Your skin’s needs change day-to-day and season-to-season – so can your skin care routine. An easy and cost effective way of addressing your ever-changing skin care needs is to build up your own ‘Raw Skin Care Pantry’ and follow these quick and easy DIY skin care recipes to create fresh, custom products as you need them. We’ll cover cleansers, exfoliators, toners, and moisturizers – so read on!

What You’ll Need – Start With Your Raw Skin Care Pantry List

Many of these ingredients may already be in your kitchen or bathroom, and the rest can be found at Well.ca!

• Extra fine almond flour – moisturizing, exfoliating and smoothing
• Aloe Vera gel – humectant and anti-inflammatory
• Avocado oil – anti-oxidizing and moisturizing
• Detox Essential Oil Blend – balancing and detoxifying
• Frankincense Essential Oil – healing and regenerative
• Garbanzo bean powder – exfoliating, moisturizing and toning
• Green clay – purifying, pore refining and astringent
• Honey – cleansing, humectant and anti-inflammatory
• Indian Sandalwood Essential Oil – regenerative, moisturizing and healing
• Lavender Highland Essential Oil – balancing, calming and healing
• Matcha powder – detoxifying, toning and cleansing
• Mortar and pestle – great for combining essential oils into dry ingredients
• Oat flour – gently exfoliating, cleansing and anti-inflammatory
• Rose Bulgarian Hydrosol – calming, purifying and rejuvenating
• Rosehip Seed Oil – regenerative, anti-oxidizing and nourishing
• Rosemary Highland Essential Oil – toning and clarifying (regulates flow of oil from pores)
• DIY packaging for storing your new products!

A well-stocked ‘Raw Skin Care Pantry’ will allow you to whip up these recipes whenever you’d like!

Cleansers and Exfoliators

There are many gentle facial cleansers available that avoid harsh chemicals. There are also many natural, raw ingredients that make amazing facial cleansers, while gently nourishing and moisturizing the skin. Here, I’ve provided 3 recipes for all of your cleansing and exfoliating needs!

Gentle Daily Cleanser

This face wash will help you to maintain the fine balance between moisture and clarification. The natural enzymes in honey help to remove impurities, while its humectant properties help to draw moisture into the skin. The combination of Lavender and Rosemary Essential Oils will cleanse, balance and tone all skin types.

• 60 ml honey
• 10 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil
• 10 drops Rosemary Highland Essential Oil
• 60 ml amber glass jar

1. In your jar, combine the essential oils and honey and stir thoroughly.
2. Massage onto a damp face, and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing with warm water
3. Store in your jar, tightly sealed

Soothing Oat Cleanser

This is a great cleanser for sensitive, reactive skin types. It will gently purify the skin, while calming redness and inflammation.

• 2 tbsp oat flour
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil
• 2 drop Indian Sandalwood Essential Oil
• 60 ml amber glass jar

1. Combine your essential oils evenly into the oat flour using your mortar and pestle
2. Add honey and stir to combine
3. Massage onto a damp face, and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing with warm water
4. Store in your jar, tightly sealed for up to 5 days

Detoxifying Matcha Cleanser

This combination of matcha powder, green clay and the Detox Essential Oil Blend will deeply cleanse the skin, helping it to stay clear and blemish free!

• 1 tbsp matcha powder
• 1 tbsp green clay
• 1 tbsp honey
• 5 drops Detox Essential Oil Blend
• 60 ml amber glass jar

1. Combine the essential oil evenly into the matcha and green clay using your mortar and pestle
2. Add honey and stir to combine
3. Massage onto a damp face, and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing with warm water
4. Store in your jar, tightly sealed for up to 5 days

Exfoliating Face Wash

This traditional, Ayurvedic combination of powders will help to gently exfoliate dry skin while adding moisture and nourishment. For reactive skin types, try this recipe without the almond flour.

