Thanks for the info Control Panel.

Please could you offer your advice. The moisturizer I am looking to recreate is to calm and mask red facial skin. I know the ingredients lists are listed in order of what they contain the most of, so am starting from scratch and have started purchasing them in the order they appear. I am really hoping that the real active ingredients which have a positive effective on calming and masking facial redness are early on in the ingredients list, so I won't have to purchase ALL of them before finding something that works. Here is the ingredients list:

Aqua (Water), Caprylic.capric triglyceride, zinc oxide, isohexadecane, aluminum starch octenylsuccinate, glycerin, cetaryl alcohol, titanium dioxide (CI 77891), isopropyl myristate, polyacrylamide, propylene glycol, arnica montana flower extract, oleth-10, cetearyl glucoside, phenoxyethanol, methyl PCA< anthemis nobilis (chamomile) flower extract, C13-14 isoparaffin, prunus amygdalus, dulcis (sweet almond) oil, polyhydroxysteric acid, parfum, alumina, aluminum sterate, isodeceth-6, methylparaben, menthol, laureth-7, allatoin, bisabolol, ferulic acid, niacinamide, tocopherol, propylparaben, disodium EDTA, isotearic acid, simethicone, dipropylene glycol, phospholipids, retinyl palmitate, quaternium-15, tocopheryl acetate, ascorbyl palmitate, CI 42090 (blue 1)

So far I just have the Caprylic.capric triglyceride and zinc oxide. When I mix them together, it is way too watery, the zinc oxide gets very uneven when applied to the skin, and it is hard to wash off.

I have a feeling the zinc oxide is the main effective ingredient, not only calming the skin but also masking the redness with its white color. So firstly i'm definitely trying to create a usable zinc oxide moisturizer to test with.

All your thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

This is massively helpful, thank you. I just need to figure out which from the ingredients list is which

One final question, what would be the cheapest and suitable thickening agent for this mix? suitable for sensitive skin.

Thanks again