Homemade… mascara?

I had never even considered that I could make my own mascara, but as I was wandering the aimless halls of the internet, I saw someone talk about making mascara from almonds.

The entire thought process for me was – I have almonds. I should make a batch. So, that is what I did. It was surprisingly easy.

Recipe:

Get a handful of almonds. Soak in boiling water for a few minutes to loosen the skin.
Peel the skin off almonds.
Chop up the almonds.
Put in dry pan and cook until totally blackened (basically, you are making charcol).
Crush blackened almonds with rolling pin.
Add a glob of vaseline and blackened almonds to a double boiler (i.e. glass container in a pot of water). Melt and stir these together.
Put in old mascara tube/storage tin. (Additional detail for this step as I had struggled so hard to clean out my tube and install new mascara – there is a sneaky little rubber stopper, which if you pull that out of the tube, you can easily clean it and put the new mascara in)

Here are pics from the process:

Review:

I was really shocked at how dark the almonds got. When you crush them, you can see that the almonds are really pigmented and they have a bit of natural oil in them, so even before you add the vaseline, it makes a smearable colour (which makes me think it could be used as an eyeliner as well).

I found washing out and trying to put new stuff into a mascara tube to be really difficult! I may just pick up another mascara wand and use a tin of mascara in the future.

It definitely adds colour to my lashes, but doesn’t do things like volumize and lengthen. I enjoy the smell as well. But I do think it smudges a bit more than the other brands of mascara and I have noticed I got a few little stray bits of mascara on my cheeks.

I think it is a good “daytime” option – adds just enough colour and definition for me to feel good, but I think I will still layer some of my fav mascara brand for evening.

I also think I will experiment with coconut oil in lieu of vaseline for my next batch.

Have you tried to make your own makeup?