• 2 tbsp garbanzo bean powder
• 1/2 tsp extra fine almond flour
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil
• 2 drops Frankincense Essential Oil
• 60 ml amber glass jar

1. Combine the essential oils evenly into the garbanzo bean powder and almond flour using your mortar and pestle
2. Add honey and stir to combine
3. Massage onto a damp face, and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing with warm water
4. Store in a tightly sealed amber jar for up to 5 days

Toners

Using Organic Rose Bulgarian Hydrosol as your toner allows you to nourish your skin and balance its PH, without stripping it of natural moisture. Hydrosols (Floral Waters) contain the water-soluble properties of the plant, providing a gentle, healing treatment that’s easily absorbed by the skin.

Hydrating Toner

This combination is designed to help nourish and hydrate. If your skin is dry or damaged, spritz with this toner throughout the day to keep it hydrated.

• 100 ml Rose Bulgarian Hydrosol
• 3 drops Indian Sandalwood Essential Oil
• 4 drops Frankincense Essential Oil

1. Add your essential oils directly into your hydrosol bottle
2. Shake well and spritz on your face after cleansing, before applying your moisturizing serum and throughout the day as needed

Soothing Toner

This gentle combination of Rose Bulgarian Hydrosol and Lavender Highland will help to soothe redness and calm irritated or inflamed skin.

• 100 ml Rose Bulgarian Hydrosol
• 10 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil

1. Add your essential oils directly into your hydrosol bottle.
2. Shake well and spritz on your face after cleansing, before applying your moisture serum and throughout the day as needed

Clarifying Toner

This toner will help to clarify oily, congested skin conditions without stripping away natural moisture. Rosemary helps regulate the flow of sebum (oil), clearing pores and refining impurities. Lavender Highland and Rose Bulgarian are calming and balancing.

• 100 ml Rose Bulgarian Hydrosol
• 5 drops Rosemary Highland Essential Oil
• 5 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil

1. Add your essential oils directly into your hydrosol bottle
2. Shake well and spritz on your face after cleansing, before applying your moisture serum and throughout the day as needed

Moisturizers

Pure plant and vegetable oils combined with essential oils make beautiful, nourishing skin serums. To help the skin absorb an oil-based serum quickly, apply it while the face is still damp from your toner. You can also combine your serum with natural, unscented lotion, to create a customized, nourishing day creme.

Try a hydrating, calming, or clarifying facial serum with these moisturizing recipes

Deeply Hydrating Facial Serum

This rejuvenating serum combines the regenerative benefits of avocado, Rosehip, Frankincense and Sandalwood, leaving your skin smooth, hydrated and glowing.

• 25 ml Avocado Oil
• 25 ml Rosehip Seed Oil
• 5 drops Indian Sandalwood Essential Oil
• 5 drops Frankincense Essential Oil
• 50 ml glass lotion bottle (here’s a 100 ml glass lotion bottle, or a 50 ml plastic lotion bottle)

1. In your lotion bottle, combine avocado oil, Rosehip Seed Oil, Sandalwood and Frankincense, and shake well
2. Apply to face and neck after cleansing and toning

Calming Facial Serum

For those with sensitive skin, simple is often best. This combination of Rosehip and Lavender will calm the skin, while helping to promote cell regeneration and hydration.

• 30 ml Rosehip Seed Oil
• 10 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil

1. Add your Lavender Highland directly into your 30ml bottle of Rosehip Seed Oil, and shake well.
2. Apply to face and neck after cleansing and toning

Clarifying Facial Serum

This serum uses Aloe Vera gel as the base to nourish skin types that are intolerant of oil and prone to breakouts. Aloe Vera gel provides hydration that is easily absorbed by the skin.

• 50 ml Aloe Vera gel
• 4 drops Lavender Highland Essential Oil
• 2 drops Frankincense Essential Oil
• 3 drops Rosemary Highland Essential Oil
• 50 ml glass lotion bottle (here’s a 100 ml glass lotion bottle, or a 50 ml plastic lotion bottle)

1. Fill your 50 ml lotion bottle with Aloe Vera gel
2. Add your Lavender, Frankincense and Rosemary, and shake well
3. Apply to face and neck after cleansing and toning

It’s simple to put together an entirely customized skin care line using whole, organic, pure plant ingredients. Who said your skin can’t go on a raw diet too? Let us know which recipes you try and how you like them in the comments!