DIY Beard Oil Questions

[omegajinx]

I'm currently in the works of making my own beard oil. Thing is, I also want to be able to use it as a post shave. I mix my current beard oil that I purchased with some Nivea Sensitive Aftershave Balm. I will be doing that with what I am making as well. I have a two part question here. One with my carrier oil blend and one related to my essential oil/scent blend. Opinions and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I did some research and theorizing and came up with...

Percentages of Carrier Oils.

30% Sweet Almond
30% Grape Seed
20% Hemp Seed
10% Jojoba
10% Rosehip

My essential oil/scent idea is Rosewood, Lemon, Clary Sage, and Vetiver. It's sort of my attempt at semi-ly reproducing a scent similar to Versace Man cologne. The essential oils for this scent though also provide anti-inflammatory, astringent, cleansing, and healing properties which is my main concern.

Thank you all for any input you can provide.

 

[Shave_Rat]

I can't say I've heard about anyone using an oil for post shave before this. The majority I hear that talk about post shave the last thing they want is for a post shave to feel "greasy" or "oily"... You maybe on your own on this experiment, though I'm curious to hear how it's coming along as you go.

 

[omegajinx]

The oils I have listed are not oils that feel "greasy." They are all light and absorb easily into hair and skin. Plus I only add three drops to Nivea Balm, so it's not like I'm pouring oil on my face...LOL. I use it much more for my beard than a post shave. So, does it seem as though this mixture of oils will work well for a beard and the skin beneath it?

 

[dionesius3]

Your recipe is good. I do a similar one for a couple of friends who wear beards and they love it. I use lavender, lemongrass, sandalwood, and tea tree essential oils. I use more Grapeseed oil less almond and I put coconut oil about 10%. I also add about 8% by volume of high proof vodka. It makes the various oils mix much better and helps develop the scent a little quicker. You know how once you mix oils its best to let them age for a couple of weeks, well if you use vodka that time is cut down to a couple of days.

Anyway, I enjoy playing with various oils, scents, and mixtures. I've even made some of my own essential oils. Honeysuckle is one of my best ones yet. Sassafrass was another good one, and Magnolia essential oil is awesome.

Good luck with your experiment.

You know that in the old days what we are doing was called Perfuming don't you?

 

[Shave_Rat]

Your recipe is good. I do a similar one for a couple of friends who wear beards and they love it. I use lavender, lemongrass, sandalwood, and tea tree essential oils. I use more Grapeseed oil less almond and I put coconut oil about 10%. I also add about 8% by volume of high proof vodka. It makes the various oils mix much better and helps develop the scent a little quicker. You know how once you mix oils its best to let them age for a couple of weeks, well if you use vodka that time is cut down to a couple of days.

Anyway, I enjoy playing with various oils, scents, and mixtures. I've even made some of my own essential oils. Honeysuckle is one of my best ones yet. Sassafrass was another good one, and Magnolia essential oil is awesome.

Good luck with your experiment.

You know that in the old days what we are doing was called Perfuming don't you?

Poking around a bit, if you can get it in your area, you want the highest proof alcohol you can find, preferably 190 proof Everclear if you are going to add alcohol into the mix. Perfumers Alcohol would be the ideal, if you can get it, but it seems hard to get here compared to Europe.

 

[omegajinx]

Does using the vodka/Everclear in the oil mixture cause it it to have an alcohol smell? I'm willing to wait for the scent to mature on its own if it does. However, if it doesn't then I will certainly be adopting that technique.

 

[Shave_Rat]

Does using the vodka/Everclear in the oil mixture cause it it to have an alcohol smell? I'm willing to wait for the scent to mature on its own if it does. However, if it doesn't then I will certainly be adopting that technique.

The reason for using the super high proof (or especially perfumers alcohol) is so that it doesn't have any or in the case of the ever clear, so minimal you can't tell, added scent. Remember, alcohol by itself is colorless and odorless. So the closer to 100% pure, the closer to completely odorless you'll get. Everclear is 95% pure, the other 5% is mostly water, so it has so little odor that once the EO's are in there, you won't notice it.

 

[dionesius3]

Does using the vodka/Everclear in the oil mixture cause it it to have an alcohol smell? I'm willing to wait for the scent to mature on its own if it does. However, if it doesn't then I will certainly be adopting that technique.

