Basic oily gel or make-up remover
How to make basic oily gel?
We placed this recipe in the advanced category because you must be patient when completing the initial steps to make a successful emulsion. If this is not done well, it will be difficult (or even impossible) to make a proper oily gel.
As we explained above, the sucragel can be used to make all of the products described in this article (basic gel or make-up remover, three types of exfoliator, and shaving gel). The following chart shows the quantities you will need depending on how many products you wish to make – each recipe will make enough to fill one 120 ml. tottle bottle. If you plan to make just one product (e.g., an exfoliant), use the amounts in column 1. For two products (e.g., make-up remover + exfoliant), use the amounts in column 2, and so on.
| Ingredients | % | 1 recipe (1 tottle bottle) | 2 recipes (2 tottle bottles) | 3 recipes (3 tottle bottles) |
| 120 grams of gel | 240 grams of gel | 360 grams of gel | ||
| Sucragel | 20% | 24 g | 48 g | 72 g |
| Sunflower seed oil | 40% | 48 g | 96 g | 144 g |
| Apricot oil | 20% | 24 g | 48 g | 72 g |
| Fractionated coconut oil | 20% | 24 g | 48 g | 72 g |
N.B.: We suggest using a blend of oils, but you can use just one. Choose an oil that stores well (does not grow rancid too quickly).
Tools
- 2 large stainless steel bowls
- Electric egg beater
- Scale accurate to 1 g.
- 1 3 ml plastic pipette (very important!)
- 1 mini spatula
- 1 to 3 120 ml tottle bottles (that keep water out when used in the shower)
NB: If you don’t have an electric egg beater, you can still make this recipe, but it will be hard work, and it may take you twice as long to make the emulsion.
Steps to follow
- Prepare and sterilize your equipment and workspace.
- In a large stainless steel bowl, weigh the sucragel.
- In the 250 ml cup, weigh the vegetable oils.
- With the egg beater, whip the sucragel until it turns white.
- Add a half-pipette of the oil mixture to the sucragel.
- Whip with the egg beater for approximately 20 seconds.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 several times, scraping the sides of the bowl with the spatula to make sure everything is well blended.
- Repeat steps 4 to 6 until the opaque white liquid has become thicker and more translucent, but still has a whitish colour.
- The mixture will eventually acquire the texture of a gel. It will be more transparent and will retain its shape when you stop whipping it.
- It’s now time to start gradually adding more oil – add one pipette-full at a time while continuing to whip with the egg beater.
- When almost all the oil has been added, your gel should be firmer, harder, thicker, and more transparent.
- You can now start slowly pouring in the rest of the oil, continuing to whip until it is completely blended. You should now have a translucent, homogeneous mixture with an elastic texture. Over the coming days, it will become more and more transparent.
- If you wish to divide the gel to test various exfoliants, keep reading. If not, pour the gel into your sterilized tottle bottle.
How to fill the bottle
- Take a Ziploc-type plastic bag, open it, and place it in a glass.
- Fold the sides of the bag over the mouth of the glass.
- Using a clean spoon, spoon the gel into the bag.
- Close the bag, squeezing out as much air as possible.
- Cut off a corner of the bag.
- Remove the black stopper from the Tottle bottle (by pulling and turning at the same time) and squeeze the bottle to remove some of the air.
- Place the cut corner of the bag over the opening of the bottle and squeeze the bag.
- It sometimes helps to tap the bottle gently to help the gel drop down inside the bottle.
- Squeeze the bottle to remove the air before replacing the corner of the bag over the mouth of the bottle and continue filling.
- Replace the stopper, and you’re done!
Use
Squeeze a small amount of gel into the palm of your hand and massage into your skin. Rinse.
NB : If you wish to make a smaller quantity, reduce the quantities of oil accordingly. For example, to make half the basic recipe, add just half the amount of oil.
22 Comments
Kevin
Can you tell me the shelf life of this great product? I look on the blog but could not find it. Is it able to remove all kinds of make-up? Keep up the great work!!!
Coop Coco
Hello Kevin,
Thank you for your kind words :) You can keep this product around 3 to 6 months. We used it on several make-up and it was very effective on all of it. If you try it, don’t hesitate to share your impressions with us!
