Deborah Tosline wrote and published “Skin Remodeling DIY: An Introduction to the Underground World of Do-It-Yourself Skincare” in 2015. Her approach to skin care is based on a scientific background, love of research and over 30 years of DIY skincare experience.

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Over the decades most of my DIY skin moisturizing needs involved adding vitamins, nutraceuticals, and advanced, active, skin care ingredients to retail creams. I gravitated towards products that contained basic pure ingredients. The DIY approach fit my slim pocketbook and desire for luxury skin care. I rarely used body creams and lotions; I did not like them… too many chemicals. I used a lot of raw oils. In recent years, I began making emulsified creams and while it has been a simple chemistry experiment, I’ve had mixed results, until recently.

I initially used beeswax as an emulsifier, as advised in many recipes, only to result in a failed gloppy product that I forced myself to use one way or another so I would not waste good ingredients. I learned that beeswax is not a true emulsifier but can be made into an emulsifier; I tried that recipe and failed again.

When I used an emulsifying wax I was able to successfully emulsify the oil/water blends and began making my own DIY base creams. I began regularly using a recipe with a ratio of about 50 percent (%) water to 50% oils and butters. I briefly read about vegetable butters and integrated varying ratios of cocoa and shea butter into my creams as well as a variety of oils. I loved these homemade creams but they took a while to soak into my skin and sometimes left a greasy feel.

I sought to make a cream that would easily soak into the skin and chose to use “dry” oil sources. I waited for a good sale, purchased a variety of raw, organic “dry” oils and stored them in my refrigerator.

Note – throughout my life, I’ve typically used synthetic chemicals with discretion and try to avoid using them. I economize to enable myself to be in a position to choose to buy high quality organic, raw source materials for my DIY skin care products. To balance my budget, I buy fewer material goods, frequent thrift stores and DIY my skin care.

I continued to search for skin cream/lotion recipes and tried one with a water/oil ratio of 65% water and 35% oils. I decided to try the recipe using “dry” oils and no butters. I used the Simple Homemade Lotion recipe posted on the Oh The Things We’ll Make website.  

I made one batch of the recipe and was thrilled! The recipe made a beautiful creamy white light cream that rivals any store-bought cream I’ve tried! The “dry” oil ingredients and the new water/oil ratio produced a cream that moisturizes, absorbs quickly and feels dry to the touch after application. I used the following recipe as the base.

I scaled the Simple Homemade Lotion recipe up by six to accommodate my heavy moisturizing volume needs. I used Internet conversion calculators to calculate milliliters to ounces, grams to milliliters and any other conversion that I needed. I used more emulsifying wax to make a thicker product and although the author calls it a lotion, I refer to the thicker product that I made as a cream. I used a scale to measure ingredients. Refer to the authors original recipe for step-by-step instructions to make the Simple Homemade Lotion. Continue reading to learn about the ingredients that I added and how much my DIY luxury cream cost to make.

I made about 750 milliliter’s (ml) of cream which is about 25 ounces after scaling this recipe up by six. I used water that I filtered with bamboo charcoal but I would have used boiled tap water if I did not have the filtered. I used four oils, five advanced skin care ingredients, and four essential oils. My DIY cream is a retinol, peptide, ceramide blend with essential oils in a nourishing, easily absorbed luxury base cream. Details about the ingredients that I used are provided in the text and table below.

I purchased carrier oils, essential oils and advanced skin care ingredients from the following businesses, I am not affiliated:

• Mountain Rose Herbs

• LotionCrafter

• MakingCosmetics

I used the following ingredients for the oil portion of the recipe:

• Jojoba – similar absorption properties to skin's sebum.

• Sunflower - high oleic acids, vitamins A, D, and E, contains lecithin and unsaturated fatty acids, is nourishing, conditioning and easily absorbed.

• Baobab – contains vitamins A and E, absorbs quickly, is known as “The Tree Of Life” with a lifespan of 500 to 5000 years. 

• Kukui - contains essential tissue elements linoleic and alpha-linolenic fatty acids, absorbs easily.

I used the following advanced skin care ingredients:

• Wrinkle Defense Cream – a blend of 55% Argireline® and 45% Matrixyl™ 3000, supports skin restructure and repair. 

