Rose & Hyaluronic Acid Serum DIY

RECIPE:
NOTE: every quantity in this recipe is in grams and it is a recipe for 100 gr of product. The meaning of “to 100” means that the quantity of the water (in this case “rose water”) is counted until reaching 100 gr for the entire recipe. 

Rose water to 100
Sodium Hyaluronate 1
Sk-influx (this is the commercial name of a complex of different kinds of ceramides. You can use what you find with the same function) 2.5
Ceramide liposomes 2.5
D-panthenol 2
Sodium lactate (60% solution) 5
Bisabolol 0.5
Umectol (this is the commercial name of a hydrating complex. Once again: you can freely use a different complex with the same function) 2.5
Hydrolized silk proteins 2
Cosgard 0.6 (this is the preservative)

In the very end I also added one drop of water soluble red food coloring. This is why it is pink (needless to say this is totally up to you).

I made the Hyaluronic acid using rose water the evening before. Of course I used 1 gram of sodium hyaluronate and around 80 grams of rose water… not 100.
The morning after the gel was ready so I just mixed it a bit and added these ingredients in the recipe. I added the preservative in the end.
As you can see there are few oily components like Bisabolol, D-panthenol… quite in a high % (usually a gel is fine up to 1% of oils). The reason is that I used a commercial Rose water 😀
I did not have any substance to solubilize the oils inside of the gel (at the time that i created this serum) so I decided to give good use to those who are usually inside commercial Rose water! 😀 Ok let me explain: inside of commercial Rose water they solubilize stuff like perfume/essential oils and preservative (at least usually). To make the water still clear and transparent they use a bit more solubilizer than needed… you can be sure about this by shaking the bottle of the rose water: if a few bubbles form (kind like in a light bubble bath) then you can be sure there is some free surfactant substance (the solubilizer…) inside of the rose water. I say “free” because part of it reacted to solubilize the oils inside of the water… and part of it is still free and making therefore the water clear once again.
So!
Making a gel with this kind of water and adding oils to it, I used the “free surfactant” and this is why this gel is holding on together! 😀
And this is also why it is not transparent (apart for the fact that Sk-influx are not transparent at all)!

So there it is all the “tips and tricks” 😀
I like this serum very much and I have been using it for the last month on my face 🙂
It is very light (cause it is practically oil free) and needless to say: super nourshing! 🙂
Hope you like it!

Let me know if you have any questions! 😀

My Sources :)

It is approximately two years I have been studying how to make soap and I love it 🙂
My source for learning how to make soap was the entire internet because, before I actually started making one, I think I read 23894738947 tutorials and watched at least the same amount of youtube videos 🙂

However right after learning how to make soap, I have started studying how to make creams, lotions, hair gels, serums… and so on 🙂

I am in love with this and this blogs will probably become my personal sum up of what I learn.
However, I do need to point out where I have been learning most of what I write here, because without these few websites I couldn’t definitely even imagine where to start from!

The first website where I started to SERIOUSLY learn how to make a cream was:
Point of Interest   
I had never thought it could be possible to actually make a lotion until I saw this page 😀

But after reading that page I felt more confused than before: I never thought it was possible to make a lotion at home BUT at the same time, reading what I was supposed to do, reading about Phase A, B and C… as a first reaction I got confused and I felt like it was too difficult for me.

However, difficult things don’t stop me and they actually make me even more curious so in the next days I started searching around the internet to try to find out something more, something more specific…
And TADAAA!!!

I found a forum in Italian all about cosmetics!
The people on this forum are very nice, helpful AND they share a lot of knowledge totally for free!
I was amazed on how many things they knew and I spent months just reading and reading and starting to purchase raw material online to attempt to make my first cream! 😀
This is the forum I am talking about L’ANGOLO DI LOLA 
Here is where I actually started studying things seriously 😀

In my blog I am going to write a sum up of what I have learnt and I am going to post my own recipes for creams, lotions, detergents, hair gels, shampoos…
None of my recipes is copied and in case I will ever copy a recipe I will, obviously, post the source (and, if possible, ask for the permission to the owner).
However the meaning of this post about my sources is that, if it wasn’t for L’angolo di Lola, I wouldn’t probably be in any way able to put together any of these recipes!
So a big thanks to them! 😀

Rose and Patchouli – Soap Bar

This is one of the first soaps I made, a long time ago… but I opened this blog late and I realized I never posted anything about it.

