It’s time for another Bee Better project with a revamp of my first-ever face cream—2014’s Winter Solstice Face Cream. This new version uses several newer skin-loving ingredients to create an even better facial lotion that is designed to deeply hydrate and strengthen your skin. It’s somehow both rich and lightweight, with a gorgeous skin feel, a soft rosy scent, and all kinds of fabulous-for-skin ingredients. I hope you love this new version just as much as many of you loved the 2014 one!
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2014’s Winter Solstice Face Cream was the first-ever emulsified face cream I shared, and it was long overdue! That cream was probably my first serious flirtation with what would become my love affair of topical face hydration. Swoon. I found my skin healed faster and was just generally happier when I used my Winter Solstice Face Cream instead of just an oil serum, so I was safe to say I was in love. In addition to containing water, that cream also contained rose hydrosol, soothing allantoin, and moisturizing vegetable glycerin and hydrolyzed silk peptides. The oil phase was a blend of two lightweight oils (argan and olive squalane) and fast-absorbing mango butter, further thickened up with a touch of silky cetyl alcohol. A touch of all-around-awesome panthenol, our preservative, and a fresh, bright essential oil blend (lavender/cardamom/spruce) rounded off the lotion. See the full 2014 formulation here!
With all that in mind as a starting point, let’s look towards our 2019 Bee Better version—five years later, almost to the day (!). The main themes of the original were hydration/moisturizing + soothing, with the general intention that the cream would be used in the winter. I decided to really amp up the hydration angle and expand the soothing into a soothing/strengthening/fortifying kinda thing with lots of ingredients that help support and strengthen barrier function, allowing our skin to be its best, strongest self. When our moisture barrier/acid mantle is in tip-top shape our skin is more resilient, transepidermal water loss drops, and our skin is better protected from the outside world. Amazeballs. You can learn more about the acid mantle here.
In the hydration department, we’ve got some great ingredients; 1% low molecular weight hyaluronic acid stock, propanediol, rose hydrosol, and distilled water bring plenty of water to the table and help ensure it sticks around for as long as possible to work its hydrating magic.
Many of the other ingredients in this formulation help with hydration and moisturizing, but also help support barrier function. Niacinamide (vitamin B3), N-Acetyl Glucosamine, panthenol (vitamin B5), cholesterol, and ceramides all fall into this “fabulous multitasking” category. Back in 2014 the only one of those ingredients I worked with was panthenol, and while panthenol is fabulous (soothing & moisturizing!) on its own, I’m sure it’s happy to have some more skin-boosting friends in this formula. Niacinamide helps reduce both irritation transepidermal water loss, while N-Acetyl Glucosamine improves barrier function and boosts healing. Together, they have some seriously great skin-brightening effects, helping to fade hyperpigmentation and age spots.
Cholesterol is making its debut appearance on Humblebee & Me with this formulation. I first ordered it so I could make The Acid Queen’s Moisture Barrier Serum, and thought it would be just the thing for this project as it is a rich emollient that helps support barrier function and is great for dry, irritated skin. Ceramides further up the awesome factor in this face cream. The ceramide complex we’re using not only helps support our barrier function and supplement our naturally occurring supply of ceramides (learn more here), but it also helps encourage more ceramide production (along with niacinamide!). So many of the ingredients in this formulation do multiple awesome-for-skin jobs. Swoon.
For oils, I kept the olive squalane and argan oil and dropped the mango butter and cetyl alcohol as they were the only ingredients in the formulation that would need to be melted before incorporating, so eliminating them allowed this formulation to be entirely cold processed. I also included 2% dimethicone 350 for added skin protection, fabulous slip, and de-tack-ification. I dropped the spruce essential oil from the essential oil blend simply because I don’t have any right now, but the essential oils are optional in any event. I’ve been finding I prefer lower scent face products, so I left the essential oils out of the video version altogether (replace them with more water if you do that).
