How to make a cold process under eye serum

When planning to make an under eye serum, you'll probably not think about a W/O emulsion at all. Unless you have worked with Symbiomuls WO that creates extremely light emulsions with a silky feel of O/W emulsions, you can not imagine the nice skin feel a W/O emulsion can create.

I recently decided to make a W/O emulsion as a base for an under eye serum. Symbiomuls WO is a cold process emulsifier (you can use it in a hot process as well if you like). It means I can use whatever heat sensitive ingredients I desire without ebing scared of damaging them during the heating process. This emulsifier creates low viscosity and sprayable emulsions and this is another plus for an under eye emulsion. Well, nobody sprays an emulsion under the eye area but applying this low viscosity emulsion from a roll-on bottle would provide you with an easy and hygienic way to apply the product without any risk of contamination or applying too much pressure.

The only issue of a W/O emulsion under the eye area is a temporary gloss and shine under the eye at the very first minutes after application of the serum. This is no drawback for many consumers and this is no drawback for a night application at all.

This serum is specially helpful for mature and dry skin and for winter time.

Let us go to the formulation and procedure and letting you try this magical serum for yourself.

Disclaimer: If you have followed our previous tutorials for a W/O emulsion, you know that the key point in working with this emulsifier is the slow addition of the water phase to the oil phase while stirring the oil phase. This is where a magnetic stirrer or an overhead stirrer can help you but you can easily manage low volumes (30-150 ml) without any of them and with a spatula.

Formulation

Procedure:

1- Blend phase A and B separately in 2 beakers. Symbiomuls WO is a paste at room temperature and in winter becomes semi-solid. You may need to slightly heat it before using (about 40 ^oC) if your laboratory is cold but there is no need to completely melt it into a fluid.

This is our oil phase before adding the water phase and you can easily distinguish Symbiomuls WO.

2- Adjust the pH of the water phase between 5.2-5.5. In W/O emulsions, the pH of the water phase should be adjusted before blending the two phases. In our case, the pH was 3.9 and we increased the pH by adding a few drops of an arginine (an aminoacid and a weak base) solution. You can do this by adding a NaOH solution (a 25% solution) or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) solution.

3- Very slowly add the water phase to the oil phase while stirring the oil phase.

This is the most important issue when working with Symbiomuls WO

Our oil phase has a very intensive colour. As soon as you start adding water, the colour starts to change and the oil phase becomes turbid.

As you continue adding the water phase to the oil phase the colour fades away and becomes more subtle (I should confess the oil phase on its own doesn't look very luxurious and not very attractive for an under eye serum)

4- When all of the water phase is added to the oil phase use your Blendia for 1-2 minutes to homogenize the emulsion completely.

5- Fill in an emulsion bottle or a roll-on glass and enjoy the feel.

Disclaimer 2: Since this is an under eye serum I didn't use any essential oil in this formulation and I suggest you don't use any either. If you badly want to mask the inherent scent of your ingredients, apply max, 0.2% of a mild EO (considering the dermal limits)

It's your turn now. Don't hesitate to send us your photos, comments and questions. You can post your photos on our Facebook account or tag us (@skinchakra) on Instagram .

BeHappy and have fun