High proof alcohol has very little scent and the ammount used would be so low that it would really make no difference. I have used rum, whiskey, bourbon, and vodka they all have no effect on smell. The process as I understand it is that these different oils all have different length and density chains of molecules and the alcohol acts to break these long chains and thus the oils mix together at a molecular level better. Thus doing the same thing that letting it sit and age for a couple of weeks would do naturally.

I dont know how much of this is real science and how much is speculation, but I do know that in my experimentation it does improve the fragrance and make it fuller and longer lasting without the two week aging process. By the way, most oils that I have done thus far continue to change and either get richer or weaker over time. I have some that is six months old now and it is different smelling than some I mixed up a month ago. And the recipe followed is exactly the same for the two, so there is something going on with these mixtures constantly. Most reputable sites recommend no using any of the mixtures much past six months. Unless one has put a fairly high volume of aneseptic oils or alcohols.

 

[dionesius3]

Tea tree oils, eucalyptus oils, camphor oils, mentholated oils, all are highly aneseptic and are used often in many face and body products. The problem is getting food grade or cosmetic grades of these is quite expensive. Using alcohols to do the aneseptic treatment means using relatively high volumes somewhere between 8-25% depending on the other oils used and their natural tendency to either go rancid or promote bacterial, viral, or mold growth. So that is why most sites say around six months of use or untill the smell goes bitter.

Im still just a novice at this so there is much more to it than what I have mentioned and that is also why I dedicate a good bit of my time to researching the things I have mentioned. It's a fun hobby, but for me it will likely remain just that, a hobby. I would never sell any of these products to anyone for any price. The unknowns are just too large in my opinion. And that's why I don't use many "hand-made" or home crafted soaps, balms, lotions, etc. because I know how much there is to learn and how much study it takes just to be semi-competent and doing this kind of stuff.

 

[dionesius3]

If I make myself breakout with a rash it is my bad, but if I make you breakout in a rash it's very bad. Not something I am willing to risk for your sake, but I will try on myself with little concern.

So so that is my feelings on the issue, homemade oils and scents are fun and challenging but not something I will ever try to sell to someone else.

 

[omegajinx]

Update 1-28-15: I tested my base this evening. Seems to work quite nicely thus far. The hairs became instantly softer and they had a sublte sheen, which I prefer over the high shine of my current oil. I used my original percentages, but I appreciate the recommendation of more grapeseed and coconut oil dionesius3. I will be able to see if it has staying power in the morning since my beard always tends to dry back out by morning as well with my current purchased beard oil. Once I get all my essential oils in I will begin working on scent as well.

 

[Cailkid]

Glad its working out for you. Have you ever tried moroccan argan penetrating oil for you beard? i use it, shampoo and conditioner by the brand organix renewing. They also make whats called a dry body oil and you can pick the stuff up almost at any drug store/CVS/Target and is priced right... There are many 100% Moroccan argan oils that in Morocco they even roast and eat with bread its that pure, i'm sure those brands cost more but penetrate better without much of a smell, im sure you could find an essential oil or two to get the scent you're after.

 

[sevendayconstant]

I've been experimenting with making my own beard balms and beard oils over the past few years. My current move is to use an oil blend as a preshave and beard oil on my shaving days and on my non-shave days, I use the beard balm. (note: I'm a head shaver)

I don't follow specific percentages with my oil blend, but it's mainly almond oil and avocado oil with smaller amounts of jojoba and argan. I avoid tea tree oil because of it's drying tendencies. I don't use essential oils in my oil blend.

I really dig the beard balm much more than the beard oil. I use a mix of beeswax, some kind of butter (shea, cocoa, mango, etc) and then the oils listed (as well as some others like grapeseed, apricot, etc). I toss in some essential oils to give it a scent, usually some combination of orange, grapefruit, lavender, bergamot, etc.

 

[omegajinx]

Update 2-12-14:
I decided to play around some with the formula since I messed up and put lemon essential oil in my test carrier oil before testing the lemon essential oil on my skin. Come to find out, lemon essential oil is very irritating to my skin and I only used 2 drops from an eye dropper in about 19 ml of test oil. Any how, I recently tried this formula and do not like it as much:

20% each:
Apricot
Sweet Almond
Jojoba
Grapeseed
15% Hemp Seed
5% Rosehip

This time I made a 10 ml test. I find this mixture seriously lacks staying power. Sure, it makes the hair feel soft (though not as soft as I'd like) and look super nice for a little while, but it is very short lived. And I do not live in an arid climate, I live close to the coast and it is typically humid.

