This recipe has us crying out Olé for Oleogel!

This homemade oleogel brightens dull complexions

If you’re not yet familiar with oleogels, get ready to fall in love. A light, versatile skincare product, they can be used as a face serum year-round, or even replace your face cream or lotion in the summer months. When we finally perfected our very first oleogel recipe, COCOÉCO headquarters erupted in cheers: Hooray! Bravo! Olé for Oleogel! 

But what exactly is in an oleogel, you ask? Oleogels are composed of aloe gel (to hydrate, comfort, and revitalize your complexion), vegetable oil (to nourish and soften your skin), preservatives (to preserve your precious product, of course), and active ingredients (for that extra oomph!). We chose to specifically formulate our oleogel recipe for winter with skin-brightening ingredients, including sea buckthorn and camelina oils to add a healthy glow, and 10% frankincense essential oil to revitalize. Get ready to glow as if you just got back from a vacation on the Riviera.

Try making your own and you’ll see why we’re all shouting Olé for Oleogel! 

How to make oleogel

Ingredients

Phase A

• 24 g (80%) orange blossom (neroli) hydrosol
• 0.3 g (1%) aloe vera 100X powder
• 0.3 g (1%) vitamin C

Phase B

• 0.6 g (2%) vegetable glycerin
• 0.2 g (0.7%) xanthan gum

Phase C

• 0.5 g (1.7%) sea buckthorn oil
• 2.1 g (7%) apricot kernel oil
• 0.9 g (3%) elderberry extract
• 0.3 g (1%) vitamin E
• 0.8 g (2.6%) frankincense essential oil (10%)

Tools

• Three small stainless steel bowls
• Small silicone spatula
• Scale, accurate to 0.1 g
• Eyedropper bottle (30 ml)
• A few teaspoons
• Small funnel

Good to know!

• Orange blossom (neroli) hydrosol revitalizes and comforts your skin, leaving it with a healthy glow. You can replace some or all of it with carrot seed hydrosol, which also brightens your complexion, though not everyone loves its earthy scent.
• Aloe vera 100X powder is rich in vitamins and minerals. It’s a hydrating, nutritious, comforting, and revitalizing ingredient. 
• You can make this oleogel recipe even simpler by using aloe gel in place of the hydrosol, aloe powder, and xanthan gum, though you’ll lose the benefits of the hydrosol. To make your oleogel with aloe gel, replace steps 1 to 4 below as follows:

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.
2. Combine 24.4 g of aloe vera gel with vitamin C in the first bowl (this gives your phase A).
3. Weigh the vegetable glycerin in the second bowl (this gives phase B).
4. Pour phase B into phase A. 

Then proceed from step 5 onward below. As you’ll be using a pre-formed gel, you won’t need to wait 10 minutes in between steps 4 and 5.

• Vitamin C is an excellent antioxidant and evens out your complexion.
• Vegetable glycerin is a humectant, meaning it contributes to your skin’s hydration. It also helps disperse the gum before you incorporate it into the aqueous phase, making it easier to combine.
• Xanthan gum is the gelling agent in this homemade oleogel. It can’t be replaced by another gum without completely altering the texture of the oleogel.
• Sea buckthorn oil is the ultimate skin-brightening ingredient. It’s revitalizing, calming, and softening. It can’t be replaced.
• Apricot kernel oil gives your skin a healthy glow, while toning and softening it. It’s particularly suitable for dull, tired complexions, making it a perfect vegetable oil to use in winter. If you’d like to replace it with a different vegetable oil, we encourage you to check out our article on which vegetable oil is right for your skin type.
• Elderberry extract is a preservative that protects the aqueous phase from bacterial and fungal growth.
• Vitamin E helps prevent the vegetable oils from going rancid.
• Frankincense essential oil is revitalizing. 
• For an even more pronounced healthy glow, you can add one or two drops of carrot seed essential oil to your recipe. We recommend a very small amount because the essential oil has an even stronger earthy scent than the hydrosol, and many people find it unpleasant. But if you don’t mind its fragrance, you can replace some or all of the frankincense essential oil with carrot seed essential oil.

Steps to follow

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.
2. Weigh the phase A ingredients in the first small bowl and mix with the spatula to blend.
3. Weigh the phase B ingredients in the second small bowl. Disperse the gum in the glycerin using the spatula.
4. Pour phase A into phase B, then mix with the spatula so that the gel begins to form. Let the gel set for 10 minutes.
5. Weigh the phase C ingredients and blend using the spatula.
6. Once the 10 minutes have elapsed, add phase C to the gel. Mix gently with the spatula to avoid creating air bubbles and to obtain a more fluid product.
7. Pour it into the eyedropper bottle using the funnel.

Use and conservation

This homemade oleogel is formulated for normal to dry skin and is perfect for brightening dull complexions. 

Shake before use. As the final product contains an aqueous phase and an oil phase, these may separate with time, which is completely normal. You can apply your DIY oleogel morning and evening, right before your hydrating cream. In summer, when your skin benefits from lighter skincare, you can use this oleogel in lieu of your usual face cream or lotion.

When made in optimal sanitary conditions, it will keep for three months. It will keep best, and be even more pleasant to apply, if you store it in the fridge.