DIY All-Natural Toning & Clarifying Foaming Facewash
DIY Skincare & Beauty Essential oils Natural Beauty
This DIY All-Natural Toning & Clarifying Foaming Facewash cleanses and keeps skin clear using just a few simple, natural ingredients! Some — like honey and tea tree oil — are tried-and-true natural remedies for acne and blemishes, making this homemade facewash recipe the perfect addition to your anti-acne and all-natural skincare routine.
Let’s take a closer look…
I made a lot of mistakes in my teens and early twenties…
I ate a lot of heavily-processed “health” food, skipped quite a few classes while nursing hangovers (sorry, Mom and Dad!), and spent a small fortune on harsh, chemical-laden skincare products that only contributed to my breakouts and my body burden. Oh, regrets!
Luckily, now I’m (a little) older and (a lot) wiser.
After struggling with breakouts for years, I finally achieved clear skin after totally overhauling my beauty routine.
(Ok AND my diet — check out my new book all about leveraging nutrition for skin health and to remedy the internal imbalances that trigger common skin issues!)
By simplifying to a few natural and gentle skincare products, I was finally able to get clear skin.
This foaming facial cleanser is an important part of my super-simple all-natural skincare and beauty routine. It includes ingredients that help clarify and tone the skin, as well as ingredients that are extra-gentle and help maintain skin’s natural balance.
DIY All-Natural Toning & Clarifying Foaming Facewash
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup filtered or previously boiled (now room temp) water
- 1/4 cup liquid castile soap: an all-natural, extremely concentrated soap made from 100% plant oils.
- 5 teaspoons jojoba oil or another facial oil of choice (check out The Best Face Oils By Skin Type for some alternatives)
- 2 tablespoons raw honey: a wonderful antibacterial that helps to gently eliminate breakout-causing bacterial, and also helps calm the skin. This gives the wash its honey color.
- 1 teaspoon tea tree oil: another great, all-natural antibacterial, antimicrobial, and anti-fungal that will not only keep acne-causing bacteria in check, but also help preserve the wash.
- 15 drops lavender essential oil: great for all skin types, it helps calm inflammation and eliminate bacteria.
- 10 drops rosemary essential oil: another great, all-natural antibacterial.
Note: this is the combination of ingredients that works well for my skin and the combination can be adjusted depending on your skin-type. For example, if you have drier skin, you may need less castile/more water and/or oil. Everybody is different and DIYs can sometimes be a game of trial and error. Luckily, once you have a base such as this one, you can easily add ingredients if necessary!
DIRECTIONS
Add the ingredients in the order listed (if you add the soap before the water, it will become a sudsy explosion!). Stir the mixture gently, mixing everything together. The castile soap and honey will cause the mixture to look cloudy. Put the mixture into your foaming soap dispenser and your facewash is complete!
1 or 2 pumps is all you need as the castile soap is very concentrated. Use once or twice daily (I use it once a day at night).
Discard the contents after a month or if you notice any unfavorable changes. The mixture will separate, so give it a little shake before each use!
Follow with toner and a moisturizer, like Body Unburdened Beauty Blend No.2 for oily and acne-prone skin.
P.S Like my homemade mason jar foaming soap dispenser? Check out how easy it is to make your own!
Are you a natural beauty junkie too!? Welcome and stay awhile, my friend!
Hang around a bit and check out some of these other goodies I know your sweet little natural-beauty-loving heart will definitely enjoy!
- My Super Simple All-Natural Skincare & Beauty Routine
- The Best Face Oils by Skin Type
- The Top 10 Essential Oils for Skincare
- DIY All-Natural Blackhead Busting Blackout Mask
Definitely! Vitamin E oil is great for skin and can help extend the shelf life of DIYs. As for the tea tree EO, I’d start with about 20 drops and see how that works for you. I like to dilute EOs to a maximum of 5% so you can def add more if you want.
Hello Nadia! I found this recipe on Pinterest and am dying to try it. I have a few questions though. I do not have any tea tree oil but o have tea tree essential oil and vitamin E oil. Can I substitute the tea tree oil with vitamin E oil and add some drops of the tea tree essential oil? If so, would you have any guesses on amounts? I am also going to use the sunflower oil 🙂 I’m very excited!!
Hi! I just made and started using this face wash 3 days ago. I love it. I can already see a difference. I use a jojoba/essential oil blend at night but I was wondering what you recommend for a morning moisturizer? I’m really new to making my own products but I’m hoping to have all natural face/body products soon. Amy suggestions are appreciated, thanks!
