Today we’re doing a thing that is long overdue—a Soothing Under Eye Gel! It’s part of our soothing series, and it is lovely. It’s also the first recipe I’m sharing using Aristoflex AVC, a very cool cold-process gelling agent and emulsifier that I’ve been working with for over three years now, but for some reason or another nothing has made it to the blog—until now!
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The bulk of this Soothing Under Eye Gel is refreshing, hydrating watery things. There’s some super moisturizing hyaluronic acid, some calming chamomile hydrosol, and some refreshing cucumber distillate. You’ll notice there’s no aloe, even though it would be fitting—aloe contains lots of electrolytes, and Aristoflex AVC + electrolytes = instant runny slime.
Propanediol helps further amp up the hydrating goodness of this gel, while panthenol brings regenerative, hydrating goodness. Some caffeine helps reduce puffiness, and calendula brings even more anti-inflammatory, skin-soothing goodness. I’ve included a touch of dimethicone 350 for two major reasons: firstly, it’s a good skin protectant and occlusive, but more importantly, I find it keeps this eye gel silky smooth. I find formulations that are mostly water tend to start to feel sticky really quickly—the dimethicone counters this with all kinds of super-slippy glidey goodness. If you are looking for a substitution, please read the substitutions list at the end of the recipe.
And now for the gelling magic—the Aristoflex AVC. We’ll sprinkle it over everything, blend it in, and watch the mixture turn into a silky smooth, thick gel in about a minute. It’s so freaking cool—you’re going to love it!
The finished gel is softly scented, silky and slippy, and ultra hydrating for that delicate skin around your eyes. The caffeine helps reduce puffiness and increase circulation, while the anti-inflammatory botanicals helps soothe the skin. Enjoy!
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Soothing Under Eye Gel
4g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution
4g | 20% chamomile hydrosol
2g | 10% cucumber hydrosol
8.74g | 43.7% distilled water0.2g | 1% Propanediol 1,3 (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 1% panthenol powder (vitamin B5)
0.06g | 0.3% caffeine
0.1g | 0.5% calendula extract
0.4g | 2% dimethicone 350 (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)0.2g | 1% Aristoflex AVC (USA / Canada)
Weigh the first four ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or beaker and stir to combine. Add the next six ingredients and blend together until the powders have dissolved. The dimethicone won’t emulsify yet; that’s ok.
Sprinkle the Aristolflex AVC overtop and blend with a mini mixer or whisk until the entire mixture has thickened and emulsified. That’s it!
When made as written the pH of this gel is ~4.5. I would recommend checking yours and adjusting if necessary, especially if you make any changes.
To use, spread a small amount of the gel over your under-eye area.
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 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 20g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this recipe, 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 you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this page.
- DO NOT substitute the Aristoflex AVC.
- Aristoflex AVC is very sensitive to electrolytes; do not add anything to this formula that contains electrolytes.
- The theme of this formula is soothing and hydrating; keep that in mind when choosing alternative ingredients.
- You can try different hydrosol(s) in place of the chamomile hydrosol, and/or cucumber distillate. Try to choose things that will smell nice together!
- I really, really don’t recommend dropping the hyaluronic acid.
- Panthenol is included for its humectant and skin-soothing properties. Read the encyclopedia post (linked in the previous sentence) for substitution ideas.
- You could use a different soothing/calming botanical extract in place of the calendula extract.
- Vegetable glycerin would work in place of propanediol.
- You could replace the caffeine with more water.
- You can replace the dimethicone with a natural silicone alternative like LuxGlide 350, or a very slippy oil. A non-silicone alternative will likely make the end product more sticky.
Gifting Disclosure
The cucumber distillate was gifted by Essential Wholesale. The hyaluronic acid was gifted by Pure Nature.
Wow so quick to put to
together!
Right?! Aristoflex AVC= super freakin’ cool!
Hmmm i wish we could buy easily Aristolfex here in UK or maybe in Europe
You could also try looking at other gelling agents that have some emulsifying/suspending/stabilizing properties for oils 🙂 There are so many different gelling agents that I’m betting you can find something suitable that I’ve never heard of!
