A while ago I posted how to make Aloe Vera gel.
I was planning to post a recipe of an hydrating gel (I have been using it in the morning for the last two months and I love it), but before I start, I thought it would be more important to show you how to make the basic ingredients for this gel.
Of course Hyaluronic Acid gel is one of these ingredients!
So tadaaa 😀
I love hyaluronic acid for the property of keeping the skin hydrated, also it is a substance that is naturally found in our skin.
It is used in many anti-aging creams (I don’t believe it is miraculous and it will make wrinkles disappear, but simply because it helps keeping the skin hydrated, the skin appears more plump and fresh).
Recipe:
[WARNING: this recipe, like ALL the recipes in my blog, is of COSMETIC GRADE, therefore this gel cannot be used any differently than by applying it ON your skin]
1 gr Sodium Hyaluronate
98,4 gr Distilled Water (or Rose water 😉 read the end of the post)
0.6 gr Cosgard (or any other preservative of your choice: of course if you change preservative, use the amount of preservative which is needed for that specific kind of preservative)
1) Measure the Sodium Hyaluronate
2) Measure the water
3) Pour the Sodium Hyaluronate on top of the water
At this point some people like to mix it and some people like to let it be.
I have actually tried both ways and here is my experience: if you try to mix it at this stage, part of the SH will stick to the spoon. This means that a precious part of your gel will get lost (and SH is not exactly cheap, so you’d want to mind this).
IMO it is better to let the SH hydrate by itself on top of the water for a while, and stir later.
4) Cover the glass with plastic film and let it rest in the fridge for few hours.
5) After few hours the SH will be hydrated. Now you can stir it with a spoon so to make the gel more smooth (there will be harder parts and softer parts).
6) Add your preservative, stir again and put in a bottle 🙂
You can use this Gel by itself, for its great hydrating properties!
If you have a very dry skin you could like to use it before applying your cream 🙂
You could also make a more luxurious gel by substituting part of the water (or the entire water) with Rose water!
As you might have noticed in the market we can find creams or serums that say “40% Hyaluronic Acid”.
Well, as you can see I am using 1% of Sodium Hyaluronate and this is the highest concentration I can use.
It is technically impossible to use 40% of SH inside of a gel: it will never hydrate and you will waste a huge amount of money.
I tried once to make a 2% and it took ages to hydrate. In the end it was too thick. I could still use it but it was not a good gel at all.
I don’t know what they could mean by saying “40% Hyaluronic Acid” on a product where there cannot be more than 2% of SH, but it is long time I stopped believing what I read in the commercials for creams. The only thing I can believe now is the INCI and what I KNOW is that in one cream where it was said “40%”, the Sodium Hyaluronate in the INCI was at 6th place (this means that in NO WAY it could be at 40%, it could have been at maybe 1% or even less).
The only way to be sure of what’s inside a cream or serum or face-gel is MAKE IT YOURSELF!
Not only this is a great thing to learn, it also makes you feel like IT’S ALL IN YOUR HANDS! 😉
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
It's all in my hands 
Hi there
Where did you get the cosgard? thanks
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Hello!
I bought it from GisellaManske website, but I have seen it also on Aroma-Zone 🙂
Hope this was helpful!
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Hi,
I just found this website and have a question on hyaluronic acid. All of the formulas / recipes I’ve found call for HA powder. I have HA liquid. How would I substitute the liquid for the powder?
Thanks,
Wayup
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Hello there! 😀
If you have liquid hyaluronic acid then I guess you have a 100% pure gel?
It should be thick and you should find out if it is 1% gel of hyaluronic acid or if it contains other ingredients as well (If it is a pure gel then you should find an INCI which says something like this: water, sodium hyaluronate, ***** —> here few names that can be connected to a preservative, check online; if there are, instead, other ingredients… then it is NOT a pure gel).
IF it is 1% gel of sodium hyaluronate, then you can add it directly in the formulation of creams (but you cannot make, for example, the “zombie vaccine” recipe).
If, instead, it is a really liquid form (and not a gel)… then I must say I have never heard about it and I am unsure of what you are having in front of you. It should not be liquid.
Maybe ask to the people who sold it to you or buy online a little bit of the powder, use it and see the difference? 😉
Experiment! 😀
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Thanks for your response. I bought a business and received the liquid hyaluronic acid with the purchase. I’ll have to contact the seller with questions. Thanks again for your help!
