As the days get drier, I am loving this soft, silky cranberry clay facial scrub that’s lightly studded with wee bits of bashed-up cranberry seeds for a touch of exfoliation. It has a low, creamy lather that leaves your skin glowing, gently buffing away any dead, dry skin. With added coconut milk powder and rosebuds, it’s gentle enough to use morning and night. It smells awesome, is unbelievably easy to make, and it looks great in cute jar next to your bathroom sink.
The bulk of this scrub is white kaolin clay. You’re certainly welcome to use other soft, smooth clays if you prefer (French green would certainly be fittingly festive!), but kaolin is a nice choice if you like a face scrub that doesn’t need to be chased with a sink scrub. I would not advise bentonite, rhassoul, or other heavier, sandy clays.
A wee touch of cranberry seeds gives a hint of customizable exfoliation. I chose cranberry seeds as I picked up a small back from Saffire Blue a couple years ago and haven’t made a dent in it, but subsequent searching has shown that cranberry seeds are surprisingly difficult to source, so you can use sesame seeds instead if you can’t find them. I started with 1/8 tsp of cranberry seeds and worked my way up while developing the recipe; I found 1/8 tsp was pretty much un-noticeable, and liked the mild scrub I got with 1/2 tsp. If you have quite sensitive skin you might want to start with 1/4 tsp and work your way up from there. (The coffee grinder is 100% necessary here, too—you do not want whole cranberry seeds in your scrub!)
To the clay/cranberry mixture I added a blend of two safe, gentle powdered surfactants—Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) (USA / Canada) and Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) (USA / Canada). If you don’t have both you can certainly use all of one or the the other, or use two teaspoons of dried, ground bar soap instead. The surfactants give the scrub a lovely creamy slip, and a low lather that’s quite lovely.
I added a wee bit of coconut milk powder to keep the scrub from being too drying, and some dried rosebuds for their soothing, hydrating effect on skin. A few drops of marula oil helps weigh the scrub down a bit and moisturize the skin, and a lovely blend of juicy red mandarin and bright spruce essential oils tie the whole thing together (seriously, it smells awesome!).
A wee clamp-top glass jar was the perfect thing to scoop the finished scrub into, and voila! This lovely jar of Cranberry Clay facial scrub goodness has a place of honour next to my sink these days.
Cranberry Clay Facial Scrub
2 tbsp white white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
2 tsp powdered coconut milk (USA / Canada)
1/2 tsp Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) (USA / Canada)
1/2 tsp Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) (USA / Canada)
1/2 tsp cranberry seeds or sesame seeds
3 small dried rose petals20 drops marula oil or argan oil (USA / Canada)
8 drops red mandarin essential oil
8 drops spruce essential oilPut on your dust mask. Measure the clay, milk powder, surfactants, seeds, and rose buds into your DIY-only coffee grinder. Cover and blitz everything for a minute. Leave the dust to settle for a couple minutes before removing the lid.
Scatter the drops of oil over the mixture and gently agitate the coffee grinder to shift some dry over top of the oils—this helps prevent them from jumping up and sticking to the lid of the coffee grinder. Blend everything together for another minute.
Give the mixture a stir to ensure the blend is even—if it’s not, blend again. If it is, scoop the scrub into a cute jar of some variety, and that’s it!
To use, start by wetting your face. Take about 1/2 tsp of the scrub into the palm of your hand (it’s best if your hand is wet first) and blend in a wee bit of water. Scrub away, adding more water as needed to adjust how scrubby the scrub is, and rinse. Follow up with your favourite serum and enjoy your clean skin!
Because this mixture contains no water it should last at least a year, though there’s little enough that you should use it up well before then.
If you don’t have/want to use the surfactants, you can use 2 tsp of dry, ground up soap instead. You can use any other orange/mandarin/tangerine essential oil instead of the red mandarin, and any other bright coniferous essential oil (fir, pine) instead of the spruce. You can use any milk powder (goat, cow, etc.) instead of coconut milk powder.
aren’t sodium cocyle and sodium laurel sulfoacetate bad for us?
No—I certainly wouldn’t use them if they were! Have you done any research into them, or is it just the chemical-sounding names that are turning you off? That’s not a very good way to make safety decisions; after all, dihydrogen monoxide sounds pretty scary, but that’s just water 😛 You can learn more here and here.