I created a few updated versions of this cream using the same emulsifier as before (BTMS-50), but I ended up veering off into gel-cream territory as my love affair with last month’s Cranberry Orange Facial Gel Cream is still going hot and heavy (or perhaps I should say “silky and moisturizing”?). Our emulsifier/gelling agent is Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer (aka Aristoflex® AVC), an ingredient I’m pretty sure I had back in 2014 when I shared the original Winter Solstice Face Cream, though I didn’t share any formulations using it until 2019. Since Aristoflex AVC works as a cold-processed emulsifier I elected not to include anything that needed to be melted so we could whip this cream up quickly and easily, without any added heat. This emulsifier choice is another reason I included some dimethicone 350; I find gel creams feel tackier than more traditional emulsions, and I like to counter that with a bit of dimethicone and/or cyclomethicone.
I’ve yet to find a wrong way to mix up a no-heat concoction with Aristoflex AVC, but I have found some ways are easier than others. For this Winter Solstice Facial Gel Cream, I begin by mixing together all the wet watery things and then adding all the powders. I gave that a stir, and then topped off that milky mixture with our liquid oily ingredients. The Aristoflex AVC was sprinkled on last, and then the whole lot was whisked to combine. Leave it to hydrate for 30–40 minutes, whisk again, and you’re done! The finished product is really quite thick, so I put mine in a soft squeeze tube. I suspect it would be too thick for most pump-top bottles, but I’ll leave that up to you when you experience the final consistency for yourself.
The finished cream has a thick, decadent texture—it forms soft peaks when dolloped, which I love. It glides over the skin richly, transforming into more of a gel as it warms on the skin. It absorbs quickly, leaving the skin plump, hydrated, and fortified. It’s just the thing for dry, cold, and dark winter days. Enjoy!
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Winter Solstice Facial Gel Cream
9.1g | 18.2% distilled water
15g | 30% rose hydrosol
10g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution
0.5g | 1% Propanediol 1,3 (USA / Canada)
2.5g | 5% ceramide complex (USA / Canada)
0.25g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)0.5g | 1% cholesterol NF
2g | 4% niacinamide
1g | 2% N-Acetyl Glucosamine (USA / Canada)
1g | 2% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)1g | 2% dimethicone 350 (USA / Canada)
3g | 6% olive squalane (USA / Canada)
3g | 6% argan oil (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.2% lavender essential oil
0.05g | 0.1% cardamom essential oil1g | 2% Aristoflex AVC® (USA / Canada)
Weigh the first six ingredients into a small beaker and stir to combine. Add the next four, and stir to combine.
Weigh in the following five ingredients, stir.
Finish by weighing in the Aristoflex AVC. Whisk to combine; the mixture will thicken a bit, but will be pretty lumpy. Leave it to hydrate for 30–40 minutes, and whisk again. At that point you should have a silky smooth, thick, luscious gel cream!
When made as written, the pH of this gel cream comes out to 5–6, which is where we want it for the niacinamide. That said, it’s a good idea to test the pH of products where pH is imporant—you can learn how to test & adjust pH here.
All that’s left at this point is to package it up. I used a 50mL (1.69fl oz) soft squeeze tube from YellowBee, filling it with a large syringe. Ivan from YellowBee suggests a meat injector as an easier-to-purchase syringe type thing!
To use, smooth over the skin after cleansing. I usually use mine towards the end of my skin care routine, and top it off with an oil serum. Enjoy!
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 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 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 (panthenol, niacinamide, N-Acetyl Glucosamine, hyaluronic acid, cholesterol, etc,) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- If this formulation has too many ingredients for your taste, please check out the original from 2014. It’s still lovely!
- You can use a different hydrosol for a different scent, or replace the hydrosol with more distilled water to drop that scent note completely.
- I do not recommend substituting the Aristoflex AVC. If you do, keep in mind that you will likely need to re-develop the formulation.
- Aristoflex AVC is very sensitive to electrolytes; do not add anything to this formula that contains electrolytes.
- You can replace the dimethicone 350 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.
- Please do not substitute the ceramide complex; it is key to the product’s performance.
- Vegetable glycerin would work in place of propanediol.
