Foundation is a tricky product to create for everyone because every skin is different. They range through the base skin types of normal, oily and dry. depending on your heritage you can have light or dark skin tones which range through pinkish to more yellow. this makes a standard recipe nigh on impossible to create. To perfectly match your skin needs please choose a base foundation recipe to match your skin type, and then a colouring option to match your skin tone.

Mineral foundations are a combination of dry ingredients which need to be completely and thoroughly blended to ensure no colour or base smears occur during application. A mortar and pestle will do this job for you, but my weapon of choice is a coffee grinder. These recipes will list the coffee grinder for the mixing segments but if this is not something you wish to use please use a mixing method that meets your needs. All measures are level, flat quantities to allow you to consistently be able to reproduce your product each time. Use the back of a knife to scrape off any excess from a heaped measure.

We will first be making the base powder blend, and then the colour portion to enable small test batches until the colour is perfect for your needs. Small scoops listed are available from Heirloom Body Care and contain 1/2ml. These are used to allow standard volume measuring as the amounts we are using are small, and powders to not always weigh consistently.

Base Foundation Recipe for Normal to Dry Skin

Into your coffee grinder place:

• 2 teaspoons oil dispersible titanium dioxide
• 1 teaspoon zinc oxide
• 1 teaspoon sericite
• 1 teaspoon kaolin clay

Place a piece of cling film over the grinder before replacing the lid to stop the product being flung upward and becoming stuck to the lid. Start the grinder and allow to run for 10 seconds and scrape down your ingredients. Re-cover and blitz again. Do this a few times to completely combine the ingredients. Remove from the grinder and place in a small plastic tub or zip lock bag ready to mix with your colour when it is ready. Clean your grinder with pieces of stale, dry bread and grind for a short while until bread had been thoroughly broken up and taken on the base colour. Tip into the bin and repeat as necessary until the grinder is devoid of base product. Wipe out with paper towel before proceeding to the colour stage of your creation.

Base Foundation Recipe for Oily Skin

Into your coffee grinder place:

• 2 teaspoons water dispersible titanium dioxide
• 1 teaspoon zinc oxide
• 1 teaspoon sericite
• 1 teaspoon rice powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kaolin clay

Place a piece of cling film over the grinder before replacing the lid to stop the product being flung upward and becoming stuck to the lid. Start the grinder and allow to run for 10 seconds and scrape down your ingredients. Recover and blitz again. Do this a few times to completely combine the ingredients. Remove from the grinder and place in a small plastic tub or zip lock bag ready to mix with your colour when it is ready.

Clean your grinder with pieces of dry bread and grind for a short while until bread had been thoroughly broken up and taken on the base colour. Tip into the bin and repeat as necessary until the grinder is devoid of base product. Wipe out with paper towel before proceeding to the colour stage of your creation.

Colour Blend for Fair Skin

This is a base colour blend for fair skin with yellower undertones. If it is too yellow for your skin match please add more red oxide, blend again and re-test.
Into your coffee grinder place:

• 1 teaspoon yellow oxide
• 4 small scoops of brown oxide
• 4 small scoops of red oxide
• 2 small scoops of chromium green oxide

Cover with fresh cling film and grind until well combined

Colour Blend for Mid Range Skin

This is a base colour blend for basic caucasian skin with pinker undertones. If it is too pink for your skin match please add more yellow oxide, blend again and re-test.
Into your coffee grinder place:

• 1.1/4 teaspoon yellow oxide
• 1/4 teaspoon of red oxide
• 6 small scoops chromium green oxide
• 4 small scoops ultramarine blue

Cover with fresh cling film and grind until well combined

Colour Blend for Tanned Skin - Pink Undertones

This is a base colour blend for basic tanned skin with pinker undertones.
Into your coffee grinder place:

• 1 teaspoon yellow oxide
• 1/2 teaspoon of brown oxide
• 1/4 teaspoon of red oxide
• 1/4 teaspoon chromium green oxide
• 2 small scoops ultramarine blue

Cover with fresh cling film and grind until well combined

Colour Blend for Tanned Skin - Yellow Undertones

This is a base colour blend for basic tanned skin with yellower undertones.
Into your coffee grinder place:

• 1.1/4 teaspoon yellow oxide
• 1/4 teaspoon of brown oxide
• 8 small scoops red oxide
• 4 small scoops chromium green oxide
• 2 small scoops ultramarine blue
• 4 small scoops black oxide

Cover with fresh cling film and grind until well combined

When you have completed both the base foundation and the colour segment clean out your grinder as before, ready for your final construction section. It is at this point you will need to make clear notes about the tweaking you require to make this into your perfect foundation.
When the grinder is clean add 1 teaspoon of the foundation base, and 1-2 small scoop of your colour blend and grind until thoroughly combined. If you have some of the foundation you have been using previously test the colour against that, or check it directly with your skin and consult a mirror. If the colour is too light, add more colour to the grinder, too yellow add more red, too red, more yellow....make notes of the changes you made so you can reproduce it big scale. When you have the colour perfect you can tip out your sample colour if you wish, or add to the grinder and extend your initial mix with another 3 teaspoons of base, 3-6 small scoops of colour and 3 times the tweaking amounts you found you needed to add.

If you have dry skin a good practice is to use a good moisturiser at least half an hour before you wish to apply your powdered makeup, or mix a little powder into your favourite cream and use as a liquid foundation.