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 just want to be sure you don’t go over a 5% dilution for EOs, which is 29 drops of EO per oz of carrier oil.
Hi Nadia, I just made a batch of this. It’s smelling more spciy than I expected. I did a quick search and realized that a lot of people say that Tamanu oil sometimes spells like curry – which is what I’m getting. Is that normal? Can I add more Lavender?
Loved the recipe. These natural things are way better than chemical induced things which ruin the skin and are heavy on our pockets too.
Just one thing, both jojoba and lavender oil are mildly comedogenic. So if you’ve got highly sensitive skin (read : like mine duh!) that breaks out easily, use argan oil and geranium oil instead. Neem oil is good too. But tea tree and lemon oil can irk the skin and cause redness and rashes.
Plus if you want added benefits like spot and blemish reduction you can try mixing some turmeric and strands of ‘kesar’ I.e. saffron. It’ll work wonders trust me.
Happy day beauties!
Hey, Rebecca! So happy to have you as a new reader 🙂
That sounds like a good combo. You may also like lavender which is great for all skin types and antibacterial (for the blackheads).
I discuss essential oil dilution/ratios at the bottom of this post: The top 10 essential oils for skincare
Also, you may be interested in my DIY all-natural blackhead busting blackout mask!
Hello! I’ve been reading all your articles for the last hour, I love them! I have decently oily skin, with blackheads all on my t-zone, and little acne bumps on my forehead that never break out to full blown acne (I’m assuming this is also from my oily skin). From what I read, I was thinking about mixing jojoba oil with EO Geranium oil. Is this a good idea, or would you recommend something else? Also, what measurements would you recommend for each?
Thank you!!
How would you incorporate tea tree oil? Can you explain to me how do you measure?
Can I also add a few drops of tea tree oil into this mixture?
Bought all the oils for the essential oils for acne prone skin. I got as far as putting the oils together and onto my face. My question now is, what do you do after that? Do i steam thses oils and wipe wiyh a wet towel? 3times? Or do t live the oils on?
I want to know i am doing it right. Thank you ahead of timem.
CG
Hey Nadia, Can u plz share how do u use all these essential oils u have mentioned in ur two of the articles ( top ten essential oils for skincare and five essential for clear and flawless skin). It will be a great help as am new to use essential oils and planning to get them into my skin care routine.
Thanks!!
Hey, thank you for your articles and reviews! Can i please ask you to give advice on how to mix jojoba, hempseed and tamanu oil for daily face use?
Thank you!
YAY! Well it will definitely be less potent but I can’t be sure to what degree. I’d add 1.5-2X the amount.
Just got back from the store and am so excited to give this a try! One quick think I noticed, I accidentally grabbed a Frankincense oil that is “in jojoba oil” meaning it’s not exactly a 100% solution. Do you think this will have any big effect, aside from possibly being less “potent”? Thanks!
Love your post…. Glad I found this site cos I just started using EO and your post have been very helpful. Thank you.
Yes, you would adjust the amounts of the other EOs (you don’t really need them at all, those are just the ones I use).
I’m new to using essential oils but the little I’ve tried I’ve been very impressed with. I have had terrible acne every day of my life for the past 20 years. I was curious you didn’t suggest tea tree for the oil for acne prone skin recipe as I’ve always been told that is one of the best oils for acne. If I were to add some tea tree, would I decrease some of the lavender and frankincense to make sure it’s still diluted or would that make the other oils not effective? Or is tee tree not necessary if using the lavender and frankincense? Thank you for these great posts!
I can’t express how happy I am I found this website! It all sounds like exactly what I need to clear up my skin. Do you have any DIY shampoo’s or conditioner’s that you use or could recommend?
Hey! Got to your website through pinterest and Im loving the content! Thanks for sharing all these tips!
I wanna give a try to the recipe, but I’m not from USA and I couldnt find rosehip or tamanu oil… Is there any other I could use to get the same result in this mix?
Ive been using tea tree, lavender oil and grapeseed as the career to get rid of acne breakouts, but its been two months and so far I havent seen any significant results, since Im still having about five breakouts a week 🙁
If you have any suggestion I would love to give it a try!
Thanks again!
I have no experience with that but here’s an informative article by one of my favorite bloggers http://realfoodliz.com/no-more-chicken-skin/
Hi Nadia,
My daughter has ceratossis palariss, a skin condition thats very painful, and sensitive. Her face turns red, and never goes past her face line. I have tried a lot of things for her and to no avail. I’ve been using essential oils for a awhile but never thought to put on face because there are oils. What do you suggest?
VCO… virgin coconut oil?? If that’s the oil you like for your skin, definitely! Coconut oil clogs my pores but if you know it works well for you, by all means use it.