Q10 Antioxidant Face Cream DIY

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Hello there! 🙂

I am back with a new recipe for a light face cream, perfect for summer (you can use it as a potent aftersun).

I do not like (and I don’t suggest) to use antioxidant creams all the year around because the cell-metabolism is complex and using too much antioxidants might have its bad sides as well… however, a month of antiox-cream and two months of not antiox-creams shouldn’t do any harm 🙂 on the contrary…

The ANTIOXIDANT properties of this cream are performed not by just one active ingredient but by a combination of antioxidant active ingredients which work in SYNERGY! 🙂
This means that if you make a “Q10 Cream” with only Q10 as active ingredient (even at higher concentration) it won’t work as well as together these other antioxidants! 🙂

Q10 is known to accelerate the metabolism of a cell, therefore it somehow makes the cells live shorter (or, as they put it in the cosmetic industry: “it promotes skin renewal”).
It works well with Vitamin C (of course we are going to use a stable form), Vitamin E and Alpha-Lipoic Acid.
Warning! I found out that Alpha-Lipoic Acid has a terrible smell of battered egg.

In this recipe I am going to try out a new emulsifier (new to me, that’s what I mean 😉 ), I am talking about “Hitecream 3000”
The INCI is: Potassium Palmitoyl Hydrolyzed Oat Protein, Behenyl Alcohol, Palm Glycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Sucrose Palmitate.
I have decided to follow the technical sheet of it and I have used it as the only emulsifier and thickener (it already contains Behenyl Alcohol, which is a thickener) at 7%.
Now that I have already tried it I can say that the emulsion came out fine and that, even thought 7% is a high concentration, it didn’t become too thick. Probably if I had to remake this cream, I would use it at 5% and try adding a little of Cetyl alcohol… but this I still have to test 🙂 I am just rambling here…
Enough now! 😀

The FORMULA! 🙂 

Phase A: 
Water to 100 
Glycerin 2 
Xanthan Gum 0.2 (I am using the non-transparent grade, but the transparent grade is fine as well)
Carbopol Ultrez 21 0.3 

Phase B: 
Hitecream 3000 7 
Kokum butter 1.5
Murumuru butter 1
Dicaprylyl Ether 1.5 (this is a light synthetic oil)
Tocopherol 1 (this is Vitamin E)

Phase C (the oily one)
Safflower oil 0.5 
Ribes Nigrum oil 0.5 
Q10 0.1 (this concentration is enough for the cream! You will notice that the cream, eventually, will be slightly yellow)
Alpha-Lipoic Acid 0.5 (to actually work in synergy it should be used around 1.5%, the problem is the terrible smell it has – and honestly, at 0.5% it already is terrible!) 😀

Phase D (the cold water based phase)
SAP 1 (sodium ascorbyl phosphate – this is the stable form of Vitamin C)
Rose water 10 (it is just to “melt” the SAP in…)
Preservative (at the specific concentration of the preservative used)
D-Panthenol 1 (also known as Vitamin B5)

The HOW TO is the same as for any other cream with a waxy emulsifier I have done:

1) Because I am working with Xanthan Gum and Carbopol Ultrez 21 I have to separate the Phase A initially:
First I disperse the Xanthan Gum in the glycerin and add a little bit of the water of the Phase A

Then I pour the Carbopol on top of the remaining water of the Phase A.

Until I see something like this:

(It happens naturally and without stirring!)
Only after the Carbopol has “hydrated” I can add the Xanthan Gum mix to the Carbopol water.

2) I measure the Phase B in a separate Becher

3) I heat up the two phases up to 70°C

4) When they both reached the temperature of 70°C, I pour the Phase B into the Phase A (little at a time, while stirring with a spatula). When all the Phase B is in the Phase A, it is time to use the stick blender or immersion mixer and create the emulsion.

5) Once it looked emulsified (it still looks quite liquid, however I noticed that this Hitecream emulsifier thickens pretty fast 🙂 ) I kept stirring with a spatula until the cream reached room temperature.

6) I measure the oily Phase C:

The one on the left is the Q10! You can see what a wonderful orange rich color it has!
In the cream, however, it will become quite pale (I added only 0.1% of it).
I mix it to the oils

I add the Alpha-Lipoic Acid (which is the pale yellow powder on the spoon)

I add it to the emulsion, using a spatula.

6) I measure the Phase C and add it to the emulsion as well.

7) I give it a last mix with the immersion mixer! 🙂

That’s it! 😀

Notice: I added a drop of yellow food colorant into the final cream, the color wouldn’t be so yellow otherwise 🙂