Back in 2024, I had the idea to create my own muscle and joint cream. At first, it was purely for my training. I wanted something I could apply to tender areas before and after a run.
About six months later, after researching a few possible directions, my wife and I had a blueprint ready to test. The first attempt was an epic fail. So was the second. The third was a step in the right direction, but still far from something we could confidently call a cream.
The tough part was that I couldn’t simply find a recipe and follow it. I didn’t even think of consulting AI. That might have saved me some time, who knows? I had to look at each ingredient individually and work out how it fitted into the bigger picture. That took time and, of course, quite a few trials. As deflating as that first attempt was, my curiosity kept me looking for a way to make it work.
One of the first ingredients that interested me was DMSO, or dimethyl sulfoxide. Anyone familiar with it will know that it requires caution. In my research, it seemed to get either a bad rap or be hailed as a miracle worker. There wasn’t much in between.
I wanted to explore it, but that also meant thinking carefully about its concentration and how it interacted with the rest of the formulation. Its garlic-like smell presented another challenge. I wanted a botanical scent that would make the cream more pleasant to use, and thyme and rosemary were my first picks.
Masking a scent is one thing, but just because something is natural doesn’t mean you can go to town with it. Certain essential oils can irritate or sensitise the skin, and DMSO’s role as a penetration enhancer made compatibility another important consideration.
Next, I wanted the cream to feel nourishing on the skin. I didn’t want something that left my skin feeling dry after application. That led me to aloe ferox and a devil’s claw glycerite as ingredients worth exploring. I wanted to pay attention to how the cream felt on the skin, rather than focus only on a hot or cold sensation.
For the oil phase, I started with shea butter, hemp seed oil, almond oil and sunflower oil. I chose almond and sunflower oils for their lighter feel, hemp seed oil for its fatty acid profile, and shea butter for its rich, emollient texture.
Even then, I felt there was room to improve. Some of the oils had overlapping properties, and I wondered whether I could simplify the combination without losing the feel I wanted. I kept coming back to the idea that more moving parts didn’t necessarily mean a better result. I’ve always liked to believe that less is more.
Preservation was another important part of the process because the cream contained water-based ingredients. Preservatives sometimes get a bad rap, but protecting a water-containing formula from microbial growth matters. I chose Geogard 221, a blend of benzyl alcohol and dehydroacetic acid. I also included vitamin E to help protect the oils against oxidation, particularly the hemp seed oil.
CBD oil was one of the ingredients I included in my original batches. At the concentration I was using, though, I wasn’t convinced that its contribution justified the expense. It didn’t feel like the right fit for what I was trying to achieve, and I didn’t want to claim a benefit I couldn’t confidently stand behind.
Fast-forward about a year, and much of the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. That was encouraging. But some people didn’t love it, and their feedback got me thinking. One comment was that the cream didn’t feel as though it was doing anything on application because it felt neither hot nor cold on the skin.
Originally, I hadn’t wanted to add a heating or cooling sensation simply to make the cream feel more active. My goal was to create something that offered more than that sensation alone. One person even called to tell me that the stiffness in his upper neck and shoulder had eased after a few days of use. That was encouraging feedback, although it was his personal experience rather than a result I could promise everyone.
Nonetheless, I came to appreciate how much the sensation of a product can shape someone’s experience of it. I wanted to understand that feedback without losing sight of my original idea. Simply adding heat or cold wasn’t the direction I had in mind.
I knew not everyone would rave about the cream, but I still wanted to see where I could improve it. I was happy with the direction, yet there were ingredients and textures worth exploring further.
First, I revisited the oils. I tried jojoba oil in place of both almond and sunflower oils, while keeping the hemp seed oil. After a few trials, I wondered whether there was another option that could give me the feel I wanted at a more practical cost.
That led me to coco-caprylate, which I trialled as Emolid CC. It’s a coconut-derived ester, and I liked the light, silky feel it brought to the sample without making it feel overly greasy. For the texture I was after, that felt like a step forward.
Then came the emulsifiers. These are the ingredients that help bring the water and oil phases together. Otherwise, the two don’t stay mixed.
I initially used Olivem 1000. It worked well in my original formula, although it could leave a brief white, soapy-looking streak during application. It’s definitely on the more expensive side, but I felt its contribution justified the cost. It’s an olive oil-derived emulsifying wax, and I liked the feel it gave the cream.
Where to next?
For me, Synergy Relief is about creating products that genuinely feel helpful, just as the name and logo suggest. First and foremost, I want to work with ingredients that are as natural and unadulterated as possible. As we become more conscious of what we eat and put on our skin, I want to be just as thoughtful about what goes into my products.
The cleansing bars started as something fun to try. Soapmaking is actually very meditative, and I wanted to explore ingredients beyond those I associated with everyday soap. Mango butter, invigorating spearmint and a variety of citrus-based essential oils gave me plenty to experiment with.
Somewhere along the way, my original idea for the muscle cream started evolving. I still want to keep exploring and create something spectacular. I’m happy with where it is now, but I believe there’s room to make it better.
There are so many possible directions. Could boswellia work alongside devil’s claw? Would an extract be a better fit than a glycerite? Are there other essential oils worth exploring? Would adding extracts mean revisiting the cream’s emulsifying system and introducing a co-emulsifier? These are questions I want to investigate carefully, rather than assume that adding more ingredients will automatically make the cream better.
There are plenty of good questions, and hopefully good answers, to come from this excursion into the unknown.
Exploring the entrepreneurial side of things while testing my creativity in an unfamiliar area has been interesting. My biggest goal with Synergy Relief is to create authentic, effective, handmade products that people come back to again and again because they feel there’s something unique about them.