Homemade Body Scrub

By: Kamen Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Natural care for your skin is so important. There are chemicals in everything these days, from the food we eat, to the air we breathe. Creating your own homemade skin care products is a simply way that you can reduce your exposure to them, and its fairly simple to do. You really do not need special equipment to get started and in many cases, a bowl and some measuring devices will suffice. The most important thing you need are quality products and great recipes, both which you can easily obtain.

Most scrub recipes include ingredients that soften the skin, open the pores, moisturize and heal the skin surface. Whether you're prone to breakouts on your chest or back, ingrown hairs, or itchy dry patches, a homemade body scrub can be made tailored especially for you. When applied in a gentle, circular motion to the skin while showering on a regular basis, you will quickly notice the difference in how your skin looks and feels.

Mineral oils can clog the pores and I find vegetable oil is a little heavy for my tastes and can sometimes leave the skin feeling a little greasy after bathing. Grape seed oil, however, is easily absorbed through the skin. It is even used in a lot of modern massage oils and that is recommendation enough for me. My second choice would be sweet almond oil, with olive oil sliding up a close third behind it.

Coffee is widely used in scrub recipes not only for its granular properties but more importantly for its additional properties that are beneficial. Coffee grounds applied topically helps fight cellulite by redistributing the fat cells. Caffeine is a very popular ingredient in commercial cellulite formulas. It is thought to draw out excess moisture from between the fat cells helping to minimize the ripple appearance of cellulite. It also has properties that are beneficial to painful varicose veins.

Ingredients

Brown sugar: 1½ cups

Honey: 1 tablespoon

Jojoba oil: ½ cup

Liquid soap: ¼ cup

Preparation

Place the brown sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the honey, jojoba oil and liquid soap. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Usage

Warm up your bathroom, then dry the bathtub and line it with towels. Get into the tub and gently massage the scrub all over your body, from neck to toes. After applying the body scrub, remove the towels from the bathtub and rinse the scrub from the skin with warm water. As the jojoba oil can make the tub slippery, always be careful when stepping out of the bathtub.