Five Of The Best DIY Body Scrubs
To reveal your best spring skin, exfoliating away all those lifeless winter cells is absolutely essential. However, as visits to the spa, or purchases of scrubs in the beauty aisle can really add up, we have put together a list of our favorite DIY body scrub recipes for you to try out for yourself.
Rosemary Lavender Salt Scrub
For a relaxing end to your day, draw yourself a nice warm bath and unwind with this soothing scrub. It'll get you to your happy place in no time.
* 2 cups salt (medium to coarse salt, such as seas salt or kosher salt)
*1/4 cup olive oil
*3 tbsp lavender extract
*3 tbsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
Mix all ingredients together and enjoy. This scrub can also be applied to the more delicate neck and facial area (other scrubs, in general, are too harsh to use on your most sensitive skin).
Peppermint Sugar Scrub
Scrubbing down with this recipe will make you feel refreshed and invigorated – plus it's delightfully pink.
* 2 cups white granulated sugar
* 1/4 cup coconut oil
* Peppermint essential oil
Raspberry/pomegranate juice or red food coloring Slowly mix coconut oil into the granulated sugar. If you feel like there doesn't seem to be enough oil, you can add more, but don’t overdo it and let the mixture get too oily. Add a few drops of peppermint oil until it reaches your desired scent. To get the pink color, add a few drops of red food coloring, or for a natural alternative, you can add drops of raspberry or pomegranate juice. Mix together until color is uniform throughout (don’t worry, it won’t be enough to dye your skin).
Sunless Tanner Correcting Scrub
Firstly, let us say, well done for using a safer tanning alternative. We'll take streaks over sun damage any day. However, if you have applied sunless tanner without exfoliating first, then you may resemble an Oompa Loompa right about now. The go-to remedies for removing those pesky tangerine streaks are lemon and a great scrub. Lemons contain citric acid, a natural exfoliator, and also elements that cause bleaching (which will lighten the effect of your tanning lotion).
* 5 cups white granulated sugar
* 2 cups olive oil
* 2 lemons
* 3 tbsp honey
Using a wooden spoon, mix the sugar with the olive oil. Slice lemons in half and squeeze the juice into the sugar olive oil mix. Add honey and mix just until combined. After a long soak in a warm bath, apply the scrub to trouble spots. Be careful not to scrub too hard and damage your skin, though. Rinse off. Follow up with a nice moisturizing body lotion.
Vanilla Sugar Scrub
If you’re sensitive to strongly scented products, this natural, simple sugar scrub is the way to go. The delicate scent of the vanilla extract and almond oil will hardly trigger any sensitive noses or smell-induced migraines.
* 2 1/2 cups sugar in the raw
* 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
* 4-5 tbsp vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup almond oil
In a bowl, mix together the sugar in the raw and the white granulated sugar. Add in the vanilla extract and almond oil before mixing well.
Coffee Body Scrub
This scrub performs double duty by exfoliating while the caffeine in the coffee grounds may even help reduce the appearance of cellulite by plumping up your skin. If you check the labels, caffeine is actually in many of those crazy expensive cellulite creams. This, however, is a much cheaper way to tap into caffeine’s skin plumping power.
* Equal parts ground coffee and raw sugar
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 2 tbsp coconut oil
* 1 tbsp sea salt
Mix the ground coffee with raw sugar and sea salt. Add the olive oil and coconut oil. And voila, coffee body scrub.
Buying Scrub Ingredients in Shanghai
It’s not always easy to find all-natural ingredients in Shanghai, but all of the scrubs listed here have been made by us using products bought from City Shop (sea salt, raw sugar, vanilla extract), the Avocado Lady (coconut and olive oils, rosemary) and World Health Store, which stocks a range of essential oils. Alternatively, we also often turn to the website www.iherb.com for cheaper alternatives for all of the above (even including the China delivery fee).