- You can use different essential oils or replace them with more water.
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this page.
Gifting Disclosure
The rose hydrosol was gifted by Mystic Moments. The 50mL (1.69fl oz) soft squeeze tube was gifted by YellowBee. The hyaluronic acid powder was gifted by Pure Nature.
Omg I just love your more complex recipes!! They’re just much more professional(more skin-goodness lol) and work better imo. I can’t wait to try this out!
Thank you so much! 😀
Really wish that we were able to purchase ceramide complex and cholesterol nf locally in Calgary instead of having to order them from the US. This makes the face cream expense to make.
So do I 🙁 That’s the reason I don’t use those ingredients very often.
Ceramide complex is at windy point 🙂 and the cholesterol is part of the formulation
I saw Windy Point just started carrying ceramides! WOOO!
This looks pretty amazing. Cholesterol nf is impossible to get in Australia. And this product doesn’t ship to Australia through amazon. So checking out the encyclopaedia recommendations it says you could use a liquid lecithin. Do you think sunflower lecithin would work here? Or any other suggestions?
Thanks Marie! And have a wonderful Christmas.
I think it should! I would probably blend it in with the liquid oils to ensure it’s all uniform before continuing, though—sometimes lecithin doesn’t like to play with other ingredients. You might need to heat the mixture a bit, too 🙂 Lanolin is also a good option. Happy making!
So i made this using the sunflower lecithin and heated it gently with the carrier oils to blend it through. It is like a dose of luxury for my skin. i put it on just before my facial oil. and my skin feels super soft and amazing, Yay!
Stunning texture! Just thinking, I’ve made few cold process creams / light lotions (~ 10-15 % oils) with polyglyceryl-4 laurate (from Soap kitchen) + HEC. It’s cool emulsifier, but I don’t know how it plays with the actives here. 🙂
Oooh how lovely! I’m so thrilled you’re enjoying it 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Lanolin doesn’t need to be melted? I looked at the Encyclopedia page, but I still have questions (always! lol)…
Everything else in that phase is a powder, so how does the lanolin get incorporated?
It would need to be melted—you can see that it’s not called for in the original formulation, which is why the original instructions don’t address that 🙂
A wonderful recipe, I’m on my way to try this one.
Marie, could you tell me where I can read about electrolytes?
What cosmetic ingredients does contain electrolytes?
Thank you.
Hi Alla,
Electrolytes are salts. They are exactly the same thing sportie folks want to be drinking to prevent dehydration. So things that contain salt for example; aloe and cucumber to name two. Give google a whirl!
Happy making!
Barb
Hello Marie! I hope you are doing well 🙂
I would love to hear your thoughts about using sclerotium gum. If you haven’t heard of it, it is said to be a natural gelling agent derived from mushroons, with moisturizing, film forming, skin-soothing and self-emulsifying properties. It’s also said to perform a realy nice feeling on the skin. I am curious about trying it on a facial gel or serum, as it seens to be a decent alternative to Aristoflex AVC, wich unfortunately, is unavailable here in Brazil 🙁
On the downside, it’s a fairly expensive material, so I would love to know if you have had any kind of experience using this ingredient.
Thank you so much!
Cheers from Brazil
Hi Pedro,
Alas, I have not heard of anyone making a gel in cosmetics from mushrooms, I have heard of using a type of mushroom liquid in skin care as it was all the rage in China before I left.
HAve you ever explored using xanthan gum? There are a couple of posts at the bottom of that link. And, xanthan gum is very popular in the Formula Botanica program too.
Let me know if you end up working with the mushrooms! Happy making!
Barb
I am LOVING your recipes with Aristoflex and Ceramides! They are wonderful! I’m wondering what would happen if you added Penstia powder to this or similar formulations? I’ve noticed you haven’t been using Penstia lately. Do some of your newer ingredients replace the effects of Penstia powder?
