Looking to make DIY antioxidant facial topical--suggestions?

[IowaDavid Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close IowaDavid]

The subject says it all. I was thinking of making something with idebenone mixed into it. I'm totally new to this area of skincare, so I'd appreciate any suggestions for ingredients. Would like to keep it relatively simple and non-irritating. (In part, making this as a gift for my sister, too.)

Has anyone used DMSO in topicals?

Thanks for any help.

Best,

David

[hg24 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hg24]

Hi David, realwork has made a topical cream for his redness. He seems quite knowledgeable about skincare ingredients. Maybe you could check in with him. He has a thread on the forum about the cream - as others gave it a try.

[IowaDavid Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close IowaDavid]

Cool. Thanks for the heads up.

[johnabetts Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close johnabetts]

DMSO has to be formulated with great care as it is readily absorbed through the skin, sometimes taking other materials with it. The absorbed material can cause skin and breath malodour (garlicky)

DMSO is banned for cosmetic uses in most countries.

[Tom Busby Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Busby]

Here's a link to a recipe, including sources and photos, for a DIY that's similar to what you want to make: http://myfunnyvalentineblog.com/2011...ns-recipe.html

This recipe is about as simple as possible. It's a cold emulsion and doesn't use the HLB system, so you can probably freely substitute other ingredients and percentages.

Normally though, you should heat the distilled water to 175F and hold that temp for 20 minutes, to have a super-clean product.

I recommend adding the niacinamide to cooling water at 150F, so it is less waxy-feeling. I recommend 2% to 5% niacinamide, and would add panthenol too, at about 75% of the niacinamide, and below 120F. Glycerin at about 3% would be an easy humectant to add also.

Of course, MCT oil instead of borage oil, and oil at 15% would be less shiny than the amount used in the recipe, but you can easily adjust the oil percentage to your personal preference.

The preservative should be 0.5% -- no more, no less. I prefer Optiphen ND. However, the recipe states, "a few drops of preservative," which is too haphazard, and I disagree with this part of the recipe -- you can get 1ml syringes at any pharmacy for free, to measure the preservative-percentage accurately.

As johnabetts said, don't ever use DMSO.

The result in the recipe looks like it will discolor skin, because it's very yellow/orange-colored. This looks like a potential problem, and you might have to look for a work-around. Maybe a drop, or less, of blue food coloring, but then it would probably be light green, and that's only slightly better than yellow/orange.

Be sure to use fresh glassware, because glass is porous, and you must use the glassware and utensils that are dedicated to making cosmetics, only.

Use 10% bleach on all the working surfaces and containers before you start too. Give the bleach about a minute of contact time, and then wipe it off, and let it air dry for about 10 minutes before you start working. Cosmetics can easily go bad if you aren't careful.

It's a very good plan to make your own products, because the results are so much fresher than buying something off the shelf, that's probably been sitting there for a year or more. Manufacturers don't like to talk about shelf life, but any cosmetic more than 2 years old should definitely be thrown away.

[IowaDavid Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close IowaDavid]

Thanks!

[Officalstevenb Member Find all posts View Profile Close Officalstevenb]

Try making a face mask of Spirulina! Google it, very powerful algae. My sister did it for the first time today, wore it for 20 minutes and both our jaws hit the floor once she rinsed it off, the effect was miraculous to say the least. I drink the stuff too, tastes like **** but works well