It was the first GREAT and luxurious soap I made.

Recipe:
225 gr Olive oil
150 gr Coconut oil
50   gr Macadamia nut oil
50   gr Avocado butter (melted and added at trace)
25   gr Castor oil

70.17 gr lye (6% discount)
135     gr distilled water
30       gr rose water

1 tsp rice flour
7 ml Rose essential oil
4 ml Patchouli essential oil
10 ml Geranium essential oil

3 tbsp Rose buds to decorate in the end

Hope you liked it 🙂

 

 

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How to: Hyaluronic Acid gel

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 😀

Hyaluronic Acid Gel

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).

Hyaluronic Acid Gel 3 Hyaluronic Acid Gel 2

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!  😉

 

 

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Amla and Aloe Vera Soap – Recipe :)

This is a very simple recipe for a soap that I really like a lot 🙂
Unfortunately I believe that the properties of Aloe vera have gone totally lost (this soap gelled and even if I added the aloe juice at light light trace I am 99.999% sure all is lost), but still it’s a great soap and I love it on my skin (it’s full of precious butters eheheh)!
So I just hope you enjoy this recipe!

Recipe:
350 gr Olive oil
300 gr Coconut oil
200 gr Shea butter
100  gr Cocoa butter
50   gr Castor oil

139,43 gr Lye (6% discount)
200 gr distilled water

100 gr Aloe vera juice
3 tbsp Amla powder

This soap is a Cold Process soap.
I added the Aloe vera juice just at very light trace together with the Amla powder.

It has a natural scent 🙂
and it is lovely on the skin!

(just notice that the cocoa butter might cause allergic reaction to people who are allergic to nickel!)

 

 

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

Blabbering of a Soap-Maker pt.2 + Back in Bangkok

I’m in Bangkok once again and I am going to be here for a while.
I am missing my raw materials to create soaps, gels and creams at home. 😀
Having the “made” products with me is never satisfying because I get too many ideas to create new ones even in just one day… Imagine being far from “THE CREATION PROCESS” more than a month! AAAH!

Well,  I have with me some Xanthan gum, Allantoin, Wheat Proteins powder, Hyaluronic Acid gel made by me, L-ascorbic acid to make my VITAMIN C SERUM (I will make a tutorial on this soon because I am in love with this!), tocopherol acetate… I brought this with me in case of  “creational” emergencies! 😀 I cannot make anything too fancy with these materials and certainly I cannot make any SOAP :(… but I guess I can survive! 😀

But well, since I cannot create, I will have more time to make posts about what I created a while ago and didn’t give myself time to post before!
I’ll do this in the next days 🙂

But now… Let me console myself with some Thai food 😀

Chicken with cashew nuts and rice
On the right I don’t remember what it was 😀 Some super spicy chicken with Thai basil and chilly (of course)

Onion omelet 🙂

Another version of Chicken with cashew nuts 😀

How to make Aloe Vera Gel (from aloe juice)

Not everybody is so lucky to have a plant of Aloe Vera.
Personally I have one but my heart doesn’t let me chop off a leg or an arm from it. 😀
Nevertheless when you buy “Aloe vera Gel” usually it is maximum 95% made of Aloe vera, remaining 5% (and this is not a little amount!!!) are other things.
So here is a recipe to make 99% Aloe vera gel where the remaining 1% is composed of Xanthan Gum (natural gelling substance) and preservative.

Preservative is an important step. I know many people who want to do “natural cosmetics” don’t want to use preservatives, but preservative doesn’t necessarily mean “bad”. There are many kinds of preservatives right now; you can choose a paraben free and 100% biodegradable (like the Cosgard which i am using).
The importance of preservatives is that they don’t permit the growth of bacteria inside our water-based cream/gel. If you really don’t want to use a preservative then you should save your gel or cream in the fridge and use it up in maximum one week time.

Recipe:
99   gr – 100% Aloe Vera Juice
0.6 gr – Xanthan Gum
0.6 gr Cosgard (I know this doesn’t make 100 grams but 100.2 grams 😀 I can count too, but some preservatives need to be added in smaller amount and anyway 100.2 gr in a bottle of 100 ml doesn’t make a big difference 😀 that’s all)