DIY All-Natural Face Oil for Acne-Prone & Oily Skin
Acne DIY Skincare & Beauty Essential oils Face Oils Natural Beauty
This DIY All-Natural Face Oil for Acne-Prone and Oily Skin combines the best carrier oils and essential oils to keep skin clear by fighting blemishes and reducing oil production. Yes, applying oil to your skin can actually reduce the skin’s own oil production! Learn why it works + grab the recipe!
Some things are just real head-scratchers…
Like how putting oil on your face can actually make your skin less oily and less break-out prone.
It took me years of frustration and poisoning my body with chemical-laden skin care products before I finally experienced this last one firsthand.
I always thought that oil in skin care products was to be avoided at all costs.
So putting straight oil on my face? Oh heck no.
But then I got desperate. And I did it. And it worked. And now I’m hooked!
P.S. Want to take all the guesswork out of it? I’ve bottled up my best face oil blends — the Body Unburdened Beauty Blends — just for you. Beauty Blend No.2 is my best-seller, formulated to gently but effectively transform blemish-prone skin.
So how exactly does oil help to keep skin clear?
Face oils help to keep skin clear and blemish-free in a few different ways.
1. Face oils help to regulate the skin’s own oil production
The skin produces oil (a.k.a. sebum) as a natural moisturizer. Sebum is totally natural and even necessary, but excessive sebum production can increase the risk of blemishes. Applying oil to the skin can help reduce the skin’s own production of oil.
Important note: excess oil production is often a symptom of hormonal imbalance. You can learn more about this and how to balance hormones naturally in my book Glow: The Nutritional Approach to Naturally Gorgeous Skin.
2. Face oils are rich in antioxidants, which prevent skin sebum from oxidizing
When the skin’s own oil or sebum oxidizes, it becomes extremely comedogenic or pore-clogging. More and more, this is becoming recognized as a primary cause of acne and breakouts. Most face oils are rich in the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E, which prevent sebum oxidation.
3. Face oils breakup the gunk in our pores
When it comes down to it, a zit is really nothing more than a sticky mess of oil and dead skin cells. And since like-dissolves-like (in other words, oil and water don’t mix but water and water do mix as do oil and oil), applying oil to the skin can actually help to break up this sticky mess and clear it from the pore.
4. Face oils soothe and moisturize the skin
By helping to reduce inflammation and moisturize the skin, face oils help blemished skin heal more quickly and help reduce the risk of scarring.
Applying oil to my face was a total game-changer for me!
My breakouts became virtually non-existent.
Yes yes, I’m now one of those lucky ladies who gets to freak out when she gets one little zit before her period and it feels AWESOME.
Want to know the feeling? This simple face oil for acne and blemish-prone skin can help you get there!
DIY All-Natural Face Oil for Acne-Prone & Oily Skin
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons jojoba oil
- 1 tablespoon tamanu oil
- 6 drops lavender essential oil*
- 6 drops frankincense essential oil*
*This is a 2% essential oil dilution (in other words, the essential oils make up just 2% of the total final mixture)
You’ll also need a 2 oz. glass bottle with glass dropper.
Why these ingredients?
- Jojoba oil: a light oil that is easily absorbed. It mimics the skin’s sebum, tricking it to produce less oil.
- Tamanu oil: has strong anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antibiotic, and antioxidant properties, making it ideal for acne sufferers. It also helps regenerate skin cells, helping to heal broken skin and reduce the appearance of acne scars.
- Lavender essential oil: has powerful antibacterial properties and also helps calm inflamed skin.
- Frankincense essential oil: has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory benefits to the skin, making it ideal for acne-prone skin. It is also a natural toner, decreasing the appearance of pores and evening skin-tone.
Directions
- Add all of the ingredients to the dropper bottle.
- Put the cap on and give it a little shake!
- Apply 4-6 drops to clean, dry skin.
Yes, it’s as simple as that!
Interested in other carrier oil and essential oil options?
