This hydrating hand wash is pretty simple to make, even for a beginner. It is formulated to be hydrating, which is a must have in the winter. The hardest part is just making sure that you put the ingredients together in the right order, otherwise you’ll end up with a mess.
Table of Contents
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Hand Wash Ingredients
Distilled Water
We to be sure that we use distilled water and not tap water. Simply put, not all water is created equal.
Vegetable Glycerin
We use vegetable glycerin to help with the hydration in this hand wash. Vegetable glycerin draws water to itself and will draw moisture to your skin.
Avocado Oil
The carrier oil that I used in this recipe is avocado oil, this can be changed out for any carrier oil that you prefer. We use this at a relatively low percentage because it does cut down on some of the bubbling in our hand wash. It is used to help add oils back to our hands and also as a wetting agent for the xanthan gum.
Xanthan Gum
We use the xanthan gum to help to thicken up the hand wash. Xanthan gum thickens to a gel like consistency. I like to use less than 2% in most recipes.
Coco Glucoside
Our first surfactant is coco glucoside. Surfactants are what create the bubbles in the hand wash. It is a gentle non-ionic surfactant that is plant based.
Caprylyl Capryl Glucoside
The second surfactant that we will be using is caprylyl caprly glucoside. This is also a non-ionic surfactant that is all natural.
Pink Grapefruit and Citrus Fragrance Oil
The Pink Grapefruit and Citrus fragrance oil smells soooooo good.
Optiphen Plus
Whenever you are adding water into a formula, it is essential that you use a preservative. I used optiphen plus in this recipe, but you can use which ever one you prefer or have on hand. If you do not use a preservative, your hand wash is going to be growing some pretty nasty gunk.
Wetting The Xanthan Gum
Have you ever put flour into water and it clumps up. Like the water hit the outside of it and now its small clumps? Xanthan gum can act the same way. In order to get this to mix in easily without the use of a high sheer hand mixer, you hydrate it.
Water will cause the xanthan gum to clump, but if you mix it in with an oil – it does not clump. You can also do this in the vegetable glycerin. This breaks the barrier between the gum and the water.
Mixing Order Matters
Even after the xanthan gum is hydrated, if you pop the slurry into your water, it turns to fish eggs. Little bubbles of oil and gum that will not easily mix.
Instead, you want to mix the xanthan gum slurry in with your surfactants first. The gum will get even more hydrated and will easily mix into the hand wash.
Making Hydrating Hand Wash
1. Weigh out all of your ingredients.
2. Mix the water and vegetable glycerin together and set aside.
3. Mix the avocado oil with the xanthan gum. You want to make sure you mix this very well. Set aside.
4. Grab a mixing container. Add the coco glucoside and caprylyl capryl glucoside to the mixing container.
5. Add the avocado and xanthan gum slurry to the surfactacts.
6. Mix well.
7. Add fragrance oil and mix again.
8. Add the distilled water and vegetable glycerin mixture to the surfactant mixture.
9. Mix well. Note, that this is going to start thickening up very quickly.
10. Add the preservative and mix it in well.
11. Place the hydrating hand wash into a piping bag. (Or you can use a baggie and cut a corner out).
12. Pipe the hand wash into your container.
13. Place the lid on and enjoy.
Hydrating Hand Wash Recipe
Hydrating Hand Wash
Equipment
- Scale
- Mixing bowl
- Spatula
Ingredients
Phase A
- 6.55 ounce | 65.45% Distilled Water
- 0.40 ounce | 4% Vegetable Glycerin
Phase B
- 0.50 ounce | 5% Avocado Oil
- 0.17 ounce | 1.7% Xanthan Gum
Phase C
- 1.00 ounce | 10% Coco Glucoside
- 1.00 ounce | 10% Caprylyl Capryl Glocoside
- 0.24 ounce | 2.35% Pink Grapefruit and Citrus Fragrance OIl
- 0.15 punce | 1.5% Optiphen Plus
Instructions
- Weigh out all of your ingredients.
- Mix the avocado oil with the xanthan gum. You want to make sure you mix this very well. Set aside.
- Grab a mixing container. Add the coco glucoside and caprylyl capryl glucoside to the mixing container.
- Add the avocado and xanthan gum slurry to the surfactacts.
- Mix well.
- Add fragrance oil and mix again.
- Add the distilled water and vegetable glycerin mixture to the surfactant mixture.
- Mix well. Note, that this is going to start thickening up very quickly.
- Add the preservative and mix it in well.
- Place the hydrating hand wash into a piping bag. (Or you can use a baggie and cut a corner out).
- Pipe the hand wash into your container.
- Place the lid on and enjoy.
2 thoughts on “Hydrating Hand Wash”
It came out with pH of 9. Is that right?
Yes, just be sure to check yours and raise or lower as needed.
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