Extra Delicate Face Wash

Hello there!

I have had to formulate a face wash for a very, very sensitive skin so here is the recipe! (the recipe of the previous one is HERE)

Geranium face wash

From my previous face wash I have changed the combination of surfactants: I have decided to use a mixture of glucosides and I have also added 1% fat (I went for the primrose oil).
This is not a difficult recipe cause it takes only few minutes to make and doesn’t require any special skill! It is actually fool proof! 🙂

[if you don’t know what I am talking about, but would like to know more, you can check HERE or directly go to the Index of the website 😉
If, instead, you know what I am talking about but feel discouraged by the ingredients I am using and don’t know where to find them… go HERE! ]

Let’s go straight to the point 😀

RECIPE: [as always it is intended in %]

Phase A: 
Water to 100 (I just explained it! :D)
Glycerin 5
Xanthan gum 0.5 
Preservative (I am using a water soluble one so I am adding it here. I didn’t put the amount because it all depends on which one you are using, so you will calculate according to yours. If, however, you are using an oil soluble preservative, remember that you will have to add it in the mixture of surfactants and not in this phase! 😉 )
Betaine 5 (this is also called trimethylglycine and it is needed in order to make the mixture of surfactants more mild: you can omit it if you don’t have it but your face wash will not result as mild as mine. But don’t worry: will be mild anyway! 😉 )

Phase B: 
Decyl Glucoside 5 
Lauryl Glucoside 3 (this is not liquid: it is like a white paste and needs to be heated a bit: you will see the pictures later!)
Sodium Lauroyl Cocoamphodiacetate 5 (this is a very thick and mild surfactant)

Phase C: 
Capryl/Caprylyl Glucoside 3 (this surfactant is separated from the others only because it has a good solubilizing property and I want it to solubilize my primrose oil and my fragrance!)
Primrose Oil 1 (this was my personal choice for the oil. You can use whichever oil you prefere. In case you suffer from Acne, however, you might want to check here)
Essential Oil (I have used Geranium EO, of course you can use a fragrance oil or and essential oil of your choice!)

Phase D: 
Betaine 4 
Lactic Acid to pH 4.5 

HOW TO:
1) Mix the Glycerine and the Xanthan Gum, only then add the water little by little and eventually add the betaine and the preservative (IF yours is water-soluble).
This is how your mixture should look like:
Geranium Face Wash 4
As you can notice the surface of the gel is not completely smooth: that’s because I had just made the gel and the xanthan gum still had to hydrate completely, but don’t worry: it won’t look like this forever! 😉

2) Prepare the Phase B:
Geranium Face wash 2
Heat them lightly (using a double boiler) and mix: don’t worry if they create some bubbles.
Geranium Face Wash 3

3) Mix the Phase A and the Phase B.  They won’t mix evenly but they will probably look like this:
Geranium Face Wash 5
that’s why we are going to use an immersion mixer (paying attention to not add air to the mixture! So just put the mixer in the becher and don’t move it around! 😀 )
Eventually you will have something that looks like this:
Geranium Face Wash 6
Much better huh? 😉

4) Now it is time to solubilize the oils in our capryl/caprylyl glucoside! [ps. if you were using an oil soluble preservative, you could add it here!]
Here is a picture of the glucoside (on the bottom) and the primrose oil (on the surface)
Geranium Face Wash 7
Give it a good stir and this is what you will obtain:
Geranium Face Wash 8

5) Mix the solubilized oil and fragrance to the other ingredients and add the betaine.

6) Check the pH and adjust it to 4.5 using Lactic Acid!

TADAAA!!! 😀

Geranium Face Wash 9

For more recipes click HERE 
To learn how to formulate cosmetics click HERE
For a list of online cosmetic ingredients suppliers click HERE 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

11 thoughts on “Extra Delicate Face Wash”

  1. I just recently learned about your blog, which is fantastic.Thanks for all you do. I have a question… Is there a reason you choose not to make it pH 5 or 5.5? Does it have to do with the ingredients, to keep it on the low side? I just recently made a face wash, and my pH meter says that it is 4.3 When I make it again, do you think I should just add a little mixture of sod. hydrox/water solution or TEA and bring it just up to 4.5? I was thinking originally of 5. The cleaner is an AHA cleaner, which is why the pH is as low as it is. The only thing I am not sure of is that I have honeyquat NP in there also, and I have heard that since it is cationic, that it may need a higher pH. Do you have any guidance or thoughts on the overall pH of AHA cleansers, and have you used honeyquat in them? thank you!

    Like

    1. I have never used honeyquat but you can easily find out which pH is suggested by checking the MSDS.

      However: an AHA cleanser to supposedly make the AHA work (I say supposedly because acids in a cleanser cannot do too much, since they have a very small amount of time to do anything) needs a low pH. I think 4.3 can be fine (also because you mix it with a little water before you apply it, I guess?), if you really need to rise it, pH 5 or 5.5 can do… the only thing is that AHA do what they do as long as they are acids. If you increase the pH they react and tend to form salts so you wouldn’t have AHA anymore. I hope this is clear 🙂

      Like

  2. Hi!

    Thank you so much for your blog! It is amazing! I have been reading your posts religiously ever since finding them.

    I am wondering if it would be possible to make a face cleanser of just lauryl glucoside and decyl glucoside? Mostly out of of curiosity, but I also happen to have these ingredients on hand and curious about what the result would be.

    Thank you again!! 🙂

    Like

    1. Sure you could. Add some gums (xanthan for example) and glycerin to make it better as glucosides tend to give a “strippy” feeling on their own! 🙂
      And thank you for your nice words 😉

      Like

  3. Nice again. So addicted to your blog now. Been reading. I have lauryl glucoside, cocoyl glucocide and coco betaine. Can i make a facevwash with them? Please i can use help on this😘😘

    Like

    1. Please read the posts on how to formulate with surfactants: they are in the formulating theory section of the blog! There you find all the explanation on how to formulate with your own surfactants 😉

      Like

  4. Glucosides and Sarcosinates are not available in our region . I have SLS , SLES , CAPB, CDEA and AOS . PEG 8 , PEG 40 (hydrogenated castor oil ) , Polysorbet 60 etc . How can I formulate face wash within these .

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s