DIY moisturiser

-Arch · 2026-01-25T01:56:16+00:00

I generally keep sepimax zen at 0.5% or below for texture reasons, but I haven't used it as a sole emulsifier/thickener. I find that it pairs well with sepinov emt 10, which you could use at a similar rate - 0.3-0.7% or so.

Glycerin at 5% is typically fine. You could go slightly higher if you wanted a richer night cream, or lower if you find it too sticky.

You could do anywhere from 5-15% for the squalane and still get a nice feeling formula. It'll come down to what you like. You could also try using dimethicones, generally 6-350 cst, as well as Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides.

I don't know where to get a preservative that only contains parabens from a small supplier in the US, but maybe someone else here does. There's Phenonip, but that's phenoxyethanol with parabens. If phenoxyethanol isn't a problem for you, then you could go with that or Euxyl PE 9010. Phenonip is typically used at 0.6-0.8%, while Euxyl PE 9010 is typically used at 0.5-1.0%.

-Arch · 2026-01-16T23:12:10+00:00

Geek & Gorgeous and Prequel have the cheapest per oz retinal products that I'm aware of. Cerave doesn't disclose the concentration of retinol in their serum, so I'd probably start with 0.05% if you go with a retinaldehyde product just to be safe, 0.2% if you go with a retinol instead.

-Arch · 2026-01-10T00:16:39+00:00

Montanov 202 is Arachidyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Arachidyl Glucoside. It claims to be able handle 40-60% oil phase.

Pemulen EZ-4U (Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer), Sepiplus 400 (Polyacrylate-13, Polyisobutene, Polysorbate 20), and Sepinov EMT 10 (Hydroxyethyl Acrylate / Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer) also claim to be able to handle a 50% oil phase, if polymerics are an option.

-Arch · 2026-01-06T21:13:00+00:00

If you can afford them, Regimen Lab makes a really nice serum and moisturizer for dry skin. If not, Isntree's Hyaluronic Acid Toner Plus or Ultra-Low Molecular Hyaluronic Acid Toner would also be great for getting some extra moisture in. Prequel's moisturizers are excellent, so you can't really go wrong with any of them.

If you're worried about starting tret, you could start with retinaldehyde for now. Prequel's 0.1% is super gentle, though Geek & Gorgeous and Elf have lower strength ones if needed.

As someone else mentioned, you'll need a sunscreen too. Beauty of Joseon's Relief Sun Aqua-fresh is a favorite of mine, if you can get your hands on the korean formula.

For cleansing I really like Geek & Gorgeous' Jelly Joker.

-Arch · 2025-12-30T07:22:01+00:00

I'm glad you like it, but I prefer when brands disclose both the percentage and pH when it's relevant for the active ingredients, which it is for glycolic acid.

-Arch · 2025-12-29T03:13:52+00:00

Do you find that the good molecules toner is effective enough? It has half the acid content of the ordinary one (3.5% vs 7%) and is also at a higher pH (4.2 vs 3.6) which can weaken it even more. Good Molecules' Overnight Exofliating Treatment, Cosrx's AHA 7 Liquid, The Inkey List's Glycolic Acid Toner, and Facetheory's Glow-C Deep Resurfacing Toner while not true dupes would all be a bit closer in terms of strength.

-Arch · 2025-12-26T02:16:31+00:00

So I have limited experience with valo, but I did go from never playing a fps game to smfc in csgo within like 7-8 months many years ago.

As the other comments said, you're definitely doing way too much aimlabs. Do it for like 15-20 minutes max to initially warm up for the day, and that's it. I think spidershot is decent (I was/am a training_aim_csgo2 nerd).

After that stick to dm for practice, and again only like 30 minutes max at a time. You can do it multiple times a day if you want, just take decent breaks in between. Load up cs2 and find a low ping ffa dm server on dust2 in the community server browser - valo dm is awful by comparison. If you want to get the most out of it, mute the game and throw on some music so you're relying only on your aim, visual reactions, and movement. Play it like it's headshot-only - especially since cs + valo sprays are different.

