Category: Recipe

Banana Smoothie – Hair Conditioner (with Cetrimonium Chloride)

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Hello Hello Everyone! 😀

I know I posted a recipe of a Hair Conditioner not long ago (you can check it out HERE), but I am too excited about this one to wait any longer! 😀
In the previous recipe I was using an eco-friendly emulsifier which gave me a good hair conditioner. I had also added a lot of thickening agents so it couldn’t be poured into a bottle but it needed to be put in a pot, as you can see from the picture.

This Hair Conditioner, instead, is done with a different emulsifier.
Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome Mr. Cetrimonium Chloride! 😀
It is a very good conditioner for hair, his effect lasts as long as it is still present on your hair therefore it is used very effectively in Leave-In Hair Conditioners!
This, however, won’t be a Leave-In (I am planning to formulate one soon enough anyway! 😀 So if you are interested… just keep tuned! 😀 ).

This is a creamy but not too thick Hair Conditioner, thanks to the fact that I didn’t use a high percentage of thickeners.

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Pink Sugar Frosting Body Lotion (Recipe)

Hello everybody! 😀

Today I am going to share with you a recipe for a body cream.

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[If you are new to the making of lotions at home… you might want to run here! 😀
If you already know the basics but miss the ingredients you might want to read the post about where to buy cosmetic ingredients online (here!) 😀 ]

I made this cream for a good friend who just requested a good body cream for dry skin.
My intention was to get a very emollient cream (which often means “an important and well studied oily phase”) with few active ingredients to do good to the skin (we don’t want to use active ingredients only on our face: we can afford to use some also on the rest of our body 😉 ).

How I proceeded:
Picking the oils: being a body cream I wasn’t too concerned about using comedogenic oils or butters. This is why I used a 5% of Shea Butter (which, whatever you read online, is comedogenic due to its fatty acid composition… In case, you can read more about it here) without thinking twice. Shea butter is heaven for the skin of our body. As medium density oil I added Borage oil and Safflower oil, but the main part of my “Grease-Fall” was made of light and extra light oils (to be really honest Jojoba oil is a wax and the other two were synthetic oils which have the very good property of improving the feel of the cream on the skin. If you want to use only natural oils I will add options at the end of the post on how to change the recipe 😀 ).

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Aloe Vera Hair Gel – Recipe

It is over a year now that my husband uses my Aloe Vera Hair Gel and he is very happy with it, but I never thought it would be interesting to post about it… until today 🙂

The recipe is really fool-proof-easy and it makes a good hair gel, which won’t become white if you brush through your hair after it dries up, the hairs stay in shape but don’t look glued!
It is also good if you have long hair and you want to give them proteins: use it in small amount on wet hair (just after you wash them) and then dry them as you are used to. In this case it doesn’t keep the shape but makes the hair shiny and in a month or two they look much more healthy and they feel stronger 🙂 (this is my experience).

DIY Aloe Vera Hair Gel

There are three methods depending on your starting point:

Method 1: if you have Aloe Vera Juice you are going to use it instead of water (substitute the water of the recipe with the juice! 🙂 )

Method 2: if you have the concentrated Aloe Vera Powder (1:200) you will make the gel with glycerin, xanthan gum and water and then add the 0.5% Aloe Vera powder to your gel (it will melt immediately 😉 ).

Method 3: FOOL-PROOF! You can even use a bought Aloe Vera Gel (just make sure the Aloe Vera amount is at least around 95%! Run away from any “10% Aloe Vera Gel”) and add to it the other ingredients of this recipe (of course leaving out the xanthan gum, the glycerin and the water… easy no? :D). This method also works if you have your already homemade Aloe Vera Gel which you read in this post. In case the gel is too liquid, you can add a little bit of xanthan gum to have a more firm gel 😉

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How to formulate a Face Wash – with Recipe

Now that we have studied the theory of Surfactants (here and here) and we have the values of some of them… it is time to finally formulate! 😀

The recipe of today is for a very delicate Face Wash which helped me when I used to suffer of a mild but annoying and constant (meaning that my skin wasn’t covered in pimples completely but I did have a few all the time and this lasted over two years) form of acne. I should make a post about this! I used to be quite aggressive with my skin: I was scrubbing, using alcoholic toners, applying aggressive creams… but nothing was helping (on the contrary…).
Then one day I decided to give a break to my skin, I stopped scrubbing crazily, I stopped attacking my skin and I started concentrating on eating more healthy food and… TADAAA it did the trick 😀 I simply found out that all my skin needed was to be treated gently.

