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Cover up those gray hairs or dark roots with a simple, easy-to-make, homemade natural root concealer stick which won’t break the bank, at all.
Lately I’ve been dabbling a lot more in the world of natural DIY products. When I started this blog, it was a lot more about fun DIY projects for kids with a few healthy (and other) recipes sprinkled in. As I started trying to get healthier and more in shape, my posts got more focused on healthy alternatives to fun foods with some DIY sprinkled in. My son, for now, likes to help me cook, but doesn’t show my interest in making things, which is part of the reason that my DIY has gotten a lot more adult and focused on simple, green DIY that you can make for your home & body.
Back when I started my blog, I had already thrown out a lot of cosmetics with toxic or questionable ingredients, but I didn’t share much of what I was using because most of the time it was as simple as sleeping with coconut oil on my hair, or rubbing in some jojoba oil on my face. I mean there wasn’t a lot to tell, until my formulas got a bit more sophisticated.
I tried at least 10 different deodorant combinations before I was super excited to find a soothing DIY deodorant formula that 100% works for me! That may have been the turning point for me that gave me enough confidence to start making more and more of my own more complex products. That deodorant has definitely been my favorite natural DIY product that I came up with on my own. I can’t imagine going back to using anything else. But…
Making a Homemade Natural Root Concealer Stick
While this homemade natural root concealer stick isn’t something that I need to use every day, I’m pretty much as excited about it as I was when I came up with my favorite deodorant recipe.
Why?
Because it’s super simple and inexpensive to make, it solves a problem I couldn’t solve with anything I could find around here (toxic or not), and it actually works!
Let’s face it, I’m not in my 20’s anymore (nor am I in my 30’s), and while I don’t feel much different than I did back then, my hair is slowly starting to try to let me know that I am getting a bit older. Not only am I starting to get some gray hairs, but they like to punish me by all showing up exactly where I part my hair! Yes, I could change my part, but I’m sort of set in my ways by now, and since I’ve started dying my hair anyway, it doesn’t really matter…
…Until my roots start showing, of course!
A few years back I had found a root concealer stick at a store in the US, and it worked pretty well to camouflage the slight difference in color between my natural color and my dyed hair. Unfortunately, it had a bunch of crazy ingredients in it, and I haven’t been able to find anything like that around here anyway.
So, the other day, I was working on formulating some homemade eye pencils (and, yes, I will share those recipes with you soon), and when I went to take pictures of how they looked when used, I noticed that my roots were showing and I didn’t look very presentable. I was planning on zooming in on my eyes anyway, so it wasn’t really a big deal, but the idea hit me…
What if I were to take the leftover eyebrow pencil ingredients and rub it on my exposed roots?
So I did.
And it worked! Wonderfully!
I was super excited, and mixed up a new batch and poured it into a lipstick mold.
I had just bought the lipstick mold to do some experiments with homemade lipstick and concealer stick recipes, but I would have never thought I was going to use it for something for my hair.
I love the professional look the lipstick mold and cases give to this homemade natural concealer stick, but if you don’t have them, and don’t want to buy them, I’m assuming that this will work just as well in easier to find lipgloss cases.
While it may be hard to see, I’ve tried to show you some before and afters both in pictures and in a short video that shows the process of making the concealer stick and how I used it.
I rub the concealer stick lightly over the roots in the morning, and it does a good job of camouflaging them all day without any problems. So, now I can put off touching up my hair for a bit longer.
As for getting the color just right…
I was pretty lucky, and I think my first attempt at getting the color right for me turned out perfectly. I used a 50%-50% mixture of black and brown iron oxides for my pigments. If you have a redder tone to your hair, you can try adding a tiny pinch of red iron oxide, and if your hair is more golden, you can play with a yellow iron oxide pigment instead.
Don’t get too caught up in trying to make something that looks EXACTLY like your hair, though. While this is covering your hair in an opaque enough way to mostly cover your gray hairs and/or darker roots, it blends in enough that it doesn’t stand out if the color is slightly off. Think about it, your roots tend to be a bit darker naturally anyway, and the rest of your hair slowly lightens as it is constantly hit by the sun. Your hair has different tones in different areas, and all of that helps make this stick look very natural when in place.
