanks.
Hey Karen! Sericite mica will offer no coverage and no colour—try brushing a bit on your skin to see 🙂