Today’s formulation is a richly moisturizing, cold-processed, Silky Soothing Facial Gel. It was inspired by a La Roche Posay product—their B5 gel. This DIY is definitely more “inspired by” vs. attempting to duplicate their product as I don’t have all the same active ingredients, and I love what I’ve come up with! It’s brilliant for dry, irritated skin, and just the thing to add to your deep-winter skincare routine.
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For soothing actives, I’ve blended panthenol (Vitamin B5) and allantoin. Both are unassuming white powders that are fantastic for irritated, dry skin. Panthenol boosts skin elasticity and stimulates regeneration, while allantoin is an approved skin protectant. If you’re wondering why the concentration of allantoin is so low, it’s because I’m aiming to keep it below its maximum water solubility level. Allantoin is only water-soluble to about 0.5%, and it can be shardy and unpleasant if it doesn’t dissolve in formulations—so, I keep my usage rate below 0.5% of the amount of water in a formulation so it has plenty of available solvent. You could notch it up to 0.4% if you wanted to, removing that extra 0.1% from the distilled water.
In addition to the moisturizing goodness from the panthenol (Vitamin B5) and allantoin, we’ve also got two great humectants in here—hyaluronic acid and propanediol 1,3. While these are both low-tack humectants, I have found gels can be tacky, so I’ve included a small amount of dimethicone 350 for improved slip, richer skin feel, emolliency, and reduced stickiness.
I’ve used Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (Sepimax ZEN) to gel this product because it creates silky, rich gels; if you don’t have it you could try Aristoflex AVC. If you don’t have that, either, you could try hydroxyethylcellulose, but you’d want to swap the dimethicone 350 for a PEG dimethicone like PEG-8 dimethicone. Since PEG-8 dimethicone is water-soluble we don’t need the pseudo-emulsifying powers of the Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (Sepimax ZEN). Whatever you do, please don’t use xanthan gum unless you are a big fan of the texture of boogers 😬
Making this is really easy. The video has a specific order + pre-dispersing the Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (Sepimax ZEN™) in the propanediol but honestly… you don’t have to do that. You can just throw everything in a beaker, cover it, wait a few hours, and stir until smooth. Enjoy!
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Silky Soothing Facial Gel
34.4g | 68.8% distilled water
10g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution (USA / Canada / New Zealand)
1.5g | 3% Propanediol 1,3 (USA / Canada)
0.75g | 1.5% Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (USA / Canada / UK / Australia)
1.5g | 3% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
0.15g | 0.3% allantoin (USA / Canada)
1.5g | 3% dimethicone 350 (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.4% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)Weigh all of the ingredients into a beaker. Cover the beaker and leave everything to hydrate and dissolve for a few hours—the mixture should appear clear, though it will likely look a bit lumpy.
Stir until smooth—a small wire whisk is useful for this step. I used my mini mixer.
That’s it! I packaged my Silky Soothing Facial Gel in a 50g (1.76oz) frosted soft squeeze tube from YellowBee. Watch the video to see how I did it! You’ll need a syringe (USA / Canada).
To use, smooth a pea-sized amount (or more—it’s up to you) across your skin after cleansing, and before heavier creams and/or oil serums. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this gel 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 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.
- 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 (hyaluronic acid, propanediol, panthenol, allantoin, dimethicone 350) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could swap 20–40% of the distilled water for a hydrosol to easily add a gentle scent to this gel.
- Please read the post for Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (Sepimax ZEN) substitution ideas.
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart.
- If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.
Gifting Disclosure
The frosted soft squeeze tube was gifted by YellowBee. The hyaluronic acid was gifted by Pure Nature.
I absolutely agree with this being brilliant for dry skin! <3 I could easily stir a batch right now but I'm still super excited about emulsigel eco in dry skin projects so I'll wait it + few hydrosols to arrive and make it then. B5 is fabulous. Many thanks!
Oh this turnt out fantasic! I’m glad I left the hydrosols out (sweet scent of ecogel is difficult to faid). I picked primrose because it’s rich and I have lots of it left. I hand stirred 50 g batch – it isn’t easy but I think it’s worth it. pg4L or HEC isn’t apparently available in EU currently (sob). 😛
I’m honestly surprised by the pleasant, non sticky and elegant skin feel. Even layered it’s fabulous. 😮 My skin has been doing much better thanks to these recent concotions.
Hooray! Thank you so much for sharing ❤️ Whenever I’m able to hop across the pond again I am asking you for an ingredients shopping list lol.
😀 sounds like a plan!
can’t I buy this formulation from you or a DIY contributor? I am not able physically to do this but post Cancer & Inflammatory conditions have ravaged my face and other skin areas, hoping to use non-pharmaceuticals to restore some skin health & comfort. Appreciate any directions u can give me to find this as a sale item from anywhere. I’m just not rich; Soc.Sec. retirement is all I have; most goes to Nutraceuticals and supplements as referred by physicians and self research. Otherwise I’d be dead most likely by now. Thanks, mari
I don’t sell anything I make; I have more details on why here. For an inexpensive purchase-able alternative I would recommend The Ordinary’s Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5. It’s inexpensive, high quality, and has many of the same ingredients.
Hi , can I add vitamin C, like Map or tetrahexyldecyl?
i read in your encyclopedia that allantoin’s pH is 7, is it means that we have our products’ pH 7? or it’s just for pH-sensitive ingredients? and here you used sepimax zen too which is pH 3-6.
The pH of an ingredient does not mean that must be the final pH of all formulations it is used in. Think of it a bit like this: humans typically have a core temperature around 37°C, but that does not mean we must always be in an environment that is 37°C, or that 37°C is an optimal temperature for humans.
Hi Marie,
Thank you for sharing this beautiful recipe!
Can I use an emollient like Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, or Cetyl Alcohol instead of Propanediol? I have all ingredients but Propanediol…
Thank you.
Hi Adele! Have you looked up propanediol in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) yet? It isn’t oil-soluble, so the things you have suggested aren’t good alternatives. Happy making!
Sepimax is my new favorite thing. I’ve decided to challenge myself to formulate a body yogurt with it. I’ve not made body yogurt before, so I looked at a body yogurt recipe from WSP and a couple of your recipes with Sepimax, and I’ve come up with something that I’m pretty sure doesn’t have any incompatible ingredients or horribly wrong proportions. Should be fun…?
Hi Marie, I’ve been reading your blog and watching your you tube videos for five years now, and I have finally managed to get my hands on all the ingredients I need to make this recipe. I’m so excited!
I was wondering though if you have ever come across an ingredient called Hydromanil . I’ve recently acquired it myself and according to what I’ve read it’s an “Innovative moisturizer, which captures and retains water and assimilates it into the skin in an immediate and natural way”.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this and if, or how, I could incorporate it into this recipe.
P.S: You really have inspired my responsible cosmetic DIYing in such a huge way, my skin thanks you.
I tryed this formulation (my first one), but I had to make some changes, because I can´t get everything hear. It was a disaster. So I made my one formulation but with a lot of the ingrediance. The cream is amazing but it smells a bit chemical (or like a foot) is this normal? (I did not use an essential oil) It is my first homemade cream.
Thank you so mach for helping us understand formulating and to try things on our own.