I seem most at peace when I’m sleeping, drinking tea or making something with my hands. The latter seems to allow me to think more creatively and imaginatively about everything and anything. In any case, this past weekend was about making things with tea and in particular green tea and matcha. Of course, there is the usual baking with matcha a few recipes of which can be found in a previous post on Can you cook with matcha? This weekend, while I did make some matcha cupcakes, [1], I wanted to see if I could make some skin care products with matcha and/or green tea. I only started making skin care products last year: scrubs, body butters, melt and pour soaps, shower/bath bombs, lip balms, etc. Simple things. But now that I’ve made them a few times, I had a desire to start experiment. If people are making coffee scrubs, I’m sure someone is making tea scrubs out there! In any case, my search on Pinterest leads me down a rabbit hole, as usual! But I managed to climb out with a few interesting recipes for DIY skin care products that I quickly repined and tried. [2]
The first green tea recipe I tried was a melt and pour soap with green tea leaves in it.
Green tea melt and pour soap
Ingredients:
- 1 lb melt and pour soap (This can be found at any local Michaels shop. They usually have shea butter or olive oil based melt and pour soaps. I used a combination of both shea butter and olive oil melt and pour soap, whatever I had remaining I wanted use up.)
- (optional) 1/8-1/4 c Aloe Vera gel (I had some and like it so added it in. But not necessary.)
- (optional) drops of Vitamin E (I have noticed Vitamin E doesn’t hurt and is good for the skin so like adding it in when I can. But again, optional.)
- Green tea leaves
Directions:
- Melt the melt and pour soap either in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until it becomes a liquid. Or, over a pot of boiling water in a glass bowl stirring continuously.
- Once the soap is melted or close to it, add in the Aloe Vera gel and vitamin E and anything else you want to add in. g. essential oils, exfoliates such as coffee grounds, sugar, salt oatmeal, tea!
- This is when I threw in the tea and in this particular case I had some extra Sencha green tea so decided to use that.
- Then you pour the liquid soap into molds and let cool. I find I have to do this part pretty quickly because the liquid soap starts solidifying quickly and I’m left with drops of soap everywhere!
- One the liquid soap is in the moulds; I pop it into the fridge for a while. You’ll know when it’s done. The soap will be hard, like soap.
- Once it’s hard, pop out the bars of soap from the mould and Voila! Green tea melt and pour soap!
Note: So many variants of this recipe can be tried which I’m planning on doing! I’m thinking a chai instead of green tea or a black tea and I definitely have to try just matcha! Turmeric, while not tea, is quite popular as an ingredient in tea blends. That would also be an interesting addition to a melt and pour soap. The variations are endless in regards to essential oils, additions like the aloe Vera. So many possibilities!
Matcha bath/shower bombs
The other thing I made which I’ve made before but without any tea, are shower/bath bombs. This is pretty easy too.
Ingredients:
- 1c baking soda
- ½ c citric acid (found this in bulk at a local health food store.)
- ½ c corn starch
- 45 drops peppermint essential oil (optional or any other essential oils you want to use.)
- 45 drops eucalyptus essential oil (optional or any other essential oils you want to use.)
- 1 tbsp Matcha powder
- Water as needed (I’ll explain.)
Directions:
- Mix the baking soda, citric acid and corn starch together.
- Add in the matcha powder. 1 tbsp is a guess. Put as much as you like to get the desired colour you like. Matcha can be expensive and a little goes a long way so no need to overdo it.
- Add in the essential oils while mixing.
- Now that we have a nice mixture we will start adding in the water until the mixture resembles wet sand. Usually spraying the water into the mixture with a spray bottle is suggested so that you don’t end with a mixture resembling mud.
- Once you have the “sand like” mixture, you then press the mixture into moulds. I used the same mould I used for the melt and pour soap. Really press it in hard, like when you’re packing sand into a bucket for a sandcastle. Once that is done, leave it out to dry. The longer the better but at 40-60 minutes.
- Once dry, pop out the little shower/bath bombs. Again, you’ll know when they are dry.
Note: I guess the idea with bath bombs is you toss them into the bath water with you or before you and all the good ingredients in the bath bomb dissolves into the water and then gets into you. In a shower, you drop into on the floor in the shower while the shower is going either before you get in or while you’re in. The bomb dissolves and all the good ingredients dissolve and in particular the essential oils and vapour are now all around you. Almost like you’re in an essential oil diffuser! In any case, the bombs are packed with “goodness” that we don’t get enough of. So however we get it, is good! What is nice about making your own is you can tailor make the bombs for you needs and mood.