Have you tried Ecogel? I love it. 3% ecogel can emulsify up to 10% oils.
Not yet, but I do finally have some! It’s not sold in Canada so mine is from overseas, which is definitely a bummer for my Canadian readers.
Oh, I will be making a tweak of this today. I have some Aristoflex from a lot of ingredients I bought a while back and had no idea what to do with it. This sounds perfect!
Woohoo! Also, check your email—I sent you a few resources you might find helpful 🙂
Whoo Hoo. So excited to see this new ingredient. I miss the days of gel moisturizers, since I don’t like the feel of emulsifying wax on my face. I’ve worked with Aristiflex before, and really love the way it disappears. My other favourite is Emulthix because I can add more oil with that one. Yay to the lack of soaping effect.
OOoh I hope you enjoy this formula! I also have a couple other gel-type things in the works as well 🙂 I will keep an eye out for Emulthix, too!
This is seriously anazeballs! I cannot wait to see what else is in mind. No hints hmm… My skin feels seriously soft.
Thank you! 😀
Are all these ingredients available for shopping online?
Thank you so much for this recipe, I really want to make an under eye gel and the natural ones are so rediculous in price. I need this like crazy. I guess I’ll have to get some Aristoflex. …also enjoying my beauty products very much from Humble bee beauty and skin. You are amazing:-)
I hope you love it! It’s so fun to make, too—the Aristoflex is such a fun, fast ingredients to play with 🙂
And I am so glad you are enjoying the products! I’m glad I re-claimed that shelf in my closet AND got the products into the hands of people who are loving them!
Yes—that’s what all the links in the recipe are 😉
Hi Marie!
A couple questions; can I replace the dimethicone with stearyl dimethicone? And I know you specifically say not to change the Astroflex, but that happens to be one gelling agent I don’t have. I have Sepinov EMT 10 (Hyroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloydimethyl Taurate Copolymer), Sepimax Zen (Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6), Sclerotium Gum, PreBIULIN C90 (Cellulose gum, Xanthan gum, Inulin, Cellulose,Glucose,Fructose). The Sepinov EMT 10 sounds about the closest to Astroflex. Lastly, can you recommend something to replace the caffeine? Something that would have similar benefits.
It looks like stearyl dimethicone should work as alternative to dimethicone 350, yes.
If you want to swap out the gelling agent the most important characteristic to look for will be its ability to emulsify, as many gelling agents are just gelling agents. I did find a sample formula featuring Sepinov EMT 10 where it was used at 1% to emulsify/stabilize 10% Isononyl Isononanoate, so I would agree that it sounds promising 🙂 Let me know how it turns out!
Please read the encyclopedia entry for more information on caffeine, including substitution suggestions.
Do you happen to remember where you got the container you’ve put it in? I’m a Patron.
Windy Point sells them 🙂
FYI – it doesn’t seem that Windy Point has these containers any longer.
Drat! YellowBee has something similar, though 🙂
Thanks Marie I am keen to try this! I might try to sneak in a bit of light oil too if within Aristoflex emulsifying capabilities.
Do you think this would work in a roller ball? Would be a fun way to apply it and feels nice
Definitely play with more oils! So fun 🙂 I would recommend making it first and then seeing what you think re: the roller ball. I think it’s probably a bit thick, but you might not 🙂
This would definitevly work for me. Beautifull recipe! Than you, Marie ❤️ I was just thinking about this few days ago! I love cold process emulsions anyway so I’m going to search more about Aristoflex avc.
I hope you love it—happy making!
Could you pass me some links about cold process/ hot cold process emulsifiers? Anything you have found useful. I’m just curious about the subject. Thanks. 🙂
Greeting Johanna!
The only decent article I’ve come across that talks about cold and hot process emulsifiers is this one from Formula Botanica. If you follow the links, they also provide some neat formulas to follow. Hopefully this will be a good starting point for your references! If you are keen to try to play around with some cold emulsifiers, check out Aristoflex AVC as it is a pretty easy one to begin with!
Barb, thank you so much for your reply! Fascinating subject and such a intresting article, need to read that through! I’ve only played a little bit with sucrose stearate, which seems quite nice. Aristoflex avc sounds so intresting, has any of you found it available in UK/Europe?
