This delightful lotion comes from a recipe request from Ashlie, who loves the Frankincense Intense line from Neal’s Yard Remedies. I love Neal’s Yard; their formulations are solid and their corporate ethos is both environmentally and socially responsible. I’ve visited their flagship shop in Neal’s Yard in London’s Covent Garden and loved the blue door, the wee glass jars, and the botanical-infused creations. I’ve tried a few of their products and have always been impressed with their elegance.
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The Frankincense Intense line is designed to be anti-aging. It features many beautiful ingredients and gets rave reviews, so I thought I’d do a bit of a tribute, or a riff. The original formulas contain many lovely ingredients (well over 30!) that make the idea of a dupe very inaccessible, including some key active anti-aging ingredients that I haven’t been able to find on sale for home crafters (a variety of specific peptides, mostly, though Lotion Crafter has others). So—this definitely isn’t a dupe, but it is still a lovely facial lotion containing some great (and relatively accessible) plant-sourced ingredients.
Our water part features both hyaluronic acid and vegetable glycerin for some wonderful hydrating goodness, with added aloe vera juice and panthenol (vitamin B5) for some wonderful skin-soothing goodness (plus more moisturizing power—yay for multitasking ingredients!).
As a new-to-me ingredient, I included 0.4% caffeine. I’ve had this little baggie of white powder for a while and finally got around to putting it in something! From Ingredients to Die For: caffeine is “well known for it’s ability to increase micro circulation, and reduce puffiness, it is recognized as one of the best actives for dark circles and puffiness. ” The recommend usage rate for skin care is 0.1–0.5%. The inclusion of caffeine should translate to the reduction of under-eye dark circles and puffiness, which is pretty cool!
The oil part is mostly ultra lightweight macadamia nut oil and vitamin rich argan oil, with some creamy shea butter to round things out. I’ve selected Olivem1000 as our emulsifying wax, and cetearyl alcohol to thicken up the product and offer some additional stability. I love the rich, fluffy thickening cetearyl alcohol brings to products and thought it would be perfect in a face cream!
Our cool down phase is a simple blend of frankincense, bergapatene-free bergamot, and mandarin essential oils—and our preservative and vitamin E, of course. The scent blend is rich and spicy, with some juicy brightness from the citrus and some dusty end notes. It’s utterly intoxicating and really lovely.
The final lotion is rich, but not heavy, with great slip. I find a little goes a long way—over application leads to some soaping and a very obvious “this is too much product” feel. It dries down to a soft, almost powdery finish. This lotion is quite thick, so I would not recommend it for a pump bottle or squeeze dispenser—I choose a pretty jar from YellowBee. I think you’ll really enjoy the rich, velvety feel and exotic scent—I know I do!
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Frankincense Facial Lotion
Heated water phase
17.677g | 32.14% distilled water
10g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution
10g | 20% aloe vera juice
1.5g | 3% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.4% caffeine
1g | 2% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)Heated oil phase
2.5g | 5% Olivem1000 (USA / Canada)
3.5g | 7% macadamia nut oil
1.5g | 3% refined shea butter (USA / Canada)
2g | 4% argan oil (USA / Canada)
1g | 2% cetearyl alcohol (USA / Canada)Cool down phase
0.03g | 0.06% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.25g | 0.50% frankincense essential oil
0.1g | 0.20% bergapatene-free bergamot essential oil
0.1g | 0.20% red mandarin essential oil
0.25g | 0.50% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through for about 30 minutes.
After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh it. Add enough hot distilled water to bring the weight back up to what it was before heat and hold, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.
Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute, leave to cool for ten, blend for another minute or two, and repeat this blend-cool-blend cycle until the outside of the glass measuring cup is barely warm to the touch and the lotion is thick and creamy. I found this small 50g batch only required one blending session of ~3 minutes. Larger batches will require more blending.
When the lotion is cool it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of lotion, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.
And that’s it! Transfer to a container—a jar that holds 50–60mL/~2 fl oz is a good choice (I don’t recommend a pump bottle as this lotion is too thick). I used this 50mL double-walled jar from YellowBee.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this cream contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative this project is likely to 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 recipe 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.
