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June 10, 2009 Kaila Westerman, TKB Trading, LLC

Making pressed powders

If you want to make your own pressed-powder makeup, using just a few ingredients, you can!

Pressed powders are less messy than loose ones, also their colors are more intense and they tend to have a little better staying power on the skin.

To make a pressed powder, you will need:
  • Some kind of powder to press (some blend that you have created for eye shadow, foundation or blush)
  • A binder of some kind (recipes below)
  • Something to press into (you can press into a small jar, or in to a compact or a cosmetic tin)
  • Something to press with (you can use your thumbs, a coin, or something more sophisticated which you make up.
Binder recipes can be very simple. Here are three:
  • 2 parts dimethicone, 2 parts fractionated coconut oil, 1 part jojoba oil
  • 1 part dimethicone, 1 part fractionated coconut oil
  • 1 part dimethicone, 1 part jojoba oil, 2 parts alcohol.
Simply shake the binder in a bottle and then either squeeze or spray it onto your loose powders. Then stir or mix together. I like to put everything in a plastic bag and mush it around.

You will use about 10-15% binder to 85-90% color. Said another way, 1/2 teaspoon binder to 1 tablespoon powder. You want the powder to be damp and pressable.

Once the ingredients are mixed together, spoon them into their container and press. I suggest you cover the surface of the powder with some plastic wrap and then press with something firm such as your fingers, or a coin wrapped in plastic. If you really get into it, you can come up with your own devices using c-clamps and other hardware.

Kaila Westerman
TKB Trading, LLC
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Comments

Kaila Westerman - August 24, 2022

Hi Maryjane,
1. Rubbing Alcohol, as you normally find in the store.

2. In fact, pigments vary. Depending on how much Titanium Dioxide or mica is in a pigment will mean it is more or less needy with regard to the liquid binder. PIgments absorb oils in different amounts.

3. What I do is put the powder in a small zip bag, and then put in the different liquids little by little and rub the bag between the palms of my hands until it feels right. Damp enough to be pressible, not too wet, not too dry. It can be compared to making a sandcastle at the beach, you want to add “enough” liquid binder to get the powders to form a nice cake, but no so much they just liquify and not so little they are like crumbly sand. This is why I don’t give an exact formula.

4. I wouldn’t premix the liquids together to form one liquid, the jojoba oil and alcohol will separate, as example. I’d just dropper in approximate amounts into the bag.

We sell a pressed powder kit which take some of the experimenting out and gives you a chance to have successes off the bat: https://tkbtrading.com/products/press-your-own-makeup-beginner-kit

Maryjane - August 24, 2022

What type of alcohol should be used in the above recipe? Could you be more specific as far as recipe amounts? If I was to follow recipe #3 I would mix 1 oz of dimethicone, 1oz of jojoba oil and 2oz of alcohol would that be correct?
Once mixed how long can this mixture last in terms of being expired?
Thank you

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