Have you ever considered making your own skincare products before? If not, you definitely should. Not only is making your own skincare surprisingly easy, fun, and rewarding (and often cheaper than buying it in stores!), but it’s also an incredibly empowering skill to have.
Imagine being able to just whip up a cream, selecting the ingredients you want, and being able to customise it to fit your skin’s needs and preferences. Pretty amazing, right? And that’s just the beginning.
Read this post to find out the top 8 reasons why you should be making your own skincare products even if there’s plenty available to buy.
Top 8 reasons to make your own skincare products
Here are the top 8 reasons why you should be making your own skincare products from scratch, even if there’s plenty available to buy:
#1: You get full control of what’s in your skincare
The number 1 reason why you should be making your own skincare products is that you get full control over what’s in your products, and subsequently, what goes on your skin.
That means you get to choose every ingredient yourself, so there’s no need to decipher confusing labels or worry about hidden ingredients. You can also use high-quality natural and organic ingredients such as oils, butters, plant powders, herbal extracts, essential oils, and natural colourants.
And the best part? When you learn to formulate (aka creating cosmetic products), you’ll also gain knowledge of how ingredients interact with each other and be able to select the best ones for your unique skin type and needs.
At Formula Botanica, the world’s leading online organic cosmetic formulation school, we teach people from all over the world how to formulate natural and organic skincare and haircare from the comfort of their home. Tens of thousands of students have enrolled in our award-winning courses before, and never looked back.
You can learn more about how to make your own skincare products in the posts below, and some of the benefits:
How to make natural skincare products: A step-by-step guide
Take control of your skincare: Make your own beauty products
#2: You can custom-make skincare to fit your needs
The second reason why you should be making your own skincare products is that you can custom-make products to suit your own skin needs and personal preferences.
How many times have you bought a product, only to find it doesn’t suit your skin, and it ends up in a bin? That’s because off-the-shelf products aren’t fit for everyone.
When you make your own skincare, you can create and customise products that match your skin type, concerns, and lifestyle. Whether you need extra hydration or nourishment, or want to target active concerns like hyperpigmentation, you get to control every aspect of the product.
In fact, many successful indie beauty brands were born because the founders couldn’t find products that worked for them! That was the case for many of our graduates, who learned how to formulate with us and went on to launch their brand on the market, creating a real difference in the world.
You can find out more about our inspiring graduates and their stories below:
#3: It’s a fun and creative hobby
The third reason why you should be making your own skincare products instead of buying them is that it’s very fun and creative. It’s also surprisingly easy and, in many ways, similar to cooking!
At Formula Botanica, we often compare formulation to cooking. When you make a cream, for example, you’re mixing oil and water together, which is very similar to making mayonnaise.
Formulation is hands-on, rewarding, and gives you the chance to experiment with different textures, scents, and ingredients. Plus, you can share your creations with family and friends.
And who knows? This hobby could even turn into a business in a few years. Many of our students and graduates started just for fun and went on to create successful skincare brands.
#4: You get to reconnect with centuries of history
Talking about cooking and other life skills, did you know that people have been making their own beauty products for thousands of years?
For most of that time, formulation was a skill as common as cooking, passed down through generations. It’s only in the last 100 years that we’ve grown used to buying cosmetics from brands, and were taught to believe that only chemists could formulate.
If you’re curious about how that came to be, check out these resources:
The history of botanical formulation
Fortunately, nowadays, people are reclaiming that ancestral knowledge, and we’re proud to say that Formula Botanica played an integral part in it.
So by learning how to make your own skincare products, you not only get to reconnect with centuries of history, but also acquire a valuable life skill, which also feels incredibly empowering.
#5: It saves you money
Did you know that a large portion of the price of cosmetic products, especially premium or luxury ones, goes toward branding, marketing, PR, and packaging, rather than the ingredients themselves?
In some cases, the actual ingredient cost can be as low as 3–5% of the product price. Add distributor and retailer mark-ups, and it’s easy to see how the cost climbs.
