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Detailed Vitamin C serum questions
Hello everyone! I’m trying to make a DIY Vitamin C serum with Ferulic acid and Vitamin E. I’m still working on a final recipe, but this is what I have so far:
30 ml serum - instructions and recipe taken from HolySnails blog, I modified a few ingredients with available ones for me, should last about 3 months(glass amber bottle wrapped in aluminum foil, kept in the fridge):
- Ferulic acid (INCI: ferulic acid) - 0.15gr (0.5%)
- Vitamin E (INCI: tocopherol, helianthus annuus seed oil) - 0.15gr (0.5%)
- Gluconolactone (INCI: Glucono Delta Lactone) - 0.9gr (3%)
- L-Ascorbic Acid - 4.5gr (15%)
- Vegetable glycerin (INCI: glycerin) - 1.5gr (5%)
- Preservative - ??gr - (??%) -> I need to choose one from that list
- Emulsifier - ??gr - (??%) -> I need to choose one from that list
- Solvent for Ferulic acid - ??gr - (??%) ->
- Helichrysum organic water (INCI: helichrysum italicum flower water) - remaining percentage
These are the directions for the serum:1. Measure out all of your ingredients. 2. Heat up a small container with warm water. (I use an old Tupperware container, and microwave some water in it for 1 minute.) 3. Pour the Ferulic Acid and Propylene Glycol into a shotglass, and put it into the water bath. 4. Stir until the Ferulic Acid dissolves completely. (It will turn from cloudy white to a clear, pale yellow.) Allow to cool completely. 5. Combine Tocopherol and Polysorbate 80, stir thoroughly. Set aside. 6. Combine Distilled Water and Sodium Lactate. You can crush the sodium lactate in the water to help dissolve it. Dissolve completely. (It will turn clear.) 7. Add L-Ascorbic Acid to the Distilled Water/Sodium Lactate (Water Phase). Stir until dissolved. 8. Stirring the Water Phase steadily, slowly drizzle in the Oil Phase (Tocopherol/Polysorbate 80). 9. Add Optiphen to the solution. 10. pH test and patch test. My main questions about this recipe are:
1. What emulsifier should I use? This is the list of emulsifiers that are available to order in my country.
2. What preservative should I use? This is the list of preservatives that are available to order in my country.
3. What solvent should I use for the Ferulic acid? Can I use Vodka? If not, what’s a better choice that I can find on elemental.eu?
4. Can I use this Oly Airless bottle instead of the glass amber bottle(with glass dropper pipette)? I’m guessing something airtight would be better than a bottle that I expose to air every single time I use it.
5. Sodium lactate isn’t available for me, can I replace it with something else or just remove it?
6. Since Vitamin C is unstable in water, I can also remove water completely and that would simplify things a lot. What should I substitute it with? And how would the new recipe look like?I was advised to use a chelating agent since I’m using floral water so I went with Gluconolactone. I also have rose water and mint water so I can use those instead of the Immortelle water.
My expectations for this recipe:
- I want to get rid of the boxcar acne scars on my temples that are left by adolescent acne that was quite bad
- I want to get rid of the random red spots and scars left from current random cystic pimples on my face(I’m not 100% sure it’s cystic acne, the pimples get fairly big, they are painful and sometimes I can drain them IF they have a white head on top). They rarely appear and usually it’s manageable, but the bigger they are and the more time they spend on my face(sometimes a week), the more chances they leave behind a red, indented scar.
A little about me:
I’m extremely new at this(I’m not a chemist, nor do I have any background in this field), I’m trying to read up on everything and learn as much as I can. I’m trying to use ingredients that are safe and have no carcinogenic compounds. The recipe above is in no way ironclad. I am entirely flexible as long as the recipe is easy to make and the ingredients can be found on elemental.eu . I have included useful links under the ingredients’ names and throughout my post so it’s easier to navigate and understand the actual ingredients that I plan on using.
Basically all I want is a proper Vit C+Ferulic+Vit E serum that’s safe to use and lasts a couple of months. If anything is unclear about my post, please let me know. Thank you for taking the time to read my really long post and I hope you can help me!
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