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
You dilute the essential oils in the carrier oils. So the essential oils make up just 3% of the final oil blend (the carrier oils make up the other 97%).
Hey, Lyn! Well 60 ml is about 2 oz, and 4 tbs is 2 oz so it should fill it up! Did you add teaspoons? Either way, if you’d like you can certainly add more carrier oil! But it will dilute the essential oils more (not necessarily a bad thing).
hi, just a question, do you top off with the carrier oil all the way to the top after adding the EOs since youre using a 60mls droper bottle? i notice that you mentioned 3 tbsps of jojoba and 1 tbsp of tamanu.. that doesnt seem to fill up the whole 60mls bottle, right? 😉
Yes! I do suggest using something with a bit of SPF (non-nano zinc oxide is the healthiest option) during the day for protection, but if you’re not worried about sun coverage than yes!
Is this something you’d use in the morning and night if you don’t wear makeup?
skin. I am using a drop of tea tree oil for pea sized cream or gel. I get slight irritation & stingy feeling, but its fine after 2-3mins. Pls help with proper ratio of mixing so that I don’t harm my skin. Thanks.. 🙂
-Radhika Kotekar
Thank you so much I will definitely try those out and let you know! Also I started testing the oils individually and with the lavender and jojoba nothing happened then a day after using the tamanu the bumps came back. I don’t have a nut allergy but just sensitive skin in general.
Hey, Hannah. First: yay, I’m so glad it worked for you. Second: boo, that stinks! I have not heard of that happening before. BUT you can certainly replace it – either just omit it and use a little more jojoba oil, or use grapeseed or pumpkin seed oil in its place. Both are fantastic for blemish-prone skin. Let me know if that works for you! I’d be interested to hear if it’s definitely the tamanu…
I started using this a couple months and it’s a life saver. My acne cleared up so fast and stayed away. Recently however I started having an allergic reaction and had little bumps all over my face. I figured out it was from the tamanu oil. So I was wondering wether you’ve heard of this happening before as a long term affect and also what substitute you’d recommend in place of the tamanu oil.
Ta tree straight is probably irritating her skin even more. It’s important to dilute it. Yes, grapeseed is a good substitute for jojoba. You can omit the tamanu but I’d include a lesser amount of tea tree so it doesn’t irritate her skin.
Hi can I use grapeseed instead of jojoba and tea tree instead of tamanu Its for my 13 year old daughter her little face is covered in spots. I have tried raw tea tree and its not working at all 🙁 Shes so stressed out…
Hi Nadia! So glad I found your website. I am curious about oils myself and always thought that adding oil to my already oily face was a bad idea. But the more I kept reading about oils, the more I was intrigued and determined to try it in attempts to get rid of my adult acne and heal my post inflammatory hyperpigmentations. After reading this post, I feel like I need to head to my nearest down to earth store to stock up on these oils! However it does seem like much to indulge in… I’d like to ask is there a “top 3” oil combination (or separate) that you would recommend for oily, acne-prone skin? My goal is to prevent acne and more importantly get rid of these brown acne hyperpigmentations… I currently have castor, rosehip, tea tree, argan, and bio-oil. My collection is slowly getting there but I am still learning how to use them and even mixing them which I haven’t tried yet. Hope to hear from you. Thank you for sharing!
Definitely. Manuka is a bit like tea tree in its antibacterial properties. Just remember the ratio!
Do you think I could add manuka essential oil to this?
Some people use oil for the Oil Cleansing Method but I use it as a moisturizer.
Do you use this after the cleansing wash? Or is this a replacement for a cleansing wash?
What is the order that you use when you are doing your regimen?
Cleaner, oil, moisturizer, etc.
Definitely!
Do you think I could use hemp oil in place of the jojoba?
Hello. I have been looking for treatments for my sons acne and also trying to find a moisturizer to use on him after applying a 2.5% benzoyl peroxide gel. After I apply the benzoyl peroxide gel on his face and it has dried, can I apply your oil mix on top? Thank you
If you were going to add liquid vitamin E to this mix (I have a bottle kicking around…), how many drops would you add? I assume this is a good idea since vitamin E nourishes skin, but maybe not?