Lecithin meets Plantasens HE20: a cleansing milk that doesn't feel greasy

I really love experimenting with ingredients and one of my favourite exeriments is blending emulsifiers.

For this mild cleansing milk I've blended sunflower lecithin which is not only and amazing natural emulsifier, but a skin feel enhancer with Plantasens® HE20 which is my favourite replacement for Olivem® 1000 when it comes to an easy to apply emulsifier.

Lecithin could be both a W/O and O/W emulsifier depending on how you apply it. For this experiment and since I wanted it to work in an O/W emulsion, I dispersed it in the water phase. Lecithin needs however time to fully hydrate and become hydrophilic.

I've prepared a low-oil and mild cleansing emulsion and added three natural surfactants, yucca extract, coco glucoside and Disodium/Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate. 

I usually do not add much extracts or hydrosols to a rinse-off product and did the same here but you're free to boost your formulation with your plant extracts or hydrosols.

I made this recipe in a hot-hot-cold method and heated the ingredients as little as possible and as much as necessary.

Before we start I want to recommend you to read our older posts: hygienic manufacturing practice in cosmetic lab and introduction to Basic equipments and utensils for a cosmetic lab.

Here is the recipe:

Phase A:

Freshly boiled distilled water    25.0%

sunflower lecithin              3.0%

Phase B:

 Plantasens® HE20          8.0%

Organic castor oil                         5.0%

Tocopherol                                   0.5%

Sucrose cocoate                           2.0%

Coco glucoside, glyceryl oleate   2.0%

Phase C:

Organic perilla seed oil              2.0%

Rosemary CO2 extract              0.1%

Phase D:

Freshly boiled distilled water     to 100.0%

Panthenol                                          0.5%

Dermofeel® PA3                              0.1%

Phase E:

Tara gum                                           0.5%

Xanthan gum                                     0.2%

Sclerotium                                        0.1%

Natural Glycerine 99,5%                4.0%

Phase F:

coco glucoside                         5.0%

Disodium/Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate  7.0%

yucca extract                                        3.0%

Phase G:

Euxyl® K903                                    1.0%

Lactic acid 80%     ca. 1.0 gr to adjust the pH

Manuka oil                                          0.1%

Procedure:

1- Disperse lecithin in water. This takes up to a few hours. A magnetic stirrer would be excellent for this purpose but don't worry, if you have none, just stir it with a spatula every now and then until all of the lecithin is hydrated and swelled.

2-After lecithin is hydrated, add ingredients of phase B. Plantasens is solid at room temperature and would not blend with other ingredients completely but don't worry.

3- Put the beaker containing Phase A+B in a water bath at 65-70 degrees celsius and stir the blend every now and then

4- When plantasens is melted stop heating and take your beaker out of water bath. Blend the ingredients with a spatula, hand whisk or an overhead blender.

5- Now add perilla seed oil and phase D and stir completely. You can observe a pre-emulsion at this stage

6- Homogenize for 1-4 minutes depending on your homogenizer and batch size.

7- Disperse the gums in 99.5% glycerine and add this slowly and gradually to the emulsion while stirring the emulsion with a whisk or spatula. The blend immediately thickens

8- Blend the surfactants of phase F in a separate beaker. Do not use any stick blender, a spatula is sufficient. You want to avoid excessive foaming.

9- Gently and little by little add the surfactant blend to the emulsion. Stir very gently with a whisk or spatula.

10- First add lactic acid to adjust the pH to about 5.5. Add the preservative and measure the pH once more. the pH should be around 5.0-5.5, add more lactic acid if necessary (or sodium hydroxide if the pH is too low)

11- Add the essential oil , take your micro kit sample and fill in a suitable lotion bottle.

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