When you think of a face scrub, you probably picture something that’s rich and oily. While oil-based scrubs can be amazing for dry skin, they aren’t always ideal for those with oily or sensitive skin types.
I have made plenty of recipes for face scrubs using natural oils, but I know that excessively oily exfoliants can sometimes feel greasy and leave you wanting to wash them right off again, which kind of defeats the purpose of exfoliating in the first place.
That is why I created this green tea face scrub. It is formulated with soothing, antioxidant-rich ingredients that gently polish the skin without adding excess oil. It leaves your face soft, smooth, and perfectly refreshed.
I have always loved starting the day with a cup of green tea, so I thought it was time to give my skin the same rejuvenating treat.
Why Make A Gel Scrub?
Gels are a lot lighter than their oil-based cousins. They provide good moisturization without any of the heavy, greasiness of oil-based variants. Furthermore, many oil-based scrubs contain a significant amount of cosmetic butter – something that is not recommended for oily skin types.
Furthermore, this is your chance to use all of those lovely water-based ingredients. Many types of botanicals and functional ingredients are water soluble only. Glycerites, D Panthenol powder, silk peptide, hyaluronic acid, tinctures, and more can all be used here.
However, this also means we can’t just add essential oils without extra steps. Essential oils are oils after all. If you really want to do this, you will need to solubilize them. This will require a solubilizer, such as Symbiosolv.
If you want to impart a fragrance to your gel scrub more easily, just swap out the distilled water for hydrosol/floral water.
What’s In This Face Scrub
The Power of Matcha Powder
Matcha is, for all intents and purposes, green tea! However, there’s more to it than that. It’s different from regular tea, because it doesn’t need to be ‘steeped’, and can be mixed into drinks and consumed immediately.
Furthermore, they are made from specially selected, shade grown tea leaves… It’s not your ordinary green tea! It’s become amazingly popular over the last 10 years. You’ve probably tried it at Starbucks.
Despite not being called green tea, it carries with it many amazing benefits of it. It’s fantastic for fighting off the first signs of aging, increasing circulation to the skin, and stimulating the production of collagen. It also helps to restore lost elasticity. As much as oily skin takes longer to age, anti-aging is most definitely a concern for all skin types.
Furthermore, it’s also great for sensitive skin. It actually helps to soothe patches of irritation and brings down puffiness.
There’s also some evidence to suggest it has decent antibacterial action, too. It’s a wonderful ingredient, and I actually love the deep green color it provides to this product. It just screams natural to me.
If you can’t get hold of matcha powder, or find it’s a little too expensive in your region – just forget about it and swap your distilled water for a DIY green tea infusion. You’ll get many of the same benefits, but it won’t have that swampy green color that I love so much. Or, keep your distilled water and just use a water-soluble green tea extract.
Our Excellent Exfoliants
We’re only using the one exfoliant in this recipe because we wanted it to be suitable for even the most sensitive skin. The exfoliant we’re using today is bamboo powder.
Providing you’re using ultra-fine bamboo powder, intended for use on the face, this is an excellent ingredient for gentle exfoliation. Make sure to check with your supplier to ensure it is a microdermabrasion-grade exfoliant, otherwise it could be a little too coarse for the face.
My supplier tells me this stuff is okay to use every day, but I’m not 100% sure of this. I would recommend using it no more than 3 times a week. If you find it too irritating, use it no more than once a week – or consider dropping the amount of bamboo powder to 2.5g, and upping the distilled water to 83g to compensate.
If you can’t get hold of this ingredient, I would use jojoba grains/seeds/beads that are intended for use on the face. If you are ever unsure about the quality of your exfoliants, as well as any of your cosmetics ingredients, always contact the supplier directly.
Watch The Video
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Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- 10 g Glycerine, 1.5 g Xanthan GumPlace the glycerin and xanthan gum into a beaker. Mix the xanthan gum and glycerin together, ensuring they are well combined and have no lumps, then Set aside.
- 80 g Distilled Water, 2 g Macha PowderIn a separate beaker, dissolve the Matcha powder into the distilled water.
- 1 g PreservativeNow it's time to add our preservative. Stir this into our matcha powder and distilled water, making sure it is completely combined into the gel.
- Once dissolved, pour around a ¼ of the water and matcha powder into the beaker holding the xanthan gum mixture. Stir briskly. As the gel begins to thicken, add another ¼ of the matcha water, and continue until it has all been added.
- 5.5 g Bamboo PowderThe gel needs to be thick enough to suspend the bamboo. If it's not quite there, try stirring for a while longer. Sometimes the xanthan gum can take a few hours to completely reach its final thickness, so if it's still looking a bit thin, leave it alone for a few hours to thicken before adding the bamboo.
- When the gel feels and looks thick enough to suspend the bamboo, go ahead and stir it in.
- 1 4 oz PET Plastic BottleWe can now transfer the finished gel to a bottle. If the mouth is too narrow, you can use a funnel.
Notes
- As this is a water-based product we need to use a preservative. We’re using lots of lovely ingredients that bacteria and mold love to feast on, then giving them an endless supply of water too. Without a preservative, you expose yourself to a whole host of nasty bacterial and fungal infections.Â
- This should be used no more than 3 times per week.
Tried this recipe?
Let us know How It Was!Final Thoughts
This green tea face scrub is superb in all categories. It does its job, is very gentle on the skin and nourishes the skin, and leaves it feeling ultra soft. Just don’t let the color put you off. It may look like swamp water, but it’s fabulous for your skin!
If you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have loved writing it, then let me know in the comments below. I’m also happy to answer queries and questions. We can troubleshoot these things together!
