Miss Mel celebrated her birthday with a delightful lunch at Piha on Auckland’s rugged west coast. We sat outside on a flawless summer’s day with a view of the jagged green hills surrounding the beach and ate brioche french toast with bacon and bananas. YUM. Oh french toast how I love your soft and crispy goodness.
I gave her a small gift of an oat and chamomile cleanser and have been riddled with gift giver’s panic ever since. You see, grain-based cleansers are not for everyone. And I suspect they are not for the beautifully groomed Miss Mel. In order to like grain-based cleansers you probably also have to like eating with your hands and squelching barefoot through mud. Grain-based cleansers are messy. They will get all over your vanity and shower walls. As you are picking bits of oatmeal out of the strands of hair that escaped from your showercap you will wonder why on earth you decided to wash your face with porridge, mushed flowers and dirt. But then you will towel off and touch your soft clean skin and the reason will become abundantly clear – because your skin LOVES it. I’m enjoying using the leftovers from Miss Mel’s gift so much that I have given up wearing makeup – grain-based cleansers are not much good for removing makeup. Using a grain-based cleanser makes me feel pure and simple.
One thing that Miss Mel does have in common with this scrub is honesty. What you see is what you get with Miss Mel. She doesn’t talk crap and nonsense or try to hide what she thinks or feels. It’s one of the things I really like about her.
This Oat and Chamomile Cleanser is like that. It smells like oats and chamomile (not French bubblegum muffin tops or apple tutti frutti pancakes), it looks like ground up grains and flowers and dirt (clay). It is soothing, gently exfoliating and very good at removing the dirt and excess oil from your skin without leaving it feeling stripped dry.
Ingredients
- 20g kaolin clay
- 20g almonds
- 20g rolled oats
- 5g dried chamomile flowers
- 5g dried calendula flowers
Directions
1. Do not under any circumstances do what I have done in the above photo. Don’t attractively layer the flowers, oats and almonds in your spice grinder. It will choke and refuse to eat what you have given it. Put each ingredient in by itself, grind it and pour into a mixing bowl. So, grind your flowers and put them in a mixing bowl, then your oats and then your nuts.
2. Pour your clay into the mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Mix together with a fork
4. Scoop into jars, dust off and put on the lids.
5. Gift to someone or keep it ALL for yourself (or take the middle road and gift some and keep the rest).
Here is Mel looking quite glam while I make stupid faces next to her at my eldest’s birthday party (people thought they were there for our housewarming but it was totally my dog’s birthday party – ha).
Your honest and straightforward writing style is a real pleasure to read. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I must try a straightforward grain cleansing at one point (almost embarrassed to admit I’ve never tried it!)
Awww, thank you – I very much appreciate the feedback. I can understand how you might never have tried a plain grain cleanser when you have been busy with your lovely clay cleansing bars, but variety is the spice of life so get mixing!
love this Laura x
Thank you
. I like your post on researching your family tree. My mother is the genealogist in our family and has traced one branch back to the 13th century! I find it very interesting and also a great source of appalling middle names for my future children 
.