Caprylyl/capryl glucoside micellar water

Given that I have a camping trip coming up in a few weeks, and that I am neurotic about twice-daily face washing, I figured I should design myself some nice micellar cleansing water so that I only have to make the trek to the shower station once a day...

You might have already read about my previous micellar water experiment, but I felt like it was kinda sticky, probably from the few percent of glycerin I put in it, so I wanted to improve my recipe.

I also have several surfactants to try, so I think I will have a little series of micellar water posts. This one will be using caprylyl/capryl glucoside as the surfactant.

I still haven't learned to start simple, as you will see in this post.

Micellar water, as the name implies, is mostly water, with some surfactant added in at a sufficient concentration to form micelles. That "sufficient concentration" I refer to is different for each surfactant, and in chemistry is referred to as the critical micellization concentration, or the CMC. More on that in a later post. Micellar waters also contain things to make them nice for your skin, and also preservative(s) so they don't start looking like kombucha and/or give you a nasty infection.

The recipe I invented this time included water with 1% caprylyl/capryl glucoside and 1% or less of the following: hydrolyzed oats (general niceness), allantoin (occlusive), propylene glycol (dirt solvent/moisturizer), xylitol (for slip), lactic acid (exfoliation), and Optiphen Plus (preservative).

I pre-boiled the distilled water, and mixed everything together, and that was it.

It was waaay sudsier than I expected, including foaming up a bit on the cotton pad and on the skin when used. Perhaps my surfactant concentration is too high, as this is way too foamy and feels too much like a rinse-off cleanser.

Also it stings when I use it. Initially I thought that was from the lactic acid, but given that I can use 10% lactic acid gel with less stinging, I was suspicious. Upon further experimentation, I believe my face is sensitive to the Optiphen.