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Then, unless your business is about cosmetic ingredients, I believe it is an already made “serum” which contains probably other ingredients! 🙂 Could it be?
If it is not transparent like in my pictures and if, when applied, it feels very silky and velvety it contains silicones! 🙂
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It is clear but it does glide on smoothly. I found the distributor and will contact them and ask. Thanks again.
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Smoothly is fine (with silicones it should not remain too clear)! It might still be a pure gel with 1% sodium hyaluronate! 😀
Good good, they should know! 😉
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Sounds good I have a question do I have to measure distiled water in gr or ml ?
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Hello Doina.
All my recipes are in grams but, since it is water, grams and milliliters should be equivalent. 🙂
So measure the water as you like (but i believe that a precision scale is more precise than most ml measuring tool), but everything else absolutely in grams 🙂
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Can you forward info to me on where to buy the ingredients listed for this gel? I went to the one listed below and it is in a different language lol! Please advise.
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manske.shop is German website and aroma-zone is French. 🙂
You could however buy these ingredients here: http://www.gracefruit.com/ (they have quite expensive hyaluronic acid to be honest… and different preservatives but that’s ok! they will work as well).
But if you are from US there are some websites which sell cosmetic ingredients also from there! 😀
Check this page: https://itsallinmyhands.com/2013/04/08/buying_online_cosmetic_ingredients/
Hope it helped 😉
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I am thrilled I found your site. Thank you for the quick response, I was on my iphone and could not see all your recipes and ingredients links! I can’t wait to try some. I greatly appreciate your knowledge. Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you! 😀
And let me know your results!!! 🙂
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It’s appropriate time to make some plans for the longer term and
it is time to be happy. I’ve read this put up and if I could I desire to recommend you few attention-grabbing things
or advice. Perhaps you could write next articles relating to this article.
I desire to read more things about it!
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Regards, interested me, where to buy hyaluronic acid powder in the EU (Germany, Austria, Italy, swis)
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There is an entire post about where to order cosmetic ingredients online.
In Germany there is http://www.manske-shop.com
Italy http://www.glamourcosmetics.it
And http://www.farmaciavernile.it
Austria i think there is a link on the post 🙂
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Hello, I’m really glad I found this site ! Your work came across as well studied and valuable to my pursuit of at home cosmetic-making : )
I have questions regarding the mixing of several ingredients to recreate a serum I purchased already. What I’m most interested in is making sure the ingredients don’t denature one another and that the product come out with a silky texture. Think you could help me ? Any info would be greatly appreciated !
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Hello Jona! Thank you for the comment.
Well you didn’t give me any info about which ingredients they are but you are right in wondering if they will get denatured if added together: sometimes ingredients work in sinergy… And other times it is just the opposite! 🙂
If you let me know at least the ingredients list I could try to help where I can… However I generally prefere to keep things simple just because at home, if we mix things up too much, we have no chance to test if our product works well or should be thrown away!
But do let me know about that serum… We could at least give it a thought 😉
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Haha I wasn’t even sure you’d reply ! But I’m glad you did.
I was looking to make a serum with ; ultra low molecular weight HA, matrixyl 3000, tepezcohuite extract powder, and iris florentina. The last two are extracts from plants but the first two are actual active ingredients. I know I can mix up HA at a concentration of 2% and that the tepezcohuite is synergistic with it. However I don’t know if it would be best ot keep the matrixyl 3000 separate or if I could mix the iris florentina (soluble in water) in.
Here are 3 ingredients :
http://www.lotioncrafter.com/iris-florentina-extract.html
http://www.lotioncrafter.com/matrixyl-3000.html
http://www.lotioncrafter.com/hyaluronic-acid-ulmw.html
would also be nice if I could use this as well haha.
http://www.lotioncrafter.com/antarcticine.html
if i’m being too ambitious with this serum I understand and would just separate some of these and use them on their own.
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Unfortunately my internet sucks in this moment and failed to open any of your links -___-
However! 😀
ultra low molecular weight HA – you can indeed use it at 2%. If you want higher consistency you can also add a little of medium molecular weight HA (it thickens the serum more 😉 ).
tepezcohuite extract powder – I have never used it so I cannot talk by experience BUT it should be ok. Just make sure, by reading the data sheet of the ingredient, that you are actually “melting” it and not only “dispersing” it. I mean: sometimes we might think that powders are going to melt in water but it is not always the case 🙂 Sometimes they need alcohol or some other ingredient in order to be “activated” and be able to work on our skin 🙂
iris florentina – I don’t know if this is a powder or a hydrolate water but I believe the same goes as per the ingredient above 🙂 If it is a floral water, then I would substitute the water of the recipe with the floral water (you can decide if to substitute ALL the water or part of it).
matrixyl 3000 – I finally managed to open ONE page with the ingredients list! Here it is: “Glycerin (and) Butylene Glycol (and) Aqua (water) (and) Carbomer (and) Polysorbate-20 (and) Palmitoyl Oligopeptide (and)
Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3”.