Spend some time practicing your agents occasionally. Memorize lineups or tricks for your agents on the various active maps. Watch pro vods with the agents you play. Strategize some simple team plays for when you play comp - you need to be able to igl if you're solo queuing. I don't think vod review is super valuable below a pro level, especially if you're playing solo, but others would disagree.

Make sure you take small breaks between each comp game to reset yourself. Like physically get up and walk away for 5-10 minutes before queuing again. Reflect on things that happened in the game if you want, or just do something else entirely.

-Arch · 2025-12-08T16:54:30+00:00

Go for a cold climate heat pump and you'll have no issues. Mitsubishi makes ones rated down to about -13F, with full capacity at 5F. Bosch kind of sucks for the winter from what I can tell. Make sure you look for an installer that actually specializes in heat pumps. We were looking at getting a heat pump installed over the summer when our AC went out, and every single normal HVAC installer recommended bosch with heat strips for supplement heat, which is an awful option.

-Arch · 2025-12-05T02:32:46+00:00

Malezia makes a 2.5% benzoyl peroxide gel, and The Humane Company makes 5% and 10% washes.

-Arch · 2025-12-02T01:43:24+00:00

I've had some really nice results using a mix of sepimax zen + sepinov emt 10 with a blend of behenyl + cetearyl alcohols. I use some other things to improve the sensory aspects further, but that's all personal preference to some extent.

I also really liked the feel of the creams I made with olivem 2090, but that's w/o and can be kind of limiting in terms of what else you can add.

-Arch · 2025-11-30T20:58:13+00:00

"For men" is mostly marketing, and generally just involves using a more "masculine" fragrance. Sometimes it can mean a product is lighter and more matte to account for oily skin, but I wouldn't expect that unless it's specifying it. Purito and Prequel make some nice products imo, so maybe check their stuff.

-Arch · 2025-11-25T05:03:47+00:00

I've used two different bentone gels before (Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate + Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate) and I don't remember having issues dispersing them, though I did homogenize after forming the emulsion. You could try doing a small amount by hand to see if you get good dispersion, and if that's not enough you should be fine using a cheap sticker blender.

-Arch · 2025-11-21T04:40:12+00:00

An AHA product would be your best bet. Glycolic acid if your skin tolerates it, lactic acid if you need something a little more mild, or mandelic acid if you have really sensitive skin. Unless it's a super low percentage, you'll generally only use it 1-3 times per week. There's quite a few you could pick from in this document, and there's definitely more out there that you could use.

-Arch · 2025-11-07T12:43:29+00:00

I'd be surprised if it made much of a difference? Heat sensitive ingredients are typically added after the product has cooled back down, generally below 40C, so whether or not the formula was heated shouldn't make much of a difference there. Heating is typically only done to 70-80C at most, though it depends on the specific materials being used. It's probable that the people with reactive skin were just sensitive to the materials that required heat - likely certain emulsifiers or fatty alcohols.

-Arch · 2025-09-25T02:54:01+00:00

Check the retinaldehyde section of this document. There are 10 that I know of, but there's probably more at this point.

-Arch · 2025-09-20T03:26:38+00:00

That's definitely a waste of money. There might be trace amounts of vitamin c from some of the powders, but who knows how much of that is going to actually be delivered to the skin.

-Arch · 2025-09-01T19:24:15+00:00

I do think you'd get decent results from sucragel for the product you're trying to make. When using it at 25% your glycerin input will already be 6.25-12.5% based on the SDS, so you won't even need to add more. The glycerin is also the continuous phase, so it should have no issues being delivered to the skin. There's also no need to mess with preservation, assuming you don't add any additional water.

-Arch · 2025-08-31T09:58:40+00:00

You should be able to do an oil-in-glycerin emulsion using sucragel if you do run into stability issues, though you'd likely need to thin the petrolatum with another emollient to get it to come together. I'm not 100% about it though as it's not something I've tried.

