Today we’re kicking off a new strawberry rose serum with this beautiful and oh-so-fragrant Strawberry Rose Body Glow Serum formula! This ultra-moisturizing body serum came about as part of my Formula Botanica Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation coursework. The base formula they provided was a starting point for a simple oil-free lotion sort of concoction, featuring large amounts of vegetable glycerin. I remember the first thing I thought when looking at it was “that’ll be way too sticky”. Once I made it, I was quickly humbled—I loved it. So I started riffing on the idea, and here we are.
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This body glow serum stars two stunning hydrosols or distillates—strawberry and rose—both from Essential Wholesale & Labs. I’d never used strawberry distillate before this beautiful bottle showed up at my door and swoon. It was love at first sniff. This fragrant liquid is positively begging to be turned into cocktails and lemonades and all kinds of wonderful things, but I managed to restrain myself and keep my creations in the skincare realm. The scent in this serum comes entirely from these two fragrant waters. The idea to combine strawberry and rose came from a reader who commented about a recipe they modified to include both strawberry and rose notes—I can’t find the original comment to save my life (thank you for sharing, original commenter!), but the idea has been twirling around in the depths of my brain for years now.
Up next, humectants! A blend of inexpensive, effective vegetable glycerin and luxurious, silky hyaluronic acid brings huge amounts of moisturizing, hydrating power to this formula, helping plump the skin and leave it glowing. Soothing aloe vera juice and calendula extract further amp up this body glow serum.
Even with the hyaluronic acid, this serum tends to be a bit drooly, so I included a touch of hydroxyethylcellulose to thicken it up to a more application-friendly consistency. I chose hydroxyethylcellulose over other gums like xanthan or guar for its superior skin feel, and I didn’t use a carbomer due to the inclusion of electrolyte-rich aloe vera (many carbomers do not play well with electrolytes).
This entire formula is cold processed; we’ll start by pre-dispersing the hydroxyethylcellulose in vegetable glycerin, whisk in everything else, and leave it to thicken and clear up. That’s it! The finished serum has a rich, velvety skin feel and leaves you glowing. I do find it to be a bit much for the face, but I adore smoothing it up and down my legs and arms after a shower. Enjoy!
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Strawberry Rose Body Glow Serum
7.5g | 15% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 1% hydroxyethylcellulose (USA / Canada)5.75g | 11.5% distilled water
10g | 20% aloe vera juice
10g | 20% rose hydrosol
5g | 10% strawberry hydrosol
10g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution
1g | 2% calendula extract
0.25g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)Weigh the vegetable glycerine and hydroxyethylcellulose into a small beaker or glass measuring cup and whisk to combine, stirring until there are no visible lumps.
Add the remaining ingredients, stirring thoroughly between additions. Cover and leave to sit until the mixture is clear—I left mine overnight. Once it clears up you’ll find it isn’t evenly thickened—there’ll be a few blobbier bits of hydroxyethylcellulose, so you’ll want to stir the mixture until it’s uniform.
Once that’s done you’re ready to package up your concoction! I used a 50mL (1.69fl oz) frosted glass Zelo bottle from New Directions Aromatics with a pump cap.
To use, spread over the skin like you would a lotion. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this body glow serum 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.
- 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 I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could use more distilled water in place of the aloe vera juice
- You can replace the hydrosols with more distilled water or different hydrosols, but that will obviously alter the scent of the end product. This formula contains no solubilizers, so if you wish to use essential or fragrance oils in place of the hydrosols you will need to incorporate a solubilizer as well.
- You could make your own strawberry glycerite as an alternative to the strawberry distillate. You can learn more about creating glycerites here and here. Once your glycerite is complete you can replace the glycerin with it and use more distilled water in place of the strawberry distillate.
- I don’t recommend swapping out the hyaluronic acid solution. You could try using a blend of distilled water and propanediol 1,3 as an alternative, but you’ll have to do your own experiments to see what works for you.
- I don’t recommend swapping out the hydroxyethylcellulose; its gelling is very unique when compared to more snotty gums like xanthan or guar, and it is tolerant to electrolytes (from the aloe vera) where most carbomers likely won’t be.
- You can use a different botanical extract in place of the calendula extract.
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this page.
Gifting Disclosure
The hyaluronic acid was gifted by Pure Nature. The rose hydrosol, strawberry hydrosol, and hydroxyethylcellulose were gifted by Essential Wholesale.
What a delicious description! I am trying to save for a house but your descriptions once again want me to load up the shopping cart!
Sorry… kind of 😀 Happy making!
This sounds really cool and posh, but for those of us who don’t have the luxury of getting free ingredients, Essential Wholesale’s strawberry distillate is pretty expensive at $47.90/lb and you can’t buy small sizes aside from the sample. LotionCrafter has strawberry fruit essence for far cheaper ($15.90/lb) and you can buy smaller sizes (4 oz, 8 oz). This looks lovely and the scent combination sounds amazing.
Hi Ally, just an fyi – I have the strawberry distillate from Lotioncrafter and although I can’t compare it to Essential Wholesale’s, I find Lotioncrafters to smell juicy & yummy. Hope that helps.
Any strawberry hydrosol in Canada?
None that I’ve found 🙁 I do provide some info about trying it with a glycerite (which you could easily make at home) in the substitutions list, though! Happy making!
Thanks so much, Kelly!