Watch me make this natural root concealer stick
Luckily, the ingredients for this aren’t that expensive, and you use very small amounts when formulating a stick that should last you for quite a long time. Take your time measuring out your pigments the first time you make this, and write down your personal successful mix formula for your next batch.
Because this recipe uses such small amounts of ingredients, I had to invest in a new scale that weighed smaller amounts much more accurately than my kitchen scale could. Luckily, I found a very inexpensive jeweler’s scale that didn’t break the bank, and I can now use it for making all sorts of homemade makeup.
Are you as excited as I am?
Let’s make a Homemade Natural Root Concealer Stick!
Homemade Natural Root Concealer Stick
Materials
- 3 g shea butter
- 1.5 g jojoba oil
- 1.5 g beeswax
- 1.5 g carnauba wax
- 1.5 g iron oxide I used black and brown, but there’s also red and yellow
- 2 drops vitamin E
Instructions
- Melt together all of the ingredients, except the iron oxide pigments, over a double boiler until melted.
- Combine everything together, stirring well, and slowly adding in the iron oxide pigments until you get a color that works for your hair. In my case, I added around 50% brown and 50% black iron oxide pigments, and it works very well for my color, but you may have to play with using yellow and/or yellow iron oxide pigments too to achieve the right color for you.
- Prepare the lipstick mold, if you’re using it, by putting together both halves, and holding them together with rubber bands.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared lipstick mold (or lipgloss containers) while still very hot. (If you are using lipgloss stick containers, let them cool and you are finished.)
- As the mixture cools, it tends to make a bit of a hole in the center, which is why it’s a good idea to pour in a bit more of the mixture than what you need to get to the top of the stick part of the mold. You’ll be cutting off the excess product anyway.
- To help make the unmolding quicker and easier, you can place your filled lipstick mold in the freezer for a few minutes.
- Take the rubber bands off the lipstick mold, and pull both halves apart. Remove your homemade concealer stick.
- Cut off any excess product from the base of the concealer stick.
- Carefully push the product into an empty lipstick container, and you’re done! You now have a professional looking homemade natural root concealer stick!
- Lightly rub the concealer stick over the roots of your hair until any dark roots or gray hairs have been camouflaged. You can try rubbing the stick over the hairs in different directions to get them covered equally.
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Carmel O'Keeffe
Amazing!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Thank you!
Zelda
Hi Tracy,
I’m glad that i found you. Thank you very much!
I wonder if I can use emulsifier wax instead of carnauba wax?
Thank you!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Zelda,
The carnauba wax is a harder type wax that really adds consistency to the product and helps it stick.
I’m not sure what would happen if you used an emulsifier wax. The emulsifier isn’t really needed.
If you don’t have and don’t want to use carnauba wax, I’d probably try using more beeswax first- rather than using emulsifying wax.
Because carnauba wax is harder than beeswax, I’d experiment with adding slightly more beeswax than the amount of carnauba wax that you want to replace.
I wish you the best with it. If you do try it that way, I’d love to hear how it goes. Your experimentation may help others out! 😉
MG
Very excited to try this! I have everything I need, except carnauba wax….would double refined candy work (https://tkbtrading.com/products/double-refined-candy)? Maybe I’ll try it and report back….
Tracy Ariza
Hi MG,
Candelilla wax, like the one you linked to, is usually said to be a very good (vegan) replacement for beeswax. It will be softer than carnauba wax, though. Carnauba is a hard wax that provides a lot of stick to the hair.
It’s very possible that you can use it, but you’d probably need to add more to compensate for the fact that it is a softer wax. (If not, the stick won’t be as hard and may easily break.) Also, it’s very possible that it doesn’t stick as well to the hair- or may make the hair look a bit oily? These are all guesses for the worst-case scenarios, though.
as you’ve said, it’s really all about experimentation. I’d love to hear how it goes if you give it a try!
CB
I was wondering where you got the lipstick mold?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
I live in Spain and bought it locally from here.