One of the first skin care DIY products I ever made was a body scrub. It was a sugar body scrub. This is when I started learning about exfoliates, carrier oils, essential oils etc. That’s an entirely different website and blog! This weekend I wanted to try and make a scrub with green tea or with matcha and came across this DIY Matcha scrub recipe on Pinterest, [3]. My take on it is below.
Matcha and Green tea scrub, body and/or face
Ingredients:
- 5c white sugar
- 1 tbsp matcha powder
- 2-3 bags green tea
- ¾ c coconut oil
Directions:
- Mix the white sugar, matcha powder, green tea and coconut oil together.
- Scoop into containers and store in a dry place until ready to use.
Note: I used three different types of green tea because I was using up some left over teas. I used Gyokuro Green tea, Dragonwell Green tea and Hoji Cha green tea. About 2-3 g of each. I used Ceremonial Matcha. I don’t think it really matters which green tea you use. As for the exfoliate, I used white sugar because that’s what I had but you can you salt, brown sugar, any kind of sugar like turbino or cane. As for coconut oil. I thought ¾ c was a bit much so I’d use a little less next time but even which carrier oil you use, can be changed. E.g. olive oil, avocado oil, almond oil etc.
I started making body butters last year and haven’t bought a single body cream, lotion, and butter since. One of my favorite is an arnica infused oil body butter that I make but I found a matcha body butter recipe that I tried this past weekend. [4]
Matcha Body Butter
Ingredients
- 4 oz refined shea butter
- 25 oz fractionated coconut oil
- 1/4 teaspoon beeswax
- 1/2 teaspoon matcha green tea powder
- 3 mL lavender essential oil
- several drops vitamin E oil
- 1-2 teaspoons corn starch
Directions:
- Set up a pan of boiling water. Put shea butter and beeswax into a glass bowl. Place glass bowl over top of the pan of boiling water and stir until the mixture is melted.
- Once melted removed from heat and mix in fractionated coconut oil and matcha powder.
- Add in lavender essential oil and vitamin E oil.
- Place mixture into fridge and cool until it’s solid. This take at least 30 minutes but I just leave it in there and do something else for 30-60 minutes.
- Once solid, remove from fridge and let sit out until the mixture has returned to room temperature.
- Once mixture is at room temperature use a hand blender to whip the mixture, like whipped cream, until you get a creamy substance. The total process usually take 7-10 At least once or twice while mixing you’ll have to stop and scrape down the sides. It is at this time that you add the cornstarch. Usually I start with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch then add a little more.*
- Once you have a buttery or creamy texture, you’re done. Scoop the mixture into little jars or containers and moisturize!
*Note: The first time I ever made a body butter, it was great. Then the next day when I went to use it, it was hard as rock! I couldn’t figure out why. It does soften up once you start working it with your hands but it’s not as nice as a nice cream or buttery feeling. I still don’t really understand why. You really need to know your chemistry to understand how all these ingredients react and combine together! But, through some searching online I found out that adding a bit of cornstarch, arrowroot powder or tapioca powder. I tried this and it worked like a charm. I’ve modified this recipe a bit from the one I found on Pinterest but it turned out well. I will make some adjustment the next I make it. For example, the carrier oil, fractionated coconut oil in this case, I’ll change up to something else. For example, Camellia seed oil, safflower oil, apricot kernel oil, grapeseed oil or rosehip oil are faster absorbing carrier oils and will help minimize that greasy feeling. [5]
Using green tea or matcha in skin care recipes begs the question Why? Good question. This brings us to the benefits of green tea. Stay tuned for “part two” and the benefits of green tea and matcha!
References:
- Matcha cupcakes with green tea cream cheese frosting, Ilona, December 2015, Ilona’s Passion, URL: https://ilonaspassion.com/?s=matcha+cupcakes
- DIY board, Pinterest, URL: https://www.pinterest.ca/crispycremedata/diy/
- DIY Matcha and green tea facial scrub with free printable, Andrea, 2015, The Cottage Market, URL: http://thecottagemarket.com/2015/05/diy-matcha-and-green-tea-facial-scrub-with-free-printable.html
- DIY Matcha body butter (Perfect for after-sun moisture!), Rebecca Dillon, The Nourished Life, URL: https://livingthenourishedlife.com/diy-matcha-body-butter/
- How to make body butter less greasy, Eve, Organic Beauty Recipe, URL: https://www.organic-beauty-recipes.com/how-to-make-body-butter-less-greasy/
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