Testing New Face Cream Recipes

 
With the New Year comes the desire to test out all sorts of new products to consider adding to our product line. Some things we've been working on between soap batches:

• Natural deodorant
• Whipped Body Balm
• Solid Lotion Bars
• New Face Creams
• Botanical Salves

Today, I'd like to talk about face creams. I constantly struggle between bringing our clients recipes that contain only 100% natural ingredients: botanical oils, essential oils, limited preservatives, etc. and bringing them products containing cosmetic actives for things like wrinkles and fine lines. My answer is always to create both. Cater to those looking for only natural alternatives as well as those looking for the "actives". If that one cosmetic "active" is in a natural cream base, it's still better than some of those petrochemicals the big companies offer!

Our most recent developments consist of two extreme opposite types of products:
Hibiscus Rose Facial Lotion with Wrinkle Defense Complex - a light lotion base containing a wrinkle complex consisting of Matrixyl™ 3000 and Argireline®. Matrixyl™ 3000 boasts "45% less deep wrinkles after 2 months" while Argireline® tests produced a reduction in deep lines and wrinkles. We've also incorporated jojoba oil, evening primrose oil and avocado oil in this test batch.
Coconut Facial Balm - a rich, luxurious cream with simple, effective ingredients for deep moisturizing. Containing only virgin coconut oil, kukui nut oil, shea butter, glycerin and fragrance, this rich facial balm can be used all over the face, neck and decolletage. It's great for daily moisturizing as well as facial mask applications.

My initial thoughts after testing these two products are mostly positive!
Hibiscus Rose Facial Lotion with Wrinkle Defense Complex - For this lotion, I packaged it in an airless treatment pump. I may or may not change the packaging on this one.  Maybe make it a little thicker and put it in a jar? I also felt this product could be a little more emollient. The spreadability is short and I'd like it to glide a bit more. I used about 5 pumps for full cover and I'd like to get that number down to 2 or 3. We will continually test this product and hopefully bring a short product run to market at an introductory price!
Coconut Facial Balm - This product turned out surprisingly awesome! Thick creams that are mostly oil based always scare me.  I have oily skin but since I've been designing more oils based moisturizers, my skin has been reacting to them wonderfully. This is a very thick balm that needs only a small amount to be effective.  I scoop out a small pea sized amount, warm it in my hands and apply to my entire face and neck. It leaves a soft, dewy look to the skin and takes only a few minutes to nicely soak in. I would like to make this product 100% natural but removing the coconut fragrance and replacing it with an essential oil, but the coconut scent is just so lovely, I'm not sure what to do!

Results? People are constantly coming into the shop and telling me how great my skin looks. It's definitely not flawless, but I thought I'd post some pictures anyways. Here I am fresh out of the shower after applying these new lotions:

So there you have it!  A detailed walk through of our thought process when it comes to making and testing new products.