How To Make And Store Your Own Skincare Products Safely

Last Updated on May 30, 2025 by Giorgia Guazzarotti

So you want to make your own skincare products? It’s not as easy as you think. You can’t just mix up a few drops of olive oil with a big dollop of glycerin, add a spoonful of vitamin C powder and voila, you have a product that works.

It’s way more complicated than that… For starters, you need to make sure your own skincare products last as long as possible. Cos who has the time to make a new batch every day, right? This means using the right packaging and preservatives to keep your precious concoctions safe from germs, light and air (they oxidise natural ingredients, making them go bad faster).

Then, there’s pH. If your DIY cream is too alkaline or too acidic, it could seriously mess with your skin barrier. Translation? Redness, flakiness, and random breakouts. So yeah-knowing how ingredients play together is kinda crucial. Also, don’t forget texture. Just because you mix oils and water doesn’t mean you’ll get a creamy, fluffy lotion like the ones in shops. Without emulsifiers, you’ll just end up with separated goop. Not cute.

Don’t know where to start? Here are a few tips on how to make your own skincare products safely:

Table Of Contents

1. Wash Your Hands And Sterilize Your Tools

I know you already know this, but I’ll say it anyway. Before you start to make your own skincare products, sterilize your hands and tools to kill any bacteria you may transfer on them. Wash your hands, clean your work surface, your spatula, your bowl and anything else you’re gonna use with hot water or Isopropyl Alcohol.

Make sure they are completely dry (either let them air dry or use a clean paper towel) before you use them. Bacteria, fungi and yeast thrive in moist environments. A few drops of water in your bottle may seem harmlesss, but it’s just what those pesky bacteria need to spoil your own skincare products.

One more thing: use a spatula or a spoon instead of your fingers to pick the small quantities of ingredients you need. Hot tip: you can get mini spatulas and glass mixing bowls online for cheap. Just look for the kind used in cosmetic formulation. Bonus: they make you feel like a proper chemist in your kitchen.

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2. Make Small Batches Of Your Own Skincare Products

There’s a reason why moisturisers or serums come in 30ml or bigger bottles. They use preservative systems that are tried and tested to last for months up to a couple of years. You won’t have access to those preservative systems or the opportunity to do professional testing to estimate how long the preservatives you can use will last. Heck, you may decide not to use preservatives at all.

That’s why it’s safer to make small batches of your own skincare products. You don’t want to make a big portion only to find tiny black dots scattered all over it a few days later. (FYI, those black dots are bacteria. Throw the concoction away!) Homemade skincare products have shorter shelf lives, especially when:

They don’t use preservatives: I always recommend to add at least a couple of natural preservatives to make your own skincare products last a little longer.
They contain water: A common ingredient in skincare, water makes antioxidants and other goodies spoil and go bad faster.

So make a small batch – just enough for a few days – and store it in the fridge. The lower temperature will help it last longer.

Also: test your recipe before committing. Small batches let you play around without wasting ingredients. You’ll find out pretty quickly if something separates, smells weird, or just doesn’t feel good on your skin. Better to tweak a 10ml fail than bin a whole bottle of wasted oils.

3. For Bigger Batches, Use Preservatives

If you want to make a bigger batch of your own skincare products, you MUST use a preservative. NO exceptions. Nope, I’m not talking about vitamin E & co. Antioxidants aren’t preservatives. They help the active ingredients in your homemade skincare products last longer, but they don’t protect you against bacteria and fungi.

Essential oils are a common choice. Lavender, rosemary, lemon and sage (to name a few) have antimicrobial properties that can protect your products from bacterial contamination. But, they’re not without side effects. The problem with essential oils? You need a high dose to act as preservative. That’s irritating.

If you want to go down this route, do your due research to figure out how much essential oil you can use safely. Some online shops also sell preservatives DIYers can use to make their own skincare products last longer. These work better but, again, do your research to figure out how to use them properly.

Pay attention to pH too. Some preservatives only work in specific pH ranges. If your product is too acidic or too alkaline, your preservative might not work at all, even if you’ve added the right dose.

4. Store Your Own Skincare Products Properly

I know I sound like a broken record, but homemade skincare products oxidize and lose their effectiveness when exposed to light and air. Packaging matters as much as the ingredients you’re using. What’s the point of creating a wonderful homemade moisturiser if you’re gonna put it in a see-through jar that’ll make it go bad faster?