Howdy Johanna!
I’ve not needed to go hunting for Aristoflex here in Europe yet as I bought a pound of it and brought it with me from China. If you do end up buying some from somewhere, I’d suggest 50g-100g MAX. You don’t use a lot of it! Good luck sourcing it! Have you checked out the Where to buy section?
This came together beautifully, but then disaster struck; I was trying to use a 30ml syringe to put it in the lip gloss tubes, but it wouldn’t go down into the tubes and pushing down harder on the syringe definitely didn’t help. ♀️ I did salvage about 5g to try out 🙂 Any tips for getting it into the tubes? Thank you for such a lovely formulation!
Eek, that first emoji didn’t translate correctly, it was supposed to be a girl hitting her forehead!
Ha! I’m not sure what is going on with emojis in the comments here—most of mine just turn into blank spaces when published. Booo 😛
I’m guessing your syringe plugged the hole of the tube so completely that the air in the tube couldn’t escape—try angling the syringe to leave a bit of a crack for the air to escape next time 🙂 Happy making!
Barb, thank you! Can’t tell how happy I am for your information! Amazing to know – I need to keep my eyes open too. And re-check that list. I’ve recently got myself some Olivem300 and liquid shea, and they really work for my skin in gel like toners/sprays, skinfeel is amazing (not too shiny). Tomorrow is a great day for the sprayable body lotion! I’d never found that great emulsifier (or recipe) without your article!
Hey Marie I just finished and it come so perfect thanks for this wonderful recipe I’m in love with you work. But the way I used a little funnel and it worked
Woohoo! I’m so stoked to hear it 😀 YAY! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi, I’ve made this eye gel several times, it’s seriously good stuff! I used HEC, spearmint hydrosol and green tea extract. I keep coming back to this formula again and again – it is one of the best eye products that I’ve ever tried.
My skin is kind of sensitive… But soothing ha serum, eye gel and lotion are about the only things that doesn’t irritate my skin right now! What a relief!
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Johanna! I love the sounds of your swaps, too 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi, Marie!
I currently have the HMW HA. Although you stated not to replace the Aristoflex, would it be possible to completely eliminate it, and also lower the amount of the HA, as I am presuming it would gel considerably. I am looking to make 2 oz, using the percentages. I also have Luxglide instead of the Dimethicone.
Thank you so much for such great recipes, suggestions, and advice!
Hmm—possibly. I’d agree from what I’ve read that the HMW HA will likely thicken quite a lot. It won’t, however, emulsify the dimethicone 350/luxglide… but you may find the whole thing is less sticky without the aristoflex, so you might not mind? You’ll have to try it and see what you think! Start small, take notes, and have fun! Happy making 🙂
Hi Cheryl, did you wind up trying it without the Aristoflex? How did it turn out?
Hello Cheryl!
I’d love to know it, too.
My MMW HA (4 g) offered some gelling, I don’t know about the HMW. 0,2 g HEC worked great for me/us. No stickyness at all even though I used glycerin instead of propanediol + some glycerin based cucumber extract…and some aloevera.
I didn’t use the oils/dimethicone or Aristoflex. 🙂 I should propably share a picture and/or details of my latest batch? 😛
This is not a completely natural formulation
Correct??
Dimethicone and aristoflex are not supposed to be good?
It’s definitely not natural—I never say it is 🙂 All the ingredients are perfectly safe and beneficial to the skin, though! I recommend giving this and this a read. Happy making!
I really enjoyed making this recipe!
I have tweaked a bit with blueberry hydrosol and cucumber extract
Aristoflex is really nice to work with!
I have no patience and hope the air bubbles will disappear! I have incorporated them in the mix at the end and it looks cool but I have 50% of the solution that is foamy!
Can I heat it a bit?
Or I guess I just have to be patient and be careful next time!!!
I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I would just wait—you don’t want to compromise any of your heat-sensitive ingredients 🙂
Marie, you need to try unrefined cucumber oil!
It rocks for undereye / facial products. It’s very light, quick-absorbing, soothing, and smells really beautifully of cucumber.