Now that I’ve been making all kinds of make up, I find myself needing a way to get it off my face. This probably sounds a bit odd, but since I’ve never really worn make-up before, this is a new problem for me. Now, I know the OCM does a good job, but I’ve been stepping away from it lately as a bit of an experiment. Soap is also an obvious choice, though it’s pretty harsh for daily use.
Pre-grinding.
When I do use soap on my face, I really like black soap. It’s a wonderful all-natural soap from Africa, made with all kinds of good things like shea and cocoa butter (USA / Canada)s, turned into soap with lye made by roasting palm leaves. It has a tendency to look like clods of dirt, but it’ll clean you right up. I’ve had major success with it when it comes to acne. Any kind of it, anywhere. I was first introduced to it by the incredibly enthusiastic man who runs Tribal Eye in Toronto’s Kensington Market. He thrust tiny tied-off bags of it at me while enthusiastically recounting a (most likely embellished) story about a girl who used black soap on her terrible acne and cured it in three days. I was curious enough to try it, and I’ve made sure to have some on hand ever since.
Post-grinding.
I also love clay for my face, so I started thinking. Clay… black soap… hmm. Coffee grinder? Yes. That’s when I hit upon the idea of a finely ground clay and black soap facial scrub. Something mild, natural, and gently exfoliating. Something I could work some good essential oils into and count on cleaning my face without stripping it too much. Something lovely, basically.
Final product!
The beauty of this recipe is its flexibility. I used a wide variety of ingredients (most of which are optional) because I had them and felt that I should probably be using them, but you can really make this scrub with just three or four ingredients, and it will work just as well. This is what I did, but feel free to strip out all of the ingredients I’ve marked optional. I wasn’t kidding, they really are. You’ll just want to replace the volume with some more clay. And you can use whatever clay you have on hand. Green, red, from your backyard—whatever.
I no longer recommend using baking soda or soap to wash your face; read this for more information.
Gentle Clay Facial Scrub
2 tsp white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
2 tsp rhassoul clay
1 tsp baking soda (USA / Canada)
1 tbsp black soapOptional ingredients
1 tsp seaweed powder
1 tsp mango powder
¼ tsp peppermint extract
½ tsp honey powder
½ tsp citric acid
(If not used, add 3 tsp extra clay)4 drops tea tree essential oil
5 drops lavender essential oilCombine all the dry ingredients in a coffee grinder and grind until smooth. Add the essential oils, one at a time, blending between additions.
To use, scoop about half a teaspoon into your palm. Add a bit of water, rub your palms together, and massage into your face, adding more water as needed. Rinse off and enjoy your smooth, clean skin!
Can you substitute green clay for the 2 specific ones you have?
Yup! You just might want to add another half teaspoon of baking soda to the mixture as rhassoul clay is more gritty than French green.
How do you clean your coffee grinders after you do projects? BTW great post!
Hi Bona! I used to whiz some water and soap around in my coffee grinder, but it died because of it 🙁 So, now I simply brush out the excess powder with a spare make-up brush. If it’s really dirty, I’ll wipe it out with a damp paper towel. I also avoid blending anything into a paste in my coffee grinder now, as that ends up making a gigantic mess that is far too hard to clean without lots of soap and water, which kills my grinder. Thanks for reading 🙂
I clean my coffee grinder using some white rice and grinding that after and wiping it out with a dry cloth. It’ll help absorb the oils left from things like dried spices.
Great tip, Bert! I am concerned that this method wouldn’t work for removing finer particles like titanium dioxide and iron oxides, so I wouldn’t count on this method for making your coffee grinder food/coffee friendly again.
I know this post and thread is old but, after reading through the comments looking to see if anyone asked about this specific question, i absolutely had to post what i do.lol i have 3 different coffee grinders.2for diy and 1 for coffee and to grind my dehydrated fruits and veggies. Anyways, i discovered one of my best face masks/scrubs by cleaning out my grinder with rice.lol i finished up grinding act.charcoal and used the rice. Then I noticed i had to use a lot of rice, and with the fact that we eat rice everyday and it has this special place in my heart, i felt terrible to throw it all out. I then remembered how my grandmother used rice water on her face and that it made my skin so bright when i used to use it as a teen. I decided to add a couple things to my now grey rice powder to make a mask.lol let me just say, right after, my skin felt all soft and smooth, But the next day, my skin looked and felt like pure silk. Also, i get a few blackheads on the sides of my nostrils here and there and after the mask, they were gone. Also, i had a blemish that was forming on my cheek and its like the mask sucked it out before it had a chance to come out.lol (sorry for the TMI) the only downside of this mask is the ultra tightening feeling it gives when its on the face drying. (It doesnt feel tight what so ever after its washed off though) I think it may be the kelp powder i put in it. What do you think causes the tightness? I put ground rice,act charcoal,kelp powder, aloe powder,rose and silk powder with a little pinch of bee pollen.
I wet it using either my rose hydrosol, or my toner which has WH,rose,lavender,jasmin and chamomile hydrosols,along with aloe vera liquid from BB.
