Custom Origins Modern Friction

Lately, I've really been into trying to make the best organic homemade facial masks, cleansers, and scrubs. I went to Florida during the summer and used a Banana Boat sunscreen on my skin that either clog my pores and caused the onset of a major breakout on both cheeks or the two just happened to coincide. Either way, I've been dealing this breakout since August. It finally started to really clear up when I started using Proactive again but I realized that my complexion was dull and gray. I would rather have a bad complexion then the breakout, of course, but I wanted to deal with both without causing pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads to start reappearing. I continued with the Proactive but start looking online for the best ways to treat acne, dryness, brighten, and increase the healthy look of my complexion using a bought product or something homemade. Whichever truly seemed to fit my issue. I did hours and hours of research from day to day. I finally went to the store and got Modern Friction by Origins. It worked well but I had all this info rolling around in my mind like 'lemon brightens,' 'honey kills acne bacteria and reduces irritation,' 'oatmeal soothes.' So I took a look at the ingredients in Modern Friction. The main ingredient was Rice Starch. I did research and read good things concerning Rice Starch or Flour and skin. The next ingredient was lemon. Brightener. So I decided I would try to concoct a better (for me) version of Modern Friction. I needed Rice Starch but I also wanted the granule feeling so I opted for freshly and coarsely ground Rice Flour. I took organic basmati brown rice and poured it into very clean very high-tech home food processor. Did almost nothing. I was disappointed to say the least. I looked around the kitchen and finally came across my coffee grinder. AH-HAH! I knew this would do the trick and it did. I ground all the rice I had in the food processor into a coarse Rice Flour and ziploc bagged it. The next ingredient was lemon or more specifically Lemon Oil. I didn't have any lemon oil so I grabbed a lemon and started removing the zest. I put about a teaspoon of zest aside and decided that adding half a tablespoon of lemon juice to my version of Modern Friction could only help. I squeezed out that amount and moved on to the cream/wash base. This was difficult. I didn't want to use a cream because they cant be washed off and I didn't want to use a soap or face wash because the only one I knew worked was Proactive and that didn't seem like a safe mix. I thought about it and remembered that coconut oil was known for killing bacteria and fungus. Whipped coconut oil has the consistency of cream, I got out my hand beater and coconut oil. I scooped half a cup into a bowl and started frothing it up. The result was a nice cream. I thought back to all my reading and decided that I'd add freshly ground green tea for rejuvenation and firmness. I got out my Harry and David loose green tea leaves and poured 1/2 a tablespoon into the coffee grinder. The result was a very fine powder. I decided I was ready to start mixing things together. From my experience with cooking I realized the best way to mix things was leave the coconut whip aside and mix the rice flour, lemon zest/juice, and green tea in a separate bowl to get a real idea of the odor and consistency sans whip. I added 2 tablespoons of rice flour, first. Then the lemon juice and mixed them together slowly but thoroughly creating a paste. I added the lemon zest next. I folded it in and took a whiff. It smelled, at this point, very very much like Modern Friction. I was pleasantly surprised. I took a piece of cheese cloth pour the ground green tea into it and bundled it to sprinkle the green tea in very slowly; in a sifter fashion. I mixed it in each time the top was covered with a light layer of green speckles. I did this 3 times. I didn't use all of it. I probably used about 1/4 of a teaspoon. Then I took a whiff and crumbled a bit of the paste in between my fingers. The green tea did not affect the previous smell and the texture was coarse but soft enough for facial skin. Exfoliating texture. I dumped the mixture into the whipped coconut oil and started slowly combing. I took a whiff and crumbled again. Smell, check. Texture, not good. I grabbed the bag of rice flour and added an extra tablespoon to get the mixture back to a texture that would easily exfoliate my skin. The extra flour did the trick and adding it in dry at the end seemed to make a difference, how I'm not sure but I did an experiment starting with 3 tablespoons of paste and the results are not the same. You have to add the dry flour at the end. I scooped the mixture into a boiled short mason jar and put the lid on. My house runs a little warm so I decided to keep it in the fridge but it's unnecessary if your home is consistently cool or room temp. I washed my face with the mix and was extremely pleased. My face immediately looked more vibrant and I didn't feel dry from the cold like I had been feeling for the last few weeks. Both my boyfriend and his mother commented on how nice my skin looked that evening, 6 hours later. This is a great, cheap, and organic version of Origins Modern Friction. It is amazing as a weekly scrub. I am working on a daily version without the coconut oil. The coconut oil seems like a little too much for a daily scrub. I have purchased Xanthum Gum to try and make an organic gel version of Modern Friction for daily use. Any ideas on cream/wash bases I can use otherwise? 

Finished Scrub- My More Modern Friction

Whipped Coconut Oil, rice and oatmeal flour. The oatmeal flour is for a new concoction. I didn't use it here, just went grinder crazy.