DIY Coffee Face Scrub
Since the discovery of the amazing Iced Coffee recipe, I’ve made four ty five batches of it. Each time, after throwing away a pound of coffee grounds, I feel it a pity that I can’t use some small amount for …SOMETHING! (I don’t have a garden, or I’d definitely use it there!) I have a hard time throwing stuff away if I can see uses for it in the future. Maybe I hoardeth a little.
My face usually feels like the epitome of Nefertiri’s jealous, haughty description from the movie The Ten Commandments:
“Does she… grate garlic on her skin? Or is it soft… as mine? Are her lips chafed and dry as the desert sand? or are they moist and red like a pomegranate?”
And though Moses shuts ol’ Neffy down, I’ve always been the worry-faced meme, wringing my hands in “what to do” anxiety, saying “okay.”
My mother, and sister, and friend, Heather prompted me to start reading the ingredients on the labels of of my soaps/lotions/perfumes/deodorants etc. hmm.
“What are these ingredients?”
“What is methylparaben?”*
“What is alksjflajfpejqfklnfsghskljgdn?”
And “Why and how can companies put alksdjaslkjfalksfjalkfjalkfj into my lotion and think I’m not going to question what it is?”
Well… I actually hadn’t ever questioned, or even bothered to read the labels until someone bothered to bother me. It started with my mom telling the dentist to opt us out of fluoride treatments, then reading about aluminum levels found in antiperspirants… all downhill from there, folks.
*To answer: methylparaben is one of a family of “parabens” which serve as a preservative (keeps them from getting nasty, growing mold) found in the wide array of beauty products, high end and drugstore brands, and even in food. These parabens are suspects in the ongoing unsolved mysteries of many different causes of cancer, though they are tied to breast cancer. …I’m lazy, you can research too! One might start here, or here. (<The second link is a database of cosmetics and their toxicity level ratings. Ugh, I just searched my favorite hair styling products and they’re listed as “highly toxic”)
These mystery ingredients are in almost everything I put my hand on at the grocery store. It drives me insane.
Though I’m a little extreme and this kind of stuff radiates into how we eat and how we breed. Foreign chemicals and hormones come at a price. Maybe the bill comes due when I’m 50 years old, maybe 100, maybe the price is indebted into my own childrens’ bodies…
Once I learned what certain ingredients actually were, I became ENRAGED to discover that I was throwing away dem hundo dollaz at Sephora for cancer ingredients, BEESWAX, AND MINERAL OIL. In a .3oz jar. To give you an idea of the absurdity: one can purchase a pint (16oz) of mineral oil at Kroger for under $5.
But hey, pretty jar, right? At least the inconclusive-possibility-of-cancer-which-more-studies-need-to-be-conducted-but-until-then-go-ahead-and-risk-it looks pretty in pink, no? At least there’s that.
I don’t make all of my own stuff. I can’t.
I don’t have the time/resources/humility to dedicate to DIY’ing ALL THE THINGZ nor to stop using Kenra #25 Hairspray. That stuff is pure toxic gold.
S’why I said “within my own reasonable means”. It’s up there. I wrote it.
So within my own means and for my sanity’s sake, I have slowly, over the course of a few years, tried a few Make Your Owns for the betterment of my health, the health of my family, the environment, and because in many cases, it costs less moula and you can have better quality.
I always have to say to myself, “CALM THYSELF. Try one thing at a time.”
I’ve been beginning to question the daily use of soap to wash my face. Ew? I dunno. My face tends to do better when I don’t wash it so much. When I do, I use a small dab of baby shampoo (yes, I’ve seen DIY baby shampoo recipes, haven’t tried it), yet I still become Nefertiri’s image of worked-desert-mule skin and I molt. Gross.
So I says to myself, I says, “Self, you need one o’dem MY-CROW-DERM-AH-BRAYSHUNZ.” Get all of that dead, desert sand offa that face.
Another factor as to why I’m motivated to try DIY’s is that I am terribly impatient, and when I says things to myself like the above, I start scratchin’ all over Pinterest for ideas as opposed to wanting to wait and purchase something that may or may not have Cancerbeans in it.
As it always does, Pinterest pulled through.
USE THOSE BREWED COFFEE GROUNDS, you hoarder, you! And store it in a saved diced pimento jar. Bangarang.
For my concoction, I used:
1/4 cup brewed coffee grounds (any coffee will do, heck, tear open a used K-cup!)
1/4 cup sugar in the raw
1 T coconut oil
3-4 drops Sweet Orange essential oil (it takes the bitter notes off of the scent of the brewed coffee and adds a lovely sweetness)
1 T Epsom Salts
Mix into a jar.
Apply, scrub, rinse.
Sorry, I’ve talked you into getting your sink dirty.
Anyway, I decided to share this here, had it drafted out, and then as I was raking through a fairly new-to-me blog, I discovered this fun-to-read lady shared a coffee scrub too. here’s her recipe. here’s my pin, too. Not that I have the audacity to believe this is an original post in any way whatsoever, but go figure. It’s been done before. again and again and again.
I did not mean for this to turn into a “DUMP YOUR COSMETICS, EVERYTHING YOU HAVE WILL KILL YOU” post.
I’m slowly over time, learning more, eliminating more and more products, if I find I’m willing to part ways. Bath & Body Works, we broke up long, long time ago. Kenra… I still want you. I need you. I love you long time. maybe.
Oh. Yes. Here’s photographic evidence that the coffee did not tint my skin a shade darker, though I kind of hoped it would.
And my skin feels and looks AMAZE. ING. Nefertiri-like, perhaps, except for the beard.
What are your favorite healthy beauty products or DYI pins?
I wanna know! I wanna do mad scientist projects!