How to make cream without emulsifiers and oils: creating a cream-gel emulsion

Everyone is used to the fact that a cream is an emulsion. And to obtain it, at least three components are required - an aqueous phase, a fatty phase and an emulsifier. But what if we tell you how to make a cream without using emulsifiers and oils? And no, it will not be a serum with thickeners. After all, no gel can create the necessary occlusion on the skin.

What is a pseudo-emulsion or cream-gel emulsion

In the cosmetics industry, there is such a product as a cream-gel. Usually, such products are adored by owners of oily or combination skin. Cream-gels are light, with a delicate texture, they literally melt on the skin and do not weigh it down.

Cream-gels are a kind of pseudo-emulsions that are created with the help of gelling agents that have light emulsifying properties. If you examine a pseudo-emulsion under a microscope, you can see a network created by the gelling agent, and inside there will be drops of oil. Moreover, the drop of "oil in water" itself will be much larger than in a direct emulsion. Pseudoemulsion has all the properties of a cream, it is easy to make at home even without heating. But it can only be obtained using certain gelling agents. And in the Beurre store you can buy the following: Lecigel, Sepimaz ZEN and Aristoflex AVC.

Lecigel and Aristoflex AVC - thickeners for cream without emulsifiers

These gelling agents are very different from each other and let's look deeper. Aristoflex AVC is a neutralized cross-linked copolymer of acrylamide propylpropane sulfonic acid and vinylpyrrolidone, and Lecigel is a gelling agent based on phospholipids and Sodium Acrylates Copolymer. However, both of them are capable of retaining about 15-20% of the fatty phase (along with fat-soluble actives), and they can be used both in tandem with an emulsifier and as a single structurant. Sepimax Zen is a pre-neutralized polymer that creates clear gels or acts as a thickener and stabilizer in emulsions and surfactant systems. The thickener is compatible with a wide range of alcohols and is an excellent choice for creating sanitizers.

A pseudo-emulsion based on Aristoflex or Lecigel can be created using both cold and hot methods, and gelling agents can be dissolved in both the aqueous and fatty phases.

1. When dissolving thickeners in water, you first need to dissolve all the water-soluble components in the aqueous phase, then add your gelling agent and thoroughly mix the mixture until a homogeneous dense gel is formed. Then, with the mixer or stirrer running continuously, slowly pour the fatty phase into the finished gel. As a result, you will get an opaque cream-gel of a very light, melting texture with excellent properties. Exactly the same process can be repeated by heating both phases, but if the heating is above 40 °C, then the active components must be introduced after the formation of the cream-gel emulsion. According to our personal observations, heating the phases to at least 40 °C speeds up the process of preparing the cream-gel and as a result it turns out thicker.
2. If you want to make an emulsion using the hot method, then in the case of Aristoflex AVC it ​​can be heated to 80 °C, while Lecigel is not recommended to be heated above 70 °C. The gelling agent can be dissolved both in the aqueous phase and dispersed in the oil phase. But it is important to remember that to form pseudo-emulsions, we always pour the fatty phase into the aqueous phase with constant stirring. You will find an example of working with Lecigel in the video.

The fatty phase of oil-free cream: what to add to it

Even to prepare a pseudo-emulsion, a fatty phase is needed, but it does not necessarily have to consist of oils or silicones. If you replace the base oils with light emollients, then you can rightfully say that you have prepared a cream without an emulsifier and oils. There are many emollients on the cosmetic market today that are of plant origin and leave behind soft and silky skin. The Swiss olive emollient Plantasens Olive LD serves as a complete replacement for silicones in cosmetics: it moisturizes the skin, promotes its restoration and leaves behind a powdery effect. Or the Italian Sensolene, which reduces trans-epidermal moisture loss by the skin, restores skin elasticity and improves the sensory characteristics of cosmetics.

You can buy emollients with the necessary properties in the Beurre store, and how to choose the right emollient, read the article about these assets “How do emollients improve skin?”. Remember that an oil-free cream is not necessarily a cream with silicones. When developing recipes, we need to move towards natural, plant-based raw materials with high biodegradability.

Try making a cream-gel, replacing oils with emollients, and emulsifiers with thickeners for pseudo-emulsions. And you will understand that this is the best way to care for oily and combination skin, especially in the hot summer.

Below you can watch a video tutorial on how to make a soothing CBD cream based on Lecigel.

And in this video tutorial we showed the process of creating an enzyme peeling based on the Aristpflex AVC thickene

And in this video tutorial we showed the process of creating an enzyme peeling based on the thickener Aristpflex AVC.

How to learn to make cosmetics with your own hands at home

Go to the YouTube channel Cosmetic Kitchen Beurre, where we share ready-made and proven recipes for making natural cosmetics. And you will find a lot of theoretical information in the Blog Beurre.