Any DIY skincare safety tips?Updated a year ago
For all of the reasons we’ve mentioned above, we’d advocate avoiding DIY skincare altogether. In the best-case scenario, you can expect minor skin benefits that don’t surpass even the cheapest products. In the worst-case scenario, you can severely damage your skin through irritation, sunburn, or infection.
That said, if you’re set on making up your own concoction, maybe as a fun activity with friends or children, here are some tips that’ll help keep you safe:
- Make single-use products like face masks. Use them immediately, before there’s a chance for dangerous pathogens to breed.
- Disinfect everything you plan to use, including your work surface, mixing bowls, and any other equipment.
- Avoid using any essential oils, spices, citrus-based ingredients, abrasives, and baking soda, which are the common culprits for skin irritation, photosensitivity, or barrier damage.
If you’re interested in formulating skincare in a safer and more advanced way, there are excellent online sources like Humblebee & Me and Reddit’s DIY Beauty community. Unlike most of the recipes that come up in blogs, these sites offer excellent advice on how to use preservatives, keep your space clean, and create DIY formulas that are less likely to cause harm.
A lot of people do fall in love with the process, and it becomes a hobby that’s rewarding for its own sake, which is awesome! That said, others discover that it’s more time-consuming and costly than they expected - there’s a reason why formulating skincare is usually left to the chemists.
Just keep in mind that without access to microbial testing, you’ll have a hard time verifying that your products are truly safe. That’s why most sources caution against selling anything you make and even recommend you avoid giving things to friends.
Buy the lotion, make the mask
There’s something alluring about playing chemist and harnessing what’s already in your kitchen to make DIY skincare. We’ve been there, we’ve done it, and it can be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it can also be disastrous for your skin and your overall health, because of irritating ingredients and the high risk of contamination.
In skincare labs, we follow sets of guidelines and best practices that dictate how we test our ingredients for contaminants, how we keep a hygienic environment, and how we test our finished products for safety and stability. While some DIY skincare recipes are safer than others, going into the process without understanding the risks could end in breakouts, infections, or even dermatitis.
If you want to make a single-use, fragrance-free DIY mask, we think that’s alright! When it comes to your staples, though, it’s better safe (and effective) than sorry.