Skin Scrubs

Take note, as a general rule I do not recommend skin scrubs for facial skin. Not since a friend told me that she was certain all that gritty scrubing over all those years was likely the cause of her deep acne scarring.

But, on tougher body parts there’s nothing wrong with a gentle skin scrub to slough off dead skin cells, to rejeuvenate the skin’s surface and get the blood flowing closer to the surface, and to remove bacteria that may be lurking just beneath that top layer of dead skin.

At any rate, ’scrubs’ started 20 years or so ago as a natural way to polish skin. The whole trend started as chunks of finely ground apricot pits in a creamy base that was rubbed in a circular motion on your skin.

Now think about that for a moment. That’s just like rubbing sand in your face.

Face scrubs may not do damage once or twice over the span of your life, but twice a day, every day for decades?

Hard to say if it causes any real damage or not, but common sense does seem to dictate that this isn’t a good idea.

Lately I’ve seen some new [tag]acne scrubs[/tag] on the scene and they’re called ‘micro’ scrubs. Probably far more effective and a lot less damaging. Again, I’m not here to tell you either way which is best for you or not good at all – this is purely an exercise in thinking outloud over the matter…

With all that rambled out of me, I did run across some information about making your own [tag]skin scrubs[/tag] today. I found it because this time next week I’ll be in a bathing suit and my skin is not looking it’s finest. I thought an invigorating scrub or refining body mask (is there such a thing?) might be a good idea.

So here you have it, make your own skin scrub and leave your (body) skin feeling smooth all week (or so the brilliant advertising guys say).

Home made scrubs have a base of either sugar or salt (the scrubbing part), as well as oils (for lather, movement and moisturization).

If you’re making your own scrub you’ll first have to decide on sugar or salt. Salt is more invigorating and bacteria zapping, but could cause minor itching and stinging if you have any cuts or [tag]acne[/tag] in the scrub zone.

Next, choose your oil. Olive oil is handy (don’t substitute vegetable oil as it’s super greasy), mineral oils (such as baby oil) clogs the pores, a good quality massage oil is perfect (if it contains grape seed oil or sweet almond oil all the better!)

None of those on hand? Check your cabinets for pure cocoa butter or shea butter.

Making the scrub is easy. Mix sugar (or salt) to your oil until you have a thick paste.

You’re done!

Just joking. You probably want to add a few more ingredients to make your [tag]acne scrub[/tag] unique. You can add a light fragrance (if you have soap making supplies on hand), a little liquid hand soap will give you more lather during use, some baking soda will help tone your skin’s surface, or some honey if your skin is dry and flaky.

You’re only going to make enough of this stuff for one week’s use as we’re not going to add any preservatives to the mix.
Once your [tag]skin scrub[/tag] has a nice thick consistency scoop it into a small covered tupperware container and leave it in the bath or shower area so you remember to use it.

You can also make your skin scrub into a personal sized beauty bar but you’ll need to use cocoa or shea butter instead of a liquid oil and your mix will be decidely thicker. The trick is to gently warm the shea or cocoa butter first, make the paste then pack it into a soap mold. If you don’t have a soap mold you can still use a food grade plastic container. When your scrub paste is packed away neatly into it’s mold stick it in the freezer for a few hours – after it has solidified it is ready for use.

• If your scrub bars melt and make a mess when thawing you’ve used too much oil.
• If your scrub bars crumble and break, not enough oils.

If either of those situations happen, don’t fret, just mix it all up again adding more oil or more scrub ingredients as required.

And if you proceed with caution and only use the finest products you might like to see the best deals on the newest skin scrubs here.