Hi,
I love your blog. I am using face oils myself but I can learn a lot from you. Great job. Ula
Exactly what I needed to hear. Headed to my co-op now with the list of things to get in hand. Thank you again!
Hmmmm about what I use when I’m being too lazy to make the wash and just using castile? I’ve been using tea tree castile straight (just a little dollop lathered with water in my hands before applying to my face). But it’s getting to be too drying now with this cold winter air so I need to make a new batch of the full wash.
Oh I am so interested in this, but will wait to hear your reply from the question above, of if you are using straight Dr Bronners tea tree Castile soap. Thank you for this and your website!
I noticed a bunch of people asking about removing Eye make-up. I have been using straight olive oil (literally from my kitchen orignially) to remove all eye make-up and I love it. All my eye make-up is gone and I feel like it is moisturizing, natural, and cheap (compared to the expensive make-up counter eye make-up remover I was buying from Clinique!). I just filled up an old bottle with EVO (extra virgin olive oil) and wipe everything off with a cotton ball.
Hey, Nadia! So, you’ve just been using the Dr Bronners tea tree Castile soap straight? It’s been working for you? I was thinking about doing that. Thanks!
Hi Nadia I am so appreciative of your blog and the time you take to respond to the questions posed!
I am just starting on this essential oil journey and have a question. I would like to start slow so that I am able to better identify what oil is causing what reaction rather than jump in with soap, moisturizer, and night treatment. I am a bit confused of where I should start, between a soap and moisturizer. The mix that seems to address my symptoms by its properties is (have not tried yet): (Night) Frankincense, Jojoba, and Rosehip Oil Tamanu (Day), but how would I wash my face of makeup and the daily grind? I will likely begin with only one of these whether day or night and modify based on my skins reaction… At the present my skin is damaged, acne riddled, and lifeless as its been through a lot of trial and error so I want to begin cautiously. Can you provide any insight on which to start with or even how to wash my face with oil?
Cheers!
This is something a lot of people seem to be worried about but I’m going to tell you a little secret… I’ve recently been too lazy to make a new batch of this wash 😉 and so have just been using straight-up castile (the tea tree one) and it is not making me break out. I think this is because the main purpose of the oils (according to the Dr. Bronner’s site https://www.drbronner.com/customer-service/ingredients/) are to react with the potassium hydroxide to actually create the soap – so maybe after the reaction, its properties are changed…? That’s my assumption!
Everyone’s skin is different though…
I went to get the ingredients for this wash and I noticed that the Castile soaps have coconut oil, oilve oil, hemp oil, etc in them and that made me nervous after reading that those oils, epseically coconut, oil can clog pores. Should I be worried? Thanks!
Hmmm you’re right… well everyone’s skin is different so I guess it could have been anything! If you find something that does work for you, please update us and let us know!
I suspected it was the almond oil.. but I had looked at this chart (https://www.beneficialbotanicals.com/facts-figures/comedogenic-rating.html) and saw that both almond and jojoba were listed as “2” and assumed they were interchangeable, I guess that’s just not the case! Raw honey is not always easy to come by around where I live but if I get my hands on some I will give this a second go. 🙂
The coconut oil in the castille soap is what made me breakou I think.
well is there another natural antiseptic that would work instead of honey that you know of? thanks!
Oh no!! That is a huge bummer… Almond oil is fairly comedogenic (clogs pores) and the honey is a natural antiseptic, so a pretty key ingredient in this recipe.
I swapped the jojoba for almond oil since I didn’t have any jojoba, and I left out the honey because I didn’t think I could use it up fast enough for it not to get icky… and I have never broken out so bad since I was a teenager… it started slowly, a few spots here and there, until it was just constant, I always had several spots no matter how often I did an activated charcoal mask and no matter how careful I was to remove my makeup.. I used it for a few weeks because I wasn’t convinced it was the face wash, and it just got worse and worse 🙁 I am back to my old conventional facewash until I can figure out something else – and my skin is clear. BUMMER.
Hi Nadia, I am excited to try some of these ideas for my teenage daughter who is constantly struggling with acne. there are allot of posts and I have read most of them but is it possible for you to add exactly what your steps are daily and weekly so I’m not so confused, I would really appreciate it.
also what area should you try these oils on to see if there is a reaction before you use it.
Thank you so much!
As far as eye makeup remover, just plain old coconut oil and a cottonball works really well!