Ritah Lazar
Hi Tracy
! Finally I decided to really try this out! I just cant / dont want, to more more toxic stuff on my hair! But It all ends upto more than 100 dollar only for the material! ( except New scale and all the other appliances!) – so I have been hesitating taking the risk, as I dont know if this works for me and my budget is so very limited.
I really wish I could buy some from you or at least if You had the possibility to just send me a small tiny piece, of the ready product, just for trying, so I know if it works for me, before I put all the money investing in this. It would be of such great help!
My question..There is many kind of sheabutter. How do I know which one do to use for this recepie?..Some are harder/ som softer, some eko/some non eco, some with meltpoint 35 and some with lower
What to look for when choosing the right sort of sheabutter?.
.And the same with Bee wax?.they come in different shape and form.. .yellow white bleached, cake aSo.
For how long approx does the stick last for You? And doesnt hair get Greasy from the waxes and the fat?
Thankyou !
Ritah Lazar
Hi Tracy! Finally I decided to really try this out! It all ends upto more than 100 dollar for all the material ( without the tools! !) – so I have been hesitating taking the risk my economy is very restricted.
Is it possible to get just a Small tiny bit of the ready product. Just So I can try it out, before I investing so as big sum of money and then maybe it doesnt suit me?..
Maybe You Could just send me the small piece at the end that You cut off when doing the stick? I pay of course forcthe cost of sending it +for the tiny sample ( 3-5 mm ) would be more than enough).
That wouldnt be of such a great help to me.
How long does a stick like last for You approximatly, if using it like once/ week?..
Regarding the Sheabutter..
When looking for the Shea butter in the recepie, There is different sorts here – dofter, harder, meltpoint 35, meltpoint less, Shea for soaps or creams and so on. Which is the right one here to use for your recepie?
Thankyou for your help!
Also, You were going to make a penicillin , Where can I find the recepie for this?
Kindly Ritah
Tracy Ariza
Hi Ritah,
Ah, the eye pencils! I should post those, huh?
I wasn’t happy with my systems for filling the pencils which is probably why I never got around to it. I quite like them, though, so maybe I should post anyway.
I wish I could send products to people, but legally I can’t do so. Spain has very strict rules about it and it would be a huge risk for me to send. For me, this was a cheap product to make because I already had and use most of the ingredients in other homemade products.
I don’t use this weekly. I only use it during the days when my hair is growing out and the roots are showing, before dyeing my hair again. I also only use it in the part.
To be honest, I still have the same stick I made when I posted this. It’s still usable.
I don’t really normally recommend keeping a product for so long, but because this is a solid product that is really only coming in contact with my hair, I’m not at cautious as I normally would be. ?
Anonymous
I’m so glad I found your recipe! By the way, can I use coffee powder instead of iron oxide powder?
Thank you so much! Loves and hugs!
Tracy Ariza
Hello!
Happy to help! 🙂
While you could try it, I’m afraid that I doubt it would have good coverage. The main problem is that it’s probably impossible for most people to grind it fine enough to get it to disperse well in the product. I’ve tried with very fine powders, but they often clump up in this sort of product.
Not only that, but coffee is pretty hard and abrasive.
Something like cocoa powder is more likely to work, but I’m still not sure about the coverage that it would give. Plus, you have a lot less flexibility with mixing colors.
Maria
I am 75% gray and color my hair with henna and indigo every 10 days. But the color doesn’t stick to my roots on the crown area for very long, only a few days. Also, I’m a swimmer and have to shampoo almost every day to remove the chlorine. This sounds like a good solution for me. Do you think the ingredients will interact negatively with the henna and indigo?
Thank you!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Maria,
No, you shouldn’t have any problems. This just sits on the hair like a hair wax. It won’t react with any dyes or anything like that.
What I would suggest, though, is cleaning it off before covering again with henna just to ensure that the wax coating isn’t preventing the henna from getting to your hair. 😉
Ritah Lazar
Hi Tracy, Thank you for your reply earlier. I decided to try to do this.
I found all the ingredients in smaller contents in my country, except the mold.
Do you think a kitchen digital scale would make it or do I need to bye a special scale?
It has grams, but maybe you found out its not precise anyway?..
