Using a body scrub once a week is a great way to slough off dead skin cell – the cells which can lead to a dry appearance and can make you feel itchy (which happens to me more often in the Winter season). A body scrub is easy and inexpensive to make and will help your skin feel young and smooth.

The three main ingredients of body scrubs I make are: exfoliators, carrier oils, and essential oils.

An exfoliate could consist of sugar, sea salt, ground almonds or wheat bran. You can use either form of sugar, just make sure that with the brown sugar you’re keeping a careful eye on the liquid ingredients so your scrub doesn’t dissolve into a thin paste.

A carrier oil could be olive, grape-seed, coconut, or avocado oil. (I prefer coconut oil)

Essential oils are used for their healing properties and aromatic qualities. Citrus oils like orange, lemon, bergamot, and lime essential oils gently stimulate and refresh. Lavender oil can help heal minor inflammations, and relieve day-to-day stress. Grapefruit and rosemary are excellent for cellulite reduction. Some other skin friendly oils include myrrh, sandalwood, patchouli, ylang ylang, geranium, frankincense, and chamomile.

 

Instructions to make body scrub

Things You’ll Need:

Organic Brown Sugar [check Target or Albertsons]: Sugar is a natural and inexpensive way to include alpha-hydroxy acids in your skincare program. It produces glycolic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid, which is included in many skincare product lines. Today’s pricey beauty products that include sugar or alpha hydroxy acid, can be created inexpensively right at your kitchen table. You will experience all of the benefits without the inflated price.

Coarse Kosher Salt: helps to open pores, exfoliates dead skin cells, and discourages bacteria.

Baking Soda: great for softening skin or soothing itchy skin.

Carrier oil (Grapeseed, Avocado, Olive, Coconut): I prefer coconut, not sure why – I just do.

doTERRA Essential oil of your choice. Play around with the perfect combination for aroma, therapeutic value, and emotional benefits. Essential oils are oxygenating, cell rejuvenating, cleansing, and soothing to our skin. Adding essential oils to your skin care routine will dramatically reduce wrinkles, acne, and calm other skin conditions.

Optional creative ingredients … one recipe calls for mashed up strawberries, another calls for coffee grounds. For example, strawberries are a natural exfoliant – the gentle acidic nature can take care of all those flaky dead cells on top of the skin, it’s also a good combatant for acne and black heads thanks to its as antiseptic and skin lighting properties.

Small glass container to hold excess (No sense making one batch when you can use it more than once!)

What to do:

Take 1 cup of the exfoliate of choice or a combination of a few plus any option creative ingredients you might want to try.

Add 2 Tbsp. of carrier oil, and 5-10 drops essential oil to the mixture and mix together with a non-plastic spoon.

Keep the body scrub in an airtight container. If you keep it longer than a few days, you might want to store it in the refrigerator so the carrier oils don’t get rancid.

Once a week, rub the scrub all over from head to toe in the shower. Rinse with cold water, as cold as you can stand it.

 

A few recipes to try:

Orange Cream Sugar Body Scrub:

This recipe is great to remove dead skin and give your skin a healthy glow. The sugar contains glycolic acid and the cream is a source for lactic acid. Avoid irritated or broken skin areas.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 TBSP cream or whole milk

5 drops doTERRA wild orange oil

2 TBSP carrier oil Mix sugar, oil and cream together.

Add orange oil after main ingredients are completely mixed.

Strawberry Margarita Salt Scrub:

This is a great scrub if you suffer from black heads or acne because of the presence of salicylic acid in the Strawberries. Strawberries also help to tone the skin, lighten any pigmentation problems and keeps the skin smooth and supple.

Ingredients:

1 cup salt

1 handful of organic mashed up strawberries

5 drops doTERRA lime oil

2 TBSP carrier oil

Mix salt, carrier oil and strawberries together. Add lime oil after main ingredients are completely mixed.

Cellulite Reduction Scrub:

Coffee is granular and feels nice on the skin but the caffeine has added benefits. Applied topically coffee helps to redistribute fat cells and decrease the formation of cellulite. It also acts as a vasorestrictor, tightening and shrinking blood vessels thereby helping eliminate varicose veins. It has been used for years in spas in Hawaii and on the coast of Bali.

Ingredients:

1 cup finely ground coffee

1/2 cup of finely ground sugar or salt (grind in coffee grinder until desired consistency)

2 TBSP carrier oil

Mix ingredients together. Apply the coffee mixture to your cellulite areas using your hands or a loofah mitt. Using wide circular motions, rub the coffee exfoliate onto your skin with strong pressure. Pat dry and then apply essential oils directly to your cellulite areas. Essential oils great for cellulite are: Grapefruit, Rosemary, Cypress, and Lemon.