Help Me Pick Ingredients — Lotion Wizard
How SoapMath Recommends Ingredients for Your Lotion Formula
Building a lotion formula from scratch means choosing from hundreds of possible ingredients — humectants for hydration, emollients for skin feel, thickeners for texture, and actives for targeted benefits. The Help Me Pick Ingredients wizard in the LotionMath calculator simplifies this by asking three quick questions about your goals, then recommending specific ingredients with contextual percentages tailored to your formula.
This guide explains how the wizard works, what each step does, and how the percentage suggestions are calculated so you get the most out of the tool.
How to Use the Wizard
- Open the Wizard — Click the "Help Me Pick Ingredients" button in the lotion calculator. It appears above the ingredient sections.
- Step 1: Skin Concern — Choose your primary skin concern (dryness, oiliness, sensitivity, aging, or general). This determines which ingredients score highest.
- Step 2: Texture — Choose your desired texture (lightweight, balanced, rich, or gel-cream). This adjusts suggested percentages and may add thickeners.
- Step 3: Product Type — Choose what you're making (daily moisturizer, night cream, body lotion, serum, or barrier repair). This fine-tunes both ingredient selection and percentages.
- Filters (Optional) — Check "Natural ingredients only" to exclude synthetics, or "Vegan ingredients only" to exclude animal-derived ingredients like lanolin, beeswax, and tallow.
- Review & Add — Browse the recommended ingredients organized by phase. Click "Add" on any ingredient to add it to your formula at the suggested percentage.
The Three Preference Steps
Step 1: Skin Concern
Your skin concern drives ingredient prioritization. Each concern favors different ingredient categories:
Step 2: Texture Preference
Texture determines how much oil to use and whether thickeners are added:
Step 3: Product Type
The product type fine-tunes both ingredient selection and percentages:
What Gets Recommended
The wizard recommends ingredients organized by phase:
Water Phase
Up to 3 humectants (glycerin, hyaluronic acid, panthenol, niacinamide, aloe, etc.) plus thickeners if you chose rich or gel-cream texture.
Oil Phase
2–4 emollients depending on texture (fewer for lightweight, more for rich). Oils, butters, and esters matched to your skin concern.
Cool Down Phase
Up to 2 active ingredients (vitamin C, retinol, centella, niacinamide, peptides, etc.) selected based on your skin concern.
Not included: The wizard does not recommend emulsifiers or preservatives. These require specific compatibility matching and are too important to auto-select. Choose them separately using the calculator dropdowns and our dedicated guides.
How Percentages Are Calculated
Contextual Adjustment
Every ingredient gets a percentage range that shifts based on your three preferences. The system considers whether your formula leans lightweight or rich, and adjusts accordingly. For example:
- • Glycerin: 2–3% for oily skin, 3–5% for general, 5–8% for dry skin
- • Squalane: 3–5% for lightweight, 5–8% for balanced, 8–12% for rich
- • Shea Butter: 2–4% for lightweight, 5–8% for balanced, 8–15% for rich
- • Panthenol: 1–3% normally, 3–5% for sensitivity or barrier repair
Fallback Logic
For ingredients without specific percentage rules, the system reads the recommended usage rate from the ingredient database and scales it based on your texture preference — using the lower end for lightweight formulas and the upper end for rich ones.
Tips for Best Results
- Choose your emulsion type (O/W or W/O) before using the wizard — it determines which ingredients are available
- Add your emulsifier first, then use the wizard to fill in the rest of the formula
- Adjust percentages after adding — the suggestions are starting points within safe usage ranges
- Use "Start Over" if you change your mind about skin concern or texture to get fresh recommendations
- Don't forget to add a preservative and check total percentages before finalizing