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
Hi, Jess! I’ll cross my fingers for you!
You can use any essential oils or carrier oils you want, this is just the blend I use. But EOs should always be diluted to a maximum of 5% (since 1 ml is 20 drops, for every 1 ml of carrier oil you would add 1 drop of EO). Best of luck!
Hello! I have come across your blog and am going to be trying this moisturizer out this week. I was wondering if purification could be added to the mix as well? If so, how much should I add? I’m just trying to figure this whole thing out 🙂 I suffer from acne combination skin and am willing to try anything to help fix it. Do I lessen the amount of all the frankincense and lavender since I’m adding amother essential oil? Can I just do equal amounts of all three?
Hi! I’ve stumbled upon your blog when researching for use of oils as moisturiser since I’ve been struggling to find one that works for my dehydrated (I believe dry and dehydrated skin are different) yet oily/combination, acne-and-scar-prone face! (Although I have to say I’m so used to pimples that I’ve reached a point of not being bothered by that…!) I know extra virgin olive oil is an amazing natural oil with multiple use and learned that it can be used as face moisturiser. But then I’ve read all about these essential oils and carrier oils that I get so confused of what I should use on my face! And also since I’m just a newbie in this, I don’t really want to spend lots of money buying many different oils and end up not using them! So I just wonder if you can give any advice on how I should start using oils as moisturiser?
Definitely! Just use your favorite oil for your skin. This is just the recipe that works for *me* and that I use everyday – but it is totally customizable!
Hi Nadia. Is there a Frankincense oil alternative? I don’t have that one on hand and am hoping there’s something I can substitute.
LMK.
Thanks. Jess
I have created a mix that addresses my 50-yrs. old sensitive, oily, acne-prone skin: In a 2-oz. brown bottle (with dropper) I fill the bottle with: 30% castor oil 30% jojoba oil, 30% argan oil…and then 10 drops each of tamanu oil, turmeric oil, thyme oil…and 3 drops of rosemary oil and carrot seed oil. Far clearer, far less sensitive, no breakouts! Always buy 100% organic oils.
Is this blend safe to use in the daytime? I know some oils like rosehip increase photosensitivity and don’t want to worsen my acne scars. Please let me know!!
Yep! You can really use any oil or even EO you’d like – this is just my favorite blend! Just remember the maximum 5% EO dilution.
Can you use maracuja oil or argan oil in place of jojoba oil? I have everything else, just curious. Thanks
Hi, Leah! Yep, if you have DT oils, of course!
I lover geranium! I just don’t specifically have it in any recipes posted on the blog… You can use it with or instead of other EOs in any recipe! Just remember the dilution ratio, which is very important (EOs are powerful and you don’t want to use too much!).
Hi Nadia! Great page I’m very inspired here!
Just wondering how could I incorporate geranium oil in my daily routine?
Very much like the sound of it, never tried it though.
Is it a good idea to put some in this recipe or the face wash?
Or is there a reason why you don’t use it?
Many thanks!
Hi! I’m new to EO! Can I substitute the doTerra Lavender Eo for Young Living? Thanks!!
hey april, i was using this foaming wash for 2 months and had to stop. my skin was pretty clear before and by the end i was getting tiny, irritated bumps on the upper parts of my cheeks/temple area. i think it’s because there was residue from the oil/castile soap left on my skin that i wasn’t getting off. i never used a cloth to rinse, just water. i just use caudalie foaming wash now and it’s working much better. just a simple wash without a lot of fragrance and isn’t too drying for my combo skin. things are back to normal now, good luck to you!
I created and have been using the DIY all-natural oil treatment for acne prone skin, reading about how it was the miraculous answer people had been missing. I was hoping and praying because I have spent so much time and money on so many different treatments, meds, products…how long should I give this to work? My pores might be slightly less nasty, but my break outs are worse than before, and now with cystic acne from the oil. Not an allergy, but more pimples that won’t go away and they itch and hurt. I had a friend tell me she got worse before better, but it’s been about 3 weeks. I just want decent skin so much- not to have to use layers of concede are, worry about my makeup uncovering my skin and scars, to be able to swim with my kids and not think about my skin, etc…help! Thanks!
Hi Nadia, this oil blend looks awesome I will try it out!!!! I was wondering if you could share your rose hip oil blend also ? You mentioned that your wear this in the morning, but what do you wear at night ? Do you put this blend also in the eye area ? If not what do you apply to your eye area ? Thanks for sharing all your knowledge, it is really helpful 😀
Absolutely! That helps a lot, thank you. 🙂 I’ll definitely try it during the day.
Hi, Elizabeth! Thanks so much for the kind words 🙂
This face oil is very light and so it’s what wear during the day (except I just made an SPF lotion that I’ll be wearing during the summer!). Tamanu and rosehip oil (which you could use instead of tamanu if you’d want) are both dry oils. So they cut the jojoba significantly (which really isn’t too thick of an oil to begin with). If you want it to be even more dry, just add more tamanu or rosehip! But if it’s too dry, it can irritate your skin.
Does that answer your question, I hope?
Hello! This site is absolutely fantastic. I’ve recently made the switch to all-natural care and it has been such an enlightening and freeing experience!
Anyways, I really want to try this face oil! I wash my face at night with a mix of castor, jojoba, and lavender oil, and have been treating with tea tree oil overnight. I splash my face with water in the morning, since I don’t like the feeling of excess oil on my face during the day. Do you think it’d be overkill to leave this face oil on overnight, or is it light enough to use during the day?
P.S. Sorry to bombard you with my skin care routine; I’m just not sure where this would fit in!