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Which Essential Oils Should You Use in Skin & Haircare? Start With These 6

Craft 360

We have a LOT of essential oils at Craft 360.

But if we were starting again and could only choose 6 for making our own skin & haircare, these are the ones we'd reach for.

1. Frankincense

Warm, woody & one of our facial-oil favourites.

Frankincense is one we'd reach for when making face oils, body oils, butters and balms.

We especially like pairing it with Lavender or Rose Geranium when creating skincare blends.

Our pick for: Face + body blends.

2. Lavender

Floral, familiar & incredibly versatile.

If we could only have a handful of essential oils, Lavender would be very hard to leave out.

We use it across face oils, body oils, butters and balms - and it blends beautifully with several of the other oils on this list.

Our pick for: The all-rounder.

3. Rose Geranium

Floral, rosy & slightly herbaceous.

This is one we particularly like when we want a more floral skincare blend.

Try pairing it with Frankincense in a facial oil, or Sweet Orange for a completely different body blend.

Our pick for: Floral face + body blends.

4. Rosemary Cineole

Fresh, herbal & unmistakably Rosemary.

This one earns its place because it takes us beyond body and facial skincare.

It's an oil we'd reach for when experimenting with hair and scalp oil blends, often alongside Cedarwood.

Our pick for: Hair + scalp blends.

5. Cedarwood

Woody, warm & grounding.

Cedarwood brings a completely different aroma to the collection.

We like it in hair and scalp blends, but it's also beautiful in body oils, butters and balms when you want something less floral.

Our pick for: Hair + woody body blends.

6. Sweet Orange

Fresh, sweet & citrusy.

Sweet Orange is the one we'd reach for when we want to brighten up the aroma of a body product.

It works beautifully in body oils, butters and balms and pairs particularly nicely with woody oils like Cedarwood.

Our pick for: Body blends.

One really important thing: dilution

Essential oils are highly concentrated.

More isn't better.

When you're putting them into skin or haircare, they need to be appropriately diluted for the product you're making - and facial products generally call for particularly low concentrations.

That's actually one of the biggest reasons we created a guide that goes with these 6 oils:

Knowing which oil to use is only half the job. Knowing how much to use matters too.

Okay... let's actually use them

Here's one of our simple facial blends:

Radiance & Renewal Facial Oil - 30mL

Combine:

18.03g Jojoba Oil
8.93g Rosehip Oil
0.13g Frankincense Essential Oil
0.13g Lavender Essential Oil
0.08g Rose Geranium Essential Oil

Mix together and pour into a 30mL bottle.

And just like that, you've used 3 of your 6 essential oils in one simple blend.

Want all 6 + a complete blending & safety guide?

This is exactly why we created our Skin & Haircare Essential Oil Bundle + Guide.

You get all 6 essential oils, plus our guide to help take the guesswork out of:

What to use.

Why to use it.

How much to add.

It comes with 27 recipe and blending ideas to start experimenting with yourself.

→ EXPLORE THE 6-OIL BUNDLE + GUIDE

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Formulating With Shea Butter? 5 Things Worth Knowing

Formulating With Shea Butter? 5 Things Worth Knowing

Craft 360

Shea Butter looks like a pretty simple ingredient. Scoop it. Melt it. Mix it. Done… right? Mostly. But if you’ve ever made a beautiful smooth body butter only to find it grainy a few days later, you’ll know Shea can have a few surprises. So before you start formulating with it, here are 5 simple things worth knowing. 1. Shea Butter is a soft butter Unlike firm, brittle Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter is naturally soft and scoopable at room temperature. That makes it brilliant for creating rich, creamy products like body butters. But it also means Shea alone won't necessarily give you the firmness or structure you want - especially in warmer weather. Think: Shea = softness & creaminess. 2. You don't have to use it alone This is where formulating gets fun. Want a firmer body butter? Try combining Shea Butter + Cocoa Butter. Want to adjust how soft and spreadable it feels? Experiment with a liquid carrier oil like Jojoba. Making something that needs even more structure, like a balm? That's where an ingredient such as Beeswax can come in. Small changes to these ratios can make a surprisingly big difference. 3. Shea Butter can turn grainy Those little gritty bits don't necessarily mean your Shea Butter has gone bad. Shea contains different fatty acids that can crystallise differently as the melted butter cools. Slow cooling can encourage larger crystals to form - which you feel as graininess. A commonly recommended approach is to cool your freshly made butter rapidly in the refrigerator or in front of a fan, rather than leaving it to slowly set on the bench. Already grainy? Re-melting the formulation and rapidly cooling it again is a commonly used way to correct it. 4. Make a small batch first Found the perfect-looking body butter recipe? Don't make 2kg of it just yet. 😂 Make a small test batch. Let it completely set, use it, and see how it behaves over time and at the temperatures it's likely to experience. Too soft? Experiment with more hard butter. Too firm? Experiment with your soft butter and liquid oils. Formulating is often about making, testing and adjusting. 5. Refined or unrefined? Neither is automatically better. Unrefined Shea Butter retains its natural ivory-to-yellow colour and mild nutty aroma. Refined Shea Butter is white and essentially odourless, making it useful when you want a neutral base - particularly if you're adding your own scent or using it in lip balms. Which one you choose really comes down to what you're trying to make. Want to start experimenting? You don't need dozens of ingredients. A few versatile ingredients can teach you a LOT: 🌿 Organic Shea Butter → softness & creaminess 🍫 Organic Cocoa Butter → firmness & structure 💧 Organic Jojoba Oil → experiment with softness & spreadability 🐝 Organic Beeswax → additional structure for products like balms Start small, change your ratios and see what happens. That's half the fun of making your own skincare.

