I’m loving this lightweight, 7-ingredient hyaluronic acid lotion—it leaves my hands soft and moisturized with a super touchable, powdery finish. I kept this formulation super simple so its very beginner friendly, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t lovely! If you’re newer to lotion making it’s a great all-around hand, body, and face lotion—and if you’re a bit more experienced, it’s a wonderful starting point for dressing up with additional ingredients like hydrosols and fun carrier oils.

Let’s get making!

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The heated water phase

Our star ingredient is hyaluronic acid, of course!

You can use any weight of hyaluronic acid you happen to have, but if you don’t already have some, I’d recommend purchasing a hyaluronic acid that is in the 800,000–1,000,000 dalton range. This is often sold as “low molecular weight”, but since terms like “low”, “ultra low”, and “high” have no set definitions, they can vary between suppliers. So, check the documentation!

Broadly, the weights indicate the size of the hyaluronic acid molecule, and that matters because different weights—or sizes—of hyaluronic acid have different strengths and weaknesses in skincare.

Generally, the lower the weight, the more able the hyaluronic acid is able to penetrate the skin. The higher the weight, the less able it is. Lower weights have been shown to improve skin elasticity and decrease wrinkle depth, while higher weights have been found to be better at reducing transepidermal water loss (TEWL).

This formulation uses a 1% hyaluronic acid stock at 20% for a final concentration of 0.2% hyaluronic acid—a level that’s both effective and pretty affordable. You can use more if you’d like to, but don’t feel like you need to in order to get the benefits! You can’t use too much of the 1% stock, but I rarely use more than 30–40% of a 1% stock in my formulations (0.3–0.4% overall hyaluronic acid).

Learn way more: Hyaluronic Acid for Skin Explained (25 Studies): EVERYTHING You Need to Know! from Simple Skincare Science

Pure hyaluronic acid is a white powder that really likes to clump up when mixed with water and can take a long time to fully hydrate. So, to streamline things, you’ll want to make a simple 1% stock solution with your hyaluronic acid: that way you only have to wait for your hyaluronic acid to hydrate once in a while instead of every single time you want to make something with it.

Making a 1% stock solution is really easy to do; I’ve provided full instructions (and tons more info about working with hyaluronic acid) here.

The only other ingredient on the heated water phase is distilled water. Easy peasy!

The heated oil phase

There are just three ingredients in the heated oil phase. Overall, the oil phase is quite small to ensure the lotion is lightweight and non-greasy.

Our star moisturizing oil is sunflower seed oil, used at 10%. I love it because it’s lightweight, inexpensive, and rich in linoleic acid—a fatty acid that has been shown to help support our skin’s natural barrier function.

If you don’t have sunflower oil there are lots of great alternatives: I’d especially recommend safflower oil or grapeseed oil as they’re also rich in linoleic acid, but any lightweight liquid oil your skin loves can work.

I’ve used 4% cetyl alcohol to thicken the lotion to a nice pump-able, spreadable consistency. It also boosts moisturizing powers and adds a silky, expensive skin feel that’s the perfect compliment to luxurious hyaluronic acid.

Learn more: Get to know cetyl alcohol

If you don’t have cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol is an ok alternative, but it is richer and doesn’t have the same slippy, lightweight feel. I would not recommend even creamier options like stearic acid or C10-18 Triglycerides, but if you happen to have behenyl alcohol or myristyl myristate, I think both of those could be lovely!

Learn more: Get to know cetearyl alcohol

The last ingredient in our heated oil phase is what brings everything together: Ritamulse SCG, our emulsifier. This all-natural emulsifying wax has been one of my favourites for over a decade. I adore its beautiful powdery skin feel and find it is far less prone to soaping than the more popular Olivem 1000.

Ritamulse SCG is sold under a lot of different names that often include “mulse” and/or “Eco”, so if you can’t find Ritamulse SCG, try googling its INCI: Glyceryl Stearate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. I’ve listed (and linked!) lots of places to purchase it around the world in the free Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia entry on it.

The cool down phase

The cool down phase contains three ingredients, though one of them is optional.

I’ve chosen Optiphen™ Plus (INCI: Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Sorbic Acid) to preserve the lotion. Because Optiphen™ Plus is approximately 52% phenoxyethanol, it does thin the emulsion a bit, but that viscosity comes back in a couple days. The sorbic acid in Optiphen™ Plus also lowers the pH of the lotion a bit, helping it land in the 4.6–4.8 range. I know this sounds a bit low, but it’s actually a good pH for our skin and the sorbic acid in the preservative, which performs better at lower pHs.

