Easy Facial Coffee Scrub Recipe

Coffee is a word that most Americans know and use every day. They use coffee grounds to make their morning go-go juice. What if we could use these ground-up morsels of goodness to make a facial coffee scrub?

Have you ever wanted to make an easy DIY coffee face scrub that will exfoliate and brighten your skin? I created a DIY coffee face scrub formulation that is easy for beginner skincare creators. Using coffee in a face scrub helps brighten the skin and leave it glowing all day long.

Before we dive into the recipe, we need to understand the basics of face scrubs and what they can do for the skin.

What Does Face Scrub Do?

Face scrubs are created to exfoliate your skin and wash away dead skin cells, dirt, debris, excess oils, and all other grime off of your face. After using a face scrub, your skin should feel fresh and clean.

When searching for the perfect ingredients in a face scrub, you need to focus on what you want it to do for your skin.

• Would you like your face scrub to remove toxins from your skin? You would then use clay in your face scrub.
• Do you want your skin to have glowing completion? You would use coffee to receive this effect.

What Can Be Used as a Scrub for the Face?

When looking for an exfoliator for your face, you need to focus on what will not be harsh but still remove stubborn dead skin cells. Some gentle exfoliants you can use on your face are:

• Brown Sugar
• Coffee
• Finely Ground Seeds
• Clay

Coffee in a facial scrub can sometimes be a little harsh, so you need to be gentle when massaging it on your face.

Can I use Coffee Scrub on my Face Every Day?

You may use a coffee scrub on your face once to twice a week. Some skin types can be irritated if it is exfoliated often. If your skin is not irritated with the exfoliation, you can use it up to three times a week. 

When exfoliating your face, you want to watch your skin. Does it get irritated if you use it more than once a week? You never want to exfoliate so much that it harms your skin’s microbiome.

After you apply the facial coffee scrub, you can let it sit on your face like a mask. This helps your skin receive more benefits from ingredients in your coffee face scrub.

Facial Coffee Scrub Ingredients Overview

Understanding what each ingredient has to offer your skin in your DIY coffee face scrub will help you know how your skin will react after using it. Each ingredient we use offers your skin a specific benefit and serves a unique purpose.

Heat Phase Ingredients

The ingredients in the heat phase need to be melted to be combined. Typically the heating phase consists of oils, butter, and waxes.

Jojoba Oil

The first ingredient that we add to our facial coffee scrub is jojoba oil. We use jojoba oil in our coffee scrub because it is a non-comedogenic oil and will not clog your pores. 

Jojoba oil is not an oil but a liquid wax. Another fact about jojoba oil is that it closely resembles our skin’s sebum because of the liquid esters it contains.

Mango Butter

Normally, butter is not the best ingredient for skincare products that go on the face. Butter is heavier and sometimes more likely to clog pores compared to oils. Mango butter, on the other hand, has a low comedogenic rating. This means it is face friendly.

Mango butter contains antioxidants which help reduce free radical damage, and it is rich in oleic acid, stearic acid, and Vitamins A, C, and E. 

Emulsifying Wax NF

This facial coffee scrub recipe is an emulsified face scrub. When water is mixed with an emulsified face scrub, it will become easier to spread and rinse off. Adding an emulsifier to your recipe helps the scrub adhere to your face and easily rinse off.

Emulsifying wax nf does not leave your skin greasy, provides hydrating for the skin, and reduces inflammation.

Cetyl Alcohol NF

When reading the ingredient in a skincare product, seeing alcohol in it makes you take a step back and wonder if it is safe for your skin. Cetyl alcohol is a safe ingredient in clean skincare products and hydrates the skin rather than drying it out.

Cetyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol that acts as an emollient and helps the skin stay hydrated and soft. 

Cool-Down Phase Ingredients

The cool-down phase in a skincare recipe is for heat-sensitive ingredients. This phase consists of your preservatives, extracts, and essential oils. You will add in these ingredients when the heat phase is down to room temperature.

When making a scrub, you will add your exfoliant after you have placed your other cool-down phase ingredients in the mixture.

Coffee

The star ingredient in our DIY coffee face scrub is coffee. Coffee not only acts as our exfoliant but also adds some important benefits to our recipe. 

Some of the benefits that coffee adds to clean skincare recipes are:

• Brightens Skin
• Contains anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties
• Removes dead skin cells and excess oil

Lucy from Coffee Spirations mentions, “The stimulants, antioxidants, and chlorogenic acids (CGA) in coffee contain both anti-inflammatory properties and antibacterial properties that can fight this issue effectively via the scrub for the face.”

Coffee is a double whammy to acne because it cleans off the dead skin cells and excess oil. It also has antibacterial properties. 

The coffee you use can be regular ground coffee from the store. The coffee I used in the coffee scrub is 100% Colombian Coffee from Dunkin Donuts.

Optiphen

A clean preservative that is paraben and formaldehyde-free is optiphen. You will use optiphen in oil-based products. 

Optiphen is a broad spectrum preservative that protects your skincare products from bacteria, yeast, and mold.

Vitamin E Oil

Adding vitamin E oil in your face scrubs adds hydrating benefits for your skin, and it also helps fight free radical damage. This means that vitamin E oil helps fight the effect of aging and keeps your skin young and healthy.

Vanilla Essential Oil

Vanilla essential oil does not add any benefits to our DIY coffee scrub. It is included in this recipe to help the coffee scrub smell like vanilla coffee. 

If you would like your DIY coffee scrub to have a stronger smell of vanilla, you can increase the percentage in the recipe.

Ingredient Substitutions For Facial Coffee Scrub

Any substitutions done to the recipe could make the formulation come out with a different texture, consistency, and offer different benefits.

Jojoba Oil Substitution

If you are looking for different oils to substitute for jojoba oil, you want to focus on what oils are non-comedogenic and will not clog your pores. Some non-comedogenic oils you can use are:

• Argan Oil
• Blackberry Seed Oil
• Blueberry Seed Oil
• Goji Berry Seed Oil
• Hemp Seed Oil
• Safflower Seed Oil

And the list could go on. Look for oils that have a comedogenic rating of 0. When an ingredient has this rating it means it will not clog your pores.

Mango Butter Substitution

Now, if you are looking to substitute mango butter, the next best butter to use in your facial coffee scrub is shea butter.

Shea butter will add that same texture as mango butter but includes different benefits. Also, you can split the percentage of mango butter to add shea butter to the formulation. Then you will have both types of butter in your facial coffee scrub recipe.

I am not recommending cocoa butter to be used as a substitute because it has a higher comedogenic rating and could potentially clog your pores.

Cetyl Alcohol Substitution

A substitution for cetyl alcohol is cetearyl alcohol. These are both fatty alcohols that are clean skincare friendly.

Emulsifying Wax Nf Substitution

If you want to use a natural emulsifier in your facial coffee scrub, you can use oliven 1000. The percentage of your emulsifier may need to change in the recipe if you desire to use oliven 1000. 

Optiphen Substitution

There is no substitution for optiphen except for excluding it from the recipe.

If you want to create this DIY coffee face scrub without a preservative, you will want to keep it away from water. There is a possibility of bacteria, yeast, and mold growing if water comes in contact with your unpreserved skincare products.

Tools to Create a Facial Coffee Scrub

You can find some of the tools you will need to make a coffee face scrub around your home.