Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Is a humectant essential in a face wash formula? And questions about options.

  • Is a humectant essential in a face wash formula? And questions about options.

    Posted by MJL on December 27, 2019 at 7:56 am

    How necessary is it to add a humectant to a face wash formula? Do humectants further reduce the irritation potential of a face wash (obviously in addition to formulating with a proper blend of surfactants for reduced irritation)? 

    Just wondering if it’s worth it to try another humectant. For some reason whenever I use glycerin in my face washes, I get a bunch of whiteheads. My skin somehow does not enjoy hyaluronic acid, either (my post-inflammatory erythema gets super red)…. 

    Can sodium lactate be used in a liquid, surfactant formula?

    MJL replied 4 years, 2 months ago 5 Members · 11 Replies
  • 11 Replies
  • markbroussard

    Member
    December 27, 2019 at 4:07 pm

    @MJL :

    Adding a humectant or refatting agent to a face wash is more beneficial from the perspective of the skin afterfeel … the skin does not feel so “squeaky” clean … you’ll feel this more on your hands than on your face.

    Yes, you can use Sodium Lactate in a cleansing product … the issue is that the surfactants are going to do their job and wash off most of it, so it goes down the drain and not on your face.

    Better to just create a simple, gentle cleanser and then apply a moisturizing serum or cream after cleansing.

  • oldperry

    Member
    December 27, 2019 at 5:34 pm

    I’ve never found humectants to be particularly important in rinse off cleansers.

  • MJL

    Member
    December 27, 2019 at 7:10 pm

    Thank you @MarkBroussard and @Perry, I appreciate this information!

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    December 27, 2019 at 7:30 pm

    I found proteins to work in rinse off products by creating film on skin and reducing irritating potential of surfactants. But those are extremely hard to preserve.

  • MJL

    Member
    December 29, 2019 at 3:43 am

    Thank you for sharing @ngarayeva001!

  • gunther

    Member
    December 29, 2019 at 4:01 am

    Humectants don’t have enough time to act, and don’t cling to skin strongly enough in the short time a rinse off product is used.

    The best thing to reduce irritation is to use milder surfactants, or lesser amount of them.

  • MJL

    Member
    January 5, 2020 at 4:26 am

    Thank you for your input, @Gunther. Right now I’m using sodium cocoyl glycinate at only 1% active surfactant and still finding it a bit drying at times. :-( 

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    January 5, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    By the way if you want to reduce the squeaky clean feel cationics might help a lot. Polyquaternium 10 or 7.

  • MJL

    Member
    January 8, 2020 at 8:42 am

    @ngarayeva001 Thank you for the suggestion! The surfactant I am using thankfully isn’t creating any squeaky clean sensation. My skin feels just fresh, not sucked-dry or anything. But it just seems that my skin is still very irritated by being washed, even with gentle formulas. Hard to avoid washing my face, though, as I get blemishes if I don’t. Finding a solution has proven to be a conundrum.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    January 8, 2020 at 12:55 pm

    @MJL, I am sure there is a way to formulate a face wash that won’t cause issues. I am quite interested in gentle cleansers. What surfactants are you using and how much?

  • MJL

    Member
    January 19, 2020 at 6:14 pm

    @ngarayeva001 I have tried sodium cocoyl glycinate on its own, and sodium cocoyl glutamate on it’s own. Each time I formulated to have just 1% active surfactant concentration in my end product(s).

Log in to reply.