- You could replace the hyaluronic acid with more water or a hydrosol, but that is going to drastically impact the performance of the recipe
- You could replace the aloe vera juice with more water or a hydrosol
- You can replace the caffeine and/or panthenol with more water or sodium lactate (this will just offer more humectant properties; do not exceed 2% sodium lactate as it can make you photosensitive)
- You can try a different complete emulsifying wax, like Polawax or Emulsifying Wax NF in place of Olivem1000
- Different lightweight oils will work in place of the macadamia and/or argan oils
- Mango butter or cupuacu butter will work well as alternatives to shea butter
- Cetyl alcohol would be the best alternative for cetearyl alcohol in this recipe
- You can use a different essential oil blend if you want; just be sure to keep maximum recommended usage rates in mind
Thank you for this lovely formulation, can’t wait to try it:-)
You’re so welcome! Happy making 🙂
Why do you add the panthenol in the heat up phase here and in the cool down phase in the winter solstice? When I make the winter solstice I get little white stuff when I put it on and wondering if it’s the panthenol
TIA!
Hey Monica!
The answer is easy. Liquid Panthenol needs to be added int eh cool down phase as it is heat sensitive whilst powdered Pathenol can be adding in the heated phase as usually (double check with your supplier on this one) it can withstand temperatures of up to 80C.
When you say little white stuff, do you mean like crystals? Or like a soaping effect?
Barb
Er, on the third to last paragraph you said “vitamin rich organ oil”. Just wondering if you meant argan oil by any chance? Doesn’t sound like the most pleasant thing to be adding to a face cream…
If you look at the recipe Lily, it is definitely Arran oil 🙂
Ha, autocorrect is getting all of us!
I have just noticed this. Auto correct has been driving me mad lately
Hahahahah dangit, autocorrect! Fixed, thanks 🙂
Hi. Can i use aloe vera gel instead of the juice? Thanks.
No.
I came upon your videos on YouTube a few months ago, I have been Loving each & everyone. Thank You So Much!
I have been wanting to make some of my own skin care products since drug store skin care can be almost has expensive as some highend skin care products which I love. So I’m going to try this one.
Will you try to dupe Lancôme or Estée Lauder Day Moisturizes? These are some of my go to moisturizers.
Keep these wonderful recipes coming.
Thanks so much, Queen Bee! I hope you love this formula 🙂 I have a recipe request form here if you’d like to submit your idea, but I can’t make any promises 🙂
I love the combination of frankincense and citrus Marie. I made something very similar just before going to Paris in June, I used Blood orange and frankincense and it smelt gorgeous. A definite keeper for me as I really love citrus, it is also lovely with sandalwood 🙂
Oooh, stunning! I’m definitely going to have to play with it more—I don’t think I’ve used frankincense much since my “Gold, Frankincense, and Myrhh” Christmas theme a few years ago 🙂
Dear Marie,TL;DR:i think this sounds so lovely & as per nearly every formula you’ve ever shared with us,a gorgeous inspiration-starting point for multiple potions & lotions that will be born from this,like a thousand children running joyously around their goddess earth-mama..
But,the thing i actually want to thank you for,this time,is that rad little tip;so sensible & obvious,& logical,but NEVER ONCE having occurred to me!To scoop out 1-2spoonfuls of créme,TO the cool-down weighing boat/mini-cup,in order to PREVENT the loss of those ingredients!!
What is wrong with me that i never thought of this?!LOL!W/o fail,i’ve been so bummed,each time i’ve weighed out my cool phase,b/c i always feel like i’m only getting,like 68%! of these essential bits(whether solubilizer, or preservative, et al),super crucial stuff!
i guess its being self-taught,initially,that allowed me to get into such bad little habits?But, for whatever reason,when making a from-scratch emulsion,(though i DID do this in soap recipes!(i guess b/c i HAD to follow recipes, to begin, b/c i really didn’t know what i was doing at all!)),& i guess i had read more vague sorts of things RE:making lotions,as vs.following a recipe,like an article,etc stating percentages,for example,instead of a formal recipe,w/all the useful tidbits that might accompany it,you know what i mean?
i’m sorry!This is much too long to read or post..no worries,just THANK YOU!From me to you!Its strange to think about the ways we learn things,when we start at DIY,& attempt to reach formulater..Thank you for all your phenomenal contributions to MY personal quest.