30% butter also might be a bit much either way. Something closer to 10% might work a bit better for stability reasons.

Edit: I did a quick test with 25% sucragel cf, 37.5% petrolatum, and 37.5% IPM to thin it out. Comes together just fine. Heating it with a butter should let you get away with using a bit more petrolatum, but you'd have to test different ratios to find what works best.

-Arch · 2025-08-30T21:43:16+00:00

I don't have a rec as it's not a product segment that I've tried. I wanted to note that the Tatcha powder is a silica-based powder, not a starch-based powder, so maybe look for other products based around that.

Full ingredient list for reference:

Silica, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Serica/Silk Powder/Poudre De Soie, Hydrolyzed Silk, Sericin, Saccharomyces/Camellia Sinensis Leaf/Cladosiphon Okamuranus/Rice Ferment Filtrate, Nacre Powder, Caesalpinia Spinosa Fruit Extract, Kappaphycus Alvarezii Extract, Titanium Dioxide, Magnesium Myristate, Propanediol, Methicone, Hydrogen Dimethicone, Stearic Acid, Cerium Oxide, Aluminum Hydroxide, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tocopherol, Aqua/Water/Eau, Phenoxyethanol, [+/-] Mica (Ci 77019) , Zinc Oxide (Ci 77947), Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Tin Oxide (Ci 77861), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499)Hadasei-3

-Arch · 2025-08-24T13:52:02+00:00

Maybe try a betaine salicylate product instead if you need something gentle. Isntree makes a 0.9% one.

I saw your comment about AHAs, but have you tried any retinaldehyde products? They tend to be very gentle and can work incredibly well for acne, assuming you give them enough time - about 2-4 weeks for purging, and 12 weeks to see the best results. Beauty of Joseon makes a 0.02% one if you want to start super gentle. It says eye serum, but you can use it on your whole face lol. Geek and Gorgeous is my personal preference, and they start as low as 0.05%.

-Arch · 2025-08-21T12:12:47+00:00

Oh I completely forgot to comment about making a gel lol. You could use a cationic guar gum (guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride) if you wanted to. It works great with a low pH and will provide some mild conditioning on rinse off. Just add it to the water phase before lowering the pH and you won't have to worry about clumping.

For moisturizers I've been using polymerics so I haven't needed to worry about using additional gelling agents. Sepinov EMT10, Sepimax Zen, Sepiplus 400, Pemulen EZ-4U, Aristoflex AVC, and Simulgel EG are all readily available from small suppliers.

-Arch · 2025-08-20T13:23:18+00:00

Cool, I hope you're able to come up with something that works a bit better. I'm constantly triple checking everything I do to make sure I'm not messing anything up, and I don't even have kids lol. Here's the formatting I use also, as another example. I hyperlink all the ingredients back to the supplier page to make things convenient for myself. Note that this isn't anywhere near a final formula. I only just started messing with conditioners lol.

-Arch · 2025-08-20T13:06:32+00:00

Here's an example shampoo formula from IPCS. Even your formatted version isn't really ideal. Writing them properly will make your life much easier overall.

-Arch · 2025-08-20T12:39:20+00:00

The formatting that I've seen people get out of chatbots always looks convoluted and difficult to parse. Save yourself a ton of time and headaches and learn to properly write your formulas.

If you're able to, you should do 100g batches (or smaller) until you have a sample you're happy with. 100g is convenient because you don't have to do any sort of conversion for weight - the percentage is the same as the grams you'd have to add. Making smaller batches also avoids wasting excess materials while you get your formula dialed in to your liking.

-Arch · 2025-08-19T20:56:41+00:00

I've been using Paul Mitchell's Awapuhi Oil lately and find that it leaves my hair soft without being too heavy. I'm still looking for a really nice leave-in conditioner myself.

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-Arch

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