For many, cleansing your face of the night's sleepiness or the day's sweat and stress is an important self-care ritual.
In this week's blog we delve into facial cleansers and how you can make natural ingredients work in wonderful ways. We have previously covered oil cleansing, but there are other cleansers that come in the form of cleansing balms, cream cleansers and liquid washes. In this blog we will cover them all, and it's jam packed with recipes that we have tried and tested ourselves. Facial cleansers are easily customisable and you can even add in apricot kernel grounds to make them exfoliating. These are all 100% natural, biodegradable and friendly on the face as well as the planet.
Formulating Facial Cleansers with Surfactants
Lately I've been fascinated with surfactants (naturally-derived ones of course) and all the things you can do with them. Simply put, surfactants are foamy cleansers, and they have a huge variety of applications. They are added to shampoos, cleaning agents, cleansers, body washes, hand soaps, you name it. They provide creamy bubbles and a cleansing action. Some can however, have a high pH which you don't want to use on delicate facial skin (or if you do use them, tone down the pH with something acidic such as citric acid or Vitamin C powder), so you need to keep a beady eye out for which ones you are incorporating into your formula.
Stick to ultra gentle cocamidopropyl betaine, coco glucoside (blended with the betaine) and OliveM300 for use on your face. There are other mild and pH gentle surfactants but they are almost impossible to get in South Africa unless you import them in bulk from overseas. In the recipes below we make sure to only use readily available surfactants that are very gentle, so you don't need to worry about sourcing ingredients.
Here we lay out cleanser recipes for all DIY levels, beginners to more advanced. From easy oatmeal scrubs to cleansers with a more 'professional' feel, we've got you covered in the clean face department.
Oatmeal Scubby Cleanser
Probably the easiest cleanser, especially for very sensitive skin types, is to simply use oat flour mixed with powdered green tea leaves. Oats have a natural lather and gentle exfoliation action and are perfect for ultra sensitive skins.
Ingredients:
- ¼ c oat flour (a natural creamy cleanser when combined with water, and a gentle exfoliant)
- 2 tsp powdered green tea (a skin toner, cell regenerator and full of antioxidants)
Method: Blend the oats and the green tea together and store in a glass jar.
To use, scoop out a teaspoon into the palm of your hand, wet your other hand and drip some water onto the oat mixture. Rub together to lather up and massage into your skin. Then rinse off and apply moisturiser as usual. Your skin will feel soft, smooth and awake!
Chamomile and Castile Facial Cleanser
Here is a simple cleansing recipe using mild castile soap as the surfactant. You can easily substitute in any other oils (jojoba and moringa are nice) in place of the almond oil, or add in aloe vera instead of the tea. Alternatively, you can use another herbal tea solution. Please note that this cleanser doesn't contain a preservative so use it up within a few weeks.
Ingredients:
- ¾ c brewed chamomile tea
- ⅛ tsp (just the smallest pinch) citric acid (to bring down the pH of the castile soap)
- ¼ c liquid castile soap (a very gentle soap but still has a pH of around 9)
- ½ tsp almond oil
- 2 -3 drops vitamin E oil (optional)
- 8 drops frankincense essential oil or any other essential oil of your choosing
- 8 drops lavender essential oil or any other essential oil of your choosing
Method:
- Add the citric acid to the chamomile tea.
- Stir to dissolve and leave to cool.
- Add the castile soap, almond oil and vitamin E oil to a glass bottle.
- Add the essential oils and top the bottle up with the cooled tea solution.
- Shake gently to combine.
Creamy Honey Cleanser
Gently exfoliating, pore refining and brightening from the honey, this cleanser is packed with skin-loving ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 4 T pure shea butter
- ½ c liquid castile soap
- 1 tsp raw honey
- 3 tsp aloe vera gel
- 3 tsp argan oil
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp vegetable glycerin
- 7 drops tea tree essential oil
- 7 drops lavender essential oil
- 7 drops geranium essential oil
- 1 T oat flour (optional but I love it!)
- Pump bottle
Method:
- Melt the shea butter.
- Stir in the honey, aloe vera, argan oil and glycerine.
- Add in the xanthan gum and oat flour.
- Blend well to fully incorporate.
- Pour in the castile soap.
- Blend with an immersion/stick blender for a minute or two to fully mix up.
- Add your essential oils and pour into a pump bottle.
Cheat DIY Cleanser
If you want to cheat and make a super easy cream cleanser, you can actually take a cream you already have, or better yet whip one up yourself, and add some extra liquid and a surfactant to it. Because that's essentially what a cream cleanser is, runny cream plus a cleansing agent.
I tried adding some extra water and a teaspoon of castile soap to a dollop of thick body cream and it worked perfectly fine. You will achieve even better results by adding cocamidopropyl betaine to it rather than castile soap. Depending on the amount of cream you start off with, I would use 1 g of coco betaine per tablespoon of cream. Add the betaine to 2 tablespoons of water, then blend with the cream. Adjust to your likeing if necessary by adding more water or betaine for extra foam action.
Geranium Gel Cleanser
Gel cleansers are fun to make and lightweight to use. This cleanser is ultra gentle, incorporating coco glucoside and betaine as surfactants, glycerine for moisture as well as a lovely hydrosol.
Ingredients:
- 5g vegetable glycerin
- 1.25g carrageen / Irish moss or try guar or xanthan gum (just allow for a longer thickening up time)
- 0.5g coco glucoside
- 1g cocamidopropyl betaine
- 7.5g geranium hydrosol
- 34.5g distilled water
- 0.25g geogard 221 or Euxyl 940 blend
Method:
- If you are using the Irish moss, make the gel by soaking it for a few hours or overnight until the moss has absorbed some water then blending it to a smooth gel. If you are using guar or xanthan gum, add it to the glycerine, stir well to incorporate and then leave it for 10-15 minutes to thicken up while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Weigh the coco glucoside and betaine, water, preservative and hydrosol out and blend together.
- Add this water mixture bit by bit to the glycerine gum mixture, stirring very well in between additions.
- Pour your gel cleanser into a glass jar.