Make Your Own Anti-Aging Shimmery Face Powder

I thought making face powder would be something esoteric and mysterious, but as it turns out, you only need two ingredients: corn starch and cocoa powder. If you are light skinned, start with corn starch and add cocoa till you get your color. If you are dark skinned, start with cocoa and add corn starch.

The End.

However, if you want the advantage of anti-aging and shimmer, add these ingredients: cinnamon, gingko biloba (all you do is open a supplement pill and dump it in), and pearl powder. You can actually use any spice/plant powder that is tannish/brownish/shiny and is skin-beneficial, but I used these three because of their cell-renewal and antioxidant properties, and because I already had them at my house. It's like giving yourself a non-pore-clogging, sun-protecting, day-long facial!



You can buy pearl powder from eBay. It's under $10 for 100g (which is going to last you several years), or you can do what I did: Wrap a pearl in tin foil. . .and HIT IT WITH A HAMMER!

I put some of the pearl powder in my face powder, some in my eye shadow, and some in my blush. I got the idea for pearl powder because some of my BB cream from South Korea has pearl powder in it, and I love it. Pearls are organic, right? It makes your skin really shimmery.

Fun Facts and Tips:

1. Pearl powder has long been heralded in Eastern medicine as an anti-aging, sun-blocking protectant to skin. Some people even take it internally as a supplement.

2. As I said in the makeup homepage, make sure to make only a small amount at a time and clean your brushes very regularly. You can prolong the life of your powder by adding baking soda, but that can be harsh if you have sensitive skin. It's up to you! I made the small jar in the first picture with no baking soda, and that lasted a month with no problems.

3. Corn starch is a super strong oil absorber (the main ingredient in "CornSilk" powder, in fact) and cocoa is a great antioxidant and natural sun protectant. Using these two ingredients alone sets my makeup all day without constant dabbing--even better than my store-bought mineral powder!

4. You can make a small jar for about a penny, and you can be sure it fits your skin tone!

5. Here's the one drawback: If your face gets wet or sweaty, the cocoa in the powder will turn brown. Therefore, if you want to make a cheaper version of powder that you can work-out in, I suggest buying some regular powder or bronzer makeup a few shades darker than your skin tone and adding corn starch to it to stretch the formula out. It's not all-natural, but it is a far cheaper method of doing makeup.

For a complete list of make up DIY, go here.