I would think Penstia would do wonderful things! I don’t really have a reason for not using it lately, either—I think I mostly just forgot about it a bit… a hazard of having as many ingredients as I do, ha. I think it would be really interesting to see if Penstia could be a good alternative for silicones in gel creams for reducing tackiness and improving slip. According to the descriptions for it, it also works beautifully with silicones, so that could be a good thing to try, too! Oooer now I’m getting inspired to play with it again 😀 Let me know how your experiments go. Happy making!
Of your recent facial gel cream recipes to choose from, I wanted to try this one b/c it contained the most full spectrum humectants and goodies all in one, including new-to-me ones like the ceramides and cholesterol (though I used lanolin instead), and I wanted to give the dimethicone a try.
I def LOVE the consistency and richness of the end product, and the whole idea behind a gel cream for me is that there will still be some ‘lightness’ to it, compared to w/o emulsions.
Unfortunately, I had some pilling occur, even with several tests… After choosing not to toss the batch immediately, I started to wonder if the combo of other layers I use prior, that contain electrolytes such as aloe vera and urea (which you direct us not to do with projects using Aristoflex), don’t play well together.
I use skins containing aloe vera, and your Hydrating Rose Water Toner(I sub a bit of urea for the glycerin), Soothing HA Facial Serum, etc.
In any case, I did like the softness of my skin using this gel cream, so I am still testing it in other ways, like using it as a mask (50/50 with Manuka honey) in the mornings. It seemed a shame to waste such lovely ingredients, so I don’t think I’ll toss it just yet!
I used up 2 goes of the orange/ cranberry gel so I decided to jump into this one for a change. I realized I never did buy the cholesterol, but itching to try urea after reading the Hive this week, so subbed it in. Aristoflex doesn’t like it and lucky for me (I ran out) I had Sepimax Zen sitting on the shelf. Lets see what this turns out like….
Aw yup, urea = electrolytes. How rude of it, eh?! It won’t play nicely with Sepimax Zen, either, but the Sepimax should be a good stand-in for the Aristoflex. Let me know how it turns out!
My update 24 hours later….It turned into a beautiful heavenly scented gel lotion after a heap of stirring and blending with a stick blender. It’s stickier than I recall the Aristoflex Cran/Orange lotion being (that could be all the additives too?) and it seems to sit on my face more, rather than soaking in. I’m not sure I love the ‘after’ scent so much…the urea seems to come through rather strongly. Maybe drop that back to 1%? Maybe that’s why its used more for body lotions and not faces 😛
Today the odd scent is gone….my skin looks AMAZING 😀 and the tack factor goes away if I apply my oil serum over the top of it.This is fabulous!!!
YAY! Hooray for waiting fixing things Woohoo!
Oooh, so cool! It’s wonderful to know that Sepimax is more electrolyte tolerant than Aristoflex, too! Thank you so much for sharing your experiments 😀
Am I reading this correctly that Sepimax is a decent substitute for Aristoflex AVC? Like could I get away with not buying Aristoflex at all, and just use Sepimax instead, or is it that that swap works in only this recipe for sure?
In my experience, I think Sepimax ZEN can do pretty much everything Aristoflex AVC can, and in some cases, those same things, but better. If you were just going to get one I’d get Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (Sepimax ZEN) 🙂
Great news! I’m waiting on a couple more ingredients and can’t wait to try this formulation!
Another question: if I sub Sepimax Zen for the Aristoflex, should I pre-dilute it with the carrier oils and add the water and HA as the last step? (I’ve tried to read through the encyclopedia entry and other recipes using Sepimax Zen to get the usage right, but just want to make sure!)
You could do it either way—it’s pretty forgiving 🙂 I’d probably pre-disperse it in the oils, but it will work as written, too!
Omg…I made this gel cream last weekend and it is amaze-balls! It’s so light yet so hydrating. My skin is the softest I can ever recall it being. Not to mention my rosacea is way soothed by this!
