Ingredients needed to Start making Skincare Products for Beginners
- taralee
- Apr 7, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: May 13, 2022
Here is a list of ingredient that I recommend purchasing for beginners. Of course there are lots of ingredients out there and this is just my opinion from my experience.
With all of these ingredients you can make face wash, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath, shaving cream, lotion/creams, toners/face mists, body butters, serums, face masks, facial oils/body oils, and micellar water. I'm sure you can make more, but these are all the ones I thought of.
Distilled water - you will need this for every aqueous product. You can find it at your local grocery store
Hydrosols - adds a lovely natural scent to products. Each hydrosol also has different benefits for the skin
plant oils - there are so many to choose from. look for ones that suit your skins needs. I really like sunflower oil, safflower oil, jojoba oil, apricot kernel oil, macadamia nut oil, and meadowfoam seed oil
butters - i really like shea butter and cocoa butter
emulsifying wax NF - emulsifier for lotions/creams. very inexpensive, easy to use and easy to find
ritamulse SCG / ecomulse - ecocert alternative to emulsifying wax NF. This is one of my favorite emulsifiers
cetyl alcohol or cetearyl alcohol - used as a co emulsifier, emollient, thickener, and improves the texture of emulsions. you can also use these in emulsified body scrubs too.
glycerin - humectant that hydrates the skin. this stuff is in almost every product out there. Definitely a must!
botanical extracts - there are so many to choose from. so look through them and choose the ones that suit your skins needs. Suppliers always have a description on what the benefits of each extract is so just read about them before making the purchase. I really like cucumber, chamomile, green tea, & willow bark.
xanthan gum soft - highly recommend this xanthan gum over any other xanthan gum. It doesn't chuck up and it isn't as gummy and just feels better on the skin. Xanthan gum can be used to thicken face washes & body washes. You can use them to gel a serum and they are often used as stabilizers in lotions/creams. You can use them as thickeners in shampoos, but I personally don't like to.
crothix - this is what I like to use as my thickener for shampoos. You can also use it to thicken face washes, body washes and even bubble baths.
liquid germall plus - easiest preservative to use for beginners. This is great for basically every aqueous product out there. It isn't recommend to be used in aerosol products so you may not want to use it in face mists. You can use optiphen plus instead. The reason I don't suggest liquid germall plus over optiphen plus is because I really don't recommend using it in emulsions for beginners. So you can get far more use out of the liquid germall plus than optiphen plus.
optiphen - preservative for anhydrous products like body butters and sugar scrubs.
AOS 40 - my favorite foaming/cleansing liquid anionic surfactant. It produces great lather and is sulfate free. Can use in face washes, body washes, shampoo, and bubble baths.
coco glucoside or decyl glucoside - coco glucoside is my favorite nonionic foaming/cleansing surfactant. I've never worked with decyl glucoside, but it's very similar. They both can solubilize a small amount of oil into water. So if you are making a face wash or body wash and want to add in a tiny bit of oil or fragrance oil, just mix it with this first before adding it into the formulation. They are also very gentle and mild. Perfect to pair with an anionic surfactant or use on their own for a mild cleanser. You can also use them for micellar waters.
cocamidopropyl betaine - my favorite foaming/cleansing amphoteric surfactant. Pairs great with AOS 40 to make face washes, body washes, shampoos, and bubble baths.
BTMS 50 or ICE hair restore - BTMS 50 is a cationic surfactant that also acts an emulsifier. You can use this stuff to make lovely hair conditioners and shaving creams. It also can be used to make lotions/creams. ICE hair restore is similar to BTMS 50 as in they both create conditioners and shaving creams and they emulsify, but ICE hair restore does not need to be heated and melted. You can just mix it right in. So if you want to make instant hair conditioners this is your guy. Although I don't believe you can use it to make lotions and creams like you can with BTMS 50 since it doesn't say anything about that in the formulating guidelines and I've never tried it.
fragrance oils / essential oil - just keep in mind that there are some photo toxic essential oils out there that aren't recommend to be left on the skin. So make sure you aren't using those in leave on products. I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding both of these, but you do you.
HMW hyaluronic acid 1-1.5 million daltons - hyaluronic acid hydrates the skin and helps plump the skin. This is a lovely ingredient for all skin types especially mature skin. A HMW(high molecular weight) hyaluronic acid, specifically the one with a molecular weight of 1-1.5 million daltons creates gorgeous serums.
sepimax zen - instead of hyaluronic acid you could use this. It creates gorgeous serums as well, but it can emulsify oil and water. So if you are wanting to create a serum that includes oil. This is your guy. You can also use it to make face washes and body washes.
arrowroot powder - a must have if you are making anhydrous body butters. Body butters can be super oily, so this stuff will help get rid of that oiliness a bit.
hydrolyzed proteins - add conditioning effects to your products. Can be used in lotions, creams, conditioners, shampoos, toners, body washes, face washes, etc. There are lots of different kinds. My favorite is wheat protein, but I also enjoy rice protein and oat protein.
polysorbate 80 or poly suga mulse D9 - if you want to make something like a toner or face mist and add in a little bit of oil to it then you can use one of these to solubilize the oil into the water. Poly suga mulse D9 is an ecocert ingredient. Polysorbate 80 is not, but the perk of polysorbate 80 is that it can actually solubilize a larger amount of oil.
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