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Pure Oils for your face? Start With These 4 Oils

Pure Oils for your face? Start With These 4 Oils

Craft 360

Can You Put Oil Straight on Your Face? Here Are 4 to Try Something we hear surprisingly often is: “Wait… I can put oil straight onto my face?” We do it, and thousands of our customers do too. If you're new to facial oils, we understand why it might sound strange. We're so used to skincare coming as creams, serums and lotions that applying a few drops of pure carrier oil directly to your face can seem a little… backwards. Won't it just make my face greasy? Not necessarily. Because here's the interesting part: Different oils can feel VERY different on your skin. Some feel light and silky. Others feel richer. And some, like Castor Oil, can be incredibly thick and sticky. So if you'd like to experiment with facial oils, here are four very different options to explore. 1. Jojoba Oil Light, smooth & a great place to start. If you're completely new to facial oils and don't know where to begin, Jojoba would be one of our first picks. It spreads easily, doesn't feel overly heavy and is simple to use on its own. It's also brilliant for experimenting with blends because you can pair it with richer-feeling oils like Rosehip. Choose Jojoba if: you want a simple, versatile first facial oil that's easy to use and easy to blend. → Explore Jojoba Oil 2. Rosehip Oil Richer-feeling & a facial-oil favourite. Rosehip has a noticeably richer feel than Jojoba, which makes it an interesting next oil to experiment with. You can use a few drops on its own, but we particularly like it blended with a lighter-feeling oil like Jojoba. That lets you experiment with how much Rosehip you want in the blend while changing the overall skin feel. Choose Rosehip if: you want a richer-feeling facial oil, either by itself or as part of a blend. → Explore Rosehip Oil 3. Olive Squalane Lightweight, silky & incredibly smooth. If the thought of putting oil on your face immediately makes you think heavy and greasy, Squalane is the one we'd tell you to feel for yourself (it may change the way you think about oils). Technically, Squalane isn't a traditional carrier oil, but it's a popular oil-based emollient used in facial skincare. Its particularly light, silky feel makes it noticeably different from richer oils like Rosehip - and very different from something like Castor. Choose Squalane if: you want to experiment with a very light, silky-feeling facial emollient. → Explore Olive Squalane 4. Castor Oil Thick, rich & VERY sticky. This one proves our whole point perfectly. Put a drop of Castor beside a drop of Squalane and you'd hardly believe they belong in the same conversation. Castor is incredibly thick and sticky, so rather than being our first pick to use by itself, we'd experiment with it as part of a blend. Try adding some to Jojoba and you'll immediately notice how much changing the oils - and their ratios - changes the final feel. Choose Castor if: you want to experiment with adding a much thicker oil to a facial-oil blend. → Explore Castor Oil So, which one should you use? Here's the fun part: You don't have to choose just one. Start with just 1–2 drops and see how an oil feels on your skin. Then try another. Or blend two together and experiment with different ratios. A really simple place to start? Jojoba + Rosehip (50/50). Because the best way to understand just how different carrier oils can feel isn't necessarily to read about them. It's to try them. Want to experiment yourself? Choose a few carrier oils you've been curious about and start creating your own combinations. → Build Your Own Bundle & Save Up to 20% Here

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The Skin Barrier, Explained in 500 Words

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Craft 360

If you’ve ever looked into skincare, you’ve probably heard the words “skin barrier.” But what actually is it? Let’s make it really simple. What is your skin barrier? Your skin has an outer layer that acts a bit like a protective wall. This is what people are talking about when they refer to the skin barrier. One of its important jobs is helping keep water in your skin, while also helping protect you from the outside world. You don't need to understand all the science behind it to look after your skin. The important thing to remember is: Your skin needs water, and it needs help holding onto it. Why does our skin lose water? Water naturally moves from our bodies, through our skin and into the air around us. This happens to everyone, all the time. When your skin barrier isn't working as effectively, more water can escape, which can contribute to dry or dehydrated skin. This is where moisturising ingredients come in. And there are three simple words worth knowing: 💧 Humectants, 🌿 Emollients & 🛡️ Occlusives. 💧 Humectants = help with water Humectants help attract and hold onto water in the outer layer of your skin. A common example is Glycerine. Think: Humectant → Water 🌿 Emollients = make skin feel softer Emollients help soften and smooth your skin. Many carrier oils can act as emollients, including Jojoba Oil. Think: Emollient → Soft & smooth 🛡️ Occlusives = help stop water escaping Occlusive ingredients create a layer over your skin that helps slow down water loss. Beeswax is a great example of an occlusive, while Shea Butter can help soften the skin and slow down water loss too. Think: Occlusive → Helps keep water in These groups can overlap, so an ingredient or skincare product doesn't always fit neatly into just one box. But as a simple starting point, that's really all you need to know. Here's a real example Last week, Amy shared one of her favourite simple skincare routines with our email subscribers. After washing her face, while her skin is still damp, she applies a small amount of Glycerine, followed by a few drops of Jojoba Oil. Why? Now you know! The Glycerine is a humectant, so it helps with water in the outer layer of her skin. The Jojoba is an emollient, so it helps soften and smooth her skin. Amy likes applying her Glycerine to damp skin as part of her routine - but that's her preference, not a rule that everyone needs to follow. That's the skin barrier in a nutshell If you remember nothing else from this article, remember: 💧 Humectants → help with water 🌿 Emollients → soften and smooth 🛡️ Occlusives → help slow water loss And your skin barrier is the protective outer layer helping to keep that water from escaping too quickly. That's it. Skincare doesn't always have to be complicated. Want to try it yourself? Build Amy’s Glycerine + Jojoba routine - or add Beeswax or Shea Butter and experiment with all three ingredient types you’ve just learned about. → Build Your Own Bundle & Save Up to 20% Here

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Craft 360
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