Salty or Sweet?

Now before you get excited about this being a food related post, we are talking DIY scrubs today. I have noticed recently that my skin has lacked a certain glow that it usually has in those blessed summer months when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everything just seems so glorious (I am a warm weather kind of gal in case you didn’t catch that) .

In an effort to “clean up” my act starting with my nutrition and my personal clean eating journey, I have also begun to steer away from store bought products as well. It seems that whether in our food supply or our beauty products more and more ingredients are being added to the label. A couple years back I started using essential oils and making DIY beauty products as a way to enhance our lives, but also as a way to save some money. Let’s face it, good quality beauty products can be downright expensive and even some of the top products contain unwanted ingredients.

Pinterest and store shelves are filled with scrubs of all sorts. Two of the most common ones I have found though are simple sugar scrubs and salt scrubs. They are both incredibly easy to make at home and require hardly any ingredients whatsoever. Last week I decided to whip one of these simple DIY scrubs up using just sugar and coconut oil (two ingredients we always seem to have on hand).

After one use of this scrub my skin felt soft and supple for days, the glow was restored, and my complexion seemed to brighten up almost instantly. I will admit that I didn’t do my research before mixing this concoction up, and in all honestly just went with the one I thought of first. However, before sharing this with my friends I wanted to do my due diligence and see when you should use sea salt vs. sugar.

Here is what I found:

Sugar scrubs are best used on the face can be used up to 3x week. Refined sugar dissolves quickly and is smaller and smoother therefore making it an ideal candidate for a facial scrub. Unrefined sugar on the other hand contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron, but is scratchier. So with unrefined sugar scrubs you may want to skip the face and use on other parts of body like your arms, legs, and back.

Sea Salt scrub can be too abrasive for the face due to the salt molecule’s shape and size and is best for tougher parts of the body (think your elbows, knees, and feet).  Table salt has been refined so much that it no longer contains valuable minerals and is basically a waste of time, I’d say skip the table salt and go for sea salt instead. Sea salt also has the ability to draw toxins out of the body, and is great for sore muscles (this comes in handy especially if you have just started or recently changed your workout routine. If you don’t have an exercise regimen I’d love to help you find something that would work for your busy lifestyle). Please forgive that shameless plug!

To make either a salty scrub or a sweet scrub you will want to mix the sugar or salt with either an oil based cleanser, coconut or other oil (almond, macadamia, avocado, etc). There are so many different oils you can choose from and many of them contain different properties that may be more or less suitable for your skin type, so just do a quick search to see what will be the best match for you.

As I mentioned above my skin had such a lovely glow, and felt so good for a few days after exfoliating with this simple DIY scrub. I plan to  kick it up to 2x a week, and will be making a sea salt scrub to use on my sore muscles and my dry feet.

As always, I’d love to hear from you! Do you have a DIY recipe you love? Are you looking to get plugged into a community with other like minded ladies? Drop a comment below and let’s connect!