• Trylagen– active peptides and proteins that support collagen and inhibits skin glycation.

• Vitamin A Microcaps, Retinol – a nano-delivery system for pure vitamin A as retinol. 

• Ceramide Complex – contains ceramides, cholesterol, free fatty acids & phytosphingosine, similar to skin’s lipid barrier structure, deeply moisturizing, supports skins protective barrier.

• SkinTight – micro algae extract and pullulan a film-forming natural sugar with vitamin C and B12 to tighten, strengthen and protect skin cells from oxidative stress, can retain moisture and prevent water loss.

After the temperature of the cream cooled, I added:

• Carrot Seed Essential Oil – 20 drops, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-fungal, vitamin A, and moisturizing.

• Frankincense Essential Oil – 10 drops, sooths and rejuvenates skin to reduce appearance of imperfections.

• Lavender Essential Oil – 20 drops, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-microbrial and stimulates collagen.

• Sandlewood Essential Oil – 10 drops, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, shown in clinical trials to treat acne, psoriasis, eczema, common warts, and more.

• Cosgard preservative – meets Ecocert standards using natural and nature-identical ingredients that meet organic standards and provides broad spectrum activity on bacteria, yeast and molds.

The table below shows the modified recipe and ingredient costs for the DIY retinol, peptide, ceramide cream that I made. I was curious about whether I save money by making and using a DIY cream. The costs do not include my labor hours. It took me about 3 hours to make this DIY cream because I researched, completed conversions and prepared the table at the same time. In the future, it will probably take about an hour to compile ingredients, measure and emulsify this DIY luxury cream.

When I first saw the total cost of $139.98 to make this DIY cream, I thought “this is an expensive cream! Am I really saving money?” This batch will last me about 3 months with daily use on my face and body. The DIY recipe made 25 ounces of cream at a cost of $5.48 per ounce, which makes this DIY luxury retinol, peptide, ceramide cream a great value.

What would a cream like this cost? I cannot compare exact costs because we usually don’t know most of the concentrations of ingredients in retail products. Based on the premium quality ingredients that I used, I believe that this cream would be expensive if it were available via retail. I searched for retail creams that contain retinol, peptide and ceramides similar to the DIY cream that I made. I tried 3 different Internet search term combinations, checked into about 8 pages and only found two similar products. I found a couple articles that verified the retinol, peptide, ceramide blend, so that was good.

Cost comparison of retail products that contain retinol, peptides, and ceramides similar to the DIY cream that I made.

• Micro-Dose Anti-Aging Retinol Serum with Ceramides and Peptide Sells for $85 for 1.7 ounce

• Retinol Ceramide Line Erasing Eye Cream (with peptides) Sells for $66 for 0.5 ounce OR $220 for 1.7 ounce ($66/15 ml=$4.4 per ml, 50 ml = 1.7 oz, $4.4/ml*50 ml = $220 per 1.7 oz)

•  My DIY retinol/peptide/ceramide cream Costs $9.33 per 1.7-ounce bottle

The cost of my DIY retinol, peptide, ceramide cream is a fraction of the cost of the retail options and in fact would be the lowest cost cream that one may find at a drugstore. No matter where you buy your cream, when you make your own cream you can make premium skin care products at a super low cost.

Other options:

• Sunscreen - I weighed out 4 ounces of my DIY retinol, peptide, ceramide cream and added 20% zinc oxide powder to make a silky physical sunscreen.

• Only the base - I’ve made this recipe without adding active ingredients, this considerably reduces costs and makes the DIY option even more appealing.

Making your own skin care products is rewarding on many levels. Try to use the best ingredients available to you. DIY creams help to support the environment, save money and potentially provide you with your best skincare!

If you need more DIY skin care information, go to the library, search the Internet, read my past Blog articles, or it would be an honor to me if you purchased my book. Thank you! 

Take good care of yourselves!

XO Deborah

This article is intended to be used as general information only and is in no way intended to replace medical advice, be used as a medical treatment program, diagnosis, or cure of any disease or medical condition. There are no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the effectiveness of the practices described in this article. Products or substances discussed herein are for educational purposes only and are not intended as recommendations of the author.