I made a few modifications: used Sepimax Zen instead of Aristoflex. All distilled water, 1/2 the dimethicone (b/c I read somewhere here that Sepimax was more slippy than aristoflex), added bisabolol, an EO blend I call Blue Dream (blue tansy, jasmine, German chamomile, neroli, and rose), and subbed sea buckthorn seed oil for argan. Which was my biggest mistake, because the orange oil and blue EO blend made a very unpleasant mustard yellow color, lol. Never again, definitely using a clear oil for batch #2!
Still, it smells divine and the skin feel is unmatched. So glad I stocked up on ingredients to make this!!!
I’m so thrilled to hear you made something you love! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Any suggestions for a cholesterol sub if we don’t have lanolin or lecithin? I’ve read the blog and comments thoroughly. Don’t see cholesterol in the encyclopedia.
There is an encyclopedia entry for cholesterol, complete with substitution ideas 🙂 It’s linked in the blog post above and also here. I generally try to link all the ingredients discussed in the preamble to their encyclopedia entries, but I know this one is really long! If you don’t have any of the things I’ve suggested you’re kind of just in general “rich emollient” territory… so maybe shea butter? That’s a pretty big jump (and will require melting), but it shouldn’t break anything 🙂 Happy making!
This one was a flop for me. I was left with product that was sticky and wet upon application and tacky leaving a white grainy film once dried. I did, however, make a few substitutions which could have been the reason and I will share for the benefit of all to learn. I did not have cholesterol or lanolin so I used the same amount of melted virgin coconut oil (very little). I also did not have ceramides so I used Lotion Crafters Vitaplex powder instead (same amount called for as the ceramides). Another thing I noticed (I’m a newbie) is that my scale really screwed me up. I have the new MyWeigh KD-8000 and that scale is horrible with weights under a gram and judging by how it fluctuated and didn’t pick up certain items at all, I don’t trust it which may have caused me to add more of some items than I should have. When I first applied the cream and noticed the white powder it left on my face, I added more water (WHICH BY THE WAY I DID NOT REALIZE WAS ELECTROLYTE – NOT DISTILLED WATER). I only caught that when I attempted to add more so the electrolytes could have had something to do with this too. Ahhhhh, the expense of the learning experience; but not all is lost. I will simply use this to feed my face at night while I sleep. Any feedback would be helpful Marie and I’m sure all your readers could learn from this.
Love this but if burns the heck out of my eyes, even if I purposely keep it away from them. Bummer! Any suggestions on how I can fix? Maybe dilute with more water? It does make my skin super smooth & beautiful buy yes, it is very strong for my eyes which immediately start to water & eyes is where I need it most. Hope 2c more recipes for the eye area soon!
Oh no! Have you checked the pH? That’d be the first thing I’d check.
OMG Maroe YOU WERE RIGHT ON! The PH was 7. I put a few drops of 10% citric acid solution & brought it down to a 5. Flakes, fumes & burn gone. Now its smooth on my face & mild. Wow! I cannot thank u enough! I was about to dump it! I am thrilled. I just continue to learn with you at such a rapid speed. I am seriously overwhelmed with gratitude.
Amazing! I’m so thrilled it was a pretty easy fix 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Can you please share which pH meter you use and where you purchased it? Thank you! And thanks for your awesome recipes! I’m fairly new to this. Watching your videos, I’m learning so much and loving it!
I’ve included the info on my pH meter (+ other favourite equipment) in this post 🙂 Happy making!
Really? PH would cause this? I’m fairly new at this. PH is one of those topics I haven’t explored too much yet. I guess I need to get some strips. The cream doesn’t burn my face – just my eyes. That would be a PH that is too low correct?
It definitely can, and it’s an easy thing to check/rule out, so I thought I’d start there 🙂 I’ve made face masks with too much vinegar that have been fine on my face but made my eyes water something FIERCE (wash it off if that happens, note to self/everyone else…). It would likely be because the pH is too low, yes, but too high would also be problematic (think about getting soap in your eyes).
I would love to see more recipes for older, sensitive skin, definitely more for around the eyes. Also, totally on the other side of the spectrum – one or two things with acids, glycolytic or lactic.
I’ll keep it in mind 🙂 Thanks!
