I'll start from the beginning...
I had one of those forgetful moments a few days ago. You know, the moments all moms have. I got home from the store and realized I forgot to buy something. I do this all the time. Mostly with food items. This day it was body scrub. And at 6-7 dollars a bottle, my absentmindedness worked to my advantage this particular day. I know I saved so much money, making this product at home. It's just too easy. So, of course, I Googled 'homemade body scrubs'. Most of the recipes I found were too complicated for what I was needing. I wanted to whip something up fast. So I tailored a few recipes to make my own. What I'm about to share with you is ridiculously easy. My four year old could have made this. No joke.
Here's the recipe and then I'll explain why I picked the products I did:
1 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
See? THREE INGREDIENTS. Insane. Super easy.
Ok, I read online that brown sugar is slightly less abrasive than say salt or a courser sugar. My regular sugar is organic cane sugar and the granules are massive. You don't want to damage your skin in the process of exfoliating so I opted for softer, smaller granules in the brown sugar.
I picked coconut oil for obvious reasons. Most people know how great coconut oil is nutritiously but it's also amazing for your skin. I can't even tell you how soft this scrub makes my skin. Small tip: This oil hardens at room temperature. I heated mine in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Just enough to soften the top half of the jar. The 1/2 cup measurement is for liquid coconut oil, not hard. Keep that in mind. When I went to use my scrub for the second time, it was almost the same consistency, hard and unappealing. Easy, easy fix. I stored my scrub in an old jam jar (great way to recycle some old glass jars you have at the house!). When I ran my bath water, I made sure the lid was on tight and let my small glass jar float in the warm water until the end of the bath, when I used the scrub. Make sense? The hot/warm water melted the oils for me. And I gave it a good shake before I used it (You can also use a small spoon and stir the oil back into the sugar if shaking doesn't get the job done).
I didn't originally think I would use vanilla in my scrub. The oil and sugar smell amazing without the vanilla. I had considered using orange essential oil. So glad I didn't. The vanilla was just the right touch. In fact, the scrub may make you hungry...for cookies :-)
I had also read something interesting online. Some of you may use sunless tanners. They are becoming more and more popular. I read, from one source I can't recall now, that orange oil can interfere with sunless tanners. I'm not sure why and I apologize for not remembering the link. This is just something I heard. So, if you are making this exfoliant to use prior to sunless tanning, opt not to use orange oils and scents. Just to be safe.
I hope to decide to try this affordable and easy way to keep your skin healthy. I promise you will love the results. I could hardly wait to blog about this experience after using my scrub only two times. There are also a million other recipes you can find online. This one is just fool proof and takes so little time to make. If you make your own, let me know how you like it! Enjoy and thanks for reading!