If you don’t have Optiphen™ Plus, Optiphen™ (Phenoxyethanol & Caprylyl Glycol) or Euxyl® PE 9010 (Phenoxyethanol & Ethylhexylglycerin) would be easy alternatives, though neither contains an organic acid like Optiphen™ Plus does. Other phenoxyethanol-based preservatives can also work—there are a lot of them out there, so be sure to research whatever you’re considering using.

Liquid Germall™ Plus will definitely work, but it won’t thin the emulsion like a phenoxyethanol based preservative will, and will not lower the pH the way Optiphen™ Plus does.

If you’re prefer a natural option, either Geogard® ECT or Euxyl™ k 903 should work. I find both of these preservatives lower pH quite a bit, so you will need to test and likely raise the pH of the emulsion to ensure it’s in a good spot.

If you use a different preservative, make sure you are checking the recommended usage rate for your new preservative and using that much—don’t just blindly use 1.5% because that’s how much Optiphen™ Plus I used. Adjust the distilled water as needed to keep the formulation adding up to 100%.

For some antioxidant benefits for our skin and our formulation (mostly our lovely, linoleic-acid rich sunflower oil), you’ll need 0.3g tocopherol MT-50, aka vitamin E.

And for our optional ingredient; 0.2% of a fragrance or essential oil of choice. I’m completely obsessed with Stock Fragrance’s Silk Blush right now, so that’s what I’m using. It’s bright and utterly addictive, with soft floral and citrussy notes blended together with all sorts of olfactory magic that I just can’t get enough of. SWOON. You can definitely use something else, just make sure it is safe for use at 0.2% in IFRA category 5 products. Which sub-category applies depends on how you intend you use the lotion; 5A: Body lotions are category 5A, facial moisturizers are category 5B, and hand creams are category 5C.

If you don’t want to add a scent, simply replace that 0.2% with a bit more distilled water. Or, if you’d prefer less scent, use 0.1% each fragrance oil/essential oil and distilled water.

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Make it your own

Because this formulation is so simple, there are lots of easy ways to customize it and make it your own! Here’s a few ideas:

• Trade 20–30% of the distilled water for a fragrant hydrosol
• Try a different liquid carrier oil (or blend) instead of sunflower oil
• Swap 3–5% of the sunflower oil for a lightweight liquid ester, like isoamyl laurate or medium chain triglycerides (MCT aka Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride)
• Make a multi-weight hyaluronic acid lotion by mixing 1% stocks made from different weights of hyaluronic acid; e.g. 10% of a low molecular weight hyaluronic acid stock and 10% of a high molecular weight hyaluronic acid stock
• Replace 20–30% of the distilled water with aloe vera juice

Natural-ness

If you use an essential oil or natural fragrance oil, the only not-natural elements in this formulation are:

• The phenoxyethanol in the Optiphen™ Plus; 0.78% of the formulation
• The potentially synthetic preservative used in your 1% hyaluronic acid stock (you don’t have to use a synthetic preservative, but you do need to use a water soluble one—I usually use Liquid Germall™ Plus); 0.1% of the formulation

This means the formula is 99.12% natural. It could be modified to be 100% natural if you adjusted the preservative system, which I’ve discussed elsewhere in this post.

Relevant links & further reading

• Ingredients:
  • Distilled water in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Hyaluronic Acid in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Ritamulse SCG (Emulsimulse, ECOMulse) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Cetyl Alcohol in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Sunflower Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Optiphen™ Plus in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Equipment:
  • Immersion blender in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • All-Purpose Scale in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Precision Scale in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • Watch glass in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • pH meter in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• How long will ______ last? What is its shelf life? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• Can I use a different preservative than the one you’ve used? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• On pH:
  • pH measurement in cosmetic lab: why we dilute samples? from Skin Chakra
  • How to adjust the pH of your cosmetic products from Skin Chakra
  • Why do you create a 10% dilution of a formulation before measuring the pH? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• Related formulations & posts:
  • Rose & Jojoba Natural Face Lotion
  • Easy Non-Greasy Hand Lotion
  • How to start formulating with hyaluronic acid
  • Hyaluronic Acid Serum: 3 vs. 5 vs. 8 ingredients
  • 20 Quick & Easy Ways to Customize Lotion Formulations

Easy DIY Hyaluronic Acid Lotion

Heated water phase
186.6g | 62.2% distilled water
60g | 20% hyaluronic acid stock (1% concentration; NOT pure dry powder!)

Heated oil phase
6g | 2% Ritamulse SCG (USA / Canada / UK / AU)
12g | 4% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada / UK / Germany / Aus / NZ)
30g | 10% sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ)

Cool down phase
4.5g | 1.5% Optiphen™ Plus (USA / Canada)
0.6g | 0.2% fragrance or essential oil of choice
0.3g | 0.1% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)

Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer on a stove top over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.

