Cream/ lotion base help

[AlicesInspiration]

I have made skincare products for a while, but I've never found myself in a situation where I'd possibly need to formulate for myself.

I need to make my dad a pain relief cream for his birthday, but all the formulas online seem pretty basic, as in, its just butters and EOs. I made an EO blend and which I added to a bit of my leftover Arnica Oil I had, which I am hoping to encorporate into a cream/ lotion.

The best formula I found online was this: Soothing for Sore Muscles & Joint Cream

But they use water and oil with no emulsifier or thickener and no preservative. I figured I could use it as a base formula and figure out the rest.

Using these ratios I found online for Barrier Cream:

Water 60%
Humectant 3%
Liquid Oil 15%
Solid Oil 5%
Wax 5%
Thickener 3%
Emulsifier 7%

I figured I could create my own base cream and then incorporate the other pain relieving ingredients (my EO blend, cayenne pepper maybe? Arnica tablets if I could figure out how to make Oil from them) but even still, I am completely confused as to how to create a formula based on this.

I'm thinking of using the following ingredients in my cream/ lotion thing, but I'm still not sure if these are the best or not:

Mango butter
Coconut oil
Avocado oil
Jojoba oil maybe?
Vitamin E
Glycerine perhaps?
Beeswax
Glyceryl Sterate & PEG 100
Either steric acid or cetyl alcohol
Maybe xantham gum if needed but I'm not sure?
My EO/ Arnica Oil blend
Ideally I would add menthol but I sadly don't have that, so no menthol
Preservative

Can someone please help me make this into a formula that could work? Or maybe give me ideas for possible substitutions or anything?

I'm new to formulating but like I said before, I have made certian cosmetic/ skincare products before, but everytime I have just copied someone elses formula, but never on my own.

Thanks

 

[lsg]

You might try searching for pain cream products to see what extra ingredients these contain, such as hemp oil. You can then do a search for the ingredients you wish to include in your product to find the maximum usage rate. I use a product called Hemp Soothing Lavender Jelly.
Ingredients listed are: aloe barbadensis (organic aloe) leaf juice, lavandula angustifolia (organic lavender) distillate, phenoxyethanol, hamamelis Virginian a (witch hazel) water, glycerin, lavandula angustifolia (lavender) essential oil, peppermint (supreme) essential oil, organic hemp oil, carbomer, alcohol, triethanolamine (tea), tetra sodium EDTA, (may contain sodium bicarbonate and/or citric acid as ph. adjusters).