How to Make a Coffee Scrub Homemade Recipe

Are you looking to create a DIY body scrub? How about a coffee scrub homemade by you? After some experimenting, I created a formulation for a homemade coffee body scrub that is easy for beginner DIY creators.

Our coffee scrub homemade recipe is an emulsified body scrub, and it leaves your skin feeling hydrated and clean. 

Before we dive into the ingredients and recipe, we need to learn about coffee body scrubs.

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Can I Make My Own Coffee Scrub?

Yes, you can make a coffee scrub at home. The key ingredients that you will need are coffee and oil. These ingredients will make a very basic coffee body scrub. This kind of body scrub will be very crumbly because there is no emulsifying ingredient that will help it spread on your body.

In this basic coffee scrub of just coffee and oil, you will want to put the amount you will use in a separate container before going in the shower or near water. This is because there is no preservative. 

If water is introduced into the coffee scrub, that does not contain a preservative, it will grow mold, yeast, and bacteria. Yuk!

In our coffee scrub homemade recipe, we use a preservative. The preservative keeps our skin safe and product free from mold, yeast, and bacteria.

Is Homemade Coffee Scrub Good for Skin?

Yes, a homemade coffee scrub is good for your skin because it helps remove dead skin cells, brightens the skin, protects from free radicals, and hydrates the skin.

How does a coffee scrub homemade do all these things? It is because of the properties that coffee contains and other ingredients in the body scrub. 

Because coffee is an exfoliant, it will remove dead skin cells from the body. The removal of dead skin cells and dirt will brighten the skin. Coffee is also an antioxidant that protects the skin from free radicals.

A homemade coffee scrub will also hydrate the skin because it contains oils and butter. These ingredients leave the skin feeling soft and smooth.

Does Coffee Scrub Damage Skin?

When using a coffee scrub, you will want to massage it gently onto the skin because you do not want to harm the microbiome. Coffee contains more exfoliating properties than sugar. 

When applying, you want to be gentle to keep your skin happy and healthy.

Can I Use a Coffee Scrub Every Day?

Although your skin feels amazing after using a coffee body scrub, you should not use it every day. It is recommended to use a body scrub once to twice a week. This will help your skin not be over-exfoliated.

Is a Coffee Scrub Good for Your Face?

To create a coffee scrub for your face, you will want to use non-comedogenic ingredients. This means that you want to use ingredients that will not clog your pores.

This coffee scrub homemade recipe does contain some ingredients that have comedogenic properties. 

One of these ingredients is cocoa butter. Although this butter contains many wonderful benefits for your skin, you will want to keep it away from your face because it could clog your pores.

Ingredients in Coffee Scrub Homemade Recipe

Each ingredient in this homemade coffee body scrub serves a specific purpose. Some help hydrate the skin, while others help the body scrub spread easily over the skin. 

Each ingredient selected is clean and not harmful to the skin.

Heat Phase

These ingredients in the heat phase are placed in a heat-resistant glass container and then placed in a double boiler to help the ingredients melt and mix.

In the heat phase, we have oils, two types of butter, our emulsifier, and cetyl alcohol.

Oils in Coffee Scrub Homemade Recipe

The two oils in our coffee scrub homemade recipe are sweet almond and sunflower oil. Both oils are loaded with vitamins and contain benefits for the skin.

Sweet almond and sunflower oil contain some of the same vitamins. The vitamins in each oil are:

• Sunflower Oil: C, E, and K
• Sweet Almond Oil: A, D, K, and E

Each vitamin plays a specific role in caring for the skin.

• Vitamin A: Reduces the look of fine lines and wrinkles. It makes the skin appear firm.
• Vitamin C: Helps with collagen production. It also reduces hyperpigmentation and dark spots on the skin.
• Vitamin E: Aides in soothing sensitive and irritated skin. The irritated skin conditions it soothes are sunburn, windburn, and dry skin.
• Vitamin K: Helps with discoloration in the skin, such as under the eyes. Also, it improves the skin’s elasticity.
• Vitamin D: Contributes to skin cell regeneration, growth, and repair. It also reduces premature aging in the skin.

One unique benefit of sweet almond oil is it helps reduce scarring and wrinkles. Because of this benefit added to our coffee body scrub, it will reduce scars and wrinkles on the body.

Two Types of Butter in Coffee Scrub Homemade Recipe

The two kinds of butter used in this coffee body scrub are cocoa and shea butter. Although shea butter is non-comedogenic, cocoa butter is comedogenic.

Both cocoa and shea butter add extra hydration to the skin when used. They also contain vitamins, minerals, and are rich in fatty acids.  

The Emulsifier: Emulsifying Wax NF

This coffee scrub homemade recipe is an emulsified body 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 body and easily rinse off.

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

Cetyl Alcohol

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

The ingredients in the cool-down phase of our coffee scrub homemade recipe are added after the heat phase ingredients are mostly solidified. To quickly make your heat phase cool down, you can place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

In the cool-down phase, you will find heat-sensitive ingredients. Some of these ingredients are our preservative, essential oil, and exfoliator.

Exfoliator: Coffee

Our star ingredient in our body scrub is coffee. Coffee not only is our exfoliant, but it also adds important benefits to our coffee scrub homemade recipe. 

Coffee has three main benefits that it offers the skin: 

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

The coffee you use can be regular ground coffee from the store. The coffee I used in the coffee scrub is Original Blend from Dunkin Donuts.

Preservative: Optiphen

The next ingredient in our cool-down phase is our preservative. The preservative used in the coffee body scrub homemade recipe is optiphen.

Optiphen is a clean preservative. It is also formaldehyde and paraben-free. 

Another reason why we are using optiphen is that it is a broad-spectrum preservative. Broad-spectrum preservatives protect skincare products from bacteria, yeast, and mold.

Vitamin E Oil

Adding vitamin E oil to your body 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 in Coffee Scrub Homemade Recipe

You can do substitutions in the coffee scrub homemade recipe. Any substitutions done to the recipe could make the formulation come out with a different texture, consistency, and offer different benefits. 

Oil Substitution

In a coffee body scrub, you can use a majority of oils. Some people may want oils that offer different benefits, while others may prefer to stick to non-comedogenic oils.

Some oils that you can use in a coffee scrub homemade recipe are:

• Jojoba Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Hemp Seed Oil
• Avocado Oil

Butter Substitution

Another popular butter that people will use in skincare products is mango butter. This butter has the consistency of shea butter. 

You can make a coffee scrub with all three kinds of butter combined. To do this, you will want to take away some of the percentages from cocoa and shea butter.

Emulsifying Wax NF Substitution

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

Cetyl Alcohol Substitution

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

Tools You Will Need

Some of the tools you will use in making your coffee body scrub you may be able to find around your home.

Recipe

1. First, weigh out your heat phase ingredients. Place them in a heat-resistant glass beaker.
2. Place tin foil on a glass beaker containing the heat phase and phase in a double boiler on low heat.
3. Check on the heat phase often and stir.
4. Once all the ingredients are melted and stirred together, remove the glass beaker from the double boiler and let it cool. If you want it to cool quickly, you may put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
5. Add in optiphen, vitamin E oil, and vanilla essential oil once your heat phase ingredients are down to room temperature. Blend the ingredients with your immersion blender or coffee frother.
6. Pore in your coffee grounds and mix with a spatula. Make sure that all the coffee grounds are covered with the other ingredients.
7. Enjoy!