I am so trying this with my sea buckthorn seeds and my scrapings of my French green clay soap! Christmas for the win!
Me too on the Christmas plan, Penny! This one is a keeper.
Happy concocting over there on the other side of the globe!!
Thank you muchly! I may not get all the ingredients, but I get some other fancy ones to get creative with! Happy Christmas Christie! Enjoy your Christmas Creations!
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Wahoo! I look forward to hearing how that turns out 🙂
I happen to have no problem finding cranberry seeds. And I’m running into coconut milk quite often these days. The only thing I can’t get my hands on is the SCI. Perhaps I should click on your link to see where you’re getting it??
Off topic…my son pre ordered your book! I’m too excited. I’ve been pilfering your recipes long enough and now I give back. Out of thanks, not obligation but I feel it’s deserved. Looking at your ingredients list, I found only four items I lack. Is this a good or bad thing!?! You’ve made me obsessive!
So I bought em. They were powders to make my skin look amazing, glowing,youthful, diffused etc.
I can’t wait. I really really really can’t wait.
I have a friend on the west coast, a big city girl living in the land of Botox and plastic surgery, and she loves the stuff I send her. Last night she said, “more.”. Oh she’ll get more, alright!
Love ya Marie!
Me too! Me too!
I’m sad I cannot have it by iBooks, but I was thrilled that Marie was kind enough to link the Amazon site for me. I wonder if she has others in China ordering? I know I’ve talked about Humblebee&Me lots and lots, so hopefully!
I ordered the book because it is probably the only way I could “give back” a little. I know how pricey this habit of ours is. I sent a friend of mine some soap for an early Christmas gift and spent an hour or so complaining I had no way to get this book I really wanted. She asked where was it being sold? I said Amazon. She said hold on. And called me back saying her Chinese husband can order it for me. This was after trying to see if anyone I knew was planning on visiting around Christmas time. And then the flavours I would have had to try to call in!
But, I’m thrilled! I am getting Marie’s book! And I too have everything on the ingredient list save for a few of the powders. The translations are proving a wee bit difficult to get through. I’ll succeed! I’ll grovel and give promises of soaps and lip sticks in exchange for good translations that prove fruitful!
Oh yay! I’m so honoured you pre-ordered 😀 It’s definitely a bit nerve-wracking, wondering if anyone will actually buy your book 😛 I hope you love it as much as I do! My advance copy just came in the mail and it is so pretty… I can scarcely believe it!
Can Cranberry powder be used instead?
No—the seed part is important here, not the cranberry part. The powder would not offer the kind of exfoliation the seeds does as fruit powders are usually water soluble, so it’d just dissolve.
Do you use a separate coffee grinder for your powders? I only have one I use for grinding my coffee so now thinking I need to buy another one just for this purpose.
Oh definitely! That is why the recipe says “DIY-only coffee grinder” 🙂
I was going to order both surfactants from Windy point ( I can’t seem to find the slsa anywhere), but when I went back to the website it was no longer listed. I think your recipes must be very popular. I just recently started following you and I must say your recipes are wonderful!
If you click the links in the recipe you’ll find ’em 🙂 Thanks for reading!
This is on my top favorite list! Love it! I found cranberry seeds for $2.00/oz or $26.00/lb at brambleberry.com…searched high and low for a better price than I found on Amazon, glad I found one because I am going to be making more of this delightful scrub thank you for sharing your recipes….preordered your book and am anxiously awaiting the release. Blessings to you, Marie
Woohoo! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it 😀 Happy making and thank you so much for pre-ordering my book!
Hi, Marie! Love your recipes!! I have a question – doesn’t this recipe need a preservative? Because of the oil & essential oil? Wouldn’t that introduce bacteria? Thank you in advance!
You breathing into it would introduce bacteria, but bacteria needs water to grow, and since this doesn’t contain any water it doesn’t require a preservative 🙂
Thank you for a speedy response! Seriously, love your blog & recipes! ❤️
You’re welcome! Happy making 😀
I don’t have cranberry seeds but I do have poppy seeds. Would that work?
Should do!