I believe the peptides are in quite low concentration if you consider the first ingredients are Glycerin, Butylene Glycol (solvent) and Water.
However, I couldn’t find any data sheet (the pages wouldn’t open… thank you impressive internet connection 😀 ) about it’s concentration of use and solubility.
I don’t believe there should be any problems in using these ingredients together… probably on the contrary! 🙂
However few notes on Hyaluronic Acid Serums (I should update this post): HA can oxidize quite easily therefore it is best kept in fridge and kept in a dark jar.
Once it loses a lot of its consistency or changes color, it should be thrown away.
Therefore: if you make this serum, make a little amount and remake when finished rather than make a lot and store it 🙂
All the best Jona! 🙂
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Great thanks for the input. I did see some information about putting the Matrixyl 3000 in at the emulsion phase and cooling down. What does this imply ? And if I’m making a serum is it necessary to heat any of the ingredients prior to combination with the rest ?
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No it is not necessary. Of course it all depends on the ingredient which you are adding.
If you still have to buy this ingredient, ask to the reseller how to use it (which percentage and if it is water or oil soluble).
If it is oil soluble, you will need to add a solubilizer in your serum (or make directly a cream).
Since one of its major ingredients is water and glycerin, I believe it is in liquid form so I don’t know why they suggest to heat up the phases (usually it is suggested to heat up the phases in order to melt some component which is in solid form)… however, if the reseller claims that you need to heat up the ingredient prior to adding it to the serum… I guess you should do so.
However, notice that HA might get spoiled if you add a hot ingredient into it… so this might be a problem.
I don’t know 🙂 I have read now quite a bit about this ingredient. The peptides look just fine, but the fact that it is even suggested to use this ingredient directly to the skin and the fact that the peptides are floating in a pool of water, glycerin, solvent and carbomer… make me suspect it might not contain a great amount of peptides.
I might be wrong on this, but this is what it makes me suspect. Hope I am wrong 🙂
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Lol alright thanks ! 😀
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Definitely. I’m trying to see what makes my skin most comfy and balanced. I’ll try more products then narrow down what yields good results and what I like. This is a great site !
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Exactly! That’s the good spirit! 🙂
For example I was convinced that my (little bit) oily skin needed very light oils… came out I feel much better and less oily if I use dry butters (like murmuru) in my creams 😀
Who could have imagined 😀
Experimenting is the way 🙂
And thank you again 🙂
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Hi “it’s all in my hands”. thanks for a simple yet well explained description on myo gel. I have also read you can use a stick blender. but I think i will follow your instructions. Also, regarding your comment on commercial products listing 40% hylauronic acid, which as you correctly say is impossible, the 40% refers to the hylauronic acid gel mixture, so in reality if the gel mixture is 1% hylauronic acid powder then the amount of it in the commercial product is only 40% of that so 0.004% – i think my maths are right but i am sure you get what i am saying. anyway, all the best. Lydia
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Love your site too! However as a Nurse it just makes me nuts to think folks making a facecream would weigh water. Also in recipe…are you talking grams(gm) or grains(gr). If you are mixing more than an ounce of H2O (30mls or28grams-gms) U deserve a few glass beekers like we had in 7th grade science/chem class. Very accurate ml markings. LOL 🙂 USING ROSE WATER MOVES YOU TO HEAD OF THE CLASS GIRL! Life is the best when U experiment!!! Buick girl
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Every recipe is formulated in percentage of weight. Therefore you can measure in grams or in kilograms and, as long as you keep the ratio, all is well.
I must weight water because no ml becher has the same precision as my 0.01 scale does and in making small quantities it is important to be precise.
I didn’t get the connection with weighting water and being a nurse though?! 😀
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What are the units of measurement? Is it basically 1:1 ratio of acid to water?
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Disregard comment above. Can I use .5 gr of hyaluronic acid with .5gr of ascorbic acid, for a similar gel?
