DIY glycolic acid cream

[anniebrown]

I am trying to replicate the good results in the estrogen and glycolic acid study reported on this website, have made up the 0.01 estradiol cream with your help - thank you so much for that and for a brilliant website! -

I have now made up a 15% cream by mixing 30ml of 30% glycolic acid with 30ml of my usual base cream - simplest Aqueous Cream BP as sold in any British chemist's shop - but the resulting stuff seemed to sting a surprising amount given that I don't usually have a particularly sensitive skin: I couldn't imagine leaving it on all night as they appeared to do in the study, and washed it off with baking soda after ten minutes just in case!

In the Cutis study their 15% cream was called Neostrata, with a ph level of 3.7 and a whole list of other ingredients....... Is it at all likely that my cream has the wrong ph level? Might the problem be the lack of the other ingredients? Or do I just have to slowly train my skin to handle it?

[drtodorov]

There are studies where using estrogen cream alone was shown beneficial. (e.g. the onle I discuss here http://www.smartskincare.com/treatments/estrog.html ). Why not try the estrogen cream only at first -- without glycolic acid. (As long as your gyneologist approves)

FYI, the pH of your glycolic cream is likely to be much lower than the 3.7 reported in that study (because they most likely buffered it), which may explain the stinging.

I don't recommend DIY experiments with high strength AHA, they are too harsh for that. (That's the reason I do not provide DIY recipes for AHA formulas)

[merton]

Hi AnnieBrown and Dr. Todorov,

Doc, isn't it true that pure Glycolic Acid is 70%. And that when mixing it for cosmetic purposes the 70% compound is considered 100% for compounding purposes. I've only seen 1 gallon offerings always being 70%.

It seems possible that someone in Annie's position could have bought a 30% that really was an absolute 30% if it was mixed outside the industry or by someone who didn't know better. The concentration of the 30% would really be 50% in such a situation and her description sounds 50ish. Its just speculation on my part .

-merton

[drtodorov]

That might be remotely possible,although even if you dilute a 70% solution you would generally want to state the true (absolute) percentage of the final dilution. But people make all kinds of mistakes, I suppose.