DIY Facial Mists for Dry Skin, Oily Skin, Every Skin

If you walked through the Allure office right now, I can almost guarantee that you'd see editors spraying themselves—and everyone around them—with facial mists. And no, it's not some weird beauty bonding ritual (well, maybe, kind of). It's mostly because facial mists make you look dewy, feel refreshing during this ridiculously long winter, and smell amazing, like a delicate, all-natural perfume. And since a lot of them only contain a handful of ingredients but cost around $40...or sometimes as much $90 (!), I decided to ask a skin doctor for input on whipping some up myself. And success! Here's how you do it.

This couldn't be easier or more rewarding, because it's basically only two steps and you wind up with something that feels amazing and smells really fancy and impressive. I found all of the ingredients for these skin-soothing mists (including the spray bottles) at Whole Foods.

Step one: Make tea. It's the foundation of any DIY facial mist, because "tea is an antioxidant that soothes redness and dry skin," says Ava Shamban, a dermatologist in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. She likes green tea or pomegranate and suggests using two bags for each cup of boiled water for the most potent mist. You get bonus points if you brew them with mineral water from a glass bottle. "It comes from springs that are protected from pollutants, and the minerals are nourishing and can calm sensitive and even eczema-prone skin," says Shamban.

Step two: Add one or more of these ingredients. You could honestly stop at the tea and have an excellent facial mist (refrigerate it first to cool it), but it's much more fun to customize yours, and the extra ingredients are what make these DIY facial mists smell so good. Experiment with mixing and matching these skin-soothing, moisturizing, and antioxidant add-ons, all vetted by Shamban:

– antioxidant fresh mint to soothe red, dry, and sensitive skin (use four muddled leaves per cup of tea)

– antioxidant pure rosewater to hydrate and soothe red, dry, and sensitive skin (use equal parts rosewater and tea)

– jojoba oil to hydrate (just a few drops; "you'll have to shake the mist each time you use it," says Shamban)

– witch-hazel extract to tone oily skin (a teaspoon of witch hazel per cup of tea)

I tried a bunch of different concoctions, and the two that had the most fans in the office were green tea with rosewater and witch hazel, and pomegranate with mint. And you'd better believe I walked around misting them on all of my friends at work.
