Getting started with natural beauty products and homemade facial oils

I’m fairly new to using natural beauty products but I’ve had loads of questions from you guys about what I’m using, how I’m using them and what I think.

Before we go any further, can I just say – wow. Wow, wow, wow. I LOVE using these natural beauty products and now I’ve discovered them I can’t believe I’ve been spending a fortune on expensive products for so long!

(You can read my post about how I spent £250 on expensive beauty products to see what I liked)

The beauty industry will have us believe we need complicated beauty routines, expensive serums, a multitude of products and the more we use, the better our skin will be.

But as I’m getting older I’m realising there is no quick fix or miracle product for perfect skin. It’s also the simple, old fashioned methods that are actually the best and a £200 bottle of expensive cream full of ingredients we’ve never even heard of won’t give us that perfect glow we’ve seen on Instagram!

Natural cleansing

I’m going to tell you the main secret here that massively changed my skin.

I don’t use any cleansing products to clean my skin. No lotions, gels, foams, cleansers, oils. Nothing.

I just use warm water and cloth.

Honestly.

I feel like we need a second to pause and let that sink in because if I’d told myself that a few years ago I wouldn’t have believed it.

I stopped using cleanser about 18 months ago and my skin has been a billion times better. It’s softer, smoother and I have fewer spots.

I didn’t shout this from the rooftops at the time because I was pregnant and then breastfeeding and I was aware that all those hormones could have affected my skin.

I do use two types of cloths to clean my face.

The first is the FaceHalo Pad which is a plush reusable pad with soft microfibres. You just wet it with warm water and then clean your face with it. It removes makeup and even mascara without any kind of makeup remover!

So I use the FaceHalo pads at night to take off my makeup and properly clean my skin. And then in the morning I use bamboo cotton flannels. They’re not as good as the FaceHalo pads (£18 for 3) but they’re a lot cheaper (£14 for 12) and do the job if I don’t have any makeup on. I like to use a fresh flannel or pad every single day and it seemed a bit excessive to buy 10-15 FaceHalo’s but I actually wish I did now. When my bamboo cotton flannels are ready for the bin (or ready to be turned into cleaning cloths for the bathroom!) I’ll replace them with more FaceHalo pads.

My skin has been so much better since I started using these pads and flannels with no cleansing products for a few reasons:

It’s so quick and easy I do it every single morning and night. Even if I’m tired, drunk or late (my three previous reasons for skipping cleansing!)
I now realise that cleansers were actually stripping my skin of any natural oil and then my skin went into overdrive producing extra oil which would lead to clogged pores and spots
If I have time I like to leave a hot flannel over my face for a few seconds and this just feels lovely but also opens up my pores and makes my skin all soft and ready for my natural oils.

So let’s talk about the natural oils…

Getting started with natural oils

I started using an oil cleanser years ago. It was the DHC oil cleanser and it came as a freebie when I subscribed to a magazine. I loved it and was hooked for about 10 years. So I already knew that oils suit my skin and I enjoyed using them.

Then I recently bought the book ‘Minimal: How to simplify your life and live sustainably’ by Madeleine Olive. This is a really nice book for anyone who is completely new to the concept of minimalism and living sustainably. But it’s something I’ve been interested in for a while so there wasn’t much in the book that was new to me until I read the beauty section!

There’s a short section on natural beauty products that I found really interesting and I immediately ordered the three oils Madeleine uses in her facial oil.

The oils I ordered were:

Jojoba Oil

Rosehip Oil

Vitamin E Oil

I’ve added links to the ones I ordered on Amazon (these are affiliate links). I’m still new to this so I don’t know if these are the best oils, so if anyone has any other suggestions please do let me know and I’ll update this post with any recommendations. These oils came in plastic bottles and I would have preferred glass but I’m happy with them so far.

These three bottles came to £30 and they are pretty big and I’m pretty sure they’ll last at least a year, if not longer.

The first week using natural oils

I wasn’t sure how my skin would react to using these oils so I didn’t mix them together immediately and I used each oil individually for a few days.

Vitamin E Oil was definitely my favourite but I couldn’t tell any difference between jojoba oil and rosehip oil.

The recipe for a natural facial oil recommended in the Minimal book suggested using just a few drops of vitamin E oil, but it was my favourite so I just ended up mixing the three oils equally.

I made two little batches and added different essential oils – one for the morning and one for the evening.

My morning natural facial oil has ‘Revitalising Blend’ essential oil from Jurlique (previously gifted during this campaign I worked on last year). This blend is fresh and citrusy and really uplifting for the morning.

My evening natural facial oil has lavender essential oil for a lovely, calming scent.

My recipes for natural facial oils

Morning natural facial oil recipe

1/3 Jojoba Oil

1/3 Rosehip Oil

1/3 Vitamin E Oil

2-3 drops of ‘Revitalising Blend’ essential oil from Jurlique (add more if you’re using a large bottle)

Evening natural facial oil recipe

1/3 Jojoba Oil

1/3 Rosehip Oil

1/3 Vitamin E Oil

2-3 drops of lavender oil

Dropper bottles for facial oils

It’s easiest to use dropper bottles when you’re making your natural facial oil recipe, otherwise it’ll be hard to decant, hard to mix and hard to get the precise amount you want to use each time.

I had these tiny dropper bottles as part of a gift set from Bobbi Brown but there are plenty of options to buy a couple online. There’s a set of 6 glass dropper bottles from Amazon for £5.50 and they have great reviews.