How to make a facial cleansing & scrub stick

If you have enjoyed our tutorial about How to make a "natural" facial cleansing stick (which you hopefully have), you're probably waiting for more to come and we'll not disappoint your expectations.

We took that product to the next level and prepared a 2in1 cleansing and scrub stick.

Scrubs are quite a necessity in personal care and extremely popular, not only in institutional beauty and SPA but in domestic skincare. There are 1001 ways to prepare effective and fun scrub and we've shared quite many tutorials during the last years.

These are only our tutorials since last year:

Green smoothie facial oleogel scrub (Guest Post)

How to make preservative-free scrubs

How to make a natural lip scrub (guest post)

Easter special: fail proof face & body scrub

Since facial cleansing sticks are quite popular, we decided to add more fun and functionality and create a kind of cleanse & scrub stick which combines the benefits of the stick, a waterless formulation and an effective and hygienic way to apply a scrub. (well, the product is not quite waterless but the water activity is so low it is considered a waterless product). Anyway, this kind of scrub is much more hygienic compared to a scrub that should be shovelled out of a jar. Let's jump to the formulation and procedure.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1- Weight phase A in a heat proof beaker. Cover it and let it stand at room temperature for 1-2 hours. This will facilitate the next steps a lot.

2- Blend phase B in another heat proof beaker.

3- Blend phases C and D in separate beakers. You can use a magnetic stirrer for phase D. This is not necessary but can make your life a lot easier.

4- After 1-2 hours gently blend phase A, it should be a milky liquid

5- Heat phase A and B in a water bath at around 80-85 ^oC. Blend both phases separately till they are homogeneous.

6- Still in the water bath (turn the water bath to around 50 degrees) slowly add phase B to A and blend gently to avoid excessive foaming.

7- Slowly add phase C to the blend. Coffee powder does not dissolve in the oil phase, you only need to keep it dispersed. Remove the beaker from the bath.

8- Blend gently and now add phase D. Take a sample and dilute it to 10% for pH measurement. Per experience, we have added 0,6% lactic acid in phase D and the pH of our blend was 4,9 which is suitable for our purpose. You may need to use higher or lower concentrations of lactic acid depending on the raw material you are using.

This is quite an important and an annoying step. If you are too slow, your blend might start to solidify. Make a very small experimental batch (you don't even need to pour the blend into a stick) to figure out how much acid you'll need for pH adjustment.

9- When the pH is adjusted, continue blending until coming to a low trace. Pour the blend in the empty stick you have kept at hand.

10- Put the stick in the fridge for at least 12 hours (till overnight) before using it or starting your stability tests or final packaging.

Enjoy the process and the skin feel of this stick.

How to use a facial cleansing stick:

With this formulation, you can apply the stick directly over dry skin. This has the advantage that you do not add any additional water to the product during application. Gently apply the stick over dry (or damp) skin. Wet your fingers with tap water and massage and spread the product with your finger tips all over your face (and even neck if you want). The product changes to a soft and pleasant lather by coming into contact with water and coffee powder acts as a gentle facial polish. Rinse with water and apply your toner or facial mist as usual.

BeHappy and have fun