Experiments in the workshop: Facial cleanser with a ton of extracts - modified

I know I'm always going on about only switching one ingredient when you make a product, but when I'm in the workshop, I get a little ingredient happy and tend to change a whole lot of things at once! This is kinda what happened here with this somewhat unappealing looking facial cleanser. But seriously, try it out if you have oily skin - I'm loving this hideous abomination!

FACIAL WASH WITH A TON OF EXTRACTS IN A FOAMER BOTTLE
HEATED PHASE
28% water
10% aloe vera
10% rosemary hydrosol
10% chamomile hydrosol
3% glycerin
2% Phytokeratin (or any other hydrolyzed protein)
0.5% polyquat 44 (or another cationic polymer)
15% LSB or other gentle surfactant of choice
10% cocamidopropyl betaine

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% grapeseed extract
2.5% liquid green tea extract (water soluble)
0.5% chamomile extract
2% panthenol
0.5% to 1% preservative of choice (I'm using Germaben II here)

Weigh the heated phase of the product and heat and hold in your double boiler for 20 minutes at 70˚C. Remove from the heat and let cool to 45˚C to 50˚C, then add the cool down phase. To dissolve the powdered extracts, put them into a little container, like a shot glass, and add a little warm water - 3 to 5 grams or so - and stir until the mixture is uniform.

I love this facial wash! I've been using it for almost a year and I never get that tight feeling that comes from the surfactants not rinsing off, and my oily skin doesn't feel too stripped after using it.

So why these ingredients? I like to include aloe vera for its anti-inflammatory and soothing abilities. I'm using rosemary hydrosol because it's great for oily skin, and chamomile hydrosol for the anti-inflammatory properties, as well as the reduction in irritation and reduction in transepidermal water loss for up to 48 hours. I'm using grapeseed extract - which offers that weird brown-red colour - for the anti-oxidant properties, but I also like the resveratrol, which behaves as anti-inflammatory as well. Green tea extract is always a good choice for aging skin - and we all have aging skin - and I've chosen liquid green tea extract because I'm feeling like I have too many powders in the product and I am worried about getting precipitate on the bottom.

Powders are about solubility, so if we have too much powder, we can end up with that gunge on the bottom of the container, which is the precipitate or stuff that didn't dissolve. You can see it showing up on the bottom of toner two. It's not necessarily a bad thing - shake it up and you're good to go - but it doesn't look all that pretty, and it can clog up the tube or nozzle/pump of a dispenser. 

Glycerin is always my first choice as a humectant for a rinse off product for two reasons. I don't need a really fancy or expensive humectant if I'm just rinsing it off, and glycerin actually resists wash off better than something like sodium lactate or sodium PCA. (Click here for a list of humectants.) I like to add a hydrolyzed protein - this time I've chosen Phytokeratin - as it offers film forming and hygroscopic properties, and I'm adding a cationic polymer - in this case, polyquat 44 because it's new, but you can use any cationic polymer at the suggested rate. I like to include panthenol for its proven wound healing and hygroscopic abilities.

As for the surfactants, I'm using LSB (INCI: Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate and Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate) and cocamidopropyl betaine. I like the sulfosuccinates for my oily hair and skin because they're considered very mild, with good foaming and detergent properties. Sulfosuccinates are recommended for oily hair as they can remove oil and sebum gently without stripping hair too much, but all hair and skin types can use them without fear of harshness. I like SLSa because it has excellent foaming, bubbling, and lathering properties, as well as great cleaning properties. As for the cocamidopropyl betaine, I always include this surfactant as a secondary surfactant to increase mildness/reduce irritation and it can behave as a humectant, which is a great thing. (It can also help thicken our products, but that isn't an issue with the foamy bottles!)

So there you have this incredibly ugly coloured but pretty awesome facial cleanser! If you don't have a foamy bottle, feel free to increase the surfactants to 40% to 50% of the water phase, remove the same amount of water, and add some Crothix or salt at the end to thicken! (Click here and scroll down for a version I've thickened with Amaze XT.) If you want to alter this recipe, feel free to alter the surfactants (click here), the extracts (click here), or pretty much anything else.

Join me tomorrow for more fun with products!