The idea for this De-Puffing Peppermint Aloe Face Roller came to me as I was drifting off to sleep on a warm July night. It’s part facial serum, part facial massage—designed to moisturize, soothe, de-puff, and cool your skin on hot summery days. A refreshing, hydrating facial serum is packaged inside a roller bottle so you can massage your face with skin-loving goodness on days where everything feels hot and sticky. I hope this perks up (and cools down) your steamy summer days—it’s certainly made some of my hot days a lot better!

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This De-Puffing Peppermint Aloe Face Roller features two of my favourite skin-soothing ingredients; anti-inflammatory aloe vera juice and healing-boosting, moisturizing panthenol (Vitamin B5). You’ll also find some great humectants—silky and indulgent hyaluronic acid and non-tacky propanediol. These are great ingredients for sun-soaked, dry skin, helping to hydrate and boost healing.

The refreshing loveliness of this formulation comes from two places. #1; a small amount of peppermint hydrosol. I’ve kept the usage rate low (and chose the hydrosol rather than the essential oil) to ensure we stayed on the pleasant side of refreshing and didn’t start to veer into “is this supposed to make me cry?” territory. #2; I’ve taken to keeping this roller in the fridge so the entire solution and the roller bottle are genuinely chilled. It’s really quite lovely! The fridge chilling also boosts the de-puffing powers of the pure caffeine I’ve included in this formulation.

All the roller-y-ness of this formulation comes from the package—a roller-top deodorant bottle. The ball in mine is about the size of a ping-pong ball, and this works nicely for me. If you’ve got a smaller roller bottle that’ll work as well, though I’m sure you can imagine different sizes of roller balls will lend themselves to different sorts of facial massage experiences during application. If you don’t have a roller bottle feel free to put this serum in a regular sort of bottle and just massage it into your face with your hands—hands are, after all, pretty good at massaging 😄

The finished serum is hydrating, soothing, and wonderfully refreshing. You don’t have to keep it in the fridge if you don’t want to (I probably won’t after Labour Day), but for now, it’s dang lovely—like a perfectly chilled G&T for my epidermis. Let’s dive in!

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Relevant links & further reading

• Hyaluronic Acid in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Aloe Vera in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Panthenol (Vitamin B5) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Caffeine in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Propanediol 1,3 in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• What’s up with hydrosols, distillates, and floral waters?
• Are aloe vera juice and aloe vera gel the same thing?

De-Puffing Peppermint Aloe Face Roller

16.65g | 33.3% distilled water
7.5g | 15% peppermint hydrosol (USA / Canada)
12.5g | 25% aloe vera juice
10g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution (USA / Canada / New Zealand)
2g | 4% Propanediol 1,3 (USA / Canada)
1g | 2% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.2% caffeine (USA / Canada)
0.25g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)

Weigh all the ingredients into a small beaker, or directly into the bottle you’ll be storing the mixture in.

If it’s a beaker, stir to combine, and then pour into the bottle. If you went straight for the bottle, cap and shake.

That’s it!

To use, massage the roller into your skin whenever you’re feeling hot and sticky. Store the bottle in the fridge for an extra cooling boost!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this roller contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative, this project may eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 50g, which works well in a 2 fl oz roller-top bottle.
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list (caffeine) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• If you’d like to learn more about the surfactants used and compare them to ones you might already have so you can make substitutions, check out this page and read this FAQ.
• You could try a different hydrosol if you like, but the peppermint is a big part of how refreshing this product is. I do not recommend incorporating an essential oil for this (especially a minty one) as I designed it to be ok to apply around the eyes.
• You could try witch hazel as an aloe alternative.
• If you don’t have hyaluronic acid you could try adding 5% sodium lactate to the formulation and replacing the remaining 15% with more distilled water.
• You could try glycerin or sodium lactate instead of propanediol.
• If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart.