I’m pretty excited to finally be able to share a micellar water formula I’m happy with. I’ve been experimenting with micellar water formulations quite a lot over the last year and while the concept is simple enough in theory, it took quite a lot of fiddling and refining to create something that is lovely in reality. The biggest part of refining this formula ended up being removing ingredients, which can be hard for a person with far too many ingredients (cough cough) to do. I can just hear my hydrolyzed proteins and extracts singing to me from the pantry, and my humectants saying “surely, a bit more of me can only make your product better“. Shhhhh, ingredients. Stop leading me astray.
Post updated March 2023.
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Post Overview
What is micellar water?
So, what is micellar water? It is, simply put, water with a wee bit of a surfactant added. It is used by applying micellar water to a cotton pad and swiping it across the face until the skin is clean. Since the skin is not rinsed afterwards, the tricky part is creating something that works (removes makeup, dirt, etc.) and can be left on the skin without driving you batty because it leaves your skin feeling sticky or tight.
Learn more: How Does Micellar Water Work? The Science of Surfactants from Lab Muffin Beauty Science
The most fussy ingredient
The ingredient I fussed with the most was the surfactant/solubilizer. I tried five different ones: cocamidopropyl betaine, polysorbate 80, Olivem300, Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside, and PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides. Some experiments got down to 0.18% of surfactant and I still didn’t like the after-feel (and also found the performance was starting to drop off).
PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides quickly distinguished themselves (itself?) as the best surfactant for this project by a wide margin. It works beautifully and doesn’t leave my skin feeling tight or coated or sticky. Fun fact—this is the same surfactant Bioderma uses in their popular (and expensive) micellar water! Please do not substitute this ingredient. From my experiments I cannot recommend anything I feel performs as well… or even creates a product I’d actually use.
When shopping for this ingredient (and any ingredient, really, but especially this one!), please make sure you are looking at the INCI. I’ve had many people ask me if Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (aka Medium Chain Triglycerides) and/or Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside are the same ingredient as PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides. The answer is no—the INCIs don’t match. They’re similar because they’re from the same source material, but they’ve been processed differently and are not the same thing at all. Think of it a bit like corn: it can be transformed into all kinds of products like cornstarch, corn meal, and corn syrup, but none of those ingredients are interchangeable even though they’re all made from corn.
You also cannot use Crothix™ Liquid (INCI: PEG-150 Pentaerythrityl Tetrastearate, PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, Water) instead of PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides.
Though, to contradict myself a bit… you can find this ingredient sold as both PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides (at Windy Point) and PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides (at Lotion Crafter), and those are the same ingredient 🤦🏻♀️ So when you’re googling, definitely google both of those options. PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides looks to be the more common version, but I purchased mine from Windy Point and I’ve got that “tri” stuck in my brain!
A wee moisturizing boost
I played with several different humectants as well, and settled on 0.5% each sodium lactate and vegetable glycerin. I found there is some more room to play in this category as long as you are keeping the total amount around 1%, so if you have a fancier humectant you enjoy that you’re itching to include, you likely could—though you may need to experiment to find what’s just right for you. For those experiments I’d recommend making smaller batches and using distilled water instead of a hydrosol to reduce waste. I certainly filled a lot bottles with similar smaller batches!
I find versions made with sodium lactate are the least likely to exhibit settling, while I’ve had it happen with vegetable glycerin, propanediol 1,3, and sorbitol.
Add a bit of scent
Now, you can have plenty of fun with the hydrosol part! I’ve tried all kinds of different hydrosols, but tend to lean towards rose. Different hydrosols would work just as well, as would a blend. I found 15–20% to be more than fragrant enough (some of this micellar water leaked on my trip to Australia and my whole bag smelled of roses!), but you could use more if you prefer, reducing the amount of distilled water to compensate.
An accurate scale
You’ll notice the percentages of most of the ingredients are tiny. Please, please, please use an accurate scale to make this recipe. Something that’s accurate to 0.1g is ok, but 0.01g would be better. Read this encyclopedia entry for some links and suggestions on scales I like. You could scale up the recipe to work with a 1g scale, but then you’d be making a litre of micellar water, and that’s absurd, especially for a formulation you’ve never tried before (just because I love it doesn’t guarantee you will!).
I’ve been having fun decorating my bottles and tins with washi tape lately!
How much does it cost?
Micellar water is the rare DIY that’s cheaper than store bought in every way. Most DIYs are cheaper by the gram; your homemade lip balm (or whatever) costs far less that $5 for one from the shop, but you definitely spent more than $5 on ingredients, so the savings are spread out over many tubes of lip balm. Not so with micellar water!
As of 2023, here’s the price breakdown for making unscented micellar water, shopping at Lotion Crafter.
- Distilled water: $1.19USD/128 fl oz (this is from Target—buy distilled water locally, the shipping would be nuts!)
- Glycerin: $5.95USD/10oz
- Liquid Germall™ Plus: $6.49USD/1.25oz
- PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides: $4.95USD/2 oz
With that investment of $18.58USD (+ tax and shipping, which will vary), you could make 4000mL of micellar water. The preservative is the limiting ingredient there; if you bump up to 5oz of Liquid Germall™ Plus for $9.95 you can then add another three gallons of distilled water; you’ll spend $25.61 and make 14,000mL (14 LITRES!) of micellar water before you run out of PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides
You will also need a bottle, but that can be re-used (and possibly re-purposed from something you already have), so I didn’t include it here. If you don’t have one you can pick one up for less than $2 and re-use it.
Compare all that to $18.99 for 500mL of Bioderma micellar water!
Once you have all the ingredients this is crazy easy to make; I just weighed everything directly into my bottle, capped it, and shook it to combine. The pH of this micellar water is ~5.5 as-is, so no pH adjustment is necessary. Enjoy!
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Relevant links & further reading
- Distilled water in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Vegetable Glycerin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Sodium Lactate in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Propanediol 1,3 in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Liquid Germall Plus in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- What’s up with hydrosols, distillates, and floral waters? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
- How long will ______ last? What is its shelf life? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
- Can I use a different preservative than the one you’ve used? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
- Other micellar water formulations:
Micellar Water
Rose
83.1g | 83.10% distilled water
15g | 15.00% rose hydrosol0.5g | 0.50% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.50% sodium lactate (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.50% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.4g | 0.40% PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides (USA / Canada)Lavender Rosemary
78.1g | 78.10% distilled water
15g | 15.00% lavender hydrosol (USA / Canada)
5g | 5% rosemary hydrosol (USA / Canada)1g | 1% sodium lactate (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.50% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.4g | 0.40% PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides (USA / Canada)Unscented
98.1g | 98.10% distilled water
1g | 1% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.50% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.4g | 0.40% PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides (USA / Canada)Weigh everything into a 120ml/4oz squeeze bottle. Cap and shake to combine. That’s it!
To use, soak a cotton pad in micellar water, and wipe it over your face. Repeat with fresh cotton until it comes away clean (I usually need two).
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this micellar water 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 100g.
- You can use a different hydrosol in place of the rose hydrosol, or replace it with more distilled water. You can also use more (or less) hydrosol, or a blend of hydrosols. Simply adjust the distilled water to keep the formulation adding up to 100%.
- You could also swap out some of the distilled water for other watery ingredients like witch hazel or aloe vera juice.
- If you choose to alter the surfactant you’re on your own. I experimented with many surfactants and this one was the only one worth sharing, recommending, or using.
- If you are looking for alternatives I’d start with the ingredient lists of well-reviewed micellar waters available on on the market.
- In general, I’d be looking for surfactants that are water-soluble emollients (PEGs of oils/emollients) rather than water-containing/water soluble foaming surfactants like glucosides, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI), Cocamidopropyl Betaine, etc. Every surfactant I’ve tried that works well as a foaming cleanser surfactant in rinse-off products has not produced good results in micellar water (feels tight and sticky on the skin, does not remove makeup very well). You are certainly welcome to try it—you may not be as particular as I am in this department—but that has been my experience.
- I’ve had good results using Sodium Lactate, Vegetable Glycerin, Propanediol 1,3, and/or sorbitol for the humectant part—on their own or blended. Just keep it adding up to 1% and you’re good to go.
- You can use a different water soluble preservative at its recommend usage rate.
Fancy! I’ve got new solubulizers in my cart after the move! I’m so excited! How was your ph on this?
Woo! pH is around 5.5/6 🙂
Hi Marie – is PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides the same as Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides?
It’s not; the PEG-6 part is what makes is a surfactant (made from Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides). Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides are just two isolated fatty acids and function as an oil.
Is Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside Surfactant similar to the Peg 6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides? I have the glucoside version xP of course…!
nvm I saw the ingredients page where you specify they are definitely not the same thing! Dang
Hey Marie, this looks absolutely lovely – I don’t have any Sodium Lactate so I’ll be substituting some D-Panthenol. In the meantime I’ll have to pick up some PEG6 C/CT. You also have very good hydrosol suppliers – I have to be very careful and constabtly check MSDS sheets for the pH before buying – Rose SHOULD be about 5.5 but unfortunately there are plenty of people out there selling essential oils solubilised in water masquerading as a true hydrosol – those products usually have a pH closer to 8 and they would affect the final pH of this product.
Please let me know how the panthenol swap goes; I’ve found small swaps can make surprisingly large differences in this recipe, so I’ll be really curious to hear how it turns out 🙂
Thanks for your awesome tip on hyrosol pH—brilliant! My rose hydrosol is from Voyaguer and it smells AAAAAAAHmazing 😀 I’m glad to know it’s extra-definitely-legit, too!
Hi there, I don’t have any sodium lactate either:( Could I increase the glycerin or use honeyquat? I also have DL Panthanol ….. any thoughts on which might be best?
I’d choose panthenol; it’s also a humectant, but more glycerin would likely make it sticky 🙂
Sounds great! I’m wondering why you use rose hydrosols sometimes and rose water sometimes…? How different are they?
Rose water is typically rose essential oil that has been dispersed in water, whilst the hydrosol is a byproduct the essential oil distillation process. The hydrosol is far superior and every since I first got a bottle I know I’d never go back to the water!
I think I liked this recipe better when SwiftCraftyMonkey did it on Patreon. Funny I never see you comment there and yet I see so many of Swift’s recipes here. You must be a big fan like me, but you should do your own work.
Wow.
I do not subscribe to Susan on Patreon and as such have never seen her recipe as I assume it is behind a pay wall—I have never gone to look for her recipe. I rarely visit her website, which is why you don’t see me comment there. I have about 20 process formulas and notes over the course of months to prove I did this completely on my own. The final push for this recipe was actually done as part of my Formula Botanica course work, and if you look at their basic micellar water formulation, it’s also quite similar because micellar water formulations are typically quite similar to one another (though the surfactant I ended up choosing wasn’t one of the natural ones they suggested, and I found I preferred a far lower surfactant percentage). I’ve found even 0.25% can make a difference, so if anything in Susan’s recipe is 0.25% off from this one I know that would result in a noticeably different final product.
Given the nature of micellar water, and the more limited ingredients available to home crafters it is not surprising if we are using the same ingredients. Again—I do not know what she used because I have NEVER seen her formula. I know Susan and I are both Canadian and as such get many of our ingredients from the same suppliers (this precise surfactant was recommended to me by Michele of Windy Point—a place I know we both shop from). I tried nearly every liquid surfactant available in Canada before selecting this one; if Susan did the same thing I suspect she would come to the same conclusion.
And your comment was not “deleted”—it was held for moderation, which is the default for new commenters. You would’ve received a notice stating as much when you submitted your comment.
Girl you are so classy, I can learn so much from you Love your work by the way. And that comment was just unnecessarily rude and stupid. Anyone that follows you knows you work hard
Thank you so much <3
I loved absolutely 100% of this message. I second your post about her being classy!
Thank you for being an intelligent, good, kind, classy person, Marie. I hope you’re doing well during this time of self-quarantine!
Thank you so much, Lena! ❤️
Perhaps it’s a case of people making wheels choosing them to be round?
Micellar recipes tend to look quite superficially similar, because they all have mostly water, a small percentage of surfactant, and an active or two. I don’t know the other recipe referred to, but I imagine similarities appear obvious, but differences are subtle.
I have just made a micellar water that looks similar to Marie’s – but I expect it feels quite different. I have also used rose hydrosol (because I love it) but my surfactant, after trying different concentrations, is 0.75% cocoathingy butaine.
“Perhaps it’s a case of people making wheels choosing them to be round?” I love this! Thank you so much 🙂
If there is one thing I’m sure of after years of reading this blog and watching the videos it is that Marie is her own obsessive formulator! I am a patron of both humblebee and swiftcraftymonkey and love them both but they are VERY different. There will always be similarities between formulas because ingredients overlap but this recipe is actually very different (in my opinion) from the SCM micellar water (rose).
Marie has already said everything she needs to but as someone who loves Monday and Thursday because of humblebee I wanted to say something. Keep being awesome Marie.
There will always be trolls. Marie does an amazing job! Thank you for all that you do and share! Hugs!
Thanks so much! 😀
I’m not certain what happened as I tried to comment earlier I was so appalled at that accusation & the audacity of that person who believed that they were calling you out so to speak…I wanted to say as you mentioned much of us home crafters as our supplies are limited will end up similar, common sense. If I had a blog I’m certain I’d of been accused more than once however I’ve the handwritten notes going back 5-6 years since this insane obsession began…I’m thinking I made my first miceller 1 1/2 – 2 years ago before I’d seen any legitimate one posted anywhere (not that you or Susan hadn’t made one by any means..it just wasn’t out there) I’ve made so many things I’ve seen coming out as of late that I made years ago ….as I’m no blogger they certainly didn’t “steal” my work! And should I ever be accused they’ll have boxes & boxes of all my years of handwritten notes to see how I came up on my own with whichever formula.
I certainly credit my education to Susan on showing the proper way of formulating & Marie your blog certainly taught me also! It was the first one I believe that got me going & while I’m busy busy in my own work shop I stop in from time to time to see what my 2 favorite girls are up to..but not to STEAL anyone’s work …as I know you’d not do either …had to vent a tad on your behalf
Thank you
Tracey
Thank you so much, Tracey! I really appreciate your comments and your support. If you set a bunch of people on a multi-year sandwich inventing spree you can be certain many similar sandwiches would be created independently of one another, especially if we all had to shop from the same store! We all take inspiration from similar places (available products, available ingredients, trends, etc.), and we have access to similar ingredients; it’s hardly surprising successful formulas for certain things would have similarities, and whoever publishes first doesn’t “own” it. Can’t we all just be inspired by one another and share and be happy? LOL.
Thank you so much for your support, Joey. I really appreciate it, and it’s good to hear from somebody who has actually seen both formulas as I’ve never seen Susan’s.
Amen to that I love the sandwiches comparison…not sure if I’m replying in the right spot I’m not that that tech suave
Tracey
Thank you, Tracey 🙂
Lol, boom roasted! I love you Marie. Keep shutting ’em down. 🙂
Hi! I was wondering is PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride oil or is it practically oil free? I know it’s derived from coconut oil. ‘Cause some of the micellar waters on the market contains PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride and says they’re oil free? I was thinking about this,’ cause I would like to know if this is suitable for cleaning makeup if you have eyelash extensions. And as we know, you can’t use anything with oil near to them. Thank you so much if you could look up on this! Would highly appreciate it! And absolutely love, love your blog. Greetings from Finland!
I suppose it is oil free as even though it is made from fatty acids, those fatty acids have been modified so they are no longer plain ol’ fatty acids. It’s not a thing I’ve ever really though about 😛
Hi Marie, another great sounding recipe. I need to source some Peg-6 CCT now 🙁 You don’t do my bank balance any good young lady :-p Will this be any good for dry skin Marie? I can’t wait to see what you have for us on Thursday.
At least it’s just $2.50! And that’ll last you for ages 🙂 I’ve found this to be very gentle, so it should work for dry skin (I’d call my skin dry and I sure like it). You could try dropping the surfactant to 0.3% if you find 0.4% a bit strong—even 0.1% makes a noticeable difference in this formula!
Wow!Lucky you, that is a great price, sadly there are no UK suppliers (or French that I can find) , and most US suppliers charge astronomical postage to the UK. So it looks as though this one will be on the to do list for a year or two.:-( Thank you for replying Marie.
Pauline, I’ve found a new supplier!! They are called Farmacia Vernile and are located in Italy, postage is flat-rate (I remember around 15 €) They have all kinds of goodies, got the PEG-6, PEG-40, B3 vitamin and all kinds I can’t remember of the top of my head.. oh! Foaming soy/wheat/other (it was cause of that, for Maries ‘volumizing conditioning shampoo’ I found the shop! Thank you, Marie!! No foaming silk, tho..)
It’ not really user-friendly, I use the Chrome browser and ‘translate all italian to english’ and do a lot of inci searching while browsing through. I have ordered more than once and they have prompt customer service (asked for Inci of some items) I’m not too crazy about the way the site is set up, be sure you have plenty of time and patience.. Good luck! And happy making 🙂
That’s great Rosa thank you, I will set aside some time this weekend to have a browse. What I can’t find here in the UK I can usually find from Aromazone in France (there shipping is 9€) but they don’t have this. I was going to place an order with Brambleberry
last month, put some goodies in my basket then thought, better check shipping costs as they aren’t very clear. My basket was about £30 at this stage. I looked, rubbed my eyes and looked again, the shipping was twice the price of my basket at that point!! Needless to say I didn’t order anything from them and never will. Thank you for your help Rosa, I hope you are doing some diy this weekend. Have a good one,you too Marie 🙂
I can definitely empathize! I recently paid $200 to get an order over the border, and that didn’t even include shipping 😐 Ouch!
