Make this DIY green tea facial cleanser recipe with simple ingredients you have in your kitchen right now. It gives store-bought cleansers a run for their money.
Are you intimidated by the thought of making your own DIY facial cleansers? This ultra easy green tea facial cleansing milk will change your mind!
When I first started out making DIY green beauty products, I loved making bath and body products like sugar scrubs and bath soaks. But I was intimidated by the thought of making facial cleansers.
After all, facial skin is so delicate. Plus, I was worried that handmade products couldn’t compare to the effectiveness of store-bought ones.
I got over that fear (obviously!) and now ALL my facial products are handmade. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a facial cleanser.
My skin is healthier than ever, and I prefer the results I get from my DIY products. No burning or stinging like I often had with store-bought cleansers.
So, if this is your first foray into making a facial cleanser, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. This Green Tea Facial Cleansing Milk is easy to make, uses simple kitchen ingredients, and is gentle and good for your skin.
This soap-free DIY cleanser is made as a powder base to ensure it has a nice long, safe, shelf-life, and is hydrated just before each use.
Ready to meet the star ingredients and their skin benefits?
Skin Benefits of Milk Powder
The base of this cleanser is powdered milk which, if you’ve never made DIY skin care before may seem a bit strange. But here’s why it’s a wonderful base for your DIY facial cleanser.
Milk contains fats that help draw dirt and oil, without drying out your skin.
It also contains an alpha hydroxy acid called lactic acid. Lactic acid helps smooth the skin by dissolving the bonds that hold dead skin cells together.
Milk is gently cleansing, and leaves your skin looking brighter.
By using it in it’s powdered form, you get all the benefits in a supremely shelf-stable ingredient. You can buy powdered milk at your grocery store.
Skin Benefits of Green Tea
Green tea is a common ingredient, in both store-bought and DIY skin care products for good reason.
reen tea is a powerful antioxidant, which means it helps protect your skin from damage and premature aging.
In this formulation in particular, green tea helps boost the cleansing ability of the product by it’s slight astringent property. Again, it’s deeply cleansing without being drying.
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Skin Benefits of Oats
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know about my love affair with oats. You’ve enrolled in my free e-course, right? If not, feel free to do so now. I’ll wait. :)Oats are added to many, many of the DIY skin care recipes that I formulate for y’all, and for good reason.
Oats are like the duct tape of the skin care ingredient world–they can do it all.
They’re cleansing, dirt- and oil-absorbing, smoothing, softening, and reduce redness and irritation. A little bit of oatmeal gives body to this cleanser, and all those good-for-your-skin benefits too.
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DIY Green Tea Facial Cleansing Milk Recipe
This soap-free facial cleanser recipe is very shelf stable, lasting 12 months or more when stored properly. The recipe below makes a big batch to draw from so that you’ll have plenty of cleanser to last for several months.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup powdered milk
- 2 tablespoons rolled oats, uncooked
- 4 teaspoons dried green tea leaves, or contents of 2 green tea bags
To make: Measure out all ingredients into a blender or small food processor (a Magic Bullet works great for this.) Blend for 30 seconds or so, until you have a nice, smooth powder. Done!
To use: Measure out approximately 1/2 teaspoon of powdered cleanser into your palm. Add just a bit of water to make a smooth paste.
Massage over your face and neck as you would a typical cleanser. Rinse well with warm water. Follow up with an application of toner and moisturizer. I suggest trying the Rosehip and Evening Primrose Anti-Aging Facial Cream; it’s to die for!
These jars with scoops make using your powdered cleanser so easy; I’m obsessed with them and have oh, about a half dozen on my bathroom counter filled with different cleansing powders, facial masks, and scrubs. They’re also the jars used in the pictures in this post–aren’t they darling?)
Yield: Just over 1 cup cleanser base, for about sixty uses. So economical, right?
Shelf life: 1 year when stored in a dry place. Don’t introduce water into the jar (i.e. don’t dip wet hands into the jar, or store where water can accidentally get into the jar like in the shower.)
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I’m a fan of your skin care recipes. I have very sensitive skin and your products are the best for me. I’ve been searching for a new cleanser and I’m anxious to give this one a try. There are so many dry milk products available, what fat content do you recommend? On hand, I have fat free dry milk, whole powdered goat milk, and dry buttermilk.
Thank you!
Hi Suzanne! I recommend full fat or whole milk powders, because the extra fat content gives a creamier feel to the products and a bit of added moisture for the skin.
You have some awesome milks to choose from! Buttermilk powder has extra enzymes that will give more exfoliating qualities to your product. Goat milk powder has a higher fat content than cow milk, so it’s creamier and naturally emollient. Fat free dry milk is a perfectly acceptable option for facial products too, it just isn’t quite as creamy as the aforementioned milks. I use it most often in bath milks and soaks, simply because it’s so cost effective.
