Avocado winter facial cream recipe with lecithin and beeswax as emulsifiers

The winter is behind the door, the weather is rainy, windy and cold. A real challenge for our skin.

Soon, there will be snow and we will go skiing and there will be a lot of sun. One more reason to make a protective winter facial cream.

 

How to design a winter facial cream?

 

  • A protective facial cream should be greasy enough to make a layer protecting from cold and wind – therefore I designed a recipe with 50% of oils. Such a high proportion of oils allows us to use only lecithin and beeswax as emulsifiers, which makes the cream very natural.

 

[A side note: Although not considered a real emulsifier, beeswax is a co-emulsifier and helps stabilize emulsions. At least this is what I have read in books on cosmetics formulations.

It is also a main emulsifier in cold creams - creams with high proportion of oils. From my experience, it works well for creams with high proportion of oils, although such an emulsion is difficult to make and may need a very intense mixing - which means that the physical emulsification plays a big role in creating the emulsion. 

Also to my experience, in combination with lecithin it creates an emulsifier system for around 1:1 oil vs water recipes, such as this one]

 

  • We want the oil to have skin repairing properties.

 

  • We want a little bit of sun protection, too

 

Avocado and macadamia nut oil are the ideal candidates for our purpose.

Avocado oil thanks to its high phytosterol content is used in cosmetics as a skin repairing, moisturizing oil that regenerates skin cells and is used in anti-aging creams and creams for sensitive and dry skin.  I had at home avocado butter, which is pretty much the same thing as oil, just that it was mixed with some hydrogenated vegetable oil to make it butter.

Macadamia oil  – similarly to avocado butter is used in anti-wrinkle creams and is skin regenerating.  Is a bit less greasy than avocado oil.

Both oils have mild sunscreen properties.

 

For the water phase, I decided to use rose water. First, it smells nice, second it has some nice, skin calming properties.

 

I will elaborate on all ingredients more in detail in some of my future posts.

 

The recipe was similar to my Maringold hand protection cream ,  just in this case I hand stirred the recipe – yes, it is possible!

 

Avocado-macadamia protective winter facial cream recipe

 
Phase Ingredient % g oz
A Rose water 48% 45 g (~1.5 TBP) 1.59 oz
A Lecithin granules 3%   3g   0.1 oz
B Avocado butter 21.5% 20g g 0.7 oz
B Macadamia oil 21.5%   20 g 0.7 oz
B Beeswax 5% 5 g   0.18 oz
C Preservative of choice 1% 1g 0.035oz

 

Instructions

 

0. Do sterilize all your utensils, bowls/pots and cream containers. This can be done by:

  • boiling in water for 10-15 minutes (beware of non-heat proof plastic containers)
  • or by soaking everything in a chlorine tablet solution (the kind you use to sterilize baby bottles)
  • by 70% alcohol solution

1. Let soak lecithin granules in the rose water (1/2 an hour should be sufficient for this quantity)

 

 

2.In another pot melt gently avocado butter and beeswax in the macadamia oil. Beware not to overheat (80°C, 176°F)

 

3. Heat the rose water with soaked lecithin to 70°C (158°F).

 

4. Slowly pour the oil phase to the rose water with lecithin and stir until emulsion takes place.

It is important to stir until the emulsion reaches room temperature – mainly when hand stirring!

 

You can help the cooling down by placing your bowl to cold water. However – do not cease stirring, if you cease stirring before the emulsion cools down, it can separate (if this does happen, stir faster or switch to a mixer)

 

Emulsifying with beeswax and lecithin can be tricky and requires much of physical stirring.

 

 

This gives around two small 50g (1.8.oz) containers.

 

I tried this recipe last year when snowshoeing – I applied the cream before leaving the house on me and my fiancé.

 

Results – 5 hours from 12:00PM to 5 PM snowshoeing on the snow planes, full sun. My skin was not burned, I felt it very nice and felt protected. I loved it!

 

PS: Do you like my recipe? What is your experience with lecithin and beeswax as emulsifiers?

Leave me your the comments below, I will be happy to read it!

 

Have a nice day,

Evik

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