This isn’t really related to the post, but I really want to tell you, Marie, how much of an inspiration you’ve been to me in the last few months. Your creativity, expertise, and your cheerful demeanor really help to make me smile. (: You taught me how to make so many different things, and I’m so grateful. I hope you have a wonderful day. xx
Thank you so much, Madison! I really appreciate you taking the time to send some kind words and good vibes my way 🙂 Have a lovely weekend!
I love anything that smells like roses. I have all the rose-themed recipes on this site bookmarked in my “to do” folder. I use Thayer’s witch hazel rose toner all the time. I have no idea if it helps my skin (at least it doesn’t make it worse) but the scent makes it totally worth it.
I have a question unrelated to this recipe. You know how you can make hair gel by boiling flax seeds and straining out the goop? I’d kind of like to make more than a couple tablespoons of gel at a time, and maybe not have to store it in my fridge. What preservative might work with this?
I am such a rose junkie, too!
There’s no way to know re: the flax gel without stability testing, unfortunately. I’d probably look to parabens since they’re strong preservatives, but even then, that gel is notoriously difficult to preserve.
Hi, Marie!
For the distilled water, do you buy it or boil normal water?
Buy it; distilled water is not the same as boiled water. Wikipedia has a good article explaining the ins and outs of it 🙂
Hi Marie so excited about this recipe!! Can I substitute the PEG-6 for fractionated coconut oil?
Xoxo from your fan from El Salvador
Hey! Sadly this swap would be terrible, so please don’t. The “PEG-6” part of the name indicates that the Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides have been transformed into a surfactant, which is the active ingredient in this micellar water. Using plain Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides or fractionated coconut oil (they aren’t the same thing, but quite close) would be like using coconut oil instead of soap made from coconut oil.
Hi Marie:
Thanks for your lovely post and Please do not be bothered by some people’s negative opinion, in fact you can gather all these comments and make another “Mean comments” video about it……
Anyway, My question is can you replace some of the distilled water with witch hazel (say 20g)to make this Michellar water has a toner effect at the same time?
Thanks!
Thanks so much, Emily 🙂 And yes, you absolutely can swap out some of the distilled water for the witch hazel for a double duty micellar water 😀 Great idea!
You are so awesome Marie! I’ve been tinkering with this for a while as well and not been real happy with any of ‘em!! Till now!!! Thank you Marie <3 for sharing and always being sweet and cheerful, you are just a gem!
YAY! I’m so glad 😀 Thanks so much for DIYing with me!
Hi Marie! I really want to try this recipe, however, windy point does not shop to Australia! (Soooo many places don’t ship here ) and I was wondering if there was anywhere else you know I could get it??
(Also, for your new hair balm recipe, I can’t get BTMS-50, is there anyway I could make that recipe without using it or make a similar recipe?)
I know Lotion Crafter also carries the surfactant as “SurfPro™ CC-6”. They may ship to Aus, but I’m sure it’s hella expensive :/
Any decent BTMS-50 alternative will need to be solid and cationic; perhaps ask your supplies about what solid conditioning ingredients they might have?
I am working on a shopping cart for Lotion Crafters, they have SurfPro CC6 INCI: PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides. I do believe it is the same as what Windy Point has, just a different name. What do you think?
Same INCI = same thing 🙂
Hi! I was wondering if you would consider making other recipes that use PEG 6 Caprylic/Capric triglycerides. It feels silly to buy ingredients that are really only good for one type of homemade product (at least for someone with no know-how), but I am quite sure there are other uses! I was curious about a water-soluble oil cleanser. Thanks!
I definitely will! There’s just always so many things to make that it might take a while before you see it again—but I haven’t forgotten about it! I do have lots of oil cleansers, though—have you done a search for “oil cleanser” on the blog?
Marie, I’m so delighted to have found you. I find you genuine, funny and super hard working and I want to thank you for sharing all your hard work with us. It amazes me as I peruse through your site, by just how much information you share. I absolutely loved your book. I was impatient and bought the ebook, but then, I realized how extra awesome it would be to have your book in my hands, so I ordered a hard copy from Windy point. Michele has also been super helpful.
Wish you a fabulous day!