Muchlove, suki
I’m so glad that little tip is probing so useful for you! I think I picked it up from cooking—the idea of tempering something (like egg yolks) by stirring in a bit of the master solution before mixing everything together. I know some people just measure those things straight into their concoctions, but I like a bit more control for things like preservatives 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie, is there something I can use to replace Hyaluronic Acid? I would prefer a vegan option.
Thank you kindly for all your wonderful recipes 🙂
No, there isn’t—but hyaluronic acid is almost always vegan. While it can be harvested from rooster combs, I have yet to find a source that actually does. What I have is fermented from plant material. Where did you find non-vegan HA?
This face lotion sounds divine!! I can’t wait to make it! And I just discovered that my local natural foods store sells cosmetic grade caffeine powder! So I bought some of course. Score! ☺️ I was just wondering if I wanted to use 100x aloe powder instead of aloe juice, how much aloe powder should I add? And how much water do I add? Would this change the amount of water in the water phase? Thanks!
What you’ll want to do with that aloe powder is make your own aloe juice with 1% aloe powder, 0.5% liquid germall plus, and 98.5% distilled water. Mix that up, pop it in a bottle, and you’re set! It’s much easier than trying to weigh out minuscule amounts of the concentrated powder 🙂 Happy making!
That makes a lot more sense! Thanks Marie! ☺️
No worries—happy making!
Thanks Marie.
I made it and added a whole range of other oils besides the gorgeous oils you chose, Argan and Madacamia. I added to the heated oil phase Baobab seed oil and Castor oil (at low percentage) and then added Sunflower seed oil and Grapeseed oil once the cream was made (1.5% each).
I made one mistake, I added cocoa butter (lowered it to 2%) instead of shea butter, and I added it unrefined. Yep, you guessed it. The chocolate smell overtakes everything else, so I decided NOT to add any of the essential oils as there would be too much of a fight and somehow it doesn’t feel right. Not sure if I should have added the EOs but something tells me I should leave this cream as is, very chocolatey!
It spreads gorgeously and it soaks in pretty darn quickly. I lowered the hyaluronic acid to 3.5% because I’m being tight fisted and I haven’t got much and living in the Canary Islands it’s not that easy to get products (I’ll be going to London soon and packing up again 🙂 )
Other than that, I think this is a luxurious cream. The caffeine, the panthenol and the hyaluronic acid together with the glorious oils (and the cocoa butter) make this a truly fantastic product in my humble and VERY inexperienced opinion.
Thanks again!
Patri 🙂
OOoh, how lovely! When will you be in London? I’m hoping to have a meetup there in early November 🙂
So wonderful! I made this tonight and it is so luxurious I can’t believe little ole me made it. It is so amazing! I am now a Humblebee and me stalker. Thanks Marie! Looking forward to your next trip to Australia.!
Yay, I’m so glad! I can’t wait for my next trip down under, either 😀
I was wondering what causes the soaping affect? I really don’t like when it turns to white and you have to really rub to blend it in? I like the lotions that seem to blend right in. On the flip side, sometimes oils will seem like they do, but will still just sit on the skin.
Thanks for all the recipes. I love trying different things.
Good morning!
The soaping effect in lotions. What a sometimes dreadful thing! It’s actually your lotion going through some saponification! How cool is that? Try adding in some dimethicone beginning at .25% (a little goes a very long way!) to a max of 1% and see if that helps! Another DIY hack is to add in some cetyl alcohol at about 3% when using Olivem 1000. It will alter your end formula but will help to reduce the soaping effect!
I’m excited to make this to give away as Christmas gifts this year. I don’t have the caffeine powder, but do have caffeine extract from WSP. The ingredients are: Water (and) Glycerin (and) Coffea Canephora Seed Extract, Sodium Benzonate, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid.
Do I need to do anything to adjust the recipe if I sub that at the same rate instead of the powder? Or should I just omit the caffeine entirely? Thank you!
The usage rate for caffeine powder is 0.1–0.5% for skin care, while for the extract you have it is 0.5%–5%, which is ~10x as much. I would increase the amount of caffeine by 10x to account for the lower potency of the extract you have, removing that additional amount from the water. Happy making!
I’m curious to know how the caffeine worked out. A friend in Germany made me a lucious eye cream filled with so many wonderous goodies, but after time the coffee/caffeine powder crystalized in hard little whatevers. She is leaving it out for the next batch.
That’s surprising as caffeine is highly soluble in boiling water. Does the formula also contain any allantoin, by chance? I know that is famous for crystallizing in formulas 🙂
Hi, Marie! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I usually use a complete emulsifying wax by Croda, but it’s not vegan =(
And I have some trouble finding btms-50 or polawax, but I easily find cetyl alcohol and cetearyl alcohol. Can I formulate a facial or body lotion with these two? What % would you suggest?
Thank you so much!
I’m genuinely surprised the e-wax wasn’t vegan—which one? I’ve never found one that isn’t vegan; they’re always made from plant fats.
Sadly neither cetyl alcohol or cetearyl alcohol are emulsifiers. You can include them in an emulsion, but they will not function as the emulsifier.
Thanks for answering!
The one they sell in most stores (in Brazil) is not vegan, it is basically cetearyl alcohol, petrolatum and lanolin (the non vegan ingredient) and and Ceteareth – 20.
I was wondering if i could use cetyl alcohol (or ceterayl alcohol) and ceteareth-20 to form an emulsion. The emulsifier i usually use is cetrimonium chloride, but for hair products, like masks or “cowash” creams.
It’s worth a try—this emulsifying wax has the same INCI!
I’m doing some tests, so far it turned out very good. Thanks for the attention!
Hi Marie…I’ve made the frankincense facial lotion and recalculated the batch and it was thick and dreamy. I’ve just made two single batches of this and it will not thicken. I’ve checked the exp date on all my ingredients and all are good. I’m at a loss as to why this is more lotion like, as opposed to the lovely thick cream it was when I originally made it…pls help if you can… xxoo
Hmm. Are you using either e-wax NF or Polawax and not using high shear mixing? Thqt’ll cause a delay in thickening. Have you made any other changes? A lot of additional electrolytes could also be problematic.
Hi Marie…thank you for responding. I have SLMW HA and HMW HA. I combined them hoping I would get a LMW HA stock. In the precious batch of this lotion I did use this stock and it worked beautifully. I did size up the batch through the batch calculator back then, but this time I just did a single batch. I changed nothing else…so I’m a little confused lol
I doubt the different HA stock would impact viscosity, especially since what you’ve made probably balances out to a fairly similar viscosity as the LMW stock. Did it ever end up thickening up? I’ve found that lotions made with Polawax or E-Wax NF without high shear mixing can take up to a week to reach full viscosity. Otherwise, is there a chance your scale is mis-calibrated?
Hi Marie!
Can I use BTMS-50 as emulsifier ?
Thank you, can’t wait to try this recipe!
Yup!
Hi Marie, this sounds so lovely! I was thinking of changing the essential oils, for a lotion that suits skin with acne, so .1% helichrysum, .2% tea tree, .3% of both lavender and rosemary (I was looking on Robert Tisserand’s website and lavender can help target a bacterium of acne). Hope it turns out alright hhhh
Hello Ki Li!
Ohhh that sounds lovely! I’m not a fan of tea tree in the slightest I kind of find it smells like dirty socks. But that’s just me! Remember this little golden rule when it comes to all things that are good for something; less is more. Too much of a good thing can cause more issues than you began with. For my skin, mixing rosemary and lavender can irritate my skin, but cedar and rosemary I’ve no issues with! Go slowly and see what works!