Thank you for posting this recipe. I am exited to try it out.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Ritah,
I’m so happy to hear that you are going to give it a try.
I have 2 scales that I typically use. One is a normal kitchen scale, and the other is a jeweler scale for items that need to be measured in smaller quantities.
They are both really inexpensive, so if you plan on making your own products in the future, I do think it’s a good investment to make.
That said, this recipe should be fairly forgiving. You could try to make it with your scale. Because there aren’t any water ingredients, you can remelt the ingredients if you aren’t happy with the texture or color- and keep re-melting and adding more ingredients until you are completely happy with it. 😉
Carnauba wax is harder than beeswax, so if you want to harden your stick more, you can add more of that. If it’s too hard, you can add a few drops of oil.
I hope that makes sense, and I really hope it works out well for you. I do think it’s a good starter recipe, and with the same ingredients, you can make other things like lip balms and other fun products! 🙂
Sandra Dahlberg
Where can I purchase Natural hair color stick in dark brown.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Sandra,
I’m sorry. I don’t sell my products. I show people how to make their own!
I wish I could recommend a particular one, but I’m not really familiar with the ones on the market right now.
Penny
I have light blonde hair with light brown roots and tons of grey – yikes. I have tried store versions of this before and need very very pale colour to not make my hair look dirty. The yellow oxide looks like it will be too strong. Any thoughts on what I could add to it to make it paler. I want to make my own to avoid nasty chemicals.. thanks in advance x
Tracy Ariza
Hi Penny,
I would play with using titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. They are usually what is used to lighten up the other colors when needed. Titanium dioxide tends to make a brighter, more opaque white than zinc oxide, so you probably wouldn’t need as much of it. You can see that I played with titanium dioxide when I made homemade Halloween makeup. It’s a similar type process.
Lori Pendleton
Hello, I have chemical sensitivities and have been shopping for a natural ‘gray hair ‘ cover stick. This sounds great but when I added ingredients to my cart on Amazon, I am up to nearly $30. Do you make and sell coversticks? I’m thinking it may be cheaper than creating my own.
Thanks
Tracy Ariza
Hi Lori,
If I were still in the US, I’d have no problem making you one or a couple, but because of the legalities of that sort of thing here in Spain, I can’t legally make and sell this sort of thing. (Which I think is a bit stupid myself, but that’s a whole other topic.)
I have a lot of oils and waxes on hand because I make a lot of lotions, lip balms, etc., but I understand that if you don’t normally DIY stuff, that the ingredients could add up.
My guess is that you could get away with using a higher amount of beeswax and ditching the carnauba wax, for example. Carnauba wax is harder than beeswax so it helps give staying power, and you need less of it that beeswax. You could potentially save money there if you don’t think you’d use the other wax in other products.
As for the oils, you could probably get away with using only one of them too. Jojoba oil is liquid, so it would need more wax. Shea butter is more solid, so you’d probably need less. You could definitely play with the ratios to get the right texture.
I think the mold and containers is what is most expensive, but once you have them, you have them for life. I plan on posting some DIY lipstick recipes eventually- hopefully soon- so, that’s another place where you could use the mold, containers, and ingredients. (Lipsticks use a similar combination of waxes and oils, but substitute different colorings. Rather than black and brown, you can use red and pink.)
I hope that helps somewhat.
Barbara
Hello, what size weight scale and double broiler did you use to make the root cover up stick?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Barbara,
My double boiler insert is just like this one: http://amzn.to/2igL3sn
And my scale is like this one: http://amzn.to/2A0xmGc (Those links are both affiliate links, meaning if you were to buy through either of them, I’d earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.)
The scale measures to the hundreths place, and is small and inexpensive. I use it for all of my lotions, conditioners, etc.
I find them both very handy and use both of them all of the time. 🙂
Dean
How long does the color last in your hair? Is this temporary/ apply daily? I am excited to get the ingredients and make this!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Dean,
It’s just a touch up stick, sort of like a “crayon” of sorts, so it will mostly wash out when you wash your hair again.
I don’t wash my hair daily, so it usually lasts me longer than just daily for me, but you can easily touch up your hair as needed if some of it does wear off.
I hope you like it! 🙂