Always store your homemade skincare products in opaque and air tight containers. I like to use small dispensing bottles and tubes as they help avoid bacterial contamination. That’s not all. Even if you’re packaging your own homemade skincare products properly, make sure you’re storing them in a cool and dark place, like your fridge. Leave them under hot sunlight or near your radiator and the heat will spoil them faster.

Also: don’t reuse old containers unless you know how to clean them properly. I’m talking boiling water, alcohol rinse, and a full dry cycle. Any leftover product in the lid can mess up your new batch, even if it smells fine.

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Can You Use Food Ingredients In Skincare?

Short answer: not always. Just because it’s good for your body doesn’t mean your skin wants it. Yeah, honey has antibacterial properties and oatmeal can be soothing, but your kitchen isn’t a sterile lab. Plus, the versions used in cosmetic products are usually processed and stabilized for skin use.

Raw yogurt? Full of bacteria that might do more harm than good.
Fruit juice masks? That acid can seriously burn.
Banana face masks? Cute idea, but mostly just a sticky mess that attracts fruit flies.

So before you slap on whatever you’ve got in the fridge, ask yourself: Would I still do this if I had acne, rosacea, or sensitive skin? If the answer is no… maybe don’t.

Do I Need To Measure Ingredients Exactly?

Yes. Eyeballing won’t cut it. Just because you “think” you added a teaspoon of glycerin doesn’t mean it’ll play nice with everything else. When making skincare – especially anything that includes actives (like Vitamin C), preservatives, or emulsifiers, I recommend you use a digital scale that measures down to 0.01g. Kitchen scales aren’t precise enough. That one extra drop of essential oil or acid can throw off your product’s pH or cause irritation. So don’t guess. Measure.

Do I Need An Emulsifier?

Only if you’re mixing water and oil together. You can’t just shake a bottle and hope for the best. Oil and water will always separate unless you use something to bind them. Common DIY-friendly emulsifiers include:

Olivem 1000
Emulsifying wax NF
Polysorbate 20 or 80 (usually for combining oils with water in sprays or toners)

Emulsifiers also affect texture – whether your cream feels rich and buttery or light and lotiony. But if you skip them? You’ll just get separated slop that won’t absorb properly.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need a lab coat or fancy equipment to whip up a moisturiser. But you do need to know the basics – like how preservatives work, and how to stop new products from turning into a petri dish, and what ingredients you can use. If you’re doing this for fun or for your own skin, keep it simple. Use clean tools. Make small batches. Stay curious, and don’t skip safety in the name of “natural.” And if you ever think, “surely this’ll be fine…” – pause. Look it up. Your skin will thank you.

How do you make and store your own skincare products? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Great helpful article!!! I am planning on making my own cleansing oil (the OCM method) with Castor oil and 1 or two carrier oils (and an emulsifier) and I’m so excited! =) I already have a small plastic bottle (plastic is okay, right?) and I will follow your tips on making a small batch.

I hope hot water is enough to sterilize the bottle. Do you happen to know how long my Cleansing Oil would last, I think it just depends on my carrier oils, right? Like, 6 months or so.

beautifulwithbrains says:

February 25, 2013 at 9:06 am

Denise, I’m so sorry for not replying sooner, I’ve only just seen this now. 😳

I guess you don’t need my answer anymore, but here it is anyway. Yes, plastic is ok and yes, it depends on the carrier oils. Still, I recommend you do small batches that will last only a few weeks, just to be on the safe side. And if you’ve already tried it, please let me know how it went.
Barbara says:

December 14, 2019 at 4:49 pm

I just wanted to add to this because I also mix my own oils for OCM. I usually make a bottle of 60-100ml. That it lasts me for about…3-5 months. My oils keep changing but I always have 10% Castor oil. The rest ranges from raspberry, avocado, jojoba, sweet almond, camelia, argan, rosehip, baobab, sunflower, olive, sesame, neem to marula. I usually mix three to five different oils. The only essential oils I have ever used are carrot and geranium rose, separately. Twenty drops for a 100ml bottle. I usually also add 10% vitamin E. I’ve been doing this for two years and I have never had an allergic reaction nor have the oils smelled bad or seen black dots. I’m not saying it did not go bad, but to my limited knowledge it does not seem to have ever been the case.

I’m planning of making my own face wash,soap and scrub.this article is very helpful.thank you.

Beautiful With Brains