Have you tried using a toner as well? I find toners make the most difference in my acne skin care routine.
Hi Barb, I really wanted to include some tea tree, would polysorbate 80 help solubilise a small percentage of tea tree EO (.2-.3?) thanks
This lotion (if that’s what we’re talking about) wouldn’t need an added solubilizer to incorporate an essential oil 🙂
Hi Marie (sorry, i couldn’t reply to your comment) i was wondering about the toner, thanks XD
Hi there,
I’m looking to start making my own face lotion for combination skin but have no experience in making these things! Could you recommend me a recipe of yours that is good for this skin type?
Thanks
Hey! Do you have any experience making lotions?
Not a clue sorry!!
Hello Harriet!
Take a look see at this page. Making a lotion is like art. It’s very simple to make a lotion, but quite difficult to make a lotion that contains ingredients that your skin loves and thrives with. I’d suggest practice making body lotions till you get the hang of it and that gives you a chance to figure out what oils your skin loves as well!
Good luck!
Barb
Hello Marie! I’ve just made your Frankincense Facial Lotion and I just wanted to say thank you so much, it is absolutely amazing!
I’m so thrilled you’re loving it! I just pulled it out again the other day and wowza, that frankincense scent is so invigorating 🙂
Hello,
I want to try making this cream, but I need a substitute for the alcohol.
My skin does not like alcohol in any form.
Thank you
Good morning Pam!
Have you looked at this enclyopedia entry on cetearyl alcohol? I’d suggest reading down to the “Quirks” section where Marie says, “The alcohols people typically worry about in skin care products are volatile liquid alcohols like ethanol or isopropyl alcohol. Cetearyl alcohol is very different!“
Thank you, Barb, for your reply. I appreciate the time you took to write it.
Anytime Pam!
I prefer to use liquid measurements instead of weight when making my recipes. How do I convert the grams to ml?
I’m mostly concerned about the Olivem1000. It’s easy enough to convert oil from g to ml, but how do you convert flakes?
I’ve got an FAQ on this 🙂
Hi Marie, I would love to make this recipe but Im really struggling to find some caffeine powder, I have only found Cold pressed Coffee Bean Oil. Should I go ahead and search some more or could I make do with it? It would definitely change the aromatics of the products, but Im more concerned about the efficacy in this case?
Hey Lauren! I’d recommend reading the substitutions list at the end of the formula + the just-updated encyclopedia entry for caffeine? You’ll find your answers there 🙂 Happy making!
Thank you 🙂 Always so bummed when I cant find one of the ingredients you’ve listed.
Hi Marie!
As always fantastic recipe cant wait to try it. Though I’m trying to understand as I am only just starting to work with hyaluronic acid and I wanna make the 1% solution to add to recipes but I am a lil confused here. I thought even the usage rate of the 1% solution would also be between 0.1%-2% (from what I have researched and also seen supplier recommendation of who sell ready 1% HA Stock) but all your recipes with the 1% HA solution series seems to be around 20%. Could you shed some light on this so I can understand this better. Hope to hear from you.
Hey Priyanka! It sounds like the usage rate for the prepared 1% solution is too low, and is probably the one for pure hyaluronic acid. HA has been found to be effective at 0.2%, and 20% of a 1% solution = 0.2% overall concentration in the formula. 2% of a 1% solution would be pretty paltry 🙂
Thank You for your response. I agree but since I saw that under a supplier recommendation hence I thought to clarify with you. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my query.
So let me also take this opportunity to tell you that you have been such an inspiration and your blog has been so very educational. Absolute love it and keep up the amazing work. You inspire me. xx
Thank you so much 😀 Happy making!
hi
i tried the cream its wonderful but i have question
is it possible to apply the cream in the morning as the cream contain essential oils is it safe no irritation?
thanks
You can apply it whenever you like as long as your skin is happy 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie. Thank you for all your beautiful recipes. I wanted to know if it’s possible to add too many essential oils, super fruit/veg powders or fruit seed oils? Where can I go to see what the max of each I can use, and could I be just wasting micronutrients, etc? Thanks.