DIY Face Wash - Recipe

This is how the formulation was done:

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On Surfactants and Formulation (face wash, shampoo and shower gels)

So now we know how to combine (and why to combine) the different surfactants… but how to calculate the Active Surfactant Matter we want in our product? (which also mean: how much surfactant we have to add to our product to have the surfactant concentration we want to obtain?).

As I already explained the Surfactant Matter of a liquid surfactant which we buy is not 100%: the surfactant is made of the Surfactant Matter and Water (and probably other ingredients like glycerin, for example); therefore every surfactant we buy has a “Active Surfactant Matter” percentage which is what we have to consider.

As I wrote in the previous posts about formulation of detergents (shampoo, bubble bath, shower gel, face wash), the amount of the TOTAL Active Matter of surfactants has to vary according to the purpose of our detergent.

Generally this is the scheme:
– face wash: <10% 
– detergent for intimate use: <10% 
– shampoo: 10%-15%
– shower gel: 15%-20% 
– bubble bath: 20%-25% (in case you really use it only to make bubbles in the bath tub and you never use it directly on your skin, you could even reach 35%… but I don’t suggest it).

Now let’s learn how to formulate the detergent.

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Sebum Normalizer cream Recipe

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This is a cream made specifically for oily skin and for spring days! 😀
There are two important active ingredients in this cream which will perform the function of oil-controllers:
– Azelaic Acid 
– Tiolisine 

The Azelaic Acid however is insoluble in water or oil therefore it is very difficult for us to use it in our home production (you can find it in online shops of raw materials but I don’t know how it could be used since it is impossible to melt it or dissolve it properly in any liquid)… this is why in this recipe I have used a derivative of Azelaic Acid called Azeloglicine (it contains approx 30% of Azelaic Acid in a hydrophilic form! Bingo! :D).
Azelaic Acid is mainly used for its oil-control properties but it is also used to treat acne (both comedonal and inflammatory) because it kills the bacteria which cause acne and it also decreases the production of keratin which is a substance that promotes the growth of bacteria.
Tiolisine is a sulfurated aminoacid derivative which also has sebum-normalizing properties and it is usually used between 2-4% (3-5% in detergents like shampoo for dandruff).

The recipe I have made for this cream is as simple as possible.
Now I write the recipe and then I explain some more things:

RECIPE: [in case you are new to the making of creams, HERE you can learn what I am talking about ;)]
PHASE A:
water to 100 (HERE the explanation)
xanthan gum 0.11 (possibly not the transparent kind: for gels the transparent xanthan gum is good, for creams the other is better)
carbopol ultrez 21 0.3
glycerin 2.5

PHASE B:
Methyl glucose sesquistearate 2 (I use this low percentage because the oils in this cream are very low)
Cetyl Alcohol 0.8
Cetiol sensoft 1.5
Evening Primrose Oil 1
Hemp oil 0.5
Tocopherol 1

PHASE C 1 : 
Bisabolol 0.5
Dry Flo (INCI aluminum starch octenyl succinate) 0.7

PHASE C 2 :
Azeloglicine 6
Tiolisine Complex 2.5

Preservative 0.6 (or according to the right percentage of use of your own preservative).

Adjust the pH at 5.5 – 6
The oil percentage is so low it could be considered an oil-free cream.
The consistency of the cream is rather fluid: I always have the feeling that thick creams are more suitable for dry skins (at least this is the feeling I get: if a cream is thick, I unconsciously associate it with the idea of a “too rich” cream for an oily skin), while fluid lotions give me better the idea of something light. So this is all up to you (if you want a thick cream you can rise the cetyl alcohol up to 1.5%… but since this is like a wax on our skin, I don’t recommend it :D).
Cetiol Sensoft is a very light synthetic oil which gives a smooth touch to the cream. If you want to avoid using synthetic oils and you wish to use only natural oils, you could substitute this ingredient with the same amount of jojoba oil (which is a bit more dense but it is the lightest natural “oil”).

Hope this was helpful to those of you who have trouble with oily skin!
Let me know if it worked for you 😉

HAVE A GREAT DAY! 😀

DIY Vitamin C Serum

Vitamin C is a very powerful substance and it is found in many commercial products for the skin because it is a strong antioxidant, it has lightening properties and, last but not least, it boosts the production of collagen (therefore you are left with a firmer skin).

