Simple Skin Scrubs

Cleansing scrubs are an important part of your healthy skin care regime.  They exfoliate or remove dead skin cells, which improves the texture of your skin and allows it to retain more moisture.  This in turn, enhances the efficiency of your creams, lotions and body butters.  Depending on your skin type, cleansing scrubs should be used two to three times a week to keep your skin clean and healthy.  Scrubs are not limited to the face; they can be used all over the body to keep skin soft and glowing.  Don’t forget classic rough skin areas such as knees, heels, and elbows.  When making scrubs to use on your face, grind the ingredients as finely as possible.  Treat your skin with care and gently scrub in a circular motions.  Here are a  couple of simple skin scrubs for you to DIY at home.

Favorite Cleansing Grains

Whenever I ask people what their favorite cleansing scrub is, I usually get three answers; oatmeal, cornmeal, or wheat germ.  Each one of these on their own are an effective simple scrub combined they create and even more effective scrub.  Oatmeal is cleansing and softening.  Cornmeal is deep cleansing (especially helpful at removing blackheads) and wheat germ is gentle, mild and soothing to your skin.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons oatmeal

2 tablespoons cornmeal

2 teaspoons wheat germ

Mix all ingredients together and place in an air tight container.  To use: Combine a teaspoon or two with equal parts water or cleanser to create a paste.  Massage gently into your face and neck.  Rinse well with warm water and pat dry.

Yield: 2 ounces

Note you can also use this scrub on your body — you will just need to use more approx 1 /2 cup.

Citrus Peel Scrub

Whenever you use citrus fruits save the colored part of their peel.  This is where all the essential oils are and when dried and finely ground they make an effective skin scrub.

Here are the steps to follow:

Remove the colored part of the peel; this can be done with a zester or sharp pairing knife.  Dry the peels thoroughly; this can be done in four different ways

Sunshine: Lay the peel on a rack to air dry near a sunny window

Microwave: Place the peels in a microwave safe ceramic bowl and microwave on low until dry (about 5 to 6 minutes).  Allow to cool completely.

Oven: Arrange the peels on a cookie sheet and place in a very low temperature oven for several hours or overnight (remember to turn the oven off when you go to bed).

Food Dehydrator: Use an electric food dehydrator and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for drying citrus peels.

Now that you have your dried peels.  Coarsely grind them in a food processor or clean coffee grinder.   To use:  Mix with a bit a water to form a paste and massage into clean skin.  You can also combine your dried peels with other ingredients such as raw sugar, cornmeal or sea salt.

Note: sea salt is too harsh and abrasive for facial skin but fine for your body just avoid sensitive skin areas.

 

Let me know if you have any recipe requests or a favorite scrub recipe of your own!

Keep Glowing,

xoxo Janice