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How to make simple face cream using just a few ingredients, including liquid oil, water, emulsifying wax, and essential oils for scent
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What we want from a simple face cream is moisture, skin-beneficial oils, a lovely scent, and a creamy feeling. A lot of us will have our favorite brand, but as you know, skincare can cost quite a lot, especially over time. Amazingly, it’s pretty easy to create your own lotions from the comfort of your kitchen and for a fraction of the price. The active time to make this face cream recipe is only about an hour, and aside from a thermometer and pH strips, you won’t need any specialist equipment.
This simple face cream recipe is easy to make, and it comes with a video that shows you many of the steps. The final product is rich enough for a body cream but feels great as a moisturizing skin cream for normal to dry skin.
Simple Face Cream Ingredients
A large part of any lotion recipe is distilled water. We use distilled because it has a neutral pH and is free of heavy water minerals, microorganisms, and contaminants. The other main ingredient is liquid oil. The ones in this recipe are jojoba oil and sweet almond oil. Jojoba is a plant wax similar in properties to our skin’s natural oils. Sweet almond is light in feeling and great for all skin types. You could use sweet almond oil infused with comfrey, lavender, calendula, or another skincare plant if you’d like. These won’t add scent, so that’s where the essential oil comes in.
Emulsifying wax is the ingredient you use to get the oils and the water in your recipe to bind. There are various types of Emulsifiers out there, but some are more difficult to work with than others. Using a standard Emulsifying Wax called Polysorbate 60 or Polawax makes lotion-making easy.
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Measuring & Temperatures
When it comes to measuring ingredients for most lotions, it’s essential to use a digital kitchen scale. You can use a pocket scale for small batches or a larger one if you’re making bigger batches. Using volume measurements, such as teaspoons and cups, is generally not accurate enough for making cosmetics.
Temperatures are important for a couple of reasons, so make sure to have a digital thermometer. First, you don’t want your oils or emulsifying wax to solidify when you add the oils to the water. It would just separate. Secondly, some ingredients, such as the preservative, can be heat-sensitive.
Use a Preservative
A broad-spectrum preservative is necessary if you’d like the lotion to last more than a few days. Without it, the lotion will grow bacteria, fungi, mold, and other microbes, even if you can’t see them. Without a preservative, the lotion is only shelf-stable for five to seven days if refrigerated. At room temperature, it will likely spoil in half that time. Broad-spectrum preservatives can protect your lotion against all microorganisms for up to eighteen months.
Simple Face Cream Recipe
Tanya Anderson
How to make simple face cream for normal to dry skin using liquid oil, water, emulsifying wax, and essential oil. If you wish, you can also reduce the emulsifying wax amount to 4g, or 8g, for thinner lotion.
5 from 19 votes
Print Project Pin Idea
Author Tanya Anderson
Cost $5
Equipment
Glass jar with lid
Large saucepan
Spoon
Materials
Water Phase
- 70 g Distilled water 2.47 oz
Oil Phase
- 10 g Emulsifying wax NF 0.35 oz
- 5 g Jojoba oil 0.18 oz
- 15 g Sweet almond oil 0.53 oz
Cooling Phase
- Broad Spectrum Preservative*
- 10-20 drops Rose Geranium essential oil Optional
Instructions
Prepare the Oil & Water Phases
Sterilize your equipment by running it through the dishwasher. Wash your hands thoroughly, and consider wearing disposable gloves while making the face cream recipe. Microbes on your hands and equipment can make their way into your skin cream and spoil it.
Measure the ingredients of the oil phase into one heat-proof glass jar. Measure the distilled water amount for the water phase in a second jar. Next, place both jars in a large saucepan, and fill the pan with an inch of hot water.
Bring the water to a boil, and reduce the heat to a simmer. You're ready for the next step when the contents of both jars are 75°C/165°F. Take the jars out, and place them on a kitchen towel on the counter.
Next, pour the heated distilled water into the oil-phase jar. You'll see it immediately turn an opaque creamy color. Gently stir with a spoon for several minutes, then let it cool. Leave the spoon inside the jar since you'll need to return to it five minutes later to give it another stir.
Cooling Phase
As the face cream cools, it will thicken. Return every five minutes to stir gently.
Once the cream is 45°C/110°F or slightly cooler, add the preservative and essential oil. If the preservative you use comes as a powder, mix it with a small amount of distilled water before adding it to the cream.
Now we need to test for pH. Stir a half teaspoon of cream in 1-2 tsp distilled water. Dip one of your pH papers into liquid and then compare the color to the ones on the pack. Skin creams need to match the pH of your skin, or they can be irritating and affect the effectiveness of preservatives. If the pH is between 4.5-5.5, you're spot on.
You can make the face cream more acidic (lower the pH) up by adding tiny amounts of lactic acid or citric acid dissolved in a small amount of warm, distilled water. Make it more alkaline (increase the pH) with triethanolamine or by dissolving a small amount of L-Arginine or bicarbonate (baking soda) in water and adding it. Pass it through the sieve and into the lotion. Take the pH reading again and adjust again if needed.
Using a rubber spatula, spoon the face cream into a dark glass container and seal it. You can begin using it immediately.
Video
Notes
* I use 1/2 tsp (1.5 g) Geogard Ultra preservative when making this recipe. You can use another broad-spectrum preservative for skin creams, though. If you do, follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Also, if you make this hand cream without a preservative, it will last up to one week in the refrigerator. After that time, invisible bacteria and fungi will begin colonizing it, and it will probably not be something you want to put on your face. Microbes love a water-based environment.
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