Face cream

[PippiL]

I'm trying to formulate a nice face cream.
I have made so many now and I keep changing things around and still don't like the outcome.
I like the cream for sinking in to the skin and not laving any greasiness, but it still feels draggy.I left out glycerin,sodium lactate, lowered and change the emulsification, used cetyl alcohol and sometimes not.
Here is my latest recipe:
water 60%
rice bran oil 20%
meadowfoam seed oil 3%
sea buckthorn oil 2%
shea butter 3%
mango butter 3%
ewax 6%
cetyl alcohol 2%
raspberry dimethicone 4%
willow bark 1%
germall plus 0.5%

If you have any ideas, I'd appreciate it.Thank you

 

[lsg]

Have you tried the swiftcraftymonkey blog? Susan has great info.

 

[DeeAnna]

I know you said a "cream", but a recipe that is only 60% water is going to be awfully thick and heavy regardless of the fats/oils used. This type of lotion will be harder to apply in a light even layer than a recipe that is 70-75% water phase. Lighten it up with more water and I think you'll see the skin feel lighten up as well. I'd also use far less RBO, more meadowfoam, and perhaps ditch the mango butter. That will help too.

 

[seven]

i recently tried silk amino acids and loving it. my lotion is more light though, 75% water and the oils and butters were also the light ones (fco, swa, mango). i prefer mango than shea, i think shea is a more heavier butter. but again, it all comes down to personal preference

 

[Obsidian]

Here is a recipe someone shared with me. Its a nice thick cream but its smooth and sinks in quickly. I also added a little arrowroot powder. I use avocado and almond oil the most but also add in a little rice bran or what ever I have handy, I never really stick to the same oils every time.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=394461&postcount=11

 

[pamielynn]

try adding some cyclomethicone for glide.

 

[Neve]

After some experimentation I found my face preferred grapeseed oil and quite a light lotion. I wouldn't put those butters in. I love Shea but not on my face.

 

[PippiL]

Thank you for all of your replies :razz:

 

[Barquentine]

Frankly that recipe is a disaster. Analysis:
water 60%
rice bran oil 20% - cut this to zero
meadowfoam seed oil 3% cut this to 0.2%
sea buckthorn oil 2% cut this to 0.2%
shea butter 3%
mango butter 3% delete this
ewax 6% - this is now the correct amount for the amount of lipids
cetyl alcohol 2%
raspberry dimethicone 4% - seems an awful lot and will overwhelm the emulsifier. Try 0.5%
willow bark 1% - do you have acne? If not, omit this.
germall plus 0.5%

 

[DeeAnna]

Barquentine -- Since the percentages you gave end up in a recipe that longer adds up to 100%, I'm converting the % to grams and working off that. Your suggestions result in 3.4 g of oils/butters and 2 grams of cetyl alcohol for a total of 5.4 grams. Okay, that will make a very light lotion that is primarily shea butter based. But what I don't understand is you are saying to keep the e-wax emulsifier at 6 grams? That is quite a lot in proportion to the oils/butter/thickener. Can you explain your point of view on this???

 

[Barquentine]

I don't use E-Wax myself but the emulsifiers I use work at a 1:1 ratio. (glycerol monostearate is my low-HLB emulsifier)
Having checked, it looks like you could get away with a quarter of the amount of the oil phase. At 6% oils you can use 1.5% ewax by the look of it.
Watch out for silicones. They generally need a high HLB emulsifier. I use a mix of a low HLB emulsifier (glycerol monstearate) with a high HLB emulsifier (Polysorbate 80) according to the HLB calculation method. I find the silicones are much more prone to cause separation than lipids.
Regarding thickness, 6% lipids makes a nice skin cream quickly absorbed. Much more is heading into body butter territory.

This below is the lipids phase of my original 'cream zero' which was a body butter really, it was so thick, though it does absorb... I had repeat requests for it in the winter since it is a luxurious effect:
11) shea butter - 4%
12) stearic acid - 4%
13) cetyl alcohol - 4%
14) glycerol monostearate - 2%
15) dimethicone petrolatum 0.3%
16) cyclopentasiloxane 0.3%

12% lipids, 2% emulsifier. Of course this shouldn't work. It woudn't have either, except for the 0.5% of Carbopol 940, a copolymer thickener that stabilises it perfectly. That was in the days before I learned emulsion chemistry. I still get asked for it.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...At 6% oils you can use 1.5% ewax by the look of it...."

This rate for the e-wax would have been my suggestion as a first trial, but I though perhaps you had a specific reason to use this particular emulsifier at the higher amount and I wanted to know what that was. Thank you for clarifying.

"...Regarding thickness, 6% lipids makes a nice skin cream quickly absorbed. Much more is heading into body butter territory. ..."

I will share that my two favorite recipes for lotion are 18-19% lipids. They are light, creamy lotions that are not remotely close to the texture of a body butter. It's pretty clear that "YMMV" applies here just as with the rest of life. The choice of ingredients, not just the % of lipids, makes a huge difference in the texture of a lotion.

 

[PippiL]

This is going to be a cream for mature & dry skin.
I use a higher oil amount, because I like it for my dry skin.I also like some shea butter in it.Willow bark is not only beneficial for acne prone skin, but also for mature agin skin such as mine.
http://www.lotioncrafter.com/willow-bark-extract.html
I don't want to use cyclo in my face cream.
Swiftmonkey says to use 25% of your oil amount.I try to use less.
I just have to figure out how to get a cream, that is less sticky.