One tablespoon of soap, a cup of distilled water and half a cup of witch hazel. The most diluted of the nine label recipes, and the one people get wrong most often.
Face skin is thinner and more reactive than the skin on the rest of your body, which is why the body wash dilution is far too strong for it. The label gives facial cleansing its own recipe, and it is dramatically weaker than the others for a reason.
Facial Cleanser: Mix 1 tbsp soap, 1 cup distilled water, ½ cup witch hazel. Optional: 5 drops tea tree essential oil.
That is roughly one part soap to twenty-four parts liquid. Compare it to the body wash recipe, which is one to one. If you have tried castile soap on your face and found it drying, this is almost certainly why.
Distilled water rather than tap. Hard water reacts with soap and leaves residue, which on a face reads as film or dullness.
Witch hazel acts as a mild astringent and helps the mixture feel less slippery on skin. It also extends the shelf life of a batch you keep on a shelf.
Tea tree oil is optional and five drops is the stated amount. It is worth saying plainly that the soap itself is unscented and contains no essential oils, so anything you add is your addition, not ours. Skip it entirely if your skin is reactive.
Combine the water and witch hazel first, then stir in the soap slowly. Adding soap to a moving liquid produces less foam than pouring liquid onto soap. Store it in a bottle you can close, and make a small batch.
Use a diluted mixture within two to three weeks. There are no synthetic preservatives in this soap, and adding water is what introduces microorganisms. The water, not the soap, is the clock.
The undiluted concentrate is a different matter: it keeps for three years from opening, stored cool, dry, out of direct sunlight and with the cap closed tightly. So mix small and mix often rather than making a month of cleanser at once.
Wet your face with lukewarm water, work a small amount in with your fingertips rather than a cloth, and rinse thoroughly. Keep it away from your eyes. Pat dry rather than rubbing.
The soap is made with an organic blend of prickly pear, argan, jojoba, sweet almond and hemp oils. That blend is hypoallergenic and non-pore-clogging, which is what makes a soap-based cleanser workable on a face at all.
Any new cleanser deserves a patch test on your inner forearm for a day before it goes near your face, and that goes double if you are adding tea tree oil.
Yohan & Alex
Co-founders, Whole Naturals
For external use only. Keep out of reach of children. Discontinue use if irritation, redness or discomfort occurs.
