When you’re dealing with sensitive skin, cleansing can feel like the most unpredictable step in your routine. If its too strong and your skin flares up. Too foamy and it feels tight. Too fragranced and irritation happens.
This homemade cleanser for sensitive skin was designed to keep things beautifully simple. It’s a light, cooling gel cleanser made with a very small amount of an ultra-gentle natural surfactant, just enough to cleanse effectively without messing with the skin barrier.
The texture is fresh and gel-like, and it feels instantly cooling when you apply it, and it rinses away cleanly without leaving the skin feeling stripped. It’s completely fragrance-free, easy to make, and carefully balanced to support your sensitive skin.
Benefits Of This Homemade Cleanser for Sensitive Skin
- A lightweight gel-like cleanser that feels fresh and comfortable on the skin.
- Contains only a small amount of a very gentle natural surfactant, enough to cleanse effectively without irritating sensitive skin.
- Keeps for up to a year when properly preserved and stored correctly, making it practical and long-lasting.
- Feels super clean and cooling in use, helping to calm and refresh redness-prone skin.
- Completely fragrance-free, making it ideal for sensitive skin types that don’t tolerate essential oils or fragrance oils.
- Has a clear, fresh-looking finish that feels as good visually as it does on the skin.
- Simple, beginner-friendly formula that’s easy to make with the minimal equipment and simple to follow steps.
Key Ingredients & Why We’ve Used Them
Aloe Vera powder 200:1
Aloe vera is one of those ingredients that comes to mind when I’m formulating for sensitive skin. It’s beautifully soothing and gives this gel that lovely cooling feel on application. Even in a small amount, it helps take the edge off reactive or easily irritated skin.
We’ve used 200:1 aloe powder because it’s concentrated and stable. That simply means 200 parts of aloe juice have been concentrated down into 1 part powder. When I add a tiny amount back to water, it turns back into aloe juice strength, without thinning the gel or affecting the texture.
Cucumber Glycerin Extract
Cucumber is naturally soothing and refreshing. It’s lovely for sensitive or redness-prone skin and adds to the “cooling gel” feel of this wash. Because this extract is glycerin based, it also adds a gentle boost of hydration, helping to prevent that tight feeling some cleansers can leave behind.
Clear Xanthan Gum
This is what makes our cleanser a gel. Xanthan gum is very easy to work with and readily available to purchase. We’ve gone for the clear gum for aesthetic reasons only, the usual soft one will work just as well but the finished product will be cloudy.
Clear xanthan gum can give the gel a slightly bubbly appearance, which is perfectly normal. We actually love this look in this cleanser as it adds to the fresh, lightweight feel and enhances that cooling gel look.
Decyl glucoside
Is a natural gentle surfactant that gives the gel its foaming and cleaning abilities. We’ve chosen to use decyl glucoside because it’s one of the gentlest surfactants available. Its a sulphate-free, non-ionic and very mild surfactant. At just 3% it cleanses effectively without stripping the skin barrier, making it perfect for sensitive skin types.
Preservative (Saliguard PCG)
This is a water-based cleanser, proper preservation is essential, and we’ve chosen Saliguard PCG as it’s water-soluble, easy to incorporate and provides reliable broad-spectrum protection. It works well within the skin-friendly pH range of this formula and is considered suitable for sensitive skin, helping to keep the cleanser safe and stable without compromising its gentle feel.
Substitutions
- Distilled water, hydrosol would be lovely. This would also give the gel a mild scent.
- Aloe Vera powder, aloe vera juice, replace around 30% of the water with it.
- Cucumber Glycerin Extract, cucumber hydrosol would be nice. You could leave it out and up the Glycerinor water. Or dilute 1% panthenol powder in the water before mixing it with the xanthan gum.
- Clear Xanthan Gum, soft xanthan gum is the obvious, but it won’t be completely clear. Hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) would also be a good substitution but is more tricky to work with.
- Decyl glucoside, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate would be a great substitution as it is very mild. Coco glucoside would also be good.
- Preservative (Saliguard PCG) geogard ECT would be my second choice especially if you are looking to keep it natural. This may however cloud or change the consistency of the gel.
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Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Pour the glycerin into a medium sized beaker/container. Add the xanthan gum and stir until the gum has dissolved and you have a slurry. Clear gum is harder to dissolve than soft xanthan gum, so it may stay a bit gritty.
- In a separate small beaker add the aloe vera powder and a tablespoon off the distilled water. Mix until the aloe vera powder has fully dissolved. Then set to one side.
- Grab the beaker with the gum slurry and drizzle a little of the distilled water into it, then give it a good stir. Continue adding small amounts of water then stirring, until all the water has been used up.
- Add the aloe vera to the gel and stir until combined. Leave to stand for 5 to 10 minutes until fully hydrated.
- Once the gel is fully hydrated, its time to add the cucumber glycerin extract and give it a good stir.
- We can now add our decyl glucoside, followed by the preservative. Once the decyl glucoside has been added the gel needs to be stirred gently so as not to get too many foaming bubbles.
- Now its time to check the pH of the cleanser. Dilute a small sample of the cleanser (1 part cleanser to 9 parts distilled water). Dip a pH strip into the diluted sample and check it reads pH 5.0–5.5.
- If the pH is too high, add a couple of drops of a 10% citric acid solution to the main batch of cleanser and stir gently until fully combined. I found mine was around 5.5 to 6 so I added around 4 drops just to be sure it was closer to 5 rather than 6. Test again and repeat if needed until the pH is 5.0–5.5.
- Once the cleanser is at a suitable pH level, transfer the cleanser to a flip cap or pump type bottle.
Tried this recipe?
Let us know How It Was!
How to Use
Apply a small amount into your palm, rub it lightly between your hands first, then apply to damp skin and gently massage over your face for 30–60 seconds before rinsing with lukewarm water and patting dry.
Use morning and evening, following with moisturiser while skin is still slightly damp
Storage
Stored in a clean bottle gel cleanser should keep for around 6–9 months, and up to 12 months if stored cool and out of direct sunlight.
Final Thoughts
Sensitive skin doesn’t need more, it needs less! Fewer irritants, less foam, less fragrance, and more thoughtful formulation.
This homemade cleanser for sensitive skin focuses on exactly that. A soft gel texture and a very low percentage of a mild surfactant. The soothing aloe and cooling cucumber extract all work together to cleanse without overwhelming the skin. It feels fresh and clean, yet calm and comfortable at the same time.
It’s also one of those formulas that looks beautiful in the bottle, so clear, lightweight, and simple.
If your skin reacts easily or you simply prefer a gentle, minimal approach to cleansing, this gel wash is an option you can feel confident using in the morning and night.
