Frankincense Calendula Facial Lotion

Frankincense Calendula Facial Lotion is a fairly lightweight lotion for soothing and regenerating your skin! Frankincense essential oil is a gentle “balancer” for oily skin, and it also helps to restore aging skins, keep wrinkles at bay, and may smooth out some existing ones! Its restorative, regenerating, and rejuvnating actions are especially useful for drying, mature, and/or sensitive skin. Frankincense accelerates the healing of blemishes and inflammations. 

To make this lovely facial lotion, I’m also include: 

Calendula Extract, is known for its soothing properties and helps speed healing. It is rich in antioxidants and can help reduce swelling and moisturize the skin. Calendula stimulates the growth of new skin cells. 

Next, xanthan gum has been the most common used thickener for formulation. However, I replaced it with Acacia Gum, which is also a natural gum, made from the hardened sap of two species of Acacia tree: Acacia seyal/Acacia senegal tree. This gum is dispersible in the aqueous base, and it is known for its strong ability to adhere to hydrophobic liquids and solids. It can also help with emulsion stability. Excellent addition to skincare products as it creates a very thin layer on the skin, restricting dehydration.

Less is more, and you probably don’t need a lot for each application. To protect the integrity of the lotion from undergoing unwanted consistency change, a small percentage of Disodium EDTA is added to the formula to primarily work as a co-preservative, chelator, and improve product stability. 

Other Key Ingredients 

Almond oil is a mild, non-drying, hypoallergenic oil that can be used on sensitive skin or dry acne-prone skin due to its emollient properties. It helps to reduce itching, irritation, and inflammation, and it is soothing and smoothes dry skin. Almond oil is very lubricating and lingers on the skin, protecting the surface of the skin. It protects skin against UV radiation damage and keeps skin soft and supple. It is great for regenerating skin cells because it penetrates damaged cells and softens them, allowing for better hydration. 

Apricot Oil is similar to sweet almond oil in that it is easily absorbed. As it absorbs into the skin well, it is anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, antioxidant, and antibacterial, which makes it a valuable ally against acne-causing bacteria. It is softening and moisturizing when used on the skin. It is a light oil that penetrates the top layers of the skin at a reasonable speed. Apricot oil is helpful for dry, itchy skin.

Raw or unrefined shea butter is a natural fat obtained from dried fruits of the shea tree. It has anti-inflammatory and wonderful for skin regeneration, smooths skin. Shea butter is the perfect moisturizing and anti-aging option. It is a humectant, bringing moisture from the air to the skin, making it useful during the cold, dry winter months. It smoothes wrinkles, soothes the redness that comes from being out in the elements, and stimulates the skin to produce more collagen.

Polawax provides excellent stability and is very easy to use. In lotions and creams, it functions as an all-in-one emulsifier, allows for stable emulsions without the need for a co-emulsifier or stabilizer. It also contributes some thickening. The emulsion form using Polawax is usually beautifully smooth and shiny. 

Frankincense Calendula Facial Lotion

Frankincense Calendula Facial LotionJo

recipes: Face Care/Moisturizer

Tools & Equipment Needed
0.1g / 0.01g digital weighing scales
Glass beakers
Bain-marie/double-boiler
Spatula
A thermometer
pH strip / pH meter
Airless Pump

Ingredients

For: 50 grams

Water Phase

• 35 g Distilled water | 70%
• 1.5 g glycerin | 3%
• 0.15 g Acacia Gum | 0.3%
• 0.1 g Disodium EDTA | 0.2%

Oil Phase

• 2.5 g Almond Oil | 5%
• 2.5 g Apricot Oil | 5%
• 2.25 g Refined Shea Butter | 4.5%
• 2.5 g Polawax | 5%

Cool Down Phase

• 0.25 g vitamin E | 0.25%
• 0.25 g frankincense essential oil | 0.25%
• 2.5 g Calendula Extract (Liquid) | 2.5%
• 0.5 g Preservative | 0.5%

PH Modifier (if needed)

• Critic Acid
• Sodium Bicarbonate (baking powder)

Instructions

1. Weigh and place all oil phase ingredients into a heat resistant beaker.
2. In another beaker, weigh and place all water phase ingredients
3. Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a saucepan.
4. Heat the two beakers in a bain-marie (70-75 ° C) until the oil phase is completely melted, and the water phase is thoroughly dissolved.
5. Remove the the beakers from the heat
6. Pour the water phase into the oil phase
7. For a small batch like this, use an electric mini whisk to stir continuously for about 5 minutes. If you don’t have a smaller high-speed mixer, you can try making a 100g batch instead of 50g, so you have enough product for your immersion blender like this one to work with
8. Cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. Prepare all the cool down phase ingredients into another small beaker
9. Allow the lotion to cool. When the mix is under 40C, add cool down phase ingredients and mix well after each addition using a flexible silicone spatula
10. Check that the pH using a pH strip or pH meter, check that the cream has a pH range that is compatible with your chosen preservative. This range is generally indicated by the supplier of the preservative. If your pH isn’t in a suitable range, you can lower it by adding an acid or raise it by adding sodium hydroxide or sodium bicarbonate.
11. Finally, blend in the preservative
12. Once the lotion is cooled, transfer the lotion into the airless pump bottle using a syringe.

Notes

1. Because this cream contains water, you MUST include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. In the event, you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
2. A formula should be written in the percentage of ingredients as well as grams. Our popular formulation calculator can be used to convert from percentages to weight easily. It also gives you a warning alert if any of the category ingredients are out of the recommended range to make sure the ratios between the ingredients are as desired.
3. People with allergies should avoid using sweet almond oil. You can replace almond oil with other carrier oils. 
4. You could use a different emulsifier and make sure it is an oil-in-water emulsifier as Polawax is a very stable emulsifier, so you don’t need any co-emulsifier. If you use a different emulsifier, you may need to add a co-emulsifier like cetyl alcohol or cetearyl alcohol.
5. I will not encourage to replace calendula extract, however, If you are using calendula extract for skin-soothing properties, consider a chamomile hydrosol or aloe vera juice and add to the water phase 

Buy it from an online DIY ingredient supplier or Amazon.