The skin on your body that’s exposed most often – think hands, arms, face, and neck – is most prone to showing signs of aging. This can be due to trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL) causing dry skin. It’s also due to sun damage.
What’s a girl to do? There are many wonderful oils and butters and additives that will help combat dry skin and sun damage. Let’s make a lotion suitable for this purpose.
I will base this lotion on Borage Oil, which is full of wonderful GLA, gamma-linolenic fatty acid. This fatty acid has been deeply researched and is great for preventing TEWL by strengthening the protective barriers of our skin.
Shea Butter is another skin-loving powerhouse, so we’ll include it. The butter’s high Vitamin E content helps soften skin, which assists in combating TEWL. Shea butter also contains allantoin, which helps prevent and protect chafed, chapped, cracked, or windburned skin by speeding up the natural healing processes of the skin and increasing the water content. All these things add up to younger-looking skin.
Squalane is a vegetable-based substance that is a cousin to squalene, a naturally-occurring substance found in human skin. Squalane makes a big difference in a product without needing to use a lot. It’s great for helping skin heal from damage from sun or the elements – perfect for this application!
Rounding out our lotion formula will be Conditioning Emulsifier for a velvety finish, Glycerin as a humectant, and Liquid Germall Plus to preserve the lotion. We’ll add a bit of fragrance, too. I like Tassi Lavender Fragrance Oil for this lotion.
Join me in the workroom to craft this lotion that will bless our aging skin and help stave off the signs of aging on younger skin.
What You’ll Need
SuppliesBorage Oil |
EquipmentScale |
Formula
71% Distilled Water
10% Borage Oil
5% Shea Butter
5% Squalane
4% Conditioning Emulsifier
4% Glycerin
0.5% Liquid Germall Plus
0.5% Tassi Lavender Fragrance Oil
100-gram Test Batch71 grams Distilled Water |
16-ounce Batch11.36 ounces Distilled Water |
Instructions
Weigh all ingredients but the preservative and fragrance into a microwave-safe container. Heat gently, using short time bursts and stirring after each heating, until ingredients are melted.
Use a stick blender to mix the lotion into an emulsion. Check the temperature; cool mixture below 120ºF before adding the preservative and fragrance.
Once everything is mixed well, pour the lotion into bottles. Allow it to cool completely in the bottle before adding a lid. Label and enjoy.
 Ingredients before melting. |
 Consistency of cooled lotion. |
Notes
My idea with this lotion is that it can be used on the face as well as all the other places that tend to show signs of aging. Because of the multi-use aspect, I wanted it to be a lighter lotion. I was sad to see that a lighter lotion was not what I got. Instead, this formula was fairly thick after cooling below 120ºF, and I had to do a lot of tapping of the funnel to get it to flow into the bottles. It’s not quite thick enough to put into jars, but it’s definitely not the light formula I wanted.
What to do? I thought I should decrease the amount of Conditioning Emulsifier, but our Technical Support Team pointed out that Shea Butter has a very stiff fatty acid profile and thickens up things in a hurry. After learning that, I would decrease the amount of Shea Butter from 5% to 2% and add the extra 3% to the water. Alternatively, I could choose another butter like Almond Butter. I think either would bring me the fluidity I was looking for in this formula.