Hey Kat! What a fun idea—I will have to try this with some of the loooooads of rice powder I make haha 😛 From looking at your ingredients, the culprit is likely to be the charcoal, though that would depend on usage. It may also just be the sensation of lots of powder drying—do you encounter similar sensations with clay masks?
Just wanted to let you know that I made this… sorta. Lol. Left out the “extras” ingredients, and also forgot to add the 3 teaspoons of clay instead (oops!). Discovered that I’m not really a fan of scrubbing my face with clay – just kinda felt strange to me. Much prefer some of the witch hazel based toners I’ve made. But… didn’t want to waste anything of course, so decided to use the concoction as a facial mask to see if I liked that better – oh wow! It tightened my skin so much that I couldn’t even wink lol. My cheeks hurt to smile! A little jojoba oil and a day later, and I decided to try one more use… Since it had tightened my skin so much, I wondered about using it as a spot treatment for acne… So I applied it to a few pimples, left it on overnight and washed up in the morning. And the pimples were almost completely gone! So… THANK YOU! I think I’ve just discovered my favorite spot treatment! 🙂 wahoo!
Oooh, what a fantastic result, Abby! I definitely understand the “not wanting to toss” thing, I have many re-purposed concoctions hanging out in my bathroom 😛 Did you end up using the clays I used, or did you go with something else?
I used the same clays you did for this. Still really happy with results – my boyfriend actually noticed how much my skin has improved, and asked if he could try “that weird goop” on his face where he gets ingrown hairs from shaving 🙂 think I may have a new convert soon lol 😉
Ha! I have yet to get a man to want to try my weird facial goop mixtures, so well done 😛 And clay is brilliant for ingrowns, so I’m sure he’ll be sold 😉
Hi Marie, I’ve been following and reserarching your great blog for a couple of months now, and I wanted to say thanks for so many effort , knowledge and goodness you post every week.
I live in Venezuela, and it is difficult to find most of the ingredients you suggest, at least in stores. Due to heavy govt regulations, it is very difficult to buy them abroad as well… So most of us who want to make natural cosmetics use just what we can find and many ingredients that we process from scratch. For example, we are rich in aloe vera, it grows abundantly and beautifully, and many households have got at least one good plant of aloe handy in their garden, yard or in pots. Mango is very abundant, so does neem, and many many other plants that are of interest for cosmetic/ healing purposes.
So, about this particular recipe, I would like to know a few things:
is Mango powder obtained from dehidrated fruit?
What do you mean by peppermit extract? hydroglicolic extract? could another kind of extract be used?
honey powder, is it just dehidrated honey? have you tried to make it? could it be replaced by adding a drop of honey when applying the scrub?
What would it be a good substitution for black soap (oils most available for soaping are palm (virgin), palm kernel (virgin), coconut (virgin), sesame (virgin), cocoa butter, refined soy, palm shortening, vetetable shortening, and olive oil (very expensive here)) [BTW we have no access to castor oil or shea butter, which makes a bit difficult to follow many recipes, especially the former… but this would be matter for another post]
Thanks again for your useful and very enjoyable blog, I love it!
Hi Marina! Thanks so much for reading 🙂 You can read more about the fruit and botanical extracts here and here. I recommend checking out the MSDS sheets for the ones you’re interested in for the most detailed information 🙂
Honey powder is just dehydrated honey and you can use normal honey at the time of use instead.
You could just use a ground up soap that you can get instead of black soap—just make sure it is a proper soap made from saponified oils, and not a brick of surfactants and chemicals 🙂
Good luck!
Thanks for linking to New Directions site, excellent source of information! No worries about using real soap, I’m making my own from natural ingredients 😀 . Thanks a lot for your answer. Blessings and long life to Humblebee & Me 😉
You’re very welcome 🙂 Good luck and have fun, and thanks for reading!
I’ve tried your basic recipe with a few tweaks, but was wondering what do you think of usin2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp benzonite clay, 2 tsp colloidal oatmeal, 2 tsp of Dr bronners lavender bar soap & 1 tsp of guar gum? I think this will make a great moisturizing dry scrub!!!
I think you should try it and see what you think 😛 I’d probably drop the guar gum, though, it could make the final product weirdly slimy or cloddy when it gets wet.
Hi, I really love reading your recipes. I’ve made your whipped body butter recipe and love it! I was wondering if it would be possible to use liquid black soap, as that is all I have at the moment. Using that, could this recipe be made into little single serve soap bars? Just curious. Thank you!
Hi Elle! I’ve never worked with liquid black soap so I’m afraid I really can’t comment, especially since this entire recipe is dry, and you’d be adding liquid to it :/ That’s just too many changes for me to feel like I can accurately hypothesize on.
Hi, I’m loving reading all the lovely DIY recipes on your site. I also want to minimize (is not eliminate) toxic ingredients. I was just wondering if it would be possible to use liquid african black soap in this recipe, as that is all I have at the moment. Or, because it’s liquid it’s not a suitable substitution? Any advice is appreciated.
Eh, not really—you’d be adding liquid to something that’s supposed to be dry and powdery, so it will likely be wet and clumpy instead. I’d recommend choosing a different recipe if all you have is the liquid version 🙂