Yeah, I was shocked at the price too!
Good call! You could also try a DIY’ed strawberry glycerite 🙂 Happy making!
Months ago I made a 3 ingredient serum using rose hydrosole, aloe gel and glycerine.
It’s phenomenal to use, even on its own for dry skin when I don’t feel like using moisturiser or lotion
Ooooh, that sounds stunning! Super hydrating AND I bet it smells amazeballs 😀
Hello. Your video calls for rose and strawberry distillates, however, your written recipe calls for hydrosols. Are they interchangeable?
Yup—I wrote an FAQ on this 🙂
Hi Marie, this looks delicious. I’ve been using these body gels lately, together with body oil or butter. 🙂 Thank you for introducing HEC to me. It has quickly replaced allmost all the other gums in my formulas. Looks like I “have to” reformulate those anti acne facial toners… :p
I’m so thrilled to hear you’re loving hydroxyethylcellulose! I’m loving playing with it in hair care applications as well, and generally can’t get enough of how silky and clear it is after working with xanthan and guar, ha. Happy reformulating 😀
Hello Marie! You are fabulous and have changed my life with your amazing recipes, thank you! I’ve loved everything I’ve made from you, but perhaps I botched this one, curious to hear your thoughts. My serum came out with a thick gel consistency (certainly cannot spray it) and is very sticky and a little clumpy / gooey, I would love to hear what I might have done wrong or if anyone else had this issue! Keep up the amazing work and thanks again!
Hey Becca! It doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong. Nothing about this serum is spray-able—that’s why I put mine in a treatment pump bottle 🙂 If it’s clumpy, it sounds like you just need to give it a very thorough stirring as the hydroxyethylcellulose will tend to clump as part of the initial hydrating time, but once it’s stirred thoroughly it’s nice and smooth. The high glycerin content will make it stickier than many things (this is discussed in the preamble)—I don’t mind in a body application (I’d never put this on my face!), but stickiness tolerance seems to be a very personal thing, so we might just be calibrated a bit differently on that front 🙂 Happy making!
Ah fantastic! Yes I see now that you have a lovely pump bottle (not spray ha ) After shaking it up and getting out all the clumps, its nice and smooth! Also, side compliment I am LOVING your new Strawberry Rose Toning Facial Mist! Keep up the wonderful work!
Hooray! I’m so glad to hear it de-lump-ified for you, and that the toning mist is a hit 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Please be conscious of environmental effects when recommending ingredients. For example, SLSA is extremely toxic to aquatic life and has long lasting effects. How your creations are used or to whom they are gifted is unknown, so using ingredients that are safe not only for the maker, but also for the environment will be appreciated.
Hey Katherine! Environmental effects are always a good thing to consider, of course 🙂 Do you have any good resources to share on the impacts of Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) when used as a component of a product in-home? I can definitely see how it (and any surfactant, really) would be problematic if it was added to an open waterway, but have you found anything about its use being problematic in an environment where it will go through a water treatment plant? If so, that would be very concerning indeed! I haven’t been able to find anything on that—all my googling keeps bringing up SLS instead :/ Thanks in advance!
I haven’t found a study addressing this particular product. However, the warning on the container is explicit. If this product is used at a site with a septic system that leaks into a lake, canal, or other waterway, it could have a localized detrimental effect on the local aquatic life.
Good to know! With that warning, I would assume it’s safe for use in water that will go through a water treatment plant, but possibly isn’t septic system safe (I have no idea how easy it is to know if a septic system leaks—probably better safe than sorry).
Not sticky, simple, inexpencive and hydrating formula. I used different hydrosols + extract focusing on scent (chamomile, pineapple, jasmine) and ph balance.
I made a few samples and found out that:
1. I need to follow the how to instructions carefully. I’m still not very good at that. 😛
2. My HA is LMW+MMW, and a sample with slightly less HEC was my favourite. Leaving HEC out worked rather well.
3. This serum is perfectly stable with sodium benzoate & potassium sorbate. It didn’t effect the scent, either.
4. Sample with Cosgard (benzyl alchohol, dehydroaceticacid acid) separated to a. milky liquid or b. clumpy gel.
5. Cosgard had an effect the color and scent. I’ve also had Cosgard oxidizing too quickly and the scent changing over time.
Hope this helps someone!
So cool, Johann! Thank you so much for experimenting and sharing your results, I really appreciate it 😀 Happy making!
Hi Marie,
Does HEC cause pilling/balling up just as xanthum/sclerotium gums do?
I don’t find it does in this formulation, but I haven’t really pushed the limits of it to see if it is possible 🙂
Hi Marie! Can we adjust the recipe to use as facial serum?
You can certainly try it—whether or not you’ll enjoy it will be a matter of personal preference 🙂 Happy making!
Hey, I love your formulas! I tried making this serum and wanted to add turmeric oil to it. I made it without realizing I need a solubilizer. Can I quickly add poly mulse D9 to it to fix it? Or do I need to start over and make another batch with the solubilizer added to the oil first?
Thank You
It might work, but the more you add the more you’ll throw off the rest of the formulation, including the preservative %. I’d probably start over to be safe 🙂 Happy making!
Does this have a soaping effect for anyone else?
I tried making it with just distilled water, hyaluronic acid solution, HEC and liquid Germall plus preservative and it’s leaves white streaks everytime I apply it
I’m wondering if I did something wrong.