Strawberry Cream

My homemade Strawberry glycerite is part of our water phase, bringing a lovely fresh Strawberry scent to the formulation. It also contributes a bit of colour, though that fades within a week. The heated water phase also features hydrating hyaluronic acid and soothing panthenol (Vitamin B5) to help our skin be its best self in the midst of the dry, cold winter. I also included some allantoin in the cool-down phase for its anti-irritant, skin protecting benefits.

I chose Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate as the emulsifier for this face cream so I could have more control over the finished feel of the lotion, choosing a blend of silky cetyl alcohol and Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6 (Sepimax ZEN) to thicken the emulsion. This gives us a slippy, gel-cream like consistency that’s really lovely. If you don’t have Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate I have provided some guidelines on using a self-thickening emulsifying wax like Polawax instead in the Substitution list; please read it! The rest of the oil phase is lovely, fruity, antioxidant-rich strawberry seed oil. it’s also great for irritated & sensitive skin and contributes a fresh, juicy scent to the finished cream.

Strawberry Face Cream

Heated water phase 46g | 46% distilled water 20g | 20% low molecular weight 1% hyaluronic acid solution 15g | 15% Strawberry glycerite 3g | 3% panthenol powder (vitamin B5)

Heated oil phase 1.5g | 1.5% Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate 10g | 10% Strawberry seed oil 3g | 3% cetyl alcohol 0.3g | 0.3% Polyacrylate crosspolymer-6/ Sepimax Zen

Cool down phase 0.3g | 0.3% allantoin 0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus 0.4g | 0.4% Vitamin E

Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.

Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.

Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute before switching to hand stirring. You’ll need to be fairly diligent with the stirring at first, but once the mixture has thickened up a bit and is uniform you can switch to stirring occasionally. Once the outside of the glass measuring cup is just warm to the touch (40°C or cooler, if you have a thermometer) we’re ready to proceed.

Now it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of lotion, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.

Once the cool down phase has been incorporated, all that’s left to do is package it up!

Use as you’d use any face lotion. Enjoy!