Homemade body scrub recipe

You only need two things to make a body scrub; a fine-grained abrasive, and a liquid to make it into a paste. Commercial scrubs use ground walnut or almond shells to make the mixture gritty, but you don't have to go that far. In fact, an abrasive that is water-soluble is probably better for your plumbing anyway.

Most homemade scrub recipes call for sugar or salt. Either will work, although if you have cuts or broken skin, you will probably want to avoid rubbing salt into it. For sugar, you can use regular table sugar, or brown sugar, which has a finer grind. Powdered sugar is too finely ground and will dissolve immediately on contact with water, and therefore provide no scrubbing action.

For salt, you can use regular table salt, sea salt, Dead Sea salt, or Epsom salts. Rock salt is too coarsely ground and would damage your skin.

You can also prepare an abrasive in your food processor, by finely grinding nuts such as almonds or walnuts. These nuts have a good deal of oil in them, so if using nuts, you should adjust the amount of other oils you use in your blend. You can also use finely ground oatmeal, rice or flaxseed.

To make your chosen abrasive into a paste, you can use honey, milk, oil(olive, jojoba, apricot kernel or other vegetable oils), yogurt... the possibilities are endless. Many recipes call for quite a lot of oil - as much as a quarter cup per cup of sugar or salt. I find that this makes a much too oily blend, and can in fact be quite dangerous in the slippery footing of a tub or shower stall. If using oil in your scrub, it is imperative that you have a good no-slip mat to stand on.

Oil is, of course, very good for your skin, especially after exfoliating. Two teaspoons of oil in your blend will leave a slight oil residue on your skin, quite enough to hydrate. You can also use Shea butter, made from the nut of the African karite tree, which provides moisturizer and vitamins A and E to your skin.

Making your scrub is very easy. Simply add your moisture component to a cup or more of your abrasive, a little at a time, stirring into a paste. When showering, lather a handful of scrub over dry, flaking skin and rub briskly to remove dead skin cells and increase blood flow to the layers beneath. Rinse the scrub thoroughly and pat your skin dry.

SOOTHING SALT BLEND:

One cup Epsom Salts

add yogurt or milk sufficient to form a paste

Add 3-4 drops lavender, chamomile, rosewood or sandalwood essential oil or use your favorite fragrance

INVIGORATING LEMON-HONEY BLEND

One cup sugar

two tablespoons honey

add lemon juice sufficient to form a paste

4-5 drops nutmeg essential oil, and a splash of sweetgrass fragrance oil

SWOLLEN ANKLE SCRUB

Ankle swelling that sometimes accompanies pregnancy or from venous insufficiency can be very hard on your skin. This scrub will both hydrate the skin, increase circulation and could even reduce some of the swelling. Scrub ankles while seated at a foot bath to prevent bath-tub falls. Scrub feet and legs up to your knees, moving your hands in an upward motion to encourage blood flow back up from your ankles.

One cup sugar or salt

one-quarter cup vegetable oil

5-8 drops juniper essential oil

3-4 drops geranium essential oil