Wrinkle and face creams. Some questions.

I have been looking into making my own face moisturizers. I understand many people do not like to share recipes, but I have found some online that I like for a starters like me, and I have a few questions ....

Many recipes include beeswax. I have never use beeswax in my soap, but I have on the lips. I have run out, but I was wondering if I can substitute the beeswax for lanolin? I have some lanolin..... And is the beeswax on the candle section at the craft store the same as the one sold for cosmetics? It also comes in pellets.

Is it ok to use regular fragrances for the face? I do have several Eos , so I will use that, but I am curious, since for lips, I only use flavoring fos.

If you have any recommendations or tips, and even recipes you would share, I would appreciate any input. :mrgreen:

I'd think the substitution would largely depend on the main purpose of the beeswax in your recipe. If it needs to act as a thickener as well as skin barrier, then I'm not sure the straight sub would work very well. Lanolin is MUCH softer and stickier than beeswax. A balm I made recently with lanolin is liquid at room temp, even during the cooler winter months. I'm planning to rework it, adding cocoa and shea butter to hopefully firm it up.

Using a very, very light hand with fragrance is probably the way to go with those, keeping in mind that it's going to be quite close to your nose and you're making a leave on product. Besides, you can always add more scent if it's not strong enough. Taking scent out is trickier. Checking the vendor info for any FOs you want to use is probably also a good idea, just to confirm they're safe in leave on products.

I'm inclined to say that as long as it's JUST beeswax, with nothing added, then beeswax is beeswax. For what it's worth, I wouldn't hesitate to melt down my beeswax pillar to use in body products if I really needed to. Well, aside from the fact that I'd be melting down my favorite candle, but if things come to that pass I'm already pretty darn desperate.

I agree with Kittish. It depends on what the bees wax is being used for. One thing to be aware of - several on-line recipes will use bees wax as the emulsifier in a lotions type moisturizer. This is a misconception as bees wax is NOT an emulsifier your final product will split into water and oil with clumps of bees wax eventually.

From a fragrance standpoint, I have started leaving fragrances, including most essential oils, out of things on my face. For me, I have found them too irritating around my eyes. You may want to reach out to the fragrance manufacturer to see if what you have is safe for use on the face.

Marie at Humblebee and Me http://www.humblebeeandme.com has a lot of great recipes and learning tools. Look at this for technique. She does use some exotic oils and add-ins, but while working on technique if you understand what the items are being used for, some can be substituted or left out. Also her older recipes are typically a little less complex.

I also really like using straight up oil on my face. Argan oil is my favorite.

Thank you all so much! Do you recommend a substitute for beeswax? It seems to be present in most recipes.

And reading labels from stuff at the store, I see they carbomer ( or something like that), which I think is a polymer that acts like the bees wax.

I will check the link too. Thank you both for the input!

When creating lotions and creams for face remember to keep it at 5.5 ph

also what type of cream night or day.. etc.

emulsifiers

lotion pro- more of a liquid cream
NF emulsifier - nice cream
ultrez 40 or other polymer- custard cream to gel

beeswax to me has a stick .. no glide.

check out Swift Craft Monkey blog post.. tons of information there

Also do a lot of research on preserving your lotion. Not all preservatives will work will all emulsifiers or ingredients. For all but one of my formulas I have to use a dual preservation system and I do not make milk lotions.

Starting to sound scary ! lol

But thanks to the first link above, I think I am going to go with emulsifying wax traditional, and is not expensive. Do I still need a preservative? What if I only make 2 ounces and use it within a month?

You always need a preservative . If you are going to be making lotion and creams, you need a preservative. And I have started using dual preservative for creams and lotions I am keeping for more than a month. You can’t be too careful eh? Especially since I make for my kids too.

I've been using this Face Firming Gel with Crothix for a long time. Scroll down to about the 5th recipe on the page:

http://teachsoap.com/2012/03/21/easy-soap-recipes/

CroThix has a secondary use as a skin firming agent. (Its primary use is as a thickening agent in liquid soaps, and shampoos.) Here is an easy gel that you can make that is good for all skin types, using jojoba makes a non-comedogenic cream that won't clog your pores.

Click to expand...

Quick and easy to make, not greasy at all and feels nice on my parched skin. I couldn't see it, but the first time I made it, both dear hubby and a couple of friends noticed a difference.

I use my Cabrini Rose EO Blend (feel free to tweak this blend to your liking):
1 part Rose Geranium EO (Good for faces all by itself)
1 part Palmarosa EO
2 part Rosewood EO

You can buy liquid Crothix at Brambleberry. My favorite preservative for lotions & creams is Liquid Germal Plus. Use rate is the lowest of all the preservatives. It is effective at 0.3%.

Zany_in_CO said:

I've been using this Face Firming Gel with Crothix for a long time.

Click to expand...

UPDATE: There is too much water in this recipe. Anne Marie posted a
NEW VERSION WITH LESS WATER.

Zany_in_CO said:

I've been using this Face Firming Gel with Crothix for a long time.

Click to expand...

Thank you Zany! Looks good, it's kind what I am looking for. I wish I could find it in my country, but by a quick research I couldn't find it among my suppliers. Maybe trying to find the ingredients separated... but who knows the exact amount of each one.

I opened a thread asking for advice on face care and routines, if you could visit it I'd love to read about yours, of course if you want. Looks like you are very informed about ingredients and you use a lot of them in several ways and I find it very interesting!

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/face-routine-and-favourite-ingredients.85486/#post-912878
Edit to thank you for the Cabrini Rose EO Blend, geranium is one of my favourite EOs and as I don't have the Rosewood one, I think I should buy it to give it a try.