Alternatively, you can use a lab hot plate on low. If you use beakers, you can set them directly on the hot plate without a water bath—just take care not to let your oil phase burn!

Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup/beaker + ingredients) and write that weight down for later.

Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup.

Place both measuring cups in your prepared hot water bath.

After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.

Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for 30–60 seconds before switching to hand stirring. You’ll need to be fairly diligent with the stirring at first or the emulsion will seperate, but once the mixture has thickened up a bit and is uniformm you can switch to stirring occasionally.

When the emulsion has noticeably thickened and the outside of the glass measuring cup is just warm to the touch (40°C or cooler, if you have a thermometer) we’re ready to proceed.

Now it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights, you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller bowl or beaker. Weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Add a scoop or two of lotion, stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the parent batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the smaller bowl/beaker.

The lotion will thin noticeably when the cool down phase is added because of the phenoxyethanol in the preservative; this is ok! It will thicken up again over the next few days.

Once the cool down phase has been incorporated, it’s time to test the pH. I designed this formula to land in the perfect pH range all on its own—between 4.5 and 4.8 every single time I’ve made it. This is a good range for both our skin and our preservative. So, if you didn’t make any changes to the formula and you don’t have pH strips or a pH meter, the pH is probably a-ok. But, if you are able to check the pH, it’s a good idea to do so.

To test and adjust the pH: create a 10% dilution by weighing 2g product and 18g distilled water into a small bowl or beaker and whisk to combine (wondering why we create a dilution to check the pH?). Check the pH with your pH meter. Depending on the shape of your bowl/beaker you may need to tilt it in order to fully submerge the sensor on your pH meter. The pH should fall in the 4.5–4.8 range. If it is lower than 4.5 you’ll want to raise it with a few drops of a 10% NaOH solution; if it’s higher than 6, you’ll want to lower it with a few drops of a citric acid or lactic acid solution. Stir, make a fresh dilution, and test again. Please read this article from Skin Chakra to learn more about pH adjusting.

Once the pH is in a good place, all that’s left to do is package it up! I designed this lotion to work well in a pump top bottle; you can use a regular pump or a treatment pump cap. I used three rectangular 100mL (3.3fl oz) green pump top bottles from YellowBee (gifted) in the video.

Because this lotion is thin enough to pump, I’d say it is too thin to do well in a jar. That can work if it’s all you have, but remember it can spill.

Use like you’d use any lotion—this formulation is suitable for hand, body, and facial use. Enjoy!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this lotion contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. With good manufacturing practice and proper preservation, this formulation should last at least a year. Even with a preservative, this project may eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the formulation, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams, this formulation will make 300g (approximately 10 ounces).
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• You can blend 1% hyaluronic acid stocks of varying weights.
• For the Ritamulse SCG (Emulsimulse, ECOMulse):
  • Remember that it is sold under many different names, so search for it by INCI rather than “Ritamulse SCG”
  • Olivem1000 or Montanov 68 will work, though they both soap more.
  • PolyAquol-2W will work.
  • For not-natural options: Emulsifying Wax NF, BTMS-50, and BTMS-25 will all work nicely. You could also try Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate, though you may find the final emulsion is thinner than intended.
• For Cetyl Alcohol:
  • Cetearyl Alcohol will work, though it is more creamy/richer and not as slippy.
  • Behenyl alcohol is a good choice.
  • I do not recommend using stearic acid, C10-18 Triglycerides (Butter Pearls), or a true wax (like beeswax or carnauba) as an alternative.
• You can use a different lightweight oil like sweet almond, grapeseed, or safflower instead of sunflower oil.
• If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart. Remember to adjust usage rates and double-check effective pH ranges.
  • Optiphen or Euxyl® PE 9010 would be easy alternatives, though neither contains an organic acid like Optiphen™ Plus does (Sorbic Acid), and that acid pulls the pH of the product down a bit.
    • Other phenoxyethanol-based preservatives can also work.
  • Liquid Germall™ Plus will definitely work, but it won’t thin the emulsion like a phenoxyethanol based preservative will, and will not lower the pH the way Optiphen Plus does.
  • Natural options like Geogard® ECT or Euxyl™ k 903 should work, but you will have to test and adjust the pH of the emulsion as both will lower it noticeably—you’ll probably need to raise the pH if you use either.
• If you’d like to use an essential oil, please read this.
• Ensure whatever fragrance oil or essential oil you use is safe for IFRA category 5 products; which sub-category applies depends on how you intend you use the lotion.
  • 5A: Body lotion
  • 5B: Face moisturizer
  • 5C: Hand cream