Face toner caused burning and tingling sensation. Help!

Formulating

Face toner caused burning and tingling sensation. Help!

Posted by Mrs_ditdut on October 27, 2018 at 1:04 pm

So recently I made a face toner and then asked a couple of my friends to try them out, most feedback came back that this face toner cause burning and tingling sensation. I tried it myself, but only felt slightly warm, I wonder what went wrong? Did I went overboard with the extract?

Here is the ingredient for my face toner.

(47.5%) Water
(30%) Aloe Vera Liquid
(15%) Cucumber Hydrosol

(2%) Butylene Glycol
(2%) Glycerin
(1%) Allantoin Liquid

(1%) Panax Ginseng Extract

(0.5%) Hydrolyzed Rice Protein

(0.2%) Sodium Gluconate

(0.8%) Optiphen Plus

Thank you.

Mrs_ditdut replied 6 years, 4 months ago 5 Members · 10 Replies
10 Replies

Mrs_ditdut

Member
October 27, 2018 at 1:41 pm

#update

One of my friends have sensitive skin, after using this toner her skin turns reddish (also with slight burning sensation).

What is likely to be the culprit here ? Any reply will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much
belassi

Member
October 27, 2018 at 2:42 pm

In order of probability, my opinion is:
1. allantoin
2. aloe vera at 30%
3. ginseng
MarkBroussard

Professional Chemist / Formulator
October 27, 2018 at 5:23 pm

It’s most likely the Sorbic Acid in the Optiphen Plus causing a flushing reaction. Try changing your preservative to something without a sorbate in it.
Mrs_ditdut

Member
October 27, 2018 at 11:31 pm

Belassi said:

In order of probability, my opinion is:
1. allantoin
2. aloe vera at 30%
3. ginseng

Thank you so much for your input.

Since I’m using allantoin extract in liquid form, the supplier inform me that I need to up my dose in comparion with the powder form to reach the same efficacy. Since the original formulation requires 0.5% of allantoin, then I’m using 1% when I’m using the allantoin liquid extract. Is this still too high?

As for the aloe vera liquid, I haven’t received the complete inci yet from the supplier, however the description of the product stated that it is okay to use the liquid itself topically undiluted, so I figure 30% is okay.

Should I lower the panax ginseng extract percentage to.. 0.5% ? What do you think ?
Mrs_ditdut

Member
October 27, 2018 at 11:39 pm

MarkBroussard said:

It’s most likely the Sorbic Acid in the Optiphen Plus causing a flushing reaction. Try changing your preservative to something without a sorbate in it.

Thank you so much for your input.

I don’t have much preservative at my disposal, other than optiphen+ what I can use are Dermosoft 1388 ECO, liquid germall plus and optiphen. What is the more suitable preservative for my formulation?

If you see in my formulation, I’m using a bunch of extract that contain phenoxyethanol as some sort of preservation system, could this contribute to the burning effect that my toner has?
EVchem

Member
October 29, 2018 at 2:25 pm

I’m curious why no one has mentioned the 15% Cucumber Hydrosol. Does it have any alcohol in it? If it’s steam distilled I might suspect it even more.

Anecdotally, I recently made a product with 5% Cucumber hydrosol and while it doesn’t seem to bother my skin, one of my testers said it reddened hers.
Doreen

Member
October 29, 2018 at 2:25 pm

@MarkBroussard
It’s most likely the Sorbic Acid in the Optiphen Plus causing a flushing reaction. Try changing your preservative to something without a sorbate in it.

I second that. Sorbates (potassium salt or the acid) causes flushing for me too.
Mrs_ditdut

Member
November 1, 2018 at 12:14 pm

EVchem said:

I’m curious why no one has mentioned the 15% Cucumber Hydrosol. Does it have any alcohol in it? If it’s steam distilled I might suspect it even more.

Anecdotally, I recently made a product with 5% Cucumber hydrosol and while it doesn’t seem to bother my skin, one of my testers said it reddened hers.

I use the same cucumber hydrosol undiluted for my face and it doesn’t sting at all, the supplier also mention that it doesn’t contain any alcohol. However, it is steam distilled, should it contain alcohol then?
EVchem

Member
November 1, 2018 at 3:16 pm

no not necessarily. I meant that in steam distillation you are collecting a lot of small molecule/volatile components and those are usually potential irritants.

Hydrosol is defined as water distillation, but I’ve seen alcohol used in hydrosols to help carry over some less hydrophilic components, or it could be used in high amounts to preserve
Mrs_ditdut

Member
November 2, 2018 at 11:07 pm

EVchem said:

no not necessarily. I meant that in steam distillation you are collecting a lot of small molecule/volatile components and those are usually potential irritants.

Hydrosol is defined as water distillation, but I’ve seen alcohol used in hydrosols to help carry over some less hydrophilic components, or it could be used in high amounts to preserve

Thank you for the information, that really helps a lot.

Does the risk of potential irritants can be reduced by using a chelating agent on the formulation? Or what I have to do is simply lower the percentage of hydrosol in this formula?

Thank you