My Homemade Skincare Routine for Naturally Glowing Skin
Creating my own homemade skincare routine completely changed the way I care for my skin, and it saves me so much money compared to buying high-end non-toxic skincare.
When I first started switching all of my skincare over to non-toxic products, years ago, I quickly realized how expensive it was to continually replace all of the products I loved. I wanted high-quality, natural skincare, but I didn’t love paying top dollar for a tiny bottle of serum or jar of tallow balm every time I ran out.
That’s when I decided to build my own little apothecary cabinet at home. Instead of continually buying finished products, I started stocking many of the same simple, natural ingredients used in high-end non-toxic skincare and learning how to make my own.
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What started as a way to save money quickly became something I genuinely love. Now I make almost my entire skincare routine myself and can create beautiful, nourishing products for a fraction of what I used to spend.
My everyday routine is also incredibly simple: a homemade tallow soap bar, face toner, nourishing face serum, and whipped tallow face cream. My skin is naturally on the dry side, so this homemade skin care routine is especially nourishing for dry skin. However, you can easily modify it based on your skin type, including oily, combination, acne-prone, or sensitive skin.
Here are the four steps in my daily natural skin care routine:
- Tallow soap bar
- Homemade face toner
- Nourishing face serum
- Whipped tallow face cream
Step 1: Cleanse With a Tallow Soap Bar
The first step is cleansing the whole face to remove makeup, dirt, sweat, and excess oil that have accumulated on the skin.
My homemade tallow soap bar uses grass-fed beef tallow as its primary fat along with olive oil and a smaller amount of coconut oil. Tallow makes a wonderfully creamy soap and is one of my favorite ingredients for homemade body and skin care products.
To use it, wet your face with warm water, work the soap into a gentle lather, and massage it over the skin using light circular motions before rinsing.
I formulated my facial tallow bar to be gentler than a traditional body soap. This is especially important for dry skin or sensitive skin, since you don’t want your face wash to leave your skin feeling tight or stripped.
A simple natural cleanser is a great foundation for the rest of your skincare routine because it prepares clean skin for the hydrating and nourishing products that follow.
Step 2: Hydrate With Homemade Face Toner
After cleansing, I use my homemade face toner. This is one of my favorite DIY skincare recipes because it combines just a handful of botanical ingredients.
My toner includes aloe vera juice, rose hydrosol or rose water, witch hazel, and vegetable glycerin. I keep mine in a spray bottle, making it easy to mist over clean skin before applying my serum.
Aloe and rose hydrosol provide lightweight hydration, while glycerin helps attract moisture to the skin. Witch hazel provides gentle toning and can be adjusted depending on your skin type. My complete toner recipe includes specific instructions for modifying the formula for different skin types.
I like to apply the next step while my skin is still a little bit damp from the toner.
Step 3: Nourish With My Homemade Face Serum
Next comes my homemade face serum, which is a concentrated blend of nourishing facial oils.
My serum combines evening primrose oil, jojoba oil, rosehip seed oil, vitamin E oil, frankincense essential oil, and geranium essential oil.
Jojoba is especially useful in a natural skin care routine because it has a composition similar to the skin’s natural sebum. Rosehip and evening primrose oils add additional nourishing fatty acids and antioxidant properties, while vitamin E provides another source of antioxidant support.
Rather than using a large amount, one or two drops go a long way. Gently press the serum into your face and neck rather than rubbing aggressively.
You can also leave the essential oils out when necessary, especially if you have very sensitive skin or know that your skin reacts to them. Whenever trying a new homemade product, patch testing first is a good idea to watch for irritation or an allergic reaction.
Step 4: Moisturize With Whipped Tallow Face Cream
I finish my homemade skincare routine with my whipped tallow face cream to deeply moisturize and seal in hydration. Tallow is rich in skin-supportive fatty acids, including oleic, stearic, and palmitic acids, which help soften the skin and support a healthy skin barrier.
Because tallow is an oil-based moisturizer, I love applying a small amount after my toner and serum while my skin is still slightly hydrated. It helps lock that moisture in and leaves my skin feeling soft, nourished, and protected without requiring a long list of ingredients.
My homemade whipped tallow balm also contains jojoba oil and other nourishing ingredients that make it easy to spread and especially helpful when my skin feels dry. A little goes a long way, making this one of my favorite final steps for maintaining soft, healthy-looking, glowing skin.
Homemade Skincare Routine for Dry Skin
If your skin is naturally dry like mine, layering the toner, serum, and tallow works beautifully.
The toner provides water-based hydration, the serum supplies nourishing natural oils, and the tallow cream creates a richer final moisturizing layer. Together, they help support soft, comfortable, healthy skin without requiring a cabinet full of products.
This is especially helpful in dry climates and during winter when skin issues like flaking and tightness can become more noticeable.
My dry-skin routine is:
Cleanse → Tone → Serum → Tallow Cream
How to Modify This Homemade Skincare Routine for Oily or Combination Skin
Having oily skin doesn’t necessarily mean you need to avoid facial oils entirely. However, you may not need to layer both an oil-based serum and rich tallow cream every time you do your skincare routine.
For a lighter homemade skincare for oily skin routine, cleanse and use the oily-skin version of my toner, then finish with the tallow.
For example:
Oily skin: Cleanse → Tone → Tallow
Combination skin: Cleanse → Tone → Serum → Tallow only on dry areas as needed
If you’re prone to clogged pores or have acne-prone skin, introduce new products individually so you can see how your skin responds. Your routine should ultimately be based on your own specific skin concerns rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.
What About Other DIY Skincare Ingredients?
There are plenty of other natural ingredients you can incorporate into DIY skincare depending on your skin type. Ingredients like raw honey, aloe vera gel, green tea, and natural oils are commonly used in homemade masks, cleansers, and moisturizers.
You can also occasionally use a gentle natural exfoliator to help remove dead skin cells, but I prefer to keep my everyday skincare routine simple. More products aren’t necessarily better. Finding a few ingredients that work well for your skin and using them consistently is often the best approach.
Why Make Your Own Natural Skin Care Products?
One good reason to make your own products is simplicity. Making DIY products allows you to choose the ingredients and avoid unnecessary fragrances, fillers, and harsh chemicals you may not want in your daily beauty routine.
It can also be surprisingly approachable. Many of the best ingredients for DIY skin care can be purchased online or even at your local co-op grocery store, and many homemade products use only a few ingredients.
That doesn’t mean natural is automatically better for everyone. Even organic ingredients and natural products can cause irritation, particularly for sensitive skin. Introduce products gradually and pay attention to how your skin responds.
I also don’t try to alter my skin’s pH with complicated homemade formulas. My goal is simply to create straightforward products that cleanse, hydrate, and moisturize without overcomplicating my routine.
Final Thoughts
One of my favorite things about making skincare at home is how much you can customize it as you learn what your skin actually needs. Start simple, pay attention to how your skin responds, and adjust from there. Over time, you may find that a simple homemade routine is all you really need.
More Reader Favorite DIY Skincare Recipes
If you love this blog post then check out some of my other natural skincare recipes:
If you do give this recipe a try, I want to know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo & tag @wholisticmandy on Instagram. Your reviews help support this blog and make it possible for me to continue to create the recipes you know and love.
