As far as we are concerned, vitamin C is the most powerful ingredients for your skin. I have few simple vitamin C serum that you can refer to. It is super easy that only require 3 raw materials.
Last week, I played around with my new emulsifier which is a combination of Glyceryl Stearate and PEG100 Stearate. I have been eyeing on this emulsifier for quite sometime. Finally, I bought it when I run out my old emulsifier. I have been using this for my body lotion and my serum. This time, I used this for vitamin C and E serum.
Vitamin E is classified as hydrophobic which mean it has low solubility in water. You can use solubiliser or emulsifier to dissolve vitamin E. I used emulsifier combination of Glyceryl Stearate and PEG100 Stearate.
This light serum absorbs quickly and did not dry out my skin. I also mixed this serum with jojoba oil and rice bran oil. I always thought that rice bran oil is very expensive because I saw many expensive skincare that only use rice bran oil, it turned out that rice bran oil is cheaper than jojoba oil. You can also use any other carrier oils.
I have limited the use of my carrier oil to maximum of 10% and vitamin E to maximum of 0.5%. I did try to use it for 1% but my emulsifier itself is not able to soluble 1% vitamin E. If you look ata most of vitamin C serum, they use Laureth 23 to soluble vitamin E. However, I was not able to find it in Australia. If you could find Laureth 23, you could use 1% of vitamin E.
Feel free to modify this recipe as you like. If you have sensitive skin, you might need to start using 5% vitamin C then gradually increase the concentration.
Vitamin C and E serum
Ingredients
Phase I
- 67.5 % Distilled Water
- 15 % Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
- 6 % Propanediol
Phase II
- 4 % Emulsifier (Glyceryl Stearate & PEG 100 Stearate)
- 3 % Jojoba Oil
- 3 % Rice Bran Oil
Phase III
- 0.5 % Tocopherol
- 1 % Preservatives
Instructions
Phase I
- Combine all ingredients of phase I and heat it to 70°
Phase II
- Combine all ingredients of phase II and heat it to 70°
- Combine heated phase I and II
Phase III
- Let it cool to room temperature before adding all phase III ingredients
- Add all ingredients in phase III and combine them
- Check pH to ensure it is less than 3.5