Have a nice DIY day.
Ann
I created an oily gel with 20% sucragel and 80% sunflower oil.Also with 25/75 ratio.I followed this method and was able to create a translucent whitish gel.
BUT it leaves an oily film once washed away as if it is not getting emulsified. Please can you help me with this
Coop Coco
Hello Ann,
This recipe is a “oily gel” recipe. Since there is no water in it, it’s not an emulsion. You could cleanse your skin after using this make-up remover so!
Have a great day.
Moumita
Hi! I tried this using a combo of fractionated coconut oil, jojoba oil, and a saffron based sesame oil. I was able to replicate the texture but it turned a very weird muddy brown gross looking color – do you know why this could be? The blend of the 3 oils was a yellow color so I’m not sure what is turn it so weird-looking :(
Coop Coco
Hello Moumita,
Unfortunately we don’t know how this reaction could happen, but we never used saffron based sesame oil. Maybe it’s because of this oil, or one was rancid?
Sorry, we can’t very help you since we weren’t with you during the process. Did you try it?
Have a great day.
Lee
Is this a product that activated charcoal could be added to?
Coop Coco
Hello Lee,
To be honest with you, we never tried it. But it should be a good addition! Let us know if you try it out. It should represent 0,5 to 1% of your recipe.
Have a nice day!
Cindy Suzuki
When using an egg beater, how many minutes does it take to take on that white color? Thx!
Coop Coco
Hello Cindy,
It really depends. For some people it took less than 5 minutes but for other it takes around half an hour… We think it depends of you egg beater but also the room temperature and other parameters.
Have a nice day!
Genvieve
I can’t get it to gel! It thickens but won’t change from that state. Additionally my oil + sucragel actually turned a dark gray when I was mixing. I used a blend of squalane, jojoba, and apricot. Nothing else. Is it my oil choices? I beat for literally 2 hours. Any suggestions?
Coop Coco
Hello,
Unfortunately, because we weren’t with you when you did the recipe, it’s difficult to answer your questions, I am sorry.
It’s really important to use a hand mixer (like the ones to whisk the eggs) and not an immersion blender. Also, you really have to add your oils gradually.
If the 2 phases are separated, you can separe sucragel from the oils and try again, by adding the oil slower than the first time.
I’m sorry I can’t be of more help to you in this regard.
Monique
Hello,
I made this cleanser with sucragel and it’s fantastic. I would like to add dragon’s blood to the recipe , but I don’t know if this tipe of dragon’s blood ( glycerin, croton lechleri resin extract…this is water soluble) it would be ok
Thank you so much :)
Coop Coco
Hello Monique,
Unfortunately, we don’t use dragon’s blood and we never tried it, so we can’t advise you. Sorry and have a nice day!
Annabelle
You said we cannot use an immersion blender. Just need to know why it doesn’t work. Thank you.
Coop Coco
Hello Annabelle,
Simply because you need to whip it, and you can’t do it with an immersion blender.
Have a nice day!
Rashidah
Hi, I tried the recipe with Sucragel AOF, Olive Oil, and Sweet Almond Oil. Consistency was fine, I love it. But it left a lot of oil residue, even though it turned milky when rinsing off. Can I add polysorbate 80 or cromollient SCE for a less oily residue? I’m trying to make a makeup remover gel that rinses off leaving minimum residue. Look forward to your response. Thank you
Coop Coco
Hello,
You changed almost all the ingredients and chose to use oils that leaves a greasy film, this is probably why you obtain this result. We advise you to try with the ingredients of the recipe.
Have a nice day.
Rashidah
There are more than 1 type of sucragel. Which one did you all use? I used Sucragel AOF, that’s why I changed the oils. I read that sucragel AOF goes best with vegetable oils.
Coop Coco
Hello,
Our Sucragel is also AOF. As you can see in our recipe, we do use vegetable oils, but ones that won’t leave a greasy film. This is why we advised you in our previous comment to use the ingredients of the recipe, or ones that are similar.
Have a nice day.
YVONNE
Hey there,
can you use sucragel CF? Thats the one I have at the moment…
Coop Coco
Hello Yvonne,
Yes, you can!
Have a nice day :)