JASMINE RICE CLEANSING BAR for sensitive skin

Any fans of jasmine rice out there?

Well, I'm a BIG FAN of all types and flavors of rice!

A while ago I was preparing a lovely dinner with jasmine rice & chickpeas curry right after my struggle of designing a hand cleansing bar formula for my daughter who is currently obsessed with foam & bubbles :).

Wanna know what came out?

Stay with me to learn how to make this charming, gentle, 6-INGREDIENT Jasmine Rice Cleansing Bar.

IS THIS FORMULA FOR YOU?

This homemade skin cleanser formula is suitable for:

• delicate skin,

• sensitive skin,

• dry skin,

• irritated skin,

• common skin rashes.

Perfect for formulators who are:

• beginners,

• lovers of simplicity & efficiency,

• feeling lazy ;P

And the best thing - it can be used as a:

• face cleanser,

• hand cleanser,

• or body cleanser.

It is not so suitable for those who look for low lipid or oil-free cleansers.

ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

Rice bran oil is a wonderful oil for taking care of dry, irritated, stressed and sensitive skin. It is mainly constituted of oleic and linoleic acid, which is supposed to express anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects. Its unsaponifiable matter is dominated by gamma-oryzanol and phytosterols which have antioxidant properties and help restore the skin barrier function.

Cocoa butter was added to the formula due to its stable, emollient, skin conditioning and skin-protecting nature, offering a nice, firm final result, once the bar is fully dried and set.

This cleansing bar uses a mixture of two surfactants (SCI & Cocamidopropyl Betaine) for a milder effect and delivers a gentle, silky foam. If you'll be making this as a body cleanser, the foaming effect can be boosted with a bath sponge/shower puff for a richer and high-density foam. Cocamidopropyl betaine improves the function of SCI by boosting lather and making the end product milder. When working with SCI powder, please be sure to wear a quality mask. The mentioned surfactant blend also has a skin-friendly pH, so no adjusting is needed.

The majority of the formula is constituted out of rice flour, a wonderful cosmetic ingredient, hypothesized to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that operate to prevent skin damage and improve skin appearance.

Vegetable glycerin offers that extra soothing mildness to the overall formula.

ABOUT ACTIVE SURFACTANT MATTER (ASM)

ASM tells us the percentage of the actual surfactant in the final/sold/diluted surfactant.

Let's look at one example: cocamidopropyl betaine as sold by the supplier usually has an ASM of 30% (you should always check with your supplier since those numbers can vary slightly). That means cocamidopropyl betaine contains 30% of actual cocamidopropyl betaine and the rest is mainly water (70%). Including 10% of cocamidopropyl betaine (as sold by your supplier - diluted) would result in a product with an ASM of 3%.

Solid and liquid cleansers usually contain at least two surfactants to create a synergetic blend that makes the formulation milder and more effective.

But there's a trick - the ASM is not the only and final criteria that should give you the idea of how strong or mild the cleansing it'll be. Some surfactants are mild and others harsher. For example, cocamidopropyl betaine, glucosides, and sulfosuccinates are generally regarded as mild and sulfates are generally regarded as stronger surfactants.

The answer as always is - research, research, research (super fun & super annoying sometimes, right?). ;)

The Jasmine rice cleansing bar has an active surfactant matter of around 23%, which is a rather low ASM for a solid cleanser, compared to regular cleansing bar formulas. But this formula is generally quite different from other cleansing bars I normally formulate since it has a lot lower surfactant % and a lot higher lipid %.

If a simple, gentle, and effective cleansing bar is what you're searching for, search no more.

Prepare your ingredients & equipment and let's get started!

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JASMINE RICE CLEANSING BAR

EQUIPMENT:

• scale

• gloves

• mask

• glass or stainless steel bowl

• mini glass bowls (2x)

• spoons

• silicone mold or cookie press (optional)

• disinfectant

FORMULA:

A

40 % Rice flour

25 % SCI powder (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate)

B

18 % Cocoa butter

7 % Rice bran oil (Jasmine infused)

C

7 % Cocamidopropyl Betaine

3 % Vegetable glycerin

*Preservative (optional, read the notes & tips below)

METHOD

Disinfect equipment and surfaces. Put on a quality mask and wear gloves.

1. Combine phase A in a bowl.

2. Melt and combine phase B in a glass beaker/mini bowl and leave to cool down to 40°C.

3. Combine phase C in another beaker.

4. Pour phase B and phase C to phase A and stir well with a spoon until you get a uniform crumbly dough.

5. Mix with your hands (wear gloves) and hand shape it or press with a desired mold/press.

6. Leave to dry completely for 5 days and test the pH.

The final pH of the product was around 5.5. No altering was needed.

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NOTES, TIPS, TROUBLESHOOT & SUBSTITUTIONS:

*This formula does not contain any preservative, since my daughter is using the bar occasionally, away from the shower, so it dries well between each use. If you want to design this product for regular, in-shower usage, consider including one.

You can replace the rice bran oil with any other plant oil of your choice. I felt like rice bran goes well with the theme and purpose of the product.

You can also substitute the cocoa butter with any other hard butter, but I would avoid medium and soft butters (such as mango or shea) because it would affect the product structure.

Use very fine, powdered rice flour that is silky to the touch, otherwise this will become a scrub cleanser (unless you would like that :P). I'm guessing you could replace rice flour with rice starch, but maybe it would affect the absorbency of the bar mixture so you would need to alternate the formula a bit.

This formula has a bit "softer" structure compared to other cleansing bars, due to its high lipid content. If you will notice that your bar is prone to breakage (depends also on the pressing method you'll use) I would suggest making smaller, single-use bars or truffles (bonus: this way you can keep them preservative-free, even if you use them under shower ;)). You could also try to include some cetyl alcohol into the formula for improving hardness. My cookie press works perfectly for this formula, but the breakage does take place when the bar gets very small or very thin.

If you are formulating a cleanser for very young children or very sensitive skin types I suggest leaving this formula essential oil-free and using a macerated oil instead (if you don't have jasmine, you could try lavender, chamomile, or vanilla for example) that will give your product a lovely, mild aroma. But if you want to add some extra fragrance to this bar, you can substitute 1 % (or according to safety guidelines) of plant oil with desired essential oil.

Suggested size/weight:

• 50 g for face and hand cleansers,

• 80 g for body cleansers.

If you don't know how to transform a cosmetic formula into a recipe (to grams) you can find a short guide with a detailed explanation in my RECIPE NOTEBOOK.

To upgrade this formula and customize it to your needs (or to needs of your customers), I recommend using the FORMULATOR'S DIARY.

P.s.

I'm super happy to announce that I'm currently writing my FIRST E-BOOK on FORMULATING SELLABLE NATURAL ANHYDROUS PRODUCTS!

Make sure to SUBSCRIBE at the bottom of this page, to be the first to have it. :)

Literature references for this blog post:

• Modern Cosmetics - Ingredients of Natural Origin: A Scientific View, Volume 1 (by Nina Kočevar Glavač and Damjan Janeš)

• Power of the Seed - Your guide to oils for health & beauty (by Susan M. Parker)

• Surfactant Calculator (by Making Skincare)

• UL Prospector (search engine)