Get your skin ready for summer and pamper yourself on a budget using one of these homemade exfoliating body scrub recipes.
Three main ingredients of the body scrub 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, hazelnut, or almond oil. The essential oils used here are for fragrance and healing. Grapefruit and orange essential oils gently stimulate and refresh. Lavender oil can help heal minor inflammations, and relieve day-to-day stress. Some other skin friendly oils include rose, rosemary, mandarin, jojoba, and chamomile. Do not use “fragrance oils” – they are chemical fakes that can cause irritation or even allergic symptoms. Try any of these recipes, or make your own, mixing your favorite exfoliate with carrier and essential oils.
Recipe 1:
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup carrier oil
10 drops vitamin E
10 drops essential oil
Recipe 2:
2 cups of ground coffee
1/2 cup sugar or sea salt
2-3 tablespoons of carrier oil
Recipe 3:
1/2 cup of poppy seeds
1/2 cup of carrier oil
10 drops orange essential oil
Recipe 4:
1 cup fine sea salt
1/2 cup carrier oil
10 drops grapefruit essential oil
Recipe 5:
2/3 cup sugar
2 mashed strawberries
6-8 drops rose/jojoba oil
Recipe 6:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons ground oats
2 tablespoons aloe vera gel
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon carrier oil
Recipe 7:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup carrier oil
a shot of rum
Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir thoroughly. While taking a shower, scoop up some, not more than a teaspoon at a time, and massage gently using circular motions. Rinse and voila! Your skin is totally smooth and silky.
You can use these scrubs once a week. Keep in mind though, if you have rashes, acne, or sunburned skin, scrubs might make the condition worse.
I hope you enjoy these body scrub recipes!
Related posts:
How to choose carrier and essential oils for homemade cosmetics?
Aromatherapy massage
Give yourself a facial massage
Hi Natalia,
Your recipe with strawberries is fabulous! Thank you! Could you please write more on how to choose carrier and essential oils?
Hi Angela,
Certainly, I will. Please, check back tomorrow!
And I’m glad that you enjoyed the scrab
Great recipe! I would lie t make alot of it but wonder how long it can last???
Hi Ing, keep it in a fridge and use in a week or so.
I love recipe #6. I am curious though.. Can I add oils that will scent this scrub, or essential oils? I am thinking of four fragrances-ginger, nutmeg, rose and evening primrose.
I know that essential oils and fragrance oils are different and you can’t use fragrance oils on skin, but can I add essential oils to this particular recipe, or any sugar scrub recipe for that matter?
Thanks!
Hi Nasie,
You are right, fragrance oils do not offer the same botanical properties that are found with essential oils, moreover, some of them contain chemicals that might be hazardous to health!
I love essential oils, and often use them in my homemade cosmetics. However, be careful with essential oils as well – just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s safe to put in or on your body. All essential oils have their proper uses, cautions and advantages.
Ginger essential oil is sought after due to its antiseptic, analgesic, anti inflammatory, stimulating and aphrodisiac properties. It helps a great deal in toning the body.
Nutmeg has a number of properties including being analgesic, anti-septic, stimulant, tonic and anti-oxidant. In a massage blend it is gently warming and that, coupled with its anti-inflammatory characteristics make it useful in treating sore joints and muscles.
Evening Primrose essential oil is considered as the best panacea for the people suffering from skin sensations, including eczema. It can revitalize and glow your skin.
As for the sugar scrub, I would choose Rose essential oil – it is one of the best oils which can give you a shining, fresh and youthful skin. The health benefits of Rose essential oil can be attributed to its properties like anti-depressant, anti-septic, anti-viral, aphrodisiac, bactericidal, etc.
You might also like this post about carrier and essential oils: http://going-well.com/2009/06/19/how-to-choose-carrier-and-essential-oils-for-homemade-cosmetics/
Cheers!
Thanks a lot!!! I can’t wait to get the ingredients together and try it out. This may just be my Christmas present to all!
Nasie