Have fun and get creative! You’ll find all of the information you need in these blog posts:
- How to Make A Custom Face Oil Blend
- The Top 10 Essential Oils for Skincare
- The Best Face Oils By Skin Type
Ok!! Thank you so much!!
You are so inspiring! Thank you for helping us!!!
Oh that’s up to you! MRGH is fantastic, and if you’re not a DIYer, I’d go with that! It depends on whether or not you want to spend the money on each individual piece that goes into the DIY, or just buy the one from MRH.
great!! Thank you so much!!! one more question. I am debating making the diy facial oil or buying the wild rose facial oil from mountain rose herbs. Which do you prefer?
Yes, you can use rosehip instead of tamanu for sure!
so. i have combo skin that is sensitive and prone to breakouts (hey stress/caffeine haha) and i just made your clarifying face wash with the castile soap. it’s only been a couple days but so far it’s working great! no irritation and i’ve been skipping my am moisturizer in lieu of just a nice rose water toner. in the evening, i was using straight rosehip or argan oil but now i also have jojoba in the mix since i bought it to make your wash. do you think i should just swap the rosehip oil in place of the tamanu since i don’t have that on hand? i typically use the rosehip oil straight every other night since i heard it can be irritating but i don’t think i’ve noticed any strong reactions from it. any advice? thanks!
Hi, Taylor! So happy to have you as a new reader 🙂 I use this DIY foaming facewash in the evenings: https://bodyunburdened.com/diy-all-natural-toning-clarifying-foaming-facewash/ It’s really simple and does the trick for me. While it is slightly drying, the oil keeps my skin from drying out. But by far my favorite skin trick is exfoliating with baking soda! I do it about every 3 days – it’s a game-changer.
I am a new reader and I must say I am stoked!!! all your recipes are amazing! I am so excited! anyways, I understand that you use this for a moisterizer. What do you use to wash your face/take off your make up with first? and do you wash every morning and night? thank you!
Just tried this recipe for the first time and I am really excited to see the outcome. I was wondering what you use in addition to this for your daily routine. Do you have a makeup remover or face wash that you use?
Thanks, Melinda! Just watch out – DIYs are totally addictive! I hope all is well 🙂
Thanks so much for the kind words, Candice! So happy to have you as a new reader. YES! I love Rosehip, but it can be irritating for some acne-sufferers which is why I put tamanu oil in this post. I have the exact same mix with rosehip (and a different combo of EOs) that I use less often. Both rosehip and tamanu are dry oils, so they are best cut with a thicker oil like jojoba. Hope this answers your question!
Hello Nadia! First off, LOVE YOUR STUFF, I just found your site recently on Pinterest, and I can’t stop reading all your posts 🙂 My question regarding this mixture: would rosehip oil benefit this mixture at all? I was reading about it’s properties, and I would like to incorporate it in somewhere. Much thanks for all your awesome-ness!!
Thanks for posting links to the products you use. I’m going to start using essential oils. Your posts have really helped me get started!
Where do you typically buy your oils?
I’ve been using apricot kernel oil with lavender essential oil. (20 drops apricot with 1 drop lavender). So far I’ve been loving it. My face is not dry and itchy any more, and dewy looking. But I am still having tons of black heads on my nose and white heads all over. Can you give me some ideas for getting rid of them? What kind of oils to use? I also do a scrub every once in a while. Like every two or three weeks. Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Hi! Thanks for the great information! I’ve just recently tried using coconut oil to wash but am feeling like I want to try something different. Does this work well to remove face and eye makeup too?
Oh no! What you wrote actually made me LOL but I’m sorry to hear that 🙁 So glad pumpkin seed is working out for you, though. I have yet to try it!
I’d like to try Tamanu sometime. Right now I’m using Pumpkin Seed Oil and it works pretty well. I like Jojoba on my body and my hair but for some reason, it doesn’t agree with the skin on my face. I have crazy sensitive skin, it will blemish if you look at it funny.
I use a blend of tea tree and neem oil and it works really well although it smells awful.
Ohh good question. About 4-5 drops. I’ll be sure to edit the post with this – thanks for asking!
How much do u use?