Makeup Recipes
Ditch the cosmetics counter and make your own!What do we want in makeup?
Adhesion? Slip? Opacity? A quick overview on the traits we want in our makeup and why.
DIY Cosmetic Ingredients You'll Need
The ingredients list for homemade cosmetics is a bit different than for most other homemade body products—here’s my overview and shopping list.
Help, I made a mess!
My best tips for cleaning up your DIY messes 🙂
Wrinkle-erasing makeup primer + skin perfector
There is so much fun to be had with this one! Very DIY-able if you can get your hands on a silicone gel, and flexible. We ended up drafting up two starter dupe formulations; one using ingredients closer to the original, and one using ingredients that are more widely...
My go-to cream highlighter & blush
I've been using and loving these cream cosmetics since December 2023 and though it was high time I shared the formulations 😄
A two-in-one glowy eye balm
This was another fun one—apologies for the goblin cameo 😅 Ingredients: Aqua/Water/Eau, Propanediol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Sodium Stearate, Xylitol, Lactococcus Ferment Lysate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Oleth-20, Glycerin, Citrullus Lanatus (Watermelon)...
DIY Color Changing Lip Gloss
Back in 2016 I was wandering through London and a display in the window of a fancy cosmetics shop caught my eye; it was Lipstick Queen's Frog Prince lipstick, and it was deeply, froggily green! I obviously had to try it, so in I went to swatch this baffling cosmetic....
Green-to-Pink Lipstick (2 Ways)
These lipsticks were inspired by the now-discontinued Lipstick Queen Frog Prince Lipstick, and they're so much fun 🐸 These Patron exclusive lipsticks pair with tomorrow's blog post and YouTube video (which you also now have access to here on Patreon). Watch...
The perfect level of dye for colour-changing lip glosses
After making quite a few colour-changing lip glosses, I've found the amounts of TKB's Presto Change-o recommended by TKB Trading are a lot. So, in this video I do some experiments to figure out precisely how much Presto Change-o is needed to create a...
Making clear (!) lip balm
After many experiments (and flops), I finally made clear, solid lip balm! Here's how 😄
Glossier’s Future Dew
I'm so fascinated by this product—part serum, part emulsion, part makeup! Let's dig into how it works and find out if we can create something similar at home.
DIY Moisturizing Lip Oil: 3 Ways
I've been having a ton of fun making lip oil formulations this year, and today I'm finally sharing three of my favourite formulations starring a new-to-me ingredient that I'm low-key obsessed with. These are super easy to stir up (no heating required!) and are a...
Getting to know polybutene (how much do you need?)
How much polybutene do you need (or want) in a lip formulation? It's super sticky, but also adds gorgeous richness and cushion to our formulations—so how much is just right? Let's find out with some hands-on ratio experiments!
DIY Blurring Face Primer: 3 Ways
These formulations were inspired by the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Blur Face Primer; a $52USD/oz. blurring facial primer that makes your skin look airbrushed. I'll teach you how to make this primer for less than 1/5 the price, plus how to customize it into extra...
Transfer-Resistant Cream Foundation
The inspiration for this Transfer-Resistant Cream Foundation came from two places. Place #1 was my 2020 Second Skin Cream Foundation, which was inspired by RCMA's cream foundations. I love this formulation and have been using it ever since. My love (and use) was...
Frosted Cranberry Matte Lip & Cheek Colour
This Frosted Cranberry Matte Lip & Cheek Colour is really neat; it's a hybrid between a matte liquid lipstick and a lip stain. It has a creamy consistency that dries down to a powdery, transfer-resistant finish. Richly coloured, it both wears and re-applies well,...
Long-wearing lip colour experiments
Today we're chatting about the long-wearing lip colour formulation I've been working on and testing + making the newest version together ❤️
Frosted Cranberry Lip Oil
I've had a ton of requests for a lip oil recently, and I thought this year's Frosted Cranberry theme was a great backdrop for a shiny new lip oil formulation 😄 This cheery red oil imparts moisture and shine to our lips and it smells softly of fresh, juicy...
Liquid lipstick formulation ramblings (and making!)
Continued work on a long-wearing matte liquid lipstick formulation + chat about how such formulations work and why they're a challenge.
Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner
Today I'm sharing a formulation I have been working on for months—a Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner. It goes on like a dream, wears beautifully, and easily holds its own when compared to products like Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner and KVD's Tattoo Waterproof Liquid...
DIY Pressed Shimmer Eyeshadow
It's been almost five years since my first book, Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care, was released (!). I'm still really proud of it, but today I want to share an update to the eyeshadow formulation that I think is a pretty big upgrade. It's...
Long-Wearing Shimmer Cream Eyeshadow
I am so excited to share this formulation with you guys! Today we are making Sephora-quality long-wearing shimmer cream eyeshadow. You will need three specialty ingredients, but if you love cream eyeshadows, it is absolutely worth it. Just as I did in my book, Make it...
Clear Lip Gloss Base (without Versagel!)
If you've been wanting a transparent lip gloss base from scratch, this is the formulation for you. You'll need just three ingredients to make a clear and versatile gloss base that you can customize in oh-so-many ways, with different carrier oils, colours, micas, and...
Blackberry Lip Gloss
Lip gloss is one of the first things I ever made (this post from late 2011 is nearly a decade old, wowza), with my first batches pre-dating Humblebee & Me! I've experimented with many different ways to get that characteristic soft creamy, glossy consistency, and...
Gold Dust Lip Cream
Today we're fully embracing summer with a rich, sparkly Gold Dust Lip Cream ✨ A creamy base carries a generous helping of shimmery gold things to bring some beautiful 24 karat loveliness to your days. Enjoy! Want to watch this project instead of reading it?...
Soothing Makeup Finishing Spray
Today I'm sharing something I've been loving lately—a Soothing Makeup Finishing Spray. You certainly don't have to use it over makeup (it's also a great soothing & hydrating mist for bare skin!), but I've been using this as the last step in my makeup routine (and...
Liquid Blurring Skin Tint
If you're questing for a sorta-foundation that offers some skin-perfecting goodness without a whole lot of coverage, this Liquid Blurring Skin Tint is for you! It lightly blurs imperfections and gently evens out skin tone, pairing beautifully with a bit of concealer...