Vitamin C is “ascorbic acid” (you could also find “L-ascorbic acid”) but in the creams you buy, if you read the ingredients, you will never find “ascorbic acid”, probably you will find “sodium ascorbyl phosphate” or “magnesium ascorbyl phosphate” (there are also other forms of Vitamin C, this is a mere example). What is this?
Well, Vitamin C has great properties but it doesn’t keep stable: it oxidizes even in contact with air, with light… (this is why if you make fresh orange juice you should drink it immediately after), so in order to be able to add this vitamin in our face creams, cosmetologists use a stabilized form of Vit C: if in the ingredients of your cream you read an ingredient which contains the word “ascorbyl”, to make it very simple, that is the stabilized form of Vitamin C.

These stabilized forms are many and they are growing in number all the time. They are not something negative (and even I use them in the making of Vitamin C creams… maybe I will post a recipe soon about it 🙂 ), however their properties are not 100% the same of the pure Vitamin C.

Today I am going to show you the easiest and most effective way to make at home a special Vitamin C Serum which is much more powerful than every cream you ever bought 😀

The only way to use pure Vitamin C (therefore “L-ascorbic acid”) effectively is to use it right away and make a new serum all the time.
This is why the recipe of today, unlikely all the cream recipes I have shown before, is not in 100 gr but it is in very small amounts: because you will have to make it anew every time you want it 🙂
But don’t be scared: it is made of three ingredients only and it is divided in two parts 😉

RECIPE:
(first part)
1 teaspoon demineralized water 
1/8 teaspoon L-ascorbic acid (you can easily buy it in pharmacy; ask for the powder of vitamin C or ask for Ascorbic acid, simply 😉 )
(if you wish to, you can add also a drop of glycerin)
You mix these two ingredients in a bowl and measure the pH (you can find pH strips even in pharmacy: buy those from 0 – 14 so you can use them also for the other homemade cosmetics in the future. They should look like THIS in order to show you exactly the correct pH of the solution).
WARNING! Measuring the pH is important!
Ascorbic acid is obviously an acid (and it is also very strong) so you don’t want to apply on your skin something of pH 2… however Vitamin C is well absorbed (and used) in your skin only at a pH range of 3.5 or lower. Therefore check the pH of the solution and if you see it is lower than pH 3.5 adjust the pH by adding a little bit more water. Now check the pH again and keep adjusting until the result is pH 3.5.
This is really important and I am not responsible if you ruin your skin. 

At this point you can apply this water on your skin using a brush or even your own fingers, keep applying even in multiple layers until the water is finished.
WARNING! Do NOT apply on the eye area or too close to your lips or nostrils.
It is normal if it stings a little, but it should not be painful and it should not last more than 2 or 3 minutes.
WARNING! If you feel pain wash off immediately! If after 3 minutes the stinging hasn’t stopped yet, wash off immediately! Some people have a very delicate skin and this acid might be too strong for them. If this is your case, rinse off immediately and avoid using acids on your skin. They could damage it!

If instead your skin didn’t react badly to the Vitamin C boost :D, wait for the skin to be dry (wait approximately 10 minutes) and now it’s the part two 😉
(second part of the “recipe”)
2 drops of Vitamin E (Tocopheryl acetate or Tocopherol – you should be able to find it in pharmacy very easily. It is a very dense liquid. The Tocopheryl acetate should be transparent or slightly yellowish. Tocopherol, instead, is dark brown).
Put these two drops on the tips of your fingers and tap it all over your face.
This time it shouldn’t sting anymore.
Let it sit on your skin for 20 minutes and wash off (you will have to wash your face vigorously, because Vitamin E is quite sticky 😀 ).

This is the easiest, most effective Vitamin C serum.
After applying the ascorbic acid, you apply Vitamin E because these two Vitamins work in synergy, boosting the antioxidant properties of them both! 🙂

I wouldn’t suggest to apply this Vitamin C serum everyday because it is quite aggressive. Once a week should be enough.
It is better to make this treatment in the evening before sleeping (so the skin has time to “recover” all the night) and I would suggest to avoid making this treatment in summer or late spring (it is always negative to use acids on the skin in summertime! They weaken the barrier of the skin and they can make more disasters than positive things if your skin receives direct sun rays in the period of an acid treatment).

Now, after having done a little bit of “terrorism” about this Vitamin C Serum… I can say that I have not misused it and I am very happy about the results!
I used to have some red signs on my skin, left from an old acne, and they are finally gone! 🙂
Also, my skin looks more fresh and firm! 🙂

So don’t misuse this DIY and have a great day! 😉

Vitamin C serum

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