They say if you want something done right, you should do it yourself. But does that apply to makeup? In a recent post I talked about how shook I was when I was diagnosed with a nickel allergy. You can read it here… https://myeyeshadowallergy.com/stay-away-from-pigments-and-everything-else/. I thought, will I really never be able to wear makeup again? What if I want to? There must be something. How can I avoid iron oxides? And then it came to me….I’ll just make it myself. Easy.
I was a goner. For the next 6 months or so I was all about DIY. I got lost in it. Having something to focus on did help my mental state at the time, so that was great. As I went from website, to YouTube, to eBook, I learned that there is a lot to learn. And I was telling it to anyone that would listen. But I had never actually tried it.
Finally, I decided that I was ready. I got my supplies together, and I made a mascara. Or I made what was supposed to be a mascara. Only mascara isn’t supposed to drip everywhere. Last I checked it was supposed to stay on your lashes. What did I do wrong? Not enough wax? I tried again the next day. More wax…same result. My frustration was full blown. I tried some other stuff with similar results. I was done.
So where did I really go wrong? Who knows. The real problem was my expectations. You are not going to make DIY makeup that looks, wears and feels like it came from Sephora. It is going to look, wear and feel like beet and arrowroot powder (a common recipe). That’s not saying anything against DIY makeup. That’s just reality. Even the cleanest of makeup has an array of ingredients. It’s simply not fair to compare the two.
I think you should first ask yourself why you are choosing DIY. If your answer is because you are not comfortable wearing store bought makeup, with it’s arsenal of ingredients, DIY could be right for you. If your answer is because of your nickel allergy, I would encourage you to go down another road.
Iron oxide free makeup does exist, even though it is limited. Check out my iron oxide free makeup page. I update it whenever I come across anything iron oxide free. Remember, you do have choices.
With that said, I recently took another stab at DIY makeup (minus the mascara, I have had enough of that for a lifetime.) Here I am making it..https://youtu.be/323QFGJoj80 and trying it on https://youtu.be/hQlxWIYO3JE.
If you are not up for a video, I will tell you how it went. Was it Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome? Actually, that does not apply. I was not expecting a different outcome.
One of the problems that I ran into was that most of these recipes require cocoa powder. ( A high nickel food). Will it give you a reaction? Probably not, but I figure if you are going this far to avoid nickel, why add cocoa powder. I tried to substitute nutmeg. In retrospect that was a bad idea. Even with cocoa powder, I don’t think the results would have been that different.
I tried making an eyeshadow out of shea butter. That didn’t work. It did not adhere to the eyelid. I tried making a blush…it had no color. I tried making a lipstick. That also had no color. A common ingredient in these two products was hibiscus powder. Was that the problem? Again, who knows…it just didn’t work.
One product that I was impressed with was the eyeliner. It’s just activated charcoal and deionized water. It was super easy to make and apply. Eyeliner is something I have a real issue with. I can only wear it if I use carbon black (black 2). If you are not comfortable wearing carbon black, this could be an option. The eyebrow filler was also pretty good, although I did have to leave out the cocoa powder.
In the end though, DIY makeup is just more trouble than it is worth. To me anyway. It’s a mess to work with. And it will never wear like real makeup. I know it is tempting when you have a makeup allergy, but I would skip it. Sometimes, if you want something done right, you should let someone else do it!
Have you ever tried DIY Makeup?