I just added about 1 ml of virgin coconut oil to what I had left, probably approximately 8.5 ml. I did this just to see if it makes any difference in staying power and hair softness. I will apply that tomorrow.

My new brainstorm recipe gets closer to my original recipe. I found the jojoba oil a tad bit too greasy and I've heard a few people say that jojoba can start to irritate their skin. As for the argan oil someone mentioned, I have read conflicting reports on its usefulness, plus I have used a product in the past with argan oil and I was not impressed. Maybe this was due to all the other ingredients, but after my experience and what I have read, I have decided to pass on it for now. Here is my new brainstorm concoction (assuming I like the coconut oil):

Sweet Almond 10%
Apricot 25%
Coconut 5%
Grapeseed 20%
Hemp Seed 25%
Jojoba 10%
Rosehip 5%

If your wondering why I chose rosehip oil for the blend, it is strickley for health benefits of the skin beneath the beard. Rosehip oil is very good for your skin, especially if you are older or have damaged skin. I am by no means "older" but if its good enough for mature skin then it should be good enough for younger skin as well.

 

[Deltaboy]

How big of a batch do you make. A pint or Quart.

 

[omegajinx]

I'll just be making about 1.5oz or 50ml. My orginal plan was to make 100ml batches, but my tests of 5/10 ml batches last a lot longer than I anticipated. Therefore, I decided 50ml would be more than sufficient for myself. I measure by "ml" due to that it is much easier on calculating percentages.

 

[omegajinx]

So my last test, which I really liked, was:
25% Apricot
25% Hemp
20% Grapeseed
10% Almond
10% Jojoba
10% Rosehip

I am going to try to the following just for simplicity sake and for the fact that I like almond oil:
20% Each -Apricot, Almond, Grapeseed, and Hemp
10% Jojoba
10 % Rosehip

This is only a slight variation to the first blend mentioned in this reply, and I believe it is what I will finally settle upon. I will update with my final decision.

I'm also considering adding some Shea and Cocoa butters to this recipe and whipping it to make a sort of balm on days I feel like I need some deep moisture. I purchased a beard balm that is made this way, with no beeswax, which I find myself using more and more, but they use coconut oil which I find to be just a tad too heavy. It's a really awesome balm made in my home state of Texas, but I really want to try it with my own oil blend.

Now, does anyone have some good essential oil blends they really like? I've been using Cedarwood, Rosewood, Clary Sage, and Vetiver, but I'm finding more and more that the Rosewood is just a bit too sharp for my taste, and the scent sometimes comes out smelling like pickles. I'm open to trying anything that isn't too expensive to mix. I know I cannot afford Sandalwood oil, not even Australian Sandalwood. But I have considered maybe getting some Frankincense and/or Myrrh, but I'm worried about creating something with too many base notes. I really like the Cedarwood and Vetiver, and the Clary Sage is nice as well. I can do without these but if someone has an idea utilizing these I am will to try it out.

Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions, and thanks for all the support thus far. I look forward to any and all responses.

 

[omegajinx]

Is there no one with some scent suggestions from what is descibed in the previous post? Or scent suggestions in general?

 

[wysper]

Is there no one with some scent suggestions from what is descibed in the previous post? Or scent suggestions in general?

Hi omega,

I started a new thread on the oil recipes, as I thought your questions (and mine) might get buried in this thread.
But nothing so far.

It would be great to hear others experinces and thoughts on what they have tried.

 

[Rebel541]

I've started making my own oil as well, and since I referenced this thread along with pointers from perfume websites as well, I'll share my recipe:
My carrier oils are a nearly 50-50 mix of fractionated coconut oil and hemp seed oil.
My fragrance is an essential oil blend of Vetiver, Rosemary, Wintergreen, Lemongrass, Wild Orange, and Melaleuca (Tea Tree).
I read on another site that alcohol and oils don't mix well, so I didn't use any to help the scents blend and age, but I have no experience in the matter. The scent definitely changes over the time though, maybe mixing the scents with alcohol then adding the carriers would help? I've read warnings on other sites and from my essential oil sites that most citrus oils are photo-toxic, so I keep the percentages very low. I read that the oils, especially from the peels, magnify sunlight to help the fruit ripen, so if it's on your skin in too strong a concentration it will increase your chances of getting sunburn. I work outside in construction, so I'm in the sun most of the time.
That's also why I'm making my own scents, I can't be pouring concrete while smelling like flowers or sweets!
My next project I want to figure out is a decent bay rum and lime scent for summer.