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No: there is an incompatibility between hyaluronic acid gel and ascorbic acid. The ascorbic breacs the hyaluronic (positive thing is that a little of low molecular weight hyalur. will form but not enough to make the serum effective IMO).
However… If you wish to make any other substitution I wouldn’t change the % of HA, lower the water instead: 1% HA in fact is the ingredient which gels the water 🙂
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just found this site and its great
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I just clicked on to your site. What is sodium hyaluronate made from???
Great site !!!!
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It depends. You could ask the reseller 🙂
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I am confused as I thought real sodium h is from rooster combs, but I find so many other variables, which ones are safe??
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Hello Mary.
I don’t know what exactly you mean by “safe”:
if you buy from a serious reseller, any sodium hyaluronate should be “safe”.
Sodium hyaluronate was extracted by rooster comb, yes, but I also know that right now hyaluronic acid is also synthesized in vitro using microorganisms that produce it when they react to something.
I don’t know enough to be able to say if the first kind of sodium hyaluronate is better or worse than the second kind. Out of my ignorance of the matter (so take this merely as my opinion), I don’t believe there should be such a difference to make one “safer” than the other.
Also, there are many different kinds of HA… considering purity, for example. But this doesn’t depend only on the extraction process, it actually depends primarily on the purpose of it.
Cosmetic grade HA will be less pure than the HA which is sold as eye drops, which, still, will be less pure than the one which is used to make injections… do you understand what I mean? 🙂
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Yes, I understand.
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Hey there, looking at the water portion of the recipe does it say 98.4 grams of water? Also, once the formulation is complete, how long would the serum last? Would I have to keep it in the refrigerator?
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No you don’t need to keep it in the refrigerator as it is preserved (Cosgard is a quite eco-friendly preservative”).
However, HA usually stays more stable if kept in a dark and chilled place so I tend to put mine in the refrigerator.
To me it lasts a few months like that 🙂
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I have another question also, would I be able to use optiphen as a preservative instead of cosguard? What if I wanted to add the HA powder to aloe vera that already contains a preservative, would eliminating the water help?
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I have never used Optiphen and I don’t have its data sheet: is it water soluble or oil soluble?
This recipe calls for a water soluble preservative.
If that is water soluble, there is no problem and you can use it (obviously check at which concentration it has to be used: Cosgard needs to be used at 0.6%, if Optiphen needs to be used at another concentration, change also the amount of water).
About the second question… you could add it to aloe vera water but there might be a pH clash (Aloe vera tends to be acid and HA is a little bit basic… so it might make the HA gel collapse a little).
Why don’t you make a simple HA gel and then a simple Aloe Vera gel and use them in different times of the day? For example Aloe vera in the morning and HA in the evening 🙂
Could this work? 🙂
When unsure I tend to make things more simple, and it usually works 🙂
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I live in the Durham Region area(Oshawa) and I am looking where to buy Sodium Hyaluronate & Cosgard. Can you help me?
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Hello Vickie! There are many websites from US AND Canada!
I never tried any because I live in Europe so I cannot say much about them… However I am sure you can find these products online.
Check my post “Buying cosmetic ingredients online” you will find a list of websites that sell cosmetic ingredients! 🙂 I am sure you will find one ideal for you 🙂
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Thanks so much!
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Hi. I just wanted to ask what kind of preservative you use in this gel ? Cause I wanted to make my own gel or cream or oil with hyaluronic acid but I dont know exactly how and I thought maybe you could help me?
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I usually use Cosgard 🙂 this is the commercial name of an eco-friendly preservative 🙂
It is also water soluble 🙂
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One question more. Is there any difference between Sodium Hyaluronate, and hyaluronic acid ??
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Sodium Hyaluronate is the salt of Hyaluronic Acid.
Eventually it is the same thing 🙂
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Hi there. Although I really would prefer to not get into making my own cosmetics, I’ve been trying to find LMW HA without all the other ingredients, and have come up empty handed. Is it possible to buy the preservative in small quantities? The cheapest I see is $40.
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Of course it is possible. I have bought mine at 2euro.
I made a list of websites where you can find cosmetic ingredients and normally they don’t sell in bulk 🙂
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Thanks for the “how to”. Please direct on the best place to buy bottles or disposable, or even washable bottles to store the gel in. I’m finding it tedious to look around where to go locally as I guess because I’m a man.
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You won’t find empty bottles in shops. If you don’t want to order them you can simply wash (very well and dry for two days before use) any cosmetic bottle! (for example a jar of hair gel or a bottle of shampoo).