It is 100% possible to add too many essential oils—please read this. Regarding the other ingredients, I’d recommend watching this video + referring to maximum usage rates from your suppliers 🙂 These two posts (1 & 2) also contain lots of great information! Happy making!
Could I use Geogard ECT instead of germall plus in this formula?
can i ask why you didn’t use xanthan gum or any gums in this recipe? I only ask as sometimes you do and in others not. Many thanks.
This formulation didn’t need a gum, so I didn’t include one.
I’ve been making lotions using your recipes (tweaked to remove fragrances) for almost two and a half years and just had my first failure, so I’m feeling a little confused. I’m using BTMS-50 to emulsify, but this time I used rapeseed oil instead of the suggested macadamia nut oil. I’ve read the FAQ ‘My lotion is either too thick, too thin, or it didn’t emulsify’ but that doesn’t seem to cover it. As soon as I combined the heated water phase with the heated oil phase I could see small oil globules which I assumed would disappear when I used the immersion blender. Well they got smaller, but that’s all that happened. I processed it for longer than usual and poured the resulting slop into a pot and I can see spots where plain oil is visible but they are dispersed throughout. Any thoughts about what went wrong?
Hi Christine! With something this obvious in the “not working” department, I am wondering if perhaps you grabbed the wrong tub of white pellets and perhaps used something like cetearyl alcohol instead of BTMS-50? I wouldn’t expect visible globs of oil in a product containing an emulsifier 🙂
Made this lotion but didn’t have Cetearyl Alcohol so substituted Stearic Acid. The lotion is frothy and has no substance. I’ve tested letting it sit for several days and then stirring again and I lose half the volume each time. Could substituting Stearic Acid be the only reason for this problem? I would purchase Cetearyl Alcohol if I thought that might resolve the problem. Love how the lotion moisturizes so would love to fix this. Thank you.
Hey Brenda! No, that swap shouldn’t cause anything like this. Did you make any other changes, especially to the emulsifier? What did you use to mix the product?
I used Emulsifying Wax NF instead of Olivem 1000 and subbed glycerine for panthenol. So the glycerine amount was increased accordingly. Thanks for much for getting back to me this quickly, much appreciated.
Oh this is so lovely! It smells amazing. I’ve been looking for facial lotion like this. I made it with MF + VE + cetearyl alcohol as emulsifier. It’s also infused with carrot infused sunflower oil and small amount of rosehip CO2 extract and bakuchiol. Works great on top of everything. xx
Ooooh, lovely! ❤️
Hi Maria! loving all your recipes and making quite a few as of late! I have the ceramide from windy point and was curious how to go about adding some of this into the Frankincense facial lotion recipe? Thanks!
You’ll find your answer in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) entry for Ceramide Complex 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie this sounds lovely.
I just have a question. Olivem 1000 is an O/W emulsifier but on this emulsion you adde the water to de oil, will this matter which way it is mixed?
Thank you and thank you for sharing your experiments, they are fantastic!
It does not matter at all. Happy making!
I made a 400 gram batch using a couple of the substitutions. Because of the larger batch size and longer cool down, the emulsifier appeared to take longer to begin working. The first time I made it, I thought I had forgotten the Olivem.
Hi Marie – I love all your posts, it’s been so helpful as I explore making natural skincare for myself (and family). Since hyaluronic acid is a humectant can I use honey in place of it? Obviously it will change it to an extent but could that be a viable option or do you think it would cause the recipe to fail?
Hi Dianna! I wouldn’t make this swap; a face cream that contains 20% honey is likely to be quite sticky and could be hard to preserve. You could try ~2% honey/18% water. Happy making!
Can I use hyaloron acid gel instead of the hyaloron powder? 🙂
Hi Marie, do you use HA fluid or powder ?
I use a stock solution made from the powder following the instructions shared in this post: Let’s Talk About Hyaluronic Acid 🙂