Natural Exfoliators or Scrubs

The next part of your natural beauty routine is to exfoliate. Gently exfoliating to remove flaky, dead skin from your face and body will leave you glowing and feeling refreshed.
These scrub recipes can be used on the whole body, not just the face!

Your hands and nails are often neglected. After all you have work to do and your hands and nails can get a beating during the day.

Your poor little feet can be neglected too. It’s only when you want to pull on a pair of sandals that you notice they may have been neglected.

If they are all dehydrated, flaky and cracked, they’re trying to tell you something.

The following easy DIY homemade scrub recipes will leave your hands, face, feet and body looking and feeling fabulous and loved!

Baking Soda Exfoliant

One of the easiest ways to make a scrub is to use baking soda.

Baking soda forms an excellent fine paste when you add a bit of water. If you are looking for a bit more moisture, make the scrub with olive oil or coconut oil instead of water.

• Simply cleanse your face and then put a bit of baking soda into your hand.
• Add a tiny bit of water, or oil, and make a paste.
• Gently massage the paste onto your wet face, being careful to avoid your eyes.
• This works really well for the T-zone area which refers to your forehead, nose and chin.
• The fine grit of the baking soda easily cleans the pores.
• Do not rub very hard as this very fine grit can be abrasive.
• Some people prefer to add the baking soda directly into their cleanser too, so it’s an all-in-one.
• Simply add half a teaspoon to your favorite cleanser and transform your cleanser into an exfoliator or use alone with a bit of water.

You can also pour half a cup of baking soda into a dish and add enough liquid to make a paste.

This gentle exfoliant may just become your new favorite facial scrub!

If you are trying to remove gardening stains from your hands, add some lemon juice, but be careful if you have any open cuts or scratches.

You can gently work this paste around your cuticles and along the sides of your fingers or on your heels where dirt tends to accumulate.

Homemade Sugar Scrub

Another homemade exfoliant is a sugar scrub.

To make this use, two parts sugar, one part oil and add ½ tsp of Vitamin E oil.

If you prefer a grittier scrub, use white sugar. If you want a softer scrub try brown sugar.

Oil choices that are ideal include, coconut oil, almond oil or olive oil, however, whatever you have handy will work.

This is a great base to achieve an all-over glow, by either using as a body scrub in the shower or as a treatment for dry hands and feet.

Plus, you can personalize your scrub with natural oils.

• Peppermint oil, grapefruit, bergamot and lemon oil are invigorating and great for oilier skin types.
• Lavender, Chamomile, Clary Sage and Basil are excellent for combination and drier skin types.

You can also add some vanilla extract or cinnamon and bottle it up as a gift for friends! These scrubs are so delicious, they are good enough to eat!

Coffee Ground Scrub

An excellent way to start your morning, either as a body scrub or face scrub is to use ground coffee beans. Talk about an aromatic ‘wake-me-up’!

Please note that this is a coarser scrub and you only need to use very gentle, circular motions to attain the exfoliation benefits.

• Try mixing with a few vitamin E oil capsules or some coconut oil to blend.

Add a dash of pure cocoa, cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg to delight your senses even further.

Oatmeal Scrub

Oatmeal is another simple exfoliator. Oats are very soothing for the skin as the oat flakes are so much larger than the aforementioned scrubs.

Therefore, they are very gentle on the face and body.

• Simply take a spoonful and add some water and make a paste.
• Alternatively, you can add some to your cleanser and exfoliate while you cleanse.
  Oatmeal is great for your skin as a moisturizer and very calming.

If you have any kind of itchy rashes, you can simply add oats to the bath by putting a cup of oatmeal into a stocking, knee high or thin sock.

Tie in a knot and hang on the faucet so the bath water runs through it. Once the tub is filled, you can let the stocking float with you in the water and allow it to add continual moisture to the bath water.

This is a great way to enjoy the soothing benefits of oatmeal without clogging your drain or trying to relax with a bunch of grains floating on the water!