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If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I love organic makeup and it’s always my first choice. In fact, I made a whole blog post & video about the Best Organic Makeup Brands on Amazon!
Sometimes companies will discontinue products we love and then we’re stuck having to look for another brand and possibly wasting time & money on products that don’t measure up to the original. That exact thing happened to me when my favorite cream blush was phased out and didn’t have time to search and try new ones. Since I’ve been experimenting with DIY organic makeup and skincare projects I figured I’d try to replicate or dupe my favorite cream blush!
I did a quick search online and came across this amazingly & ridiculously simple recipe by Mommypotamus and couldn’t believe my eyes – only 3 ingredients?!? I already had everything except for 1 of the ingredients and it was available on Amazon Prime so I could whip up a batch in no time. WINNING!
Check out my latest YouTube video to see how incredibly fast & easy it is to create your own custom organic cream blush in just a few minutes with some food-safe ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen pantry. I walk you through the process along with some extremely important tips to consider when it comes to your makeup routine in general and why cream makeup is ideal from a toxic exposure perspective.
So if you’re looking for more ways to save money on healthy, organic makeup that you can DIY in a jiffy, press play now to watch the video or keep reading for the recipe!
DIY CREAM BLUSH (Original recipe by Mommypotamus)
Makes approximately 0.5 oz
Ingredients
1 tsp Unrefined African Shea Butter
1/2 tsp Organic Cocoa or Cacao Powder
1/2 tsp Mica Powder in the shade of your choice (this is the one I used)
Clean, glass or metal container (I love these slide top ones!)
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl (preferrably glass)
- Smash together with a fork being careful not to kick up the powders and create dust. DO NOT INHALE THE POWDERS!
- Transfer to container
Keep in a cool, dry place.
Stays fresh for up to 2 years (general shelf life of shea butter)
WHY I RECOMMEND SWITCHING TO CREAM MAKEUP
You might be wondering why I recommend switching to cream makeup. Well, there are several reasons. Mainly, the big reason is to reduce the risk of inhalation exposure. Our lungs and our airways are the most sensitive route of exposure after the intravenous route. Anything that is injected into your veins, of course, is going to be directly delivered to your entire body systemically through your bloodstream essentially reaching all our organs. This is by far the most sensitive route of exposure.
But when it comes to exposure to everyday products, we’re not necessarily injecting ourselves. Therefore, the inhalation route is the most sensitive for several reasons. Particles that you inhale have the ability to deposit into your lung tissue depending on their size. Generally, the smaller particles, let’s say nanoparticles, the further and deeper they can penetrate into lung tissue. What happens is that your cells want to sequester them so that they can not cause harm to your body through an inflammatory process. Over time, your lungs will actually become fibrotic. It’s almost as if your lungs develop scar tissue, and over time, that’s going to affect your lung function and your ability to breathe.
An example of an inhalation exposure that causes fibrosis would be as asbestos. It is a particle that causes cancer, specifically mesothelioma. It’s a very rare form, but when asbestos os inhaled it causes this exact fibrosis & inflammation (1) and eventually cancer.
I’m not saying that powder makeup is going to cause you cancer necessarily. However, certain “clean beauty” companies are still using talc as an ingredient, which can be contaminated with asbestos. The point is, that if you can reduce the amount of particulate matter that you are inhaling, you’re just going to be that much better off. Better safe than sorry right?
Another reason that you want to protect your airways is if you’re using fragrances, which I know a lot of us love candles, scented plug in perfumes, aromas, etc. We all love that sensory experience of fragrances, but those can significantly contribute to the volatile organic compound (VOC) load in your home. All the VOCs are being inhaled by us 24/7, especially now, since we are in the home more than ever before because of the pandemic. Being aware of what is in our home and in our products right now is especially important.
I personally have switched out all of my powder makeup and opted for cream formulations simply because I no longer feel the need to use powder makeup. When I was younger, I didn’t understand that the products I was using were actually stripping the natural oils from my skin, causing my skin to produce excess oil to compensate. I used powders because my face was really greasy and my makeup would just slide right off. It was so greasy and I was using oil blotting papers – I mean it was excessively oily. But ever since I switched to more organic, plant-based, and wholesome skincare products, I don’t have that issue anymore because they contain nourishing oils that balance my skin, which is fantastic.
Another benefit of using cream makeup is that the base is oftentimes a rich butter. For example, shea, cocoa, or mango seed butter are rich and are occlusive. They will form a barrier over your skin. And in fact, there’s actually several studies showing the benefits of shea butter for different inflammatory skin conditions (2,3). So not only are they just generally healthier from an inhalation risk perspective, but they also have benefits for your skin.
It seems like a no-brainer to switch to cream blush and makeup and you can easily make it your own to save money on top of that! Be sure to source high quality, raw, and organic shea butter that is fair trade so that the workers who are harvesting the shea from the nuts are being compensated fairly and treated humanely. This is really the ultimate in conscious beauty!
MY THOUGHTS ON THIS RECIPE
One of the things that I love the most about how this recipe turned out is that the color is definitely visible. You can see it, but it is very blendable and not opaque. It’s a soft shade of pink and I absolutely love the sheer, natural color it gives my cheeks.
I also love that you don’t really need any type of makeup application tools like a brush to apply. You can just use your fingers so there’s no need to wash any brushes, which also saves time.
I’m definitely going to experiment and see if I can make my own bronzer in a similar way to how Mommypotamus came up with this recipe. I have experimented in the past with other types of fruit, vegetable, and food based powders, especially beet powder, but sadly they did not work out for me at all. Cocoa butter has given me the best results because of how finely ground it is, and I’ve heard of people using dragon fruit and cherry powders for pigmentation.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN TRYING THIS DIY RECIPE
Shea butter, for some people, has a really strong smell and they either love it hate it.
Personally, I don’t mind the smell of it at all, and it just smells nutty to me. So if you’re someone who is sensitive to smells, then you might want to consider using another type of butter, maybe like a mango seed butter, perhaps, or another butter that doesn’t really have a strong smell.
You can also consider adding some essential oils to your cream blush. If you want to mask the smell of the shea butter. I would probably try lavender, geranium, or cedarwood essential oil
FREE GUIDE: THE SAFE INGREDIENT RULEBOOK
If you’ve been struggling to crack the safe ingredient code and are tired of feeling overwhelmed and confused by all the conflicting and often unreliable information on the web, you’ll love this guide! It gives you the step-by-step lowdown on everything that you need to know in order to become a toxin-free product boss. You’ll learn some of the exact steps I use to evaluate ingredient safety as a professional toxicologist so grab yours now!
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REFERENCES
- Robledo R, Mossman B. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of asbestos-induced fibrosis. J Cell Physiol. 1999 Aug;180(2):158-66. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4652(199908)180:2<158::AID-JCP3>3.0.CO;2-R. PMID: 10395285.
- Akihisa T, Kojima N, Kikuchi T, Yasukawa K, Tokuda H, T Masters E, Manosroi A, Manosroi J. Anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive effects of triterpene cinnamates and acetates from shea fat. J Oleo Sci. 2010;59(6):273-80. doi: 10.5650/jos.59.273. PMID: 20484832.
- Lin TK, Zhong L, Santiago JL. Anti-Inflammatory and Skin Barrier Repair Effects of Topical Application of Some Plant Oils. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Dec 27;19(1):70. doi: 10.3390/ijms19010070. PMID: 29280987; PMCID: PMC5796020.