However, I made a post about where to buy cosmetic ingredients online and there is a list of links! Most of these websites also sell cosmetic packaging.
In the next post I have a new link for a website that only sells packaging 😉
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Thanks. I read on another section that you don’t get paid to write on the blog and either way it was fun and love to spread the word. That’s commendable. However, I’m not great with technology, but I thought there was a way to set up a link to where ppl could donate to ur cause or give u free tips for giving them free tips if they choose. It would be a good idea to incorporate that option if you can. (A donate link) it’s not all about the money definitely, but it would be nice to see what’s thrown back your way out of respect devoid of obligation. most ppl have little money to spare, but , who knows, hopefully, there’s some out there who can afford it.
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Thank you Keith!
I will keep it in mind, but right now I am happy this way 🙂
I think it would feel a bit weird for me to earn from the blog because I didn’t open it to earn… but it was starting to feel like a job (at the time when I wrote that post). That is what I meant 🙂
But if someday I need support, it seems like a good idea! 🙂
And thank you for the kind words 🙂
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Can I use the gel after derma rolling
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Can I use the gel after derma rolling?
thanks
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Hello. I am no expert of this so I believe you should ask to the person who does dermarolling for you.
Consider that this is only a cosmetic and NOT a medication so I would say that it is not ok to use it on wounded skin. 🙂
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I made this yesterday and left it in the refrigerator overnight but still had to stir and stir. It clumped and still has clumps this afternoon, it also had a lot of foam. I don’t have scales so maybe I got the recipe wrong. I got the recipe from another web sight and used 3 1/2 ozs. water to 1 teaspoon HA and 1/2 teaspoon of optiphen. Well, I just discovered what I did, lol. I added liquid silk to it instead of optiphen which I keep altogether for soap making. Should I throw it away and start over or is it ok to use? Also could u give me the recipe in teaspoons and was the 3 1/2 ounces for the water ok?
Thanks
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Hello Dianne,
I am sorry but this recipe cannot be made in teaspoons or ounces (I don’t even know how to measure an ounce since, where I live, we don’t use those).
Every recipe in my blog is formulated in percentages and can be directly translated into grams.
Only with a scale you can respect the percentages of the formulation.
ps. It is normal that there are some lumps which you have to stir away the day after, but it is not normal that it makes any foam at all. 🙂
Have a good day!
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Thanks! Do u think it’s ok to use since I mistook the liquid silk for optiphen and used ounces and teaspoons instead of grams? After I realized what I did, I added 1/2 teaspoon of optiphen and the foam went down although some is still there.
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I do not know what “liquid silk” actually is, and I don’t know why it makes foam.
Also, Optiphen is a preservative and should be used at the correct percentage (spoons are not precise).
So you CAN use it, but at your own risk, I guess (at least, if you realize your skin is suffering – aka small pimples, dry flaky skin, anything unusual – stop using that immediately 🙂 ).
Please purchase a precision scale for the next time (one that reaches 0.01 grams precision), they are cheap (the last one I bought was less than 10 dollars) and you can find them easily online. 🙂
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I followed the directions the same way you did but instead i used the rose water… I left it a few hours in the fridge and I had a big clumped gel and the water became thick, so I stirred it with a fork breaking that gel then I added Vitamin C Powder (L-ascorbic acid) Pure the same amount as the Hyaluronic Acid (1 gr). I want to know if I’m doing this correctly are those little clumps of gel normal?
I appreciate your help! thank you! 🙂
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Why would you add an acid to a gel that stays together in a base solution?
Your vitamin C has broken down (or it will, in the next days) your hyaluronic gel.
Also, this compound won’t last more than 3 days, then you will have to throw it away.
However, yes the clumps are 100% normal. You need to stir calmly with a spoon so that the clumps loose up and gellify the water in a homogeneous way. It takes 2 or 3 days to have a smooth hyaluronic gel but it can be used even when there are lumps.
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Hi,
I was wondering where i can buy those ingredients in Malaysia…? Does hospitals sell sodium hyaluronate? And can i make the gel without cosgard?
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I don’t know where you can buy ingredients in Malaysia and I have no idea if hospitals sell any ingredient at all (where I live, they don’t).
However there are many websites that sell worldwide. You could check the post about buying cosmetic ingredients online.
You “can” make the gel without cosgard but it would spoil in a couple of days. A preservative (not “cosgard” necessarily) is needed in order to be able to use the gel for a month or two.
Hope this helped 🙂
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