Hello,
Thanks for this recipe. I was wondering about the percentage of Aristoflex AVC. According to the documentation the max that can be used is 1.2%. Is there a reason why you used 2%?
Clariant, who makes Aristoflex AVC says “The amount of Aristoflex AVC used in personal care formulations is typically in the range of 0.5 – 1.2 %.”—not a maximum allowable use level, but a typical one. Lotion Crafter lists up to 2%, and two sample formulations shared by Clariant also use 2%, so I’m confident 2% is safe, and it is within the range the manufacturer itself uses/suggests for some formulations.
I made this and only subbed lanolin (combined and heated with the oils) for the cholesterol, and I used Luxglide350 instead of the dimethicone. And…its super sticky and looks like patent leather on my face. I did end up putting some pentsia powder in (mentioned in another comment), which helped a bit and made the texture much nicer. But, it still feels like it’s just sitting on top of my skin. It’s a super slippery layer on my face when I get in the shower like 8+ hours later. I guess I have to keep experimenting with layers on this one…(as in, what’s under or on top of it?).
How strange! I’m sorry to hear that’s been your experience 🙁 I haven’t tried the lanolin swap, but between that and the LuxGlide swap, I’d suspect the lanolin OR something you’re layering with. Does it behave better if applied to bare skin? It sounds like it is a kick-butt occlusive, so perhaps you could try treating it as an overnight mask type treatment?
I think it does apply better on bare skin. I was applying it over the Brightening Serum, and maybe that was a little but too much of a barrier before this lotion. Anyway, I stopped fiddling with it and gave it to my husband who seems to like it! 🙂
Glad to hear it! 🙂
It was amazing formulation. You didn’t use essential oils in your video and you added more water. Why did you add 24.3gr water? The total amount is more than 100%.
Hi Marie.. I am speechless and overwhelmed with joy to have come across this luxurious sounding and sophisticated recipe. Not to mention I’ve been trying to keep up with your most recent one’s, but you know with kids, work etc.. can’t find time to do a lot for myself… anyhow, I’m going to order most of the ingredients tonight.
I currently have many of your recipes made and use them religiously..
My daily routine starts with your Soothing hyaluronic acid facial serum.. after about 10 minutes I apply vit.C serum wait for it to sink in and then apply your luxury facial serum as the occlusive and moisturizer… at night I reapply your soothing hyaluronic acid serum followed by retinol serum and was thinking of applying this gel cream as occlusive and moisturizer .. is this good or is it tooo much? Am I doing it right? I also still have your frankincense facial lotion but use it once every fortnight..
Hi Marie. If I’m using your Soothing HA facial serum which contains Urea, will the existance of Aristoflex AVC in this cream renders it impossible to use both of them in the same routine? thanks
PS. can I use this cream instead of my final moisturizer/cream?
Not impossible, but you may notice some pilling—I find personal chemistry seems to factor in as well. And yes, you can use this as a final moisturizer if you skin likes that approach 🙂
Hi Marie. Thank you for all the work you put into your website, blog, and video. Just a quick comment… I used “Sepinov EMT 10” in a different formulation that called for Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer (aka Aristoflex AVC), with great results. Considering they are both pre-neutralized polymers with similar purposes, strengths and weakness, is there any reason why you wouldn’t consider “Sepinov EMT 10” a viable substitute for Aristoflex AVC?
Can’t wait to make this version. I made the 2014 one and it is lovely so I’m sure I’ll like this even more 🙂
Also wanted to mention the Amazon link for the Cholesterol NF doesn’t work. Looks like they don’t even sell it anymore. MakingCosmetics website does have it directly though – https://www.makingcosmetics.com/Cholesterol-NF_p_831.html
Hi Maria. Thank you for your amazing recipe. I made it in the volume of 50gr and all smooth and silky but when I want to make it in a bigger volume (500 gr) after 40 min that I mixed well, I saw a little white grain in cream. How can I solve this issue?
I’m afraid scaling formulations up really isn’t something I do much of, so if this is an issue caused by scaling I couldn’t say.