When you make your own skincare, you can spend your money on the best, natural ingredients instead of paying for all the extras, and save loads of money in the process. And all you need to get started is some basic kitchen equipment like glass bowls, mini whisks, spatulas, and a digital jewellery scale.
There’s no need to invest in expensive lab equipment unless you want to sell your products. And even then, it’s pretty cheap!
We have plenty of helpful posts about how to set up your home formulation lab, and what tools you’ll need at first:
How to set up your home formulation lab
#6: You only use the freshest ingredients
One of the great benefits of making your own skincare is that you can use fresh and high-quality ingredients.
In our award-winning courses, we teach you how to research and understand key natural cosmetic ingredients, from simple to advanced, including botanical oils, essential oils, hydrosols, natural emulsifiers, gums, surfactants, preservatives, pigments, and innovative active extracts. You can learn more about these ingredients below:
Natural formulation 101: Beginner’s guide to skincare ingredients
When you make your own skincare, you buy only what you need for each batch, so your products are made with fresh, high-quality ingredients, which are good for your skin and, if you’re selling, for your customers’ skin too.
Natural ingredients typically have shorter shelf lives than synthetic ingredients. While this might seem like a limitation, it’s actually an advantage.
Many of our graduates highlight this in their marketing, saying they produce small-batch, artisanal formulations made with fresh, potent ingredients. In fact, customers seem to prefer it! You’d want your food made with fresh ingredients, so why wouldn’t you want the same for your skincare?
#7: You can use sustainable ingredients
Making your own skincare also gives you the power to make choices that are better for the planet.
Mainstream beauty often relies on disposable packaging, energy-intensive manufacturing, and ingredients sourced from mono-culture crops, which can harm biodiversity. The beauty industry is only now beginning to take responsibility for its role in climate change.
When you create your own products, you can explore eco-friendly options like using locally sourced or upcycled ingredients, creating refillable or minimal packaging, making solid or dry products that reduce water and energy use, or simply producing smaller batches to cut waste.
Sustainability is a journey, but by making your own skincare, you take control of your impact. You decide what goes into your products, how they’re packaged, and how they’re made, so your skincare can be as kind to the planet as it is to your skin.
If you’re interested ot learn more about green and sustainable beauty, definitely check out our 5-star rated podcast Green Beauty Conversations, hosted by our CEO Lorraine Dallmeier.
#8: You can change your life
Last but not least, making your own skincare can be truly life-changing – and we don’t say that lightly.
We’ve seen tens of thousands of our graduates go on to launch their own indie beauty brands after studying with us. What often started as a hobby quickly turned into a passion, sparking a desire not only to create skincare but also to make a real difference in people’s lives, and in many cases, transform their careers.
Some of our graduates go from start-up to international retail within just a year or two, even winning major beauty awards along the way.
The community aspect is equally life-changing. When you enrol in one of our courses, you join a global network of like-minded, supportive formulators and become part of an unstoppable natural beauty movement.
Below you can find even more ways that formulating skincare can change your life:
Finally, the natural cosmetics sector is also booming, making it an exciting time to get involved. In fact, there has never been a better time to make your own natural skincare products.
To give you an idea, the global market for natural and organic cosmetics and personal care is projected to reach nearly $59 billion by 2031, growing at an annual rate of 5.3% between 2022 and 2031*.
References: *Allied Market Research.
Ready to start making your own skincare?
Now that you know all the reasons why you should be making your own skincare, you’re probably wondering: what next?
Well, you’ve come to the right place. At Formula Botanica, we have taught tens of thousands of students how to make their own natural and organic skincare from scratch, through our free and paid online award-winning courses.
Start your journey today with our free training course and discover just how fun, easy, empowering, and life-changing skincare formulation can be!
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Liz was Formula Botanica’s Content Coordinator between August 2020-2024. Liz worked as a professional blogger, journalist and site developer for many years and was also part of the Formula Botanica student community. Read more about the Formula Botanica Team.