Naomi
Thanks so much, Naomi! I really appreciate your kind words 🙂 And a huge thank you for buying my book twice, that’s amazing and very much appreciated—every sale helps make book #2 more likely! And isn’t Michele wonderful!? We are so lucky to have her and Windy Point here in Calgary 🙂
Hi! Can i substitute the germall plus with another conservative without spoiling the final product?
You should be able to, just be sure it is compatible with the rest of the ingredients in the formula. You can learn more here.
thank you!! Can this recipe works for eye remover?
Definitely, I use it as eye makeup remover all the time 🙂
I made it again, horray!! This time with chitosan PCA instead of the glycerin and patchouli hydrosol instead of rose – it’s still marvelous!
Thank you Marie for sharing your wisdom <3 you are so sweet and clever!
Oooh, beautiful! I really want some patchouli hydrosol now 😀
Well…my skin is looking way better! Don’t know if it’s due to the patchouli hydrosol 😉 however you shouldn’t purchase it to have every waterbased thing smell fab – it’s no match for the eo. This one has kind of a cough suryp/detergent note to it – not unplesant, but not lovely, deep yet soft patchouli 🙂 But yeah, idk.. try it! It dosn’t come through in the mix, I think.
Can you add vitamin E to this recipe? Would you add it in place of another ingredient?
I wouldn’t—vitamin E is oil soluble, so incorporating it would require creating an emulsion to ensure it blends properly, and that would require the addition of other ingredients that might make the end product sticky. Leave the vitamin E to other products 🙂
Love love love your work!
I do not have any sodium lactate can I leave it out?
Thank you
Thanks! You can replace it with more water, but you might also consider propanediol as an alternative 🙂
Hello 🙂
Does this Micellar Water remove waterproof (Eye-)Makeup? If it doesn’t, is there something I can add to make it work as a waterproof Makeup-Remover without destroying the pH of the final product?
It does a pretty good job, but I am currently working on a new version that does a great job 🙂 Stay tuned!
Following Inas inquiry of removal of waterproof eye makeup. I have made some of your recipes and my all time favorite? Deadly Double Chocolate Caramel cookies. the ones with the spicy pecans? I mean MAN!! I make them when honeys out of town because I just have a hard time sharing. I do have other favs, moraine lake and earl grey conditioning, but those cookies are the best.
YAY! I love it when people discover some of my food recipes 🙂 Those cookies are so dang tasty, you are making me hungry haha. Try the spicy pecans on salads, too!
I need this video soon!!! Haha! I want to place an order with essential wholesalers and I need to know what to get!
Marie,
Once again, you are the answer to my dreams.
I’ve had and unopened lb of SurfPro™ CC-6 in a ‘WTF do I do even with this?’ pile after buying a destash lot last and google lead me here.
I adore micellar water because after a long day I am LAZY.
I hate paying for it. It’s literally soapy water so WHY?!?!?
Thank you <3
-Nichole
Woohoo! I’ve got a couple variations coming out in the next wee while as well 😀 They all use the same surfactant! A pound will last aaaaaaages at 0.4% though, holy goodness!
YAY! Right? It was part of a lot on eBay. SO many fun goodies! I worry much of the lot will go bad before I get to use it all, hee hee.
Oh gosh, I know that feeling. Fridge things now, while you still can, if you’re worried 🙂
Hi Marie! thanks again for an excellent recipe, Ive been using myself a very similar one with sweet almond oil but I belive it’s not as cleansing as this one. Ive tried to find PEG-6 in stores where I live but couldnt find it. I was just wondering what about SCI, is it too abrasive? like in super smaller dosis?
Thanks again!
It’s not too abrasive, it just doesn’t work as well and result in as nice of an end product. If you read the post + substitutions list I rhapsodize pretty enthusiastically about the specific surfactant I used, and that’s why 🙂
Love this! I decided to try the liquid format after being introduced to your Gel Micellar Water, which is great for traveling. I used Neroli hydrosol instead of the Rose, and it’s become my first stage of cleansing each night, which does add a step so now, I don’t just double cleanse, but triple cleanse, yikes(!) But I actually prefer to use this before the oil cleanse since I do a facial gua sha routine with the oil, and have a much cleaner face for it now!
Oooh, that sounds divine! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi Marie, would there be any way to buy some PEG-6 Caprylic/capric triglycerides from you? The few places I can find it (like Windy Point) do not ship to Australia. All other places only sell Caprylic/capric triglycerides :((. I know it will be expensive with the product, the shipping to you, and the shipping here to Australia but I don’t know what else to do
Hello! Is it possible to use a rose flower organic extract as an alternative to your hydrosol?
I have an FAQ on this, please give it a read 🙂