I hope this helps. Thanks so much for your comment, and your kind words. <3
Angela
Hi Angela,
I can’t tell you how happy I am to have stumbled upon your website! I am 37, but still break out like a teenager and have dry, sensitive skin. Boy, what a God-send! I am making this cleanser now and am wondering: I am a makeup wearer. Can I use ONLY this facewash or should I wash with something else first and then use this?
Thanks so much!
Hi Becky! Thanks so much for your question!
Yes, this cleanser CAN be used to remove face makeup. I always recommend doing a double-cleanse to remove makeup, no matter what cleanser you use (DIY or store-bought.) So: cleanse, rinse, cleanse again, rinse again.
The first cleanse removes dirt, oil, and makeup. The second cleanse gets the skin really clean.
Because, with only one cleanse you’re just rubbing makeup, dirt, and oil around the face.
This cleanser, though, doesn’t do a good job removing eye makeup. For that, I highly recommend grapeseed oil. It removes eye makeup (even waterprooof), is gentle and won’t sting or burn, and doesn’t clog the pores. It also has the added benefit of being highly antioxidant and anti-aging. Yay!
You can use the grapeseed oil sold at grocery stores. Use prior to cleansing the face.
I hope this helps, Becky! Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your kind words. It really made my day.
Love,
Angela
Hi Angela,
Thank you very much for sharing your great recipes! I just stumbled upon your website & I can’t wait to try your ideas! I’m especially anxious to try the milk cleanser. I grew & dried German chamomile this summer & wondered how it might compare to the green tea in this recipe. Which would be more beneficial & anti-aging for my face?
Thank you,
Lynn
Hi Lynn! Thanks for the great question.
German chamomile is absolutely fabulous for the skin. It has anti-inflammatory properties, so it’s great for soothing the skin and reducing redness. This herb also helps the skin to stay hydrated, naturally, by reducing trans-epidermal water loss.
It also would make a perfect substitute for the green tea in this recipe. Like green tea, German chamomile is an antioxidant, so it helps protect the skin from free radical damage. It also contains a chemical constituent that promotes cell regeneration. In short, German chamomile is fabulous anti-aging ingredient.
Because you grew and dried your own, these skin-loving properties should be quite high in your chamomile. It’s much fresher than you can buy!
Feel free to sub out your chamomile for the green tea in this recipe. Just run your dried herbs through a food processor or blender to grind them into a fine powder first. This will ensure your finished product will feel good on the skin (not scratchy) and also releases all of the “good stuff” in the herb so it’s more available to the skin.
Happy crafting, my friend!
Love,
Angela
Just made this and tried it tonight, before any moisturizer my face feels awesome! I was looking for something without chemicals to (finally) start taking proper care of my skin.
Any suggestions for making it smell a little better? Once I get it wet in my hand, all I smell is warm milk – not my favorite smell in the world.
Essential oil wouldn’t work because the moisture would probably ruin it?
Thanks!
Hi Lindsay! I’m so glad you like the way the cleansing milk made your skin feel! Now, let’s make it smell more to your liking so that it’s just perfect for you. 🙂
A few options to try:
1. You could add an additional 2 teaspoons of a fragrant dried herb, like spearmint, lavender, or sage. When these are hydrated with the cleanser you’ll get the scent of these herbs rather than just milk. To really get the best scent, buy the whole herb and grind it in a food processor just before adding to your cleansing base. This ensures all of the volatile oils are at their freshest and you’ll get a better scent.
2. You CAN add some essential oils to the mixture. These won’t change the feel of the product but will give a lovely scent. The only caveat here is essential oils can be irritating to sensitive skin types, so if you have very sensitive skin this might not be ideal. Good essential oils for the face include vanilla, frankincense, geranium, chamomile, or a skin care blend (like this one from Rocky Mountain Oils. (P.S. Those are affiliate links.)
3. You may find you like the scent of other milk/dairy powders better than the milk powder. Try yogurt powder or buttermilk powder. Coconut milk powder smells amazing, but it doesn’t contain lactic acid like dairy milks so it doesn’t have the same exfoliating qualities. But it’s another option you may want to try and see how you like it.
I hope this helps! Give a few of those a try and see what you like best. If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Love,
Angela
Could this still be effective without the oats or is there a comparable substitute? Unfortunately I’m allergic to oats but this recipe seems perfect and practical!
Hi Shannon,
Yes, you could absolutely leave out the oats. The consistency when you use it will be a bit thinner, but it will still be lovely for your skin.
Another option is to replace the oats with finely ground rice bran (not rice flour–that’s too abrasive.) The rice bran gives a bit more body and a slight scrubbing action to the cleanser. Rice bran has been traditionally used as a skin cleanser and brightener.
I hope you like it! Please let me know how it works for you.
Angela