How to Make a Lavender Facial Wash for Acne Prone Skin

Facial cleansers are a fairly simple thing to make, and can include lots of lovely additions. Here is a basic one to get you started.

Formula – 200ml batch
Phase A
63.4% (126.8g) Distilled Water – Solvent, Hydrating.
10% (20g) Aloe Vera Juice – improves skin appearance, anti-inflammatory.
5% (10g) Cocamidopropyl Betaine - surfactant
4% (8g) Vegetable Glycerine - humectant
0.5% (1g) Solagum AX – thickening (Use Xanthan Gum Soft if you can’t find Solagum AX)
0.1% (0.2g) Purple Mica - colour

Phase B
7% (14g) Safflower Oil – Good at cleansing
4% (8g) Emulsifying wax - all in one emulsifier
2% (4g) Cetyl Alcohol – Moisturising, helps dry skin, gives a nice product feel
Phase C
1.5% (3g) Preservative K – Broad spectrum preservative which works with clays when correct level found (INCI: Benzyl alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium sorbate, Aqua, Tocopherol)
1% (2g) Saccharide Isomerate Plus – This is an intensive moisturizer that has a skin identical structure allowing it to work to hydrate the skin even when the product is rinsed off.
1% (2g) Kaolin Clay – powerful cleanser
0.5% (1g) Lavender essential Oil – soothes the skin, moisturizes, non-comedogenic, anti-bacterial to help with breakouts.

Method:
Mix the mica and Solagum AX into the Glycerine.
Add other Phase A ingredients to a beaker and stir. Then add to the Glycerine mixture and stir to combine.
Weigh all phase B ingredients into a separate beaker.
Weight your water phase and make a note.
Heat both phases A and B in a Bane Marie until phase B has melted and both Phases are around the same temperature.
Take off the heat and weigh your water phase, replacing any that has evaporated.
Pour phase A into phase B and sheer mix with a stick blender to form an emulsion.
Cool to 40 degrees C and add in your cool down ingredients and stir by hand to combine thoroughly.
Take the pH, you will need a pH of 5-5.5 for the preservative to be effective.

Notes:
It’s tough to get preservatives to work with clay products. They tend to draw the preservative in and cause it to lose its effect. After chatting with the manufacturer. 1.5% seems to mean it remains effective, but you’d need to do your own challenge testing to be sure. Otherwise, just leave out the Kaolin clay and replace with more oil or water.
You could also use Lavender hydrolat instead of water if you wish.

Disclaimer: These formulas and recipes are experiments created for the purpose of sharing on Patreon and YouTube. Revega does not make any claims as to their qualifications or the efficacy of the formulations which are listed here for entertainment purposes and accepts no responsibility for how you use these. We are self-taught and offer these videos from our years of knowledge and experience in making our own cosmetic products.
Remember that if you intend to use one of these formulations for your own product range, do